Sustainability is good for business – but how do you quantify it?

Sustainable business is synonymous with business success and has a vital role to play in raising New Zealand's competitive advantage in the global economy, according to New Zealand's Sustainable Business Council (SBC). The SBC promotes eco-efficiency, innovation and responsible entrepreneurship for New Zealand companies.

The SBC's "Vision 2015 Report (published in 2012), notes that business is the hub through which production and consumption occurs, and comments that in terms of climate change, growth is clearly still welded to carbon emissions. The SBC says that in 2010 the world's carbon intensity actually got worse: emissions increased faster than economic growth.

Managing and reducing carbon emissions is an increasingly important issue for many New Zealand businesses. The first step toward better emissions management is to measure existing emissions then figure out how to reduce them.

Insurance broker Apex Insurance, a carboNZero^CertTM certified organisation, has turned to a GPS tracking system from Teletrac Navman to help reduce its carbon emissions.

Managing Director of Apex, James McGhie says that the GPS tracking system allows them to understand more about how their vehicles are being used. "It gives us data that enable us to minimise our carbon footprint. The technology covers all aspects of the vehicles usage and the reports we can generate give us rich data which was previously impossible to collect. We can analyse this to reduce our carbon footprint as well as improving the risk management of our own fleet."

Teletrac Navman provides reporting on carbon emissions through its DIRECTOR software. The data can be supplied for each vehicle over a given period, and is provided as a static report and as a trending KPI on the online Dynamic Dashboard.

The information on carbon emissions is based on either fuel usage from vehicle diagnostics or fuel usage worked out from the GPS mileage and the known fuel efficiency for each vehicle.

Then carbon emissions are worked out from the emissions factors already known for each vehicle plus the total fuel consumed.

Businesses can set up KPIs for fuel usage and carbon emissions with the Dynamic Dashboard. Both KPIs will be trending and derived from the same data that is provided in the report.

Using the emissions data, businesses can make practical changes, such as choosing more efficient routes or reducing idling times. They can then see how much each change reduces carbon emissions allowing for a process of continuous improvement.

Managing, reducing and offsetting the carbon emissions produced by a business is an important and practical step to reducing the carbon intensity in the atmosphere. Using a GPS tracking system to track carbon emissions makes sense for businesses that do a lot of driving. James McGhie summarises it well when he says, "Our fleet is one of our largest expenses so it is important that we can minimise wastage, which improves profit, is better for the environment, and means a sustainable long-term future for our business."