These wide-ranging case studies provide a rich resource for the management accountant who is keen to take that first step towards tackling climate change:
Asda – this case study illustrates the finance team’s intrinsic role in the decision-making process including planning, testing and roll-out of sustainability programmes, such as ‘zero waste to landfill’ (which will deliver a seven-figure saving to ASDA in 2010). It covers four sustainability projects and plenty of invaluable sample models and project summary documents.
Cathay Pacific – demonstrates fuel and emissions savings through investment in newer ‘greener’ planes and improved routing.
Compass – one of the largest food and support service businesses in the world, worked with Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS foundation trust to introduce steam valve technology. A model shows how the management accountant calculated the potential cost savings of the investment and how a tracking system was used to minimise waste.
Fife County Council – sets out the cross-functional framework for implementing the carbon emissions reduction plan and outlines the specific role of the finance team, such as evaluating and explaining value at stake related to not meeting committed carbon emission reduction targets.
Jaguar Land Rover – explores how embedding sustainability through enterprise governance has led to a strategic approach to minimising their impact on the environment, either through their e-terrain technologies, more sustainable manufacturing, CO2 offsetting, or conservation and humanitarian projects.
John Keells Holdings – the largest listed conglomerate on the Colombo Stock Exchange, it introduced a formal global reporting initiative framework and dedicated sustainability committee in 2009 to not only improve its sustainability reporting to address the rising demands of stakeholders, but to also help identify emerging issues and develop effective strategies and policies to address these issues.
Marshalls – outlines a major carbon labelling project they undertook and illustrates some of the spreadsheets designed and used by the finance team to assist with generating a relevant carbon label for each product family.
Masisa – a forestry business based in South America, demonstrates how the strategic scorecard can be adapted to incorporate social and environmental factors in addition to financial ones to create a sustainability scorecard.
Punch Taverns – the largest pub company in the UK demonstrates both cost and carbon emissions savings itcreated. The case study also includes interesting screenshots of the dashboard reporting approach adopted by the group.
Unilever – a plant in Canada has saved over $4.2m since 1999 and avoided 23,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases to meet a goal of reducing energy consumption by 6% per year. The case also shows how it is adopting more innovative programmes in a bid to meet the ongoing 6% reduction goal.
Accounting for climate change report
This research paper, nominated for a prestigious Globe Sustainability Award in the sustainability research category, outlines how management accountants can help organisations mitigate and adapt to climate change.