Alina Chaparro, Sustainability Focus Leader at engineering firm ACOR Consultants, talks about using ClimateClever on ICN Gateway across 11 sites with different operational needs, and its ability to adapt to various types of businesses and industries.

With 11 sites across the country, and more than 500 staff, Acor Consulting is one of Australia’s largest employee-owned engineering firms. The company leadership has recently been considering the best approach to refine Acor’s commitment to sustainability, looking not only how it delivers on this, but how to make it relevant to its operations. 

That’s where Climate Clever platform comes in. Managing Director, Michael Goodwin heard about the platform when he attended an ICN webinar. According to Alina Chaparro, Acor’s Sustainability Focus Leader, who reviewed several platforms, Climate Clever was convenient for the office-based company. 

“The other ones I have seen were more focused on mining of manufacturing and not really relevant to our operations,” she said.  

Alina appreciated the flexibility of the platform and has found that she has been able to adapt and adjust it to suit Acor’s operations. 

One of the biggest challenges has implementing it over 11 sites.  

“When you enter into the dashboard, you see this total carbon footprint, but I can only see a breakdown if I go into each office,” she said, adding that it has been somewhat time consuming. 

“The good thing is the dashboard, and the platform, is very user friendly. So, although there are things that can improve, it’s easy to highlight them.” 

Alina has established a baseline, identifying primary and secondary data, as well as gaps. But she admits some of the historical data might not be 100 per cent accurate. 

“We have normal offices, and we also have work spaces, and we just pay one bill,” Alina said.  

This means some of the baseline data has had to be averaged over time. And the company has not been able to gather data about such things as water usages, which is paid as part of their leases. 

While Alina has identified some potential actions to take that will reduce Acor’s climate footprint, she wants more data before including them on the Climate Clever dashboard.  

“I am hoping that by the start of the next financial year, we will be able to establish our carbonisation strategy,” she said. 

Meanwhile, she has also designed training for office managers and others that will use Climate Clever as part of their role and is getting positive feedback about the platform. 

Alina said she would recommend Climate Clever to others in their industry that have the systems and resources to support it. 

Find out more about Acor Consulting on the company website.