Dolf van Hattem

The EU corporate sustainability reporting directive (CSRD), implies that companies will soon be required to publish detailed information on sustainability matters. This will increase a company’s accountability, prevent divergent sustainability standards, and ease the transition to a sustainable economy. For many of them, the use of energy is a major source of GHG-emissions or emissions of other harmful gasses. The amounts and type of these emissions depend on the type and quantity of the energy vectors used. However also the type of process which uses the energy, has a significant impact on what kind of harmful gasses are produced. Therefore, reliable environmental reporting requires detailed data regarding the energy used in the processes present in the organisation. The Italian Association of Certified Experts in Energy Management (AssoEGE) in collaboration with the Italian Federation for Energy Efficiency (FIRE), has elaborated a reporting format and a set of general principles for the implementation of an energy accounting system in organisations. This model provides all data which are needed for the calculation of the environmental impact caused by the use of energy. The model is intrinsically flexible and can be applied in all kind of organisations, independent of their size or degree of complexity. A generally accepted- and well documented method for reporting on the use of energy is essential for the independent verification of energy balances. This independent verification of energy performance data, referring to a common standard, is key for the credible reporting on the environmental impact. Trustworthy environmental reporting is indispensable for a reliable assessment of financial investments in “green technologies”.