Analysis Paralysis

Information is essential and overwhelming. It doesn’t matter if you provide it or analyse it.

You’ve probably been told – or at least read – that you need to provide stakeholders with various top-line figures. Your emission-reduction goals. The amount you plan to spend to remediate any environmental ills. Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions.

That’s a lot of number crunching. A lot of hypothetical equations and formulae. A host of potentially inaccurate predictions. And, bluntly, your time could be spent doing better things.

Yes, data is essential. Particularly if regulators and customers need it. But it shouldn’t come at the expense of action to improve your business’s climate impact. You can devise an overly optimistic model that shows where you’ll be in five years’ time. Or, you can spend your time making a material operational change that will result in fewer emissions.

We’ve been here before. Commentators have drawn parallels to 2008’s financial crisis, where modelling suggested everything was all rosy. Those estimates were wrong. If they’re wrong this time, we at least need some concrete action to point to.

Qualify your environmental impact in addition to quantifying it.

Think about concepts like your ‘carbon shadow’ in addition to your carbon footprint. Learn how everything you do – from the location of your office to the services you provide – impacts our environment.

Understand how your organisation can have a climate influence. Beyond the spreadsheet. Consider whether your messaging and brand values conflict in any way with combating climate change. Adjust if they do.

Stakeholders will continue to ask for data and disclosures. You may have little choice but to provide this to them in some form. But don’t hide behind the numbers and don’t ignore the unquantifiable.