Custom software for the certificate file of the CO2 Performance Ladder
Before each ladder assessment, you must prepare a demonstrably complete list of all projects for which CO2-related award advantage was obtained. The certifying body draws its sample from that list. A single project that was not recognised as such makes the list incomplete, and with it the assessment becomes awkward.
What the ladder requires of your file
The CO2 Performance Ladder has five levels, and the requirements stem from four perspectives: insight into your own energy flows and emissions, reduction through measures and targets, transparency in internal and external communication, and participation in initiatives with other governments and businesses. Levels one to three concern your own organisation; level four focuses on reduction in the chain and on innovation, and level five on demonstrably achieving ambitious targets, partly in collaboration with others.
From the date of issue the certificate is valid for three years, with an annual ladder assessment no later than twelve months after the initial one. A certifying body assesses and determines the level.
From level three onwards, internet publication is mandatory, and it takes place in two places at once: on the organisation's website and on the organisation's page with the scheme manager. Ongoing availability of the published information is part of the requirement, not a consequence of it.
A project with award advantage is one where the ladder played a role in the tender. It is not relevant whether the advantage was decisive or how the ladder was requested. That is a broader definition than businesses usually apply, and this is precisely where gaps in the list arise. Such a project requires a project file with the justification of the requirements for that specific project.
How we build this
The core is the requirement. Each requirement belongs to a level and a perspective, has an owner and a rhythm, and calls for a piece of evidence that must come from somewhere.
Which requirements apply to your level, who is responsible for them, and what evidence goes with them.
On intake, it is determined whether the ladder played a role in the tender. That decision should be made then, not just before an audit.
Some activities follow an annual cycle and some a half-yearly one, with a margin of at most one month.
The complete project list and the file per requirement are ready at the moment the body asks for them.
What the software actually does
Managing requirements and projects underpins the whole process. What else you need depends on your level and on the number of projects you tender.
Requirements with owners and evidence
For each requirement, who fills it in, which document demonstrates it, and when it is due for updating.
Identifying the award advantage
For every tender won, the question of whether the Ladder played a role, with the answer recorded at the time rather than reconstructed later.
Project file per project
The justification of the requirements for that specific project, including the measures that were committed to.
Half-yearly follow-up tracked
An activity that is due annually and should be completed six months before, with a margin of no more than a month either way.
Publication in two places
What has been published where, and since when. Permanent availability is the requirement, so disappearing content is a problem.
Preparing for assessment
The complete list of award-advantage projects and the evidence per requirement, ready all at once rather than in a last-minute sprint.
Who we build for
Who manages this differs by organisation. Four situations.
KAM coordinators
They carry the file and notice at every assessment that the evidence is scattered across the organisation.
Sustainability managers
They steer on reduction and want the certificate to follow from the work, not the other way round.
Tender teams
They win the tenders in which the Ladder played a role, and are therefore the source of the project list.
Boards of directors
They sign off on the targets and want to know whether the level committed to in the tender is sustainable.
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The handbook is revised, harmonisation decisions are published, and levels shift. Requirements, rhythms and levels should be configurable and not hard-coded.
Why Appfront
The project list is the most vulnerable part
The definition is broader than people think, because whether the advantage was decisive is irrelevant. We ask that question for every award.
Gathering evidence cannot be left until the end
A half-yearly follow-up with a one-month margin cannot be caught up on. We build the rhythm in.
Publishing is not finished after one go
The requirement is permanent availability in two places. A page that goes offline costs you a level.
We do not calculate your footprint
Collecting consumption data and converting it using emission factors is a specialist discipline in its own right. For that we offer CO2 accounting software.
Security and privacy
Your certification file contains tender information: which projects you won, at what value, and what commitments you made. That is commercially sensitive, including within your own organisation. We set access by role and by project, grant an auditor temporary and limited access, and log that access. Integrations run through secure connections to your existing software.
For this subject, the reliability of timing is the crux. A project that is only flagged as an award-advantage project after the sample check, or a measure added to a project file after the fact, undermines exactly what the assessment tests. We record decisions and documents as unalterable, with time and person, and make any correction a visible correction alongside the original entry. How we handle security ourselves is set out in our information security policy.
Frequently asked questions about the CO2 Performance Ladder
Insight into your own energy flows and emissions, reduction through measures and targets, transparency in internal and external communication, and participation in initiatives with other public and private organisations.
Levels one to three cover CO2 management and reduction targets within your own organisation. Level four focuses on reduction across the supply chain and on innovation, and level five on demonstrably achieving ambitious targets, partly in collaboration with others.
When the CO2 Performance Ladder played a role in the tender. Whether the best value criterion was decisive, or in what way the ladder was requested, is not relevant.
From the date of issue, the certificate is valid for three years, with an annual ladder assessment no later than twelve months after the initial assessment.
From level three, in two places: the organisation's website and the organisation's page with the scheme manager. Ongoing availability of that information is part of the requirement.
No. Collecting consumption data and converting it using emission factors is a separate track. We have a dedicated page on CO2 accounting software for that.
Is your list of best value projects complete?
Take the tenders you won last year and determine, for each one, whether the ladder played a role, regardless of whether it was decisive. If a project emerges that was not on the list, your previous list cannot have been demonstrably complete. We build this as a standalone application and as part of a broader custom software project.