SECR deadline – Is your business prepared?

The Streamlined Energy & Carbon Reporting (SECR) deadline is fast approaching for many qualifying UK businesses. SECR compliance is compulsory, but reporting doesn’t have to be a challenge.

The regulation captures large companies that consume more than 40,000 kWh of energy per year and that meet two or more of the following criteria:

• More than 250 employees
• An annual turnover exceeding £36m
• A balance sheet of £18m or more

Ensuring that your business’s energy and carbon emissions data — including your Scope 1 and 2 emissions, plus Scope 3 if you’re thinking of going beyond your obligations — is submitted on time, is crucial to your compliance success. With the deadline for 21/22 reporting coming up, if you haven’t already, now’s the time to be collating the data needed.

Commercial benefits of SECR

Getting your SECR report submitted on time isn’t the only reason you should be getting organised when it comes to your compliance. Many other schemes such as ESOS carry fines if compliance isn’t met and whilst this isn’t the case currently for SECR, if it is ignored, it’s likely that fines will be introduced in the future.

The threat of a possible fine shouldn’t be the only driver behind your SECR action, there are many benefits to your business to be SECR compliant.

Firstly, once you’ve submitted a SECR report once, you’ll be able to comply much easier in the future. Which is something your business should look to do as SECR becomes a standard for year-end reporting.

As decarbonisation becomes a focus for many UK businesses, reducing carbon consumption is becoming an expectation as pressure from government to reduce emissions increases. SECR reports can be a building block for your decarbonisation plans and could provide evidence when aiming to win business from clients who demand carbon-neutral strategies in their supply chain.

With most UK businesses now charging down their net-zero path, many may find that SECR can help you outline your carbon footprint.

Alongside reducing both energy consumption and costs, these benefits provide enough motivation to complete your SECR reporting requirements.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail

Is your business prepared?

The SECR deadline will be upon businesses soon and those who aren’t prepared may find themselves failing to meet the deadline for compliance. Collating all the information and data needed to submit your report on time can put additional strain on your team and take away from other crucial business priorities.

Outsourcing to an energy partner like Inspired Energy can help alleviate some of the burden of SECR compliance on your team, as well as giving you access to expert energy knowledge. See how we’ve helped other businesses with their SECR compliance here.