The three requests
A client or tender wants a number. Usually the simplest. They want a total for a recent period, a stated boundary, and confidence you did it properly. They rarely want your workings unless something looks odd. A large customer wants your data for their reporting. Their Scope 3 includes what they buy from you, so they need your emissions attributable to them. This one arrives with their deadline, not yours, and it tends to repeat annually. You have a reporting obligation. Australian entities phasing into AASB S2. This is the one where the trail matters as much as the number, because it will be assured. See AASB S2 reporting for whether this is you. If you are not sure which you have, ask the requester one question: what will you do with it? The answer sorts it immediately.Why it changes what you do
A tender answer and a disclosure are the same measurement done to different depths. Knowing which you owe stops you doing four months of work for a three-week question, or the reverse.
Send these two requests today
Whatever the answer above, two things take longest to arrive and neither depends on any decision you have not made yet. Your maintenance contractor, for refrigerant top-up quantities and gas types. This one is invisible in your accounts because you are billed for a service call rather than for gas, and it is often material. Your landlord or building manager, if you do not hold your own electricity meter. Apportioned data takes weeks to extract from a building manager who has never been asked before. Both requests are written out and ready to copy in requesting data. Send them now and they will be arriving while you work through lessons 2 and 3.You are done when
- You can name which of the three requests you have, and what the requester will do with the answer
- You know your deadline and your reporting period
- The refrigerant and landlord requests are sent