Once you have put in place an effective data management structure, the next crucial step is to document it. A data management plan is a document that outlines how data was collected, stored, processed, and analysed.
At a minimum, the data management plan should contain information on the people responsible for collecting data, a description of how the data is collected, the different sources of data, a detailed description of each type of data, including which sustainability disclosure/action it supports, and if possible, a list of analysis files that utilize the specific data.
The GHG protocol recommends that the data management plan should be made available to assurance providers, both internal or external to the reporting company, as a helpful tool to guide the assurance process1.
Setting time aside to work on a data management plan can greatly improve efficiency and make sustainability reporting much smoother in the long run.
Footnotes
Assurance is an independent, external review of a company’s sustainability information to enhance its credibility and reliability. The assurance process is conducted before the public release of the inventory report by the reporting company.↩︎