Corporate Environmental Reporting — The CLP Power Experience

Abstract

CLP Power Hong Kong Ltd. believes that environmental reporting is a management tool and a means to keep track of and to improve performance. Although it is relatively new to Asian power utilities, external reporting on environmental performance is becoming an international norm. There are some notable leaders in this field including those in Europe and in Northern America. We issued our first external environmental report (which also included elements on safety and health) in 1997 which was the first of its kind by local companies in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Our report in 2000, known as Environment, Health and Safety Review 2000 was awarded the Best Environmental Report from the Hong Kong Eco-business Awards 2000. From our experience, external environmental reporting offers the advantages of maintaining good relations and partnerships with stakeholders, aligning with international best practice, improving environmental performance, and gaining external recognition. In this article, we will present our overall system on environmental reporting, share our experience in the production process of an environmental report with particular focus on the critical elements and considerations involved, and lastly discuss the benefits of environmental reporting to the company. The use of Intranet to facilitate reporting and the computerised information system in CLP Power are also briefly discussed.