Tracking the carbon footprint: recordkeeping and global responsibility

In recent years there has been a raft of legislation introduced dealing with the measurement and reporting of the carbon emissions involved in a range of industrial processes and services. This legislation has ranged from the international - the Kyoto Protocol, to the national, including the proposed Clean Energy Futures Plan (the Carbon Tax) to state based legislation. All of this legislation is aimed at providing data to help assess the level of carbon emissions created by a particular organisation and the costs that this may incur. Effective recordkeeping is integral to the success of all these legislative requirements.It is in this context that record-keeping becomes vital to enable appropriate decision-making and support accountability. This paper considers the context for the introduction of such legislation and looks at a range of existing laws and regulations and the place of recordkeeping in meeting the requirements imposed on business. Finally, the paper discusses whether the role and status of record-keeping within organisations may be enhanced by this need to maintain complex manufacturing and production records in order to meet government and societal demands for environmental accountability. Is there an opportunity here to raise the profile and significance of the recordkeeping function as it develops to meet these new challenges?