In business, green is good

Environmental compliance and risk management has become a hot issue for businesses of all shapes and sizes. We speak to IHS’ Chris Methven to find out why.

What has driven this need to have correct environmental procedures, dedicated compliance and risk solutions in place?

Chris Methven. Environmental impact is a growing concern when considering corporate performance and corporate risk. While consumers and investors increasingly expect organisations to demonstrate environmental responsibility, there are strict regulatory requirements and compelling operational issues at stake. In addition the regulatory regimes in place are evolving at a rate never seen before and perhaps the greatest challenge that seems to be facing IHS customers is staying one step ahead from a compliance perspective. 

Organisations tend to have multiple business units and departments. Why is it important to ensure that your compliance covers all geographic and business units in one unified report?

CM. Compliance with environmental legislation is a requirement that reaches across all industries. The anticipated evolution of regulatory and reporting requirements means many companies are proactively addressing environmental reform in an effort to stay one step ahead of impending and potentially costly legislation. Technology solutions are often seen as a way to enable repeatable, reliable, and efficient processes to meet a growing number of environmental management demands.

What are main environmental compliance and risk challenges that organisations are looking to manage today?

CM. Stakeholders are demanding that our annual sustainability reports are more quantitative and less qualitative. Environmental data volume increases annually and is becoming difficult to report on. Developing environmental regulations bring the risk of increasing costs, especially to those corporations with the most significant environmental impact. Substantial fluctuations in certain commodity prices due to scarcity or other restrictions also present a serious risk to organisations with a heavy reliance on natural resources. Environmental departments are becoming visible to internal customers such as finance and risk due to market-based mechanisms for emissions management. Consumer awareness and concern regarding environmental issues is also rising. Investors are now interested in greater environmental performance and transparency, with socially responsible rating agencies, and socially responsible investment indexes now having an impact on both consumer and investor decision-making. 

Can you give examples of how your products and services have helped organisations with their environmental reporting over the last few months?

CM. IHS offers a single source of critical Information and Insight to support an organisation's key decisions related to climate change. IHS climate change resources help with key decisions from strategic planning to project implementation. The result is a comprehensive approach for developing and executing carbon strategy, and confidence that it reflects the fullest possible understanding of a company's emissions portfolio and the evolving climate change landscape. This helps ensure the transition from managing climate change as a risk to driving opportunity and value creation.

IHS has the most comprehensive climate change solutions in the market, some of the areas in which we assist our clients include: Helping our clients to understand impact of emerging policies on energy system and their business; frame investment and abatement project choices, such as clean energy and energy efficiency; create centralised enterprise system for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; provide systems to exploit cap-and-trade positions such as EU-ETS; implement flexible system to handle changing/multiple GHG protocols; advance sustainability reporting to support more quantitative information; and forecast Co2 emissions and carbon prices.

In addition to our extensive insight and advisory expertise in the area of climate change, IHS is the market leader in the provision of environmental management Information systems. From environmental reporting and compliance to financial tracking and risk analysis of emissions allowance portfolios, IHS' solutions give you total management of your environmental program and emissions. IHS customers span all major industry verticals and all geographies, we partner with our customers to assist in achieving operational excellence and rising to the challenge of maximising environmental performance across the enterprise.

Chris Methven joined IHS in September 2008 as Environment Director EMEA. He is responsible for the European Environmental Business Development at IHS. Prior to joining IHS, he spent four years with ABeam Consulting (formerly Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Consulting) where he served as a senior consultant and account director in the European utility practice.