Abstract Description: Sustainability is continuously growing in importance and gaining traction, and the need for companies, cities, organizations, and public districts to publish a sustainability plan and show progress is expanding. There are a variety of hurdles to accomplish including navigating the many reporting frameworks, standards, and protocols, calculating scope 1 and scope 2 carbon emissions, and establishing a baseline. With all these obstacles to navigate, it can be difficult to know where to start, and achieve a sustainability plan that is of practical use to the company, employees, and leadership. A sustainability plan that shows beneficial progress, with strategic targets can enable the plan to be a useful interface for planning and development opportunities. But how do you develop a sustainability plan that is useful to a company, and doesn’t just end up “gathering dust on a shelf” each year? How do you integrate a plan to incorporate objectives that are useful for business performance? And, most importantly, where do you start? This presentation will take you through a case-study and the steps taken to develop a sustainability plan. We will discuss how a city, public district, and company can appropriately prepare and integrate sustainability even if stakeholders are not yet requiring you to report to a published ESG framework. Plus, we will highlight the importance of correctly defining a GHG baseline, and discuss the tasks involved in calculating carbon emissions. The overall aim is to present a cost and time effective strategy to prepare your company, city, or district with a solid foundation to promote a competitive edge in sustainability.
