By Anastassia Johnson - 12 October 2012

In June 2012 the UK Government announced its decision to introduce mandatory carbon reporting for large companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. This regulation is expected to affect about 1,800 companies. They will have to report their carbon emissions publicly from April next year. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) website also states that in 2016 the Government will review the regulations and decide whether to extend the mandatory reporting to include all large companies.

The mandatory carbon reporting is expected to introduce a standard measure and greater transparency in corporate environmental reporting and enable comparison of companies' performance.

Increasingly there is pressure on companies to measure and manage their carbon footprint - even if they are not directly affected by the mandatory legislation - and many companies have responded to this. The UK Environment Agency study on environmental disclosures found that 62% of FTSE-All Share companies reported data on climate change and energy use in the years 2009 and 2010 compared to 29% in 2006. The Carbon Disclosure Project, which collects information on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy use from thousands of the world's largest companies, sees a similar trend with an increasing number of companies reporting their GHG emissions.

We can help companies with their carbon and environmental footprinting, whatever their size. Our environmental specialists can provide help and advice on:

• collecting the required information across operations, including energy use, fuel use, refrigerants and other emissions sources
• standardise the data to make it comparable across all facilities
• validate the data eliminating possible errors in data collection and
• apply appropriate conversion factors to calculate a company's carbon footprint

If you are looking to investigate or extend your know-how on carbon footprinting, we would be keen to hear from you.