Report on your progress

Keep up the momentum by ensuring you are collecting and evaluating your data regularly. Monitoring your progress monthly allows you to see whether you are on track to meet your annual targets – and to make adjustments if necessary.

What good carbon reporting looks like

Good carbon reporting involves clear communication of your annual emissions profile to stakeholders, such as investors, customers, employees, and the public, using accessible and understandable language.

• Accurate — The reported data should be based on robust and credible methodologies, calculations, and data sources.
• Transparent — Your report should include clear and detailed information on the emissions, data sources, calculation methods, and assumptions used.
• Complete — Good carbon reporting covers all relevant scopes of emissions, including direct emissions (Scope 1), indirect emissions from purchased electricity (Scope 2), and other indirect emissions from the value chain (Scope 3).
• Consistent — Keep your data sources and reporting consistent over time to allow for meaningful year-on-year comparisons and trend analysis.
• Contextualised — Provide context to your report by including relevant information about your organisation's emissions reduction targets, and progress towards those targets.

Get your emissions report verified

Having your emissions report verified is an option to provide assurance of the accuracy and reliability of the reported data. This will help you to make claims about your sustainability credentials without risking ‘greenwash’.

‘Greenwashing’ is when you make environmental claims about your business that don’t stack up. The Commerce Commission offers guidelines to help you stay on the right side of the Fair Trading Act: Environmental claims(external link)

If you opt for verification, be sure to look for a reputable, independent organisation that has a good understanding of international reporting standards such as ISO 14064 and the GHG Protocol.

Verification will be part of the process if you decide to get certification. Certification comes with a label that can be used for marketing purposes, to show the level of climate action your organisation is taking.

Find support

Earn a sustainability certification

You can achieve sustainability certification to recognise whatever stage you are at on your emissions reduction journey. There are certifications available to New Zealand organisations to show your business is:

• Managing emissions — you have measured your carbon footprint and are actively managing your emissions.
• Offsetting emissions — you are taking steps to offset emissions from business activities.
• Carbon neutral — you have offset all your emissions to achieve carbon neutral or carbon zero status.
• Reducing emissions — you are taking steps to reduce your absolute emissions (not just offsetting).
• Climate positive — you are actively reducing your absolute emissions and offsetting more than your emissions balance to achieve climate positive status.

Explore sustainability certifications(external link)

Offset your emissions

Offsetting is when you purchase carbon credits to support emissions reduction or sequestration projects somewhere else, to compensate for your own emissions. A carbon credit represents a reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide (or an equivalent amount of other greenhouse gases). Carbon sequestration is the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, for example through photosynthesis by plants and trees. For offsetting to be effective, it’s important that the action taken is measurable and verified, permanent, and can’t be double used.

The Ministry for the Environment publishes guidelines for climate change mitigation and offsetting.

The guidance states that claims of undertaking voluntary climate change mitigation should only be made after an organisation has measured their own emissions, committed to an emissions reductions plan, and is taking action to reduce their emissions in accordance with their plan.

Guidance for voluntary climate change mitigation(external link)

Share your progress and credentials

If you’re making good progress in emissions reduction, let your customers and stakeholders know, and be transparent about your journey. 

• Publish your progress — Make sure your environmental claims are substantiated, and if your sustainability credentials are verified and certified, use them to build your reputation and raise the standards for other businesses.
• Demonstrate the benefits — Participate in membership associations and industry bodies to show sector leadership, and encourage other businesses to take action.
• Share your learnings — Support other businesses to learn from your journey and replicate your actions more quickly.