How To Tackle Sustainability on a Shoestring Budget

Demonstrating your company’s sustainability efforts is becoming a business imperative. Whether you’re navigating the complex regulatory landscape or sensing a rise in customer expectations, it’s critical to build a proactive approach to sustainability before you’re caught on your heels. Limited financial resources, technical expertise and time all put strain on companies that feel expected to now do more with less. Here’s a look at the essential steps for sustainability progress without breaking the bank.

Step 1: Understand the Pressure for Sustainability

Before diving into specific strategies, it’s essential to understand the source of pressure for sustainability so you understand where and how to disclose. In the RV industry, demands are coming from two places.

Regulations & Mandates: While Federal regulations remain in the proposal phase, the outcome is moot — international and state-level mandates are already driving disclosure requirements, and these mandates carry supply chain expectations. Last year, the European Union established the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). CSRD has extensive reporting requirements, including double materiality, risk assessments, carbon impact, reduction plans and more, while CBAM is an import tax on carbon-intensive goods. California passed two pieces of legislation requiring Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon reporting for companies doing over $500 million in revenue and business in the state. Additionally, California passed the Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) rules that require a certain percentage of heavy-duty vehicles like motorhomes to be Zero Emissions Vehicles.

Even if you aren’t in scope for the regulation itself, each of these regulations has a value chain component — expect to have your customers come knocking for your sustainability metrics.

Customers: If your customers aren’t feeling pressure from regulations, they surely feel it from consumers. More than ever before, consumers are highly educated, information savvy and willing (dare I say eager, even) to align purchasing power with values. Beholden to the end user’s desires, consumer-facing brands are setting competitive sustainability goals to drive marketplace differentiation — and these goals rest on the shoulders of their supply chain, where up to 90% of carbon emissions reside.

Understanding who is asking, why and where they expect your data will drive your strategy for disclosure, goal setting and progress. Asking these few questions is just the foundation, however.

It is highly recommended that companies go through the exercise of developing a Sustainability Roadmap. Akin to a Materiality Assessment, a Sustainability Roadmap provides a holistic look at stakeholders’ demands, material topics, impending regulatory requirements and corporate sustainability goals to create a strategic pathway for all your sustainability efforts. This effort builds buy-in throughout your company and ensures you’re on the right path, not wasting time, effort and money on sustainability efforts and projects that don’t matter to your stakeholders.

Step 2: Establish a Repeatable, Centralized Data Collection Approach

I always love to say, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” Data is at the heart of any successful sustainability effort — a repeatable, centralized approach for greenhouse gas (GHG) data collection is essential; quality data is the cornerstone of quality outcomes. When your data is consistent and accurate, it can be disseminated efficiently across multiple frameworks and disclosure platforms.

At this point, companies are struggling to field an onslaught of questionnaires, wasting time and money scrambling for data while risking human error or lacking expertise. The time is now to get your data in order — both for your disclosure strategy and your bottom line.

Here are a few options:

• OK – Build an internal spreadsheet to track key metrics.
• Better – Use the EPA Free Calculator to improve precision.
• Best – Automate data collection with an outsourced provider that offers human oversight to ensure data completion, quality and accuracy. Avoid solutions that rely solely on manual data entry; instead, look for systems that offer integrated, human-assisted analysis for the best results.

Investing in data collection is the very beginning of your sustainability journey. This data is necessary to meet both regulatory and consumer demands and simultaneously unlocks insights for your own company to find cost and carbon-saving opportunities. Don’t shortchange this step — it’s worth every penny.

Step 3: Streamline Reporting

Once you’ve gathered your data, it’s time to get it in front of your stakeholders. Publishing a comprehensive sustainability report and leaning on strategic disclosure platforms can save you both time and resources. Instead of responding to a barrage of bespoke questionnaires from various stakeholders, a well-crafted report holds your story in one place and serves as a one-stop solution. By strategically choosing platforms that resonate with your customers’ values, you can build trust and drive loyalty. These platforms often overlap with one another in the questions they ask, so be sure to understand the connectivity between disclosure mechanisms to make your reporting as efficient as possible.

A strong sustainability report not only highlights your progress but also illustrates how your efforts are aligned with broader environmental and social goals. In today’s competitive market, transparency and storytelling are invaluable — they boost your brand’s reputation and provide a roadmap for continuous improvement.

What factors affect cost?

Of course, implementing these strategies isn’t without its challenges, and costs can vary. Factors that will affect the cost include:

• The number of facilities you operate
• The variety of fuel streams you manage
• The overall complexity of your operations

These all play a role in determining how much you’ll need to invest. Recognizing these factors early on can help you tailor your approach and allocate resources more efficiently.

Where to look for cost savings?

With data at your fingertips, you unlock opportunities for immense cost savings that can be reinvested in your sustainability journey. At Foresight this year, a utility data collection process for one company led to more than $883,000 in savings over three years — a 781% ROI. We often find low-hanging fruit in utility optimization, sales tax efforts, facility energy audits, compressed air studies and renewable energy procurement. These efforts not only result in financial wins but also underpin carbon and sustainability progress you can report on.

Conclusion

In summary, even on a shoestring budget, you can make significant strides in sustainability by starting with the right questions, investing in tools to support data collection and streamlining reporting. By considering cost factors, knowing when to get external support and ensuring company-wide buy-in, you can transform sustainability from a regulatory burden into a competitive advantage.