Getting to grips with your CRC evidence pack in the New Year

Get to grips with your Carbon Reporting Commitment (CRC) evidence pack in time for the new year.

Tis the season to be updating my CRC evidence packs. Not quite the festive delight I was hoping for in December, but an important job nonetheless. As Energy Services Co-ordinator at TEAM, I look after CRC requirements for many customers and the evidence pack is an essential element of this work.

CRC reporting is completed in July and allowances must be surrendered by the end of October, it’s easy to think that carbon reporting is over for the year with all the deadlines behind you. It’s also easy to forget about the evidence pack. How you keep your evidence pack is up to you, but keeping it up to date is essential, not only for your own records, but also in case of an audit by the Environment Agency. Failure to maintain records could result in a hefty fine!

The current CRC phase has been operating for three years now and an evidence pack should have been kept and updated for each of those years. If so, this job is just a case of reviewing last year’s information and updating the relevant sections. In the interests of helping those of you who are responsible for the CRC reporting in your organisation, here’s a quick review of the areas you need to focus on:

Organisational structure

Has anything changed in terms of the way your organisation is set up? Departments and their buildings outsourced? Managers with responsibility for the area of CRC shifted or been reallocated; primary or secondary contacts changed? All this information needs to be included and possibly a notification made via the CRC register to officially update this.

Sites

Have the buildings within your portfolio changed? Buildings leased or sold, new buildings acquired? It’s necessary to provide evidence of when and to who to back up why your carbon emissions may have substantially changed.

Data

Have you kept a record of the sources of all your data? Have any suppliers changed? Are there any new renewable installations that are now included? For our TEAM Sigma customers, I am always careful to export a full spreadsheet of all the data used for CRC annual reporting, including showing any sites that do not fall within CRC, as well as those that do.

It may not be the most exciting job, but if you need to go back and review your CRC information at any time, a clear and complete evidence pack is vital. It gives a reference point to anyone who is looking at the data to understand how your figures were calculated and what the make-up of your organisation and buildings were at that time.

And what better time of year to complete a job like this ready for the New Year.

If you need further help with your CRC evidence pack or carbon reporting, our team of Energy Services Consultants can help.

Power to make change

We believe that people power can change the world. We are here to help you have a positive impact on the planet. Together we can make a difference.

Take the next step

Becoming Net Zero

Leading by example, we became carbon neutral in 2023 and are committed to achieving net zero business emissions by 2030.

Read our strategy

Employee Ownership

As an Employee Ownership Trust we embrace the three pillars of good communication, governance and leadership, putting our people first.

Learn more about us

We will be by your side

Staying at the forefront of industry, we embrace and drive change, delivering solutions at pace and scale to meet the modern challenges of energy and sustainability.

Meet our people