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KODAEnvironmental

Sustainability consulting

The waste numbers
in your report

Waste is usually the least defensible section of a sustainability report, because unlike energy it is not metered. It is assembled from manifests, estimates and assumptions — which is exactly why it is the section that gets questioned.

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What to get right

Four things that decide
whether it holds

01

Waste data is the part of a report that gets checked

Energy and emissions figures usually come from meters and invoices. Waste figures come from manifests, estimates and assumptions, which is why they are the ones an assurance provider asks about first.

02

A diversion rate needs its method attached

State the boundary, what counts as diverted, what is excluded and which weights are measured rather than estimated. A bare percentage invites someone to go looking for what is behind it.

03

Zero waste to landfill is a claim with a definition problem

Different programs count combustion with energy recovery differently, and the difference decides whether a site qualifies. Agree the definition before the target, not after.

04

The number alone cannot show improvement

A rate moves when production moves. Total weight generated, tracked beside it, is what shows whether you are making less material rather than handling it better.

What you end up with

Data, and the
method beside it

A figure on its own invites a question. A figure with its boundary, its exclusions and its basis attached answers the question before it is asked, which is the difference between a number you present and a number you defend.

We supply the waste data and the method behind it. Your disclosure stays yours.

Is a stream worth recycling?
  • Diversion and disposal data by stream, site and period
  • The boundary and exclusions written down, not assumed
  • Measured and estimated figures distinguished from each other
  • Supporting records retained against the reported numbers
  • Data shaped for whichever framework you report under
  • A view of where the next improvement actually is

Questions

Asked most often

Which frameworks do you support?

We supply the waste data and the method behind it. That feeds whatever you report under — your own sustainability report, a customer questionnaire, or a formal framework. We do not pretend to be the authors of your disclosure.

Can you help us set a target?

Yes, and the useful order is backwards from the usual one: establish what you actually generate and where it goes, then set a target that number can reach. Targets set before the baseline tend to get quietly dropped.

Our customers send us ESG questionnaires.

Those are increasingly where this starts. The waste sections are answerable from the same data, and answering them consistently year to year matters more than answering them impressively once.

Reporting season is the wrong time to start

The data that makes a report defensible is captured as the year runs, not gathered at the end of it.

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