We sat down with Michael Walton at CMP Products to find out more about how his company is approaching carbon reporting. As Quality, Health, Safety and Environmental (QHSE) Manager, he offered a fascinating insight into the way carbon reporting and other sustainability measures are becoming part of business practice alongside long-established disciplines like health and safety.
In his broad and varied role at CMP Products, Michael is responsible for maintaining and improving ISO management systems, ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, handling risk management and incident investigation, providing audit oversight and continuous improvement, and environmental management – including a responsibility for energy performance and carbon reporting.
In addition to this role, Michael is also Head of HSE for CPP – which is the wider division of British Engines, which also includes electromagnetic solutions manufacturer, Stephenson Gobin. Michael provides governance and strategic oversight to ensure the alignment of standards, policies and performance expectations. He explains,
“My remit includes supporting senior leadership in HSE strategy, driving consistency in standards and reporting, reviewing incident trends and preventative actions – all with the overarching goal of promoting a strong and proactive safety culture.”
He continues,
“Over time, the environmental component of the role – particularly carbon reporting – has become increasingly strategic, rather than purely compliance driven. Carbon reporting has been part of my remit for several years now and it’s really been driven by growing customer expectations, alongside ESG requirements and group level sustainability reporting.”
Like many HSE professionals, the addition of environmental responsibilities presented Michael with a number of challenges and a need to quickly fill any knowledge gaps in this area. He says,
“One of the first challenges I had to get to grips with was in developing a clear understanding of the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard – particularly what constituted Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
“From there, it was important to identify and structure reliable data resources, define clear organisational boundaries and manage any data gaps or assumptions that would prove to be problematic.
“Once these elements were in hand, the next challenge lay in integrating the work into what was already a broad Quality, Health and Safety portfolio. Initially this was less about capability and more about building structure, clarity and confidence in the process.”
Bringing the business on a carbon reporting journey
As Michael is well aware, QHSE cannot be worked on in isolation and it takes the involvement of an entire organisation to turn a strategy into achievable outcomes. Asked how he set about embedding environmental standards into CMP Products, he says,
“The first step was education – for myself and for key stakeholders across the business. It was important to invest time in building an understanding of emissions scopes and categorisation alongside the likes of reporting methodologies and principles, as well as sourcing emissions conversion factors.
“The next step in getting business-wide buy-in was developing a repeatable and documented process that included:
- Mapping all emission sources including energy, fuel, travel and waste
- Creating standardised data collection templates
- Working closely with finance and facilities teams
- Clearly documenting assumptions and calculation methods”
In order to ensure that carbon emissions reporting could be done efficiently and with as much accuracy as possible, Michael says that he engaged with SmartCarbon to support through expert consultancy support and the use of our emissions reporting software, the SmartCarbon Calculator:
“SmartCarbon played an important role in supporting our development, particularly in the early stages. They helped clarify the correct application of the GHG Protocol, reviewed our methodology, sense-checked data and assumptions, and provided benchmarking insight.
“Most importantly they provided reassurance that our approach was aligned with recognised standards, giving confidence when presenting carbon data internally and supporting leadership discussions.
“Their involvement accelerated our maturity in carbon reporting and helped establish a robust foundation that we have continued to develop internally.”
Over time, CMP Products has taken strides forward in carbon reporting across the business and has plans to progress this further over the coming years. Michael says,
“We’ve made real improvements to the quality and visibility of the emissions data we are able to monitor and report on. This has been achievable because we’ve strengthened our internal collaboration between finance, procurement and operations teams – all driven by a greater internal awareness of the value that carbon reporting brings to the business and the need to reduce our environmental impact.
“Our efforts have also resulted in more strategic discussions around energy efficiency and emissions reduction, as well as the alignment of approach across CMP and Stephenson Gobin through shared HSE governance
“What began as a compliance driven requirement has developed into a much more strategic management tool.
“Looking ahead, the next stage is focused on measurable improvement rather than measurement alone. In practice, this means strengthening Scope 3 reporting; increasing data granularity; identifying practical reduction initiatives; embedding carbon considerations into investment decisions; and supporting wider British Engines sustainability objectives.
‘The direction of travel is clear: increased transparency, improved accuracy and tangible emissions reduction.”
Offering advice to QHSE professionals getting to grips with carbon reporting
For anyone in a QHSE role tasked with carbon reporting, Michael suggests it is crucial to build an understanding of the fundamentals first:
“Gaining clarity on Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions is, of course, essential. I’d also stress the importance of engaging other stakeholders within the business early. Don’t try to do it alone.
“Once teams have been consulted, it’s then critical to document everything and be consistent with methodology and assumptions. We’ve found that it’s helpful to start in a pragmatic way and then refine annually to improve the quality of our data . . . achieving perfect data in year one is unrealistic.
“It’s helpful to treat the project as strategic; not administrative. Carbon data provides operational insight and can be used as a leadership tool. Environmental performance is also increasingly linked to commercial risk and opportunity so it has a vital place at boardroom level as well as throughout an organisation.
“Ultimately, carbon reporting aligns naturally with a QHSE function because it reflects the same core principles: risk management, compliance, governance, performance monitoring and continuous improvement.”
He concludes,
“Environmental performance is no longer peripheral, it is becoming central to how we operate, how we are assessed externally and how we plan for the future.”
SmartCarbon support to CMP Products
- Clarification on reporting frameworks and emissions categorisation
- Review and validation of methodology
- Identification of data gaps and improvement areas
- Provision of industry context and benchmarking insight
- Independent assurance and confidence in reporting figures
- Access to the SmartCarbon reporting platform and industry specific factors
Using the SmartCarbon platform provides organisations of any size and from any sector to get to grips with reducing their environmental impact, with a particular emphasis on measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions. Get started with SmartCarbon today.