The new Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) norms, which are now compulsory for the top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalisation, require companies to disclose information about their environmental and social impacts, as well as their governance (ESG) practices. In the coming years, more and more businesses will be required to file their ESG reports, with self-reported statistics for the previous and current financial years.
Since FM services all these 1,000 companies and more, it becomes incumbent on FM companies to introduce products, technologies and processes that will help their clients score better in their ESG scorecards. Some of the market leaders in FM are listed companies themselves; for them, the ESG mandate is both a necessity and an opportunity.
Mrigank Warrier, Assistant Editor, Clean India Journal breaks down two of the principles of the BRSR reporting format with helpful examples of FM interventions from Vinod Nair, Head-Business Transformation, ISS Facility Services India and Sughosh Prabhu, CTO, Property Solutions India Pvt. Ltd (PSIPL).
The proforma begins by asking companies to indicate sustainability issues pertaining to environmental matters that present a risk or an opportunity to their business, and their approach to adapt or mitigate the risk, along with its financial implications. It probes whether a company’s ESG policies extends to their value chain partners, and asks about national/international codes/certifications/labels (e.g. Forest Stewardship Council, Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, Trustea) and standards (e.g. SA 8000, OHSAS, ISO, BIS) adopted.
Applying for sustainable procurement certifications, evaluating the supply chain and auditing suppliers are all part of ISS’s sustainable procurement policies. It applies these standards to the operations of their clients as well.
Specific commitments, goals and targets with defined timelines are sought, as is the performance of the company in achieving them. ISS has committed to Net Zero for all scopes by 2040.
Principle 2: Businesses should provide goods and services in a manner that is sustainable and safe
Percentage of R&D and capital expenditure (capex) investments in specific technologies to improve the environmental and social impacts of product and processes to total R&D and capex investments made by the entity: Innovation for ESG is encouraged, and may even be incentivised.
Does the entity have procedures in place for sustainable sourcing? If yes, what percentage of inputs were sourced sustainably? This is where green chemicals, recyclable consumables and other eco-friendly alternatives enter the picture.
Describe the processes in place to safely reclaim your products for reusing, recycling and disposing at the end of life, for (a) Plastics (including packaging) (b) E-waste (c) Hazardous waste and (d) other waste. Is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) applicable to the entity’s activities? If yes, is the waste collection plan in line with the EPR plan submitted to Pollution Control Boards?
If waste management was not already a facility manager’s domain, it is now.
Has the entity conducted Life Cycle Perspective/Assessments (LCA) for any of its services? FM leaders are already replacing end-of-life assets with solutions that gone through such assessments.
Percentage of recycled or reused input material to total material (by value) used in providing services. This where the the circular economy intersects with the FM ecosystem.
Principle 6: Businesses should respect and make efforts to protect and restore the environment
Total electricity consumption (a) Total fuel consumption (b) Energy consumption through other sources (c) Total energy consumption (d) Energy intensity per rupee of turnover (e) Total energy consumed from renewable sources.
ISS is concentrating on digital solutions like Envizi and cloud-based software platforms like BIM that help streamline operations and improve the energy efficiency of buildings. This lowers the carbon impact of the sector and can also result in cheaper operational expenses.
Water withdrawal by source (in kilolitres) (a) Surface water (b) Groundwater (c) Third party water (d) Seawater/desalinated water (e) Water withdrawal, consumption and discharge in areas of water stress.
ISS’s measures:
- Using water-saving faucets with sensor technology, low flow faucets, or aerated taps.
- Recirculating water through cooling tower filtration systems.
- Making all toilet flushes dual flushes.
- Examining and reducing any potential leaks in valves and fittings.
- Water-efficient landscaping, which substitutes xerophytic plant species for lawns.
The organisation advises clients to use treated water in their operations whenever possible and promote the implementation of rainwater harvesting (RWH) practices or ground water recharge bores.
Has the entity implemented a mechanism for Zero Liquid Discharge?
Scope 1/Scope 2 emissions:
PSIPL: HVAC systems use electric motors which account for a large portion of HVAC energy consumption. An electronically commutated (EC) motor is designed to run on AC supply and is essentially a PM brushless DC motor that incorporates on-board electronics. Added electronics allow the EC motor to combine the best of AC and DC motors. EC fans are highly efficient, replacing all fixed speed drives and belt pulley AC induction motors in the AHU assembly.
For each category of waste generated, total waste recovered through recycling, re-using or other recovery operations: Plastic waste, E-waste, bio-medical waste, construction and demolition waste, battery waste. ISS has started sorting and recycling paper towels. At the majority of its sites, recycled paper napkins are used.