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Sustainability Reporting and Tracking

Measure, track, and report on your sustainability performance

Hayden Zammit Meaney avatar
Written by Hayden Zammit Meaney
Updated today

Sustainability Reporting and Tracking

What gets measured gets managed. Tracking your sustainability performance helps you understand your impact, demonstrate progress, and make better decisions. Good reporting builds credibility with stakeholders and keeps you accountable.

Why track and report?

Sustainability reporting offers many benefits:

  • Understand impact — know where you're making a difference

  • Track progress — see improvement over time

  • Make decisions — base choices on data, not guesses

  • Build credibility — back up claims with evidence

  • Meet requirements — satisfy certification and stakeholder needs

  • Motivate action — celebrate wins and identify areas needing attention

What to measure

Focus on metrics that matter for your business:

Environmental metrics

Track your environmental footprint:

  • Energy — kilowatt hours (kWh) used, percentage renewable

  • Emissions — tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e)

  • Water — litres or kilolitres consumed

  • Waste — kilograms produced, diversion rate from landfill

  • Transport — kilometres travelled, fuel used

  • Procurement — percentage from sustainable suppliers

Social metrics

Measure your community impact:

  • Employment — local jobs created, Indigenous employment

  • Training — hours of staff development

  • Community investment — dollars or hours contributed

  • Local procurement — percentage spent locally

  • Partnerships — number and value of community partnerships

People metrics

Track how you treat your team:

  • Wages — compared to living wage

  • Staff satisfaction — from surveys

  • Staff retention — turnover rate

  • Diversity — representation across your team

  • Training — hours per employee

Governance metrics

Measure how you run your business:

  • Policies — sustainability policies in place

  • Compliance — meeting legal requirements

  • Certifications — achieved and maintained

  • Stakeholder engagement — consultation activities

Setting up tracking systems

Step 1: Identify your data sources

Find where your data comes from:

  • Utility bills — electricity, gas, water

  • Financial records — spending by category

  • Operational systems — bookings, occupancy, visitor numbers

  • HR systems — staff data

  • Waste contracts — collection records

  • Vehicle logs — fuel and travel

Step 2: Create a data collection schedule

Decide when to collect data:

  • Daily — energy and water readings (if automated)

  • Monthly — utility bills, waste volumes, vehicle fuel

  • Quarterly — supplier reviews, staff metrics

  • Annually — comprehensive sustainability review

Step 3: Assign responsibility

Decide who collects what:

  • Identify a sustainability champion or team

  • Assign specific metrics to appropriate staff

  • Create simple data collection templates

  • Set reminders for collection dates

Step 4: Choose your tools

Select how to store and analyse data:

  • Tourism for Good — built-in tracking in Launchpad

  • Spreadsheets — simple and flexible

  • Sustainability software — for larger operations

  • Certification platforms — if pursuing certification

Using Tourism for Good for tracking

Launchpad's Tourism for Good hub helps you track progress:

Recording actions

  • Go to Tourism for Good

  • Navigate to Actions

  • Create actions for sustainability initiatives

  • Update status as you progress

  • Record outcomes when complete

Adding evidence

  • Navigate to Evidence

  • Click Add Evidence

  • Select the evidence type

  • Enter relevant details

  • Upload supporting documents

  • Link to related actions

Viewing impact

  • Navigate to Impact

  • See your overall progress

  • View performance by pillar

  • Track trends over time

  • Compare to benchmarks

Creating sustainability reports

Report types

Different reports for different purposes:

  • Internal reports — for your team and management

  • Customer reports — for visitors and guests

  • Stakeholder reports — for investors, partners, community

  • Certification reports — for certification bodies

  • Annual reports — comprehensive yearly summary

Report elements

Include these sections:

  • Overview — your sustainability commitment and approach

  • Performance summary — key metrics and trends

  • Achievements — what you've accomplished

  • Challenges — what's been difficult

  • Goals and targets — what you're working toward

  • Next steps — what's coming

Keeping it simple

For smaller businesses:

  • Focus on a few key metrics

  • Use simple visuals (charts, graphs)

  • Tell stories alongside numbers

  • Keep reports concise

  • Update regularly (even if briefly)

Setting targets

Make your tracking meaningful with targets:

SMART targets

Set targets that are:

  • Specific — clearly defined

  • Measurable — you can track progress

  • Achievable — realistic for your business

  • Relevant — aligned with your priorities

  • Time-bound — with clear deadlines

Example targets

  • Reduce electricity use by 10% by end of financial year

  • Achieve 80% waste diversion from landfill within 12 months

  • Increase local procurement to 50% within 2 years

  • Complete sustainability training for all staff by June

  • Achieve eco-certification within 18 months

Tracking against targets

Monitor progress regularly:

  • Review targets monthly or quarterly

  • Track percentage complete

  • Identify if you're on track

  • Adjust actions if falling behind

  • Celebrate when targets are met

Communicating your performance

With customers

Let visitors know about your sustainability:

  • Share highlights on your website

  • Include information in pre-arrival communications

  • Display achievements at your premises

  • Train staff to talk about your efforts

  • Invite feedback and suggestions

With stakeholders

Report to those with an interest:

  • Share annual sustainability summaries

  • Include sustainability in investor communications

  • Report to certification bodies as required

  • Update community partners on shared initiatives

With industry

Contribute to broader knowledge:

  • Share your journey at industry events

  • Participate in benchmarking studies

  • Contribute to industry sustainability initiatives

  • Mentor other operators

Continuous improvement

Use tracking to get better:

Regular review

  • Review performance monthly or quarterly

  • Identify what's working and what isn't

  • Adjust actions based on results

  • Update targets as you achieve them

Learning from data

  • Look for patterns and trends

  • Investigate unexpected results

  • Share learnings with your team

  • Apply insights to decision-making

Celebrating success

  • Recognise team achievements

  • Share wins with customers

  • Update your Tourism for Good profile

  • Build momentum for further improvement

Common tracking challenges

Lack of data

If you don't have data:

  • Start with what you have

  • Estimate where necessary (document assumptions)

  • Improve data collection over time

  • Focus on a few key metrics first

Staff capacity

If you're stretched:

  • Automate where possible

  • Keep systems simple

  • Build tracking into existing processes

  • Make it everyone's responsibility

Inconsistent measurement

For reliable tracking:

  • Document your methodology

  • Use consistent units and timeframes

  • Train staff on data collection

  • Review data quality regularly

Tracking your progress turns good intentions into real results.

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