Full Annual Report - Inchcape

Business review
Strategy
Corporate responsibility continued
Our environment
In 2008,the Group commenced collecting data on its CO 2 footprint,measured
against three core Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Energy
Transport
Flights
This KPI measures our global electricity and gas usage.
For the last six months of 2008,and during 2009 data has been
collated on the basis of megawatt hours for electricity and
cubic metres for gas.
This KPI measures the movement of cars and parts from
the point of ownership (which means legal or contractual
ownership) to the point we cease to have legal ownership.
This includes test drives.We calculate our CO 2 footprint by
car or parts kilometres depending on the mode of transport
with a CO 2 multiplier.
This KPI measures the impact of the movement of our people.
We have recorded the number of flights (each flight leg counts
as one unit) and calculated our flight CO 2 emissions with a
multiplier by flight kilometre.
In January 2009, following an internal
review of the data collected and the
collection process, it was agreed that the
processes should be refined to maximise
their robustness and enable independent
verification, as appropriate.
Since that review, we have continued
to collect data from our markets against
all three core KPIs.This data has begun
to provide us with insights into our CO 2
footprint. However, we consider that
additional data collection is required in
order to provide meaningful guidance.
Namely:
• additional CO 2 data is required in order
to understand if seasonality has an
impact on our data usage;
• whilst there are early indications of trend
patterns in the data, there is insufficient
data to establish if these are actual or
perceived trends;
• verification of the robustness of our data.
We are ensuring that from the start of the
process we are building in sufficient
control points so that our data is
capable of independent verification as
part of our overall planning process for
this element of our CR programme.
Early conclusions that can be
drawn are:
By recycling rainwater, using ground source heating pumps and solar power to heat
water, Inchcape Honda in Romford, UK uses around 30% less energy than a standard
car showroom.
Analysing our CO 2 footprint is providing us
with data from which we can evaluate how
we can manage emissions and reduce
costs in the supply chain. For example,
in some markets we rely on air freight to
support our business, particularly around
the import of critical supplies which can be
dependent on aftersales requirements.We
will use the data to analyse if changes are
appropriate to support our business
requirements, reduce our CO 2 footprint
and reduce costs, thereby benefiting our
customers and our stakeholders alike.
Additionally, measuring our direct
costs using a CO 2 metric will present
opportunities to work closely with our
brand partners as we can support their
CR values and vice versa, ensuring that
there is a consistent approach throughout
all elements of the supply chain.
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Inchcape plc ¦ Annual Report and Accounts 2009