Data background

ERM's data covers those entities controlled by ERM Worldwide Group Limited (EWGL), which is based in London, United Kingdom.

This report covers ERM CVS, a wholly owned subsidiary of EWGL. ERM CVS works with many of the world's leading multinational organizations and delivers independent, third-party, performance-driving certification, verification and report assurance services to help clients improve their sustainability performance. For more details of these services, visit the ERM CVS site.

ERM CVS operates under ERM's internal policies and procedures, and the following sections of this Sustainability Report 2021 therefore apply also to ERM CVS unless indicated otherwise: Business conduct and ethics, Our people, Health, safety and well-being, and Climate-related risk. Because ERM and ERM CVS have combined human resource systems and office premises, the data in this report include the operations of ERM CVS.

Due to the nature of its work, ERM CVS has additional policies and procedures relating to independence and an Advisory Board that undertakes the role of the Committee for Safeguarding Impartiality.

Our ERM Sustainability Reporting Protocol guides the data-collection process. Where applicable, the protocol is based upon external guidance, including the GRI Standards and the World Resources Institute/WBCSD Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

Taking advantage of the professional expertise of our employee and our purpose as an organization, ERM created a Sustainability Network of coordinators, advisors, leaders and champions across all of our offices and regions. Members of the network focus on enhancing our sustainability program and improving our performance in support of the SDGs. The Sustainability Network coordinates the collection of the majority of our environmental data. We expect to continue to improve the robustness and depth of our data over time.

The Sustainability Reporting Technical Panel is a group of subject matter experts from across our company, with individual members designated as technical leads for specific performance or technical areas (e.g., office energy, business travel, office information, etc.).

Technical panel members’ responsibilities include:

• Validating global data sets and working with sustainability advisors and functional leads (where relevant) to sign off data prior to submission of final data set to the global sustainability program team;
• Conducting quality assessments on data collection sources from Business Units;
• Verifying the consistency of data collection methods to identify and resolve any issues in conjunction with sustainability advisors; and
• Maintaining backup records to support the reported results.

We use assurance processes to drive performance improvement, including utilizing ERM’s internal expertise and external assurance resources. Details of our approach each year are published in the Assurance section of the Sustainability Report.

We report environmental data for offices that fall within ERM's material threshold (as defined in our Sustainability Reporting Protocol) per fiscal year (FY), which runs 1 April to 31 March. ERM's Sustainability Reporting Protocol provides guidance for the development and maintenance of robust data collection systems that will measure sustainability performance across all key performance areas in a consistent, accurate and auditable manner.

We continue to improve our greenhouse gas data, including working with landlords to increase access to actual energy consumption data for leased offices. Where data are unavailable, we estimate consumption based on the amount of space we lease and expected energy intensity of office buildings.

On a per-indicator basis, sources constituting less than 1% of ERM's total impact for that performance indicator annually are excluded from the data collection and reporting process. Sources excluded are reviewed annually to determine if emissions are relevant for a continued de minimis exemption. For FY21, leased or owned office locations that were registered as encompassing fewer than 50 square meters, excluding dedicated server hosting spaces, were also considered de minimis and excluded from the data collection and reporting process. Impacts associated with office spaces of this size are projected to be less than 1% of ERM's total impact in aggregate. Travel data for employees residing in these offices are included in the office responsible for booking travel.

For data normalized by the number of (full-time equivalent) FTE employees, we applied the average yearly FTE, which is more representative of FTEs throughout the year than the year-end FTE. Average yearly FTEs have been applied in ERM sustainability reports since FY15.

All financial data are reported in United States dollars, unless otherwise noted.

Data for new offices or offices added through ERM acquisitions during the reporting period are included where available from the date of opening or acquisition – subject to specific transition arrangements to ERM systems and processes. These arrangements are noted where relevant. In some instances of the data presented, rounding resulted in small discrepancies.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a substantial impact on our data collection processes. With many of ERM’s offices closed for a large proportion of the year and employees working at home, we needed to review our methodology for data gathering and reporting.

In line with our Sustainability Reporting Protocol, we asked a limited amount of offices to provide data on office energy, company car usage and rental car usage. This resulted in a regional sample data set that enabled us to estimate the total energy consumption per region and extrapolate this to the all other offices. Next to the sample groups, ERM has increasingly invested in central data collection repositories that provide data on business travel, employee commuting and office information.

During FY21, ERM also worked to develop a methodology to calculate the emissions of a workforce increasingly operating from their own homes. ERM has used the Ecometrica Homeworker Module using data collected in our check-in app, which we developed to ensure ERM knows where all employees are working each day. Our employees update their status in the app in advance of the actual workday, which enabled us to calculate ERM’s emissions footprint from employee commuting and employees working from home.

ERM has significantly reduced our Scope 2 emissions by changing to green energy contracts, purchasing renewable energy and implementing other energy efficiency measures. In FY21, ERM committed to using 100% renewable energy across the global portfolio of our offices for this year and every year thereafter.

ERM has market instruments in place for 99.6% of our global energy portfolio. Thee renewable energy is sourced 13% by direct supplier contracts and 87% by purchased renewable energy certificates (RECs), International Renewable energy certificates (I-RECs) or Guarantees of Origins (GOs).

In FY21, we used alternative options where in-country Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs) were not available in the following instances:

• South Korea: The South Korea government is currently developing an in-country EAC program, but there are no available options for unbundled EACs currently. ERM purchased China I-RECs to match energy consumption.
• Myanmar: ERM purchased Thailand I-RECs to match energy consumption for the Myanmar Office. Myanmar and Thailand are both member states of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), which is working to expand cross-border electricity trading in the region.
• Kazakhstan: ERM purchased Russia I-RECs to match energy consumption for the Kazakhstan office. There is publicly available evidence of cross-border energy interconnections with Russia on the northern border of Kazakhstan.
• Kenya: ERM purchased Uganda I-RECs to match energy consumption for the Kenya office. Both Kenya and Uganda are part of the East Africa Power Pool, which is working to expand cross-border electricity trading in eastern Africa.

In our FY22 EAC procurement, we will increasingly look at global standards on attribute tracking systems, technical criteria and market boundary criteria of our renewable energy claims.