Valcon assists retailer in generating climate footprint reports

With the aim to prepare for the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, a large internationally operating retailer asked Valcon to help with the development of fully-compliant climate footprint reports.

New rules from the European Union issued in the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) require large and listed companies to publish regular reports on how their activities impact people and the environment and on the social and environmental risks they face.

Following a phase roll-out timeline, the first set of companies that need to comply with the CSRD are bound to have their sustainability reports on 2024 data externally assured from 2025 onwards. Other large companies will follow suit in the subsequent years.

A large international retailer operating at the forefront of sustainability has been reporting on its climate footprint for years. However, the company’s climate footprint reporting is considered an increasingly challenging manual process, as data was collected in an ever-growing number of Excel sheets. This manual process was error prone, very demanding, and not sustainable.

Notably, the retailer was aware that its process would be unlikely to pass an audit. 

As part of its professionalisation process, the retailer asked Valcon to support a data upgrade project leveraging its cloud-based data platform. The goal: streamline and automate the process of data collection, data transformation, and data visualisation – all while ensuring the necessary insights for climate reporting, in line with compliance requirements.

As the retailer had a process in place for climate reporting, Valcon’s team did not have to start from scratch. Data sources were already defined, calculation methodologies were outlined and dedicated sustainability teams were in place.

However, digitizing, automating, and improving the reporting methods is a complex process. 

The obtained insights were gathered in a range of dashboards, all describing a separate part of the total value chain of the company. For example, the dashboards provide the amount of greenhouse gas emitted in kilograms of CO2-equivalent and the types of (renewable) energies used in business processes.

These metrics are provided for all parts of the value chain, from raw materials all the way up to the end-of-life of a product, including but not limited to co-worker commuting and customers travelling to stores. Furthermore, the dashboards provide an opportunity for the company to gain additional insights into how they can make their product range and way of working more sustainable, for which they have set clear and ambitious goals.

The outcome

With the new process in place, the retailer aims to undergo an external audit successfully for the first time within the next year. Moreover, with the automated and auditable process implemented, the retailer is now better informed to further execute its ESG strategy.