SECR and ESOS reporting

Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) regulations were introduced by the UK Government in 2018 with the intention of increasing organisations’ awareness of energy costs, and providing data to encourage the adoption of energy efficiency measures. The ultimate goal is to reduce organisations’ and companies’ impact upon climate change. These regulations also seek to provide greater transparency for stakeholders about energy use.

The 2018 Regulations require large, unquoted companies that have used more than 40,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy during reporting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2019, to include energy and carbon information within their directors’ or trustees’ report.

Companies are defined as large if they meet two or more of the following criteria:

• turnover (or gross income) of £36 million or more,
•  balance sheet assets of £18 million or more,
• 250 employees or more.

Government regulations often make company directors groan as they appear bureaucratic and onerous. However, SHIFT’s team has over 15 years of experience calculating and reporting on energy use and carbon emissions, and we have developed bespoke tools for doing this efficiently and with minimal fuss. We translate this data into an easy-to-understand and bespoke action plan in the correct SECR format.

Other reasons why your SECR reporting is safe in our hands:

• We have successfully calculated and written SECR statements for many clients
• We all have Chartered Environmentalist status with the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) or are working towards this accreditation
• We have carried out environmental reporting for many other standards e.g. Code for Sustainable Homes, BREEAM and Heat Metering Regulations, so we know well how the Governmental regulatory mind works!

Here’s a case study of one of our SECR reports.

SHIFT employs our very own in-house ESOS lead assessor, qualified via the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA).  The following is our general approach to ESOS but please feel free to be in touch to discuss your project.

• Kick-off – establish and/or confirm project parameters.
• Data collection – most likely gas, electricity and fuel bills for sites and transport.
• Energy assessment – calculate your total energy consumption for the qualifying period.
• Energy audit – identify where at least 95% of your energy consumption originates and analyse data. We will deal with any granularity you have.
• Audit visit – we will need to visit, in person, a representative number of sites.
• Prepare business case – this requires considerable research to identify the actions you can take to reduce energy consumption and then to cost them and indicate how they align with net zero.
• Get director sign-off – present these energy savings opportunities to a director and gain their sign-off (we can do this via Teams/Zoom).
• Lodge assessment – we write our reports to make this easy for you. Make sure you do this by 5th December.

 Here’s a case study of one of our ESOS projects.