ABCL Submission to the Productivity Commission on Business Reporting Requirements

The Australian Beverages Council has made a submission to the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into improving non-financial business reporting requirements.

The ABCL supports credible sustainability and environmental reporting that informs decisions and improves environmental outcomes. The submission emphasises that reporting should be proportionate, internationally aligned and make effective use of information businesses already collect. It also notes that Scope 3 emissions reporting is particularly demanding, because it relies on supplier information, estimates and emissions factors that are often outside a business’s direct control.

The ABCL recommends keeping Scope 3 disclosure while deferring reasonable assurance requirements until data availability, methodologies and market capability are sufficiently mature. To support consistent reporting and reduce demands on suppliers, the submission calls for a government-maintained repository of emissions factors, clearer guidance on materiality and the “undue cost or effort” principle, and optional supply-chain templates aligned with international methods.

The submission also calls for environmental reporting periods to be aligned with financial years where practical, with clear reconciliation methods where they can’t be. In addition, the ABCL supports a “tell us once” approach, under which authorised government bodies would securely share and reuse common environmental data. This would reduce duplication for manufacturers and their supply chains and let them put more resources into improving data quality and environmental performance.

ABCL Submission to Productivity Commission on Business Reporting Requirments