Main Content

The general steps for preparing an EPR are presented in the flow chart above and highlighted below. These steps are further elaborated in Chapters 1 to 5 in EPD's A Guide to Environmental Reporting for Controlling Officers (hereby referred to as the COER Guide). At the end of each sub-section of this Step-by-Step Guide, a hyperlink to the relevant chapter of the COER Guide is provided for direct referencing. You are highly recommended to make use of the ideas provided in the COER Guide.

The ultimate aim of your EPR is to report on the yearly environmental performance of your department/bureau/organization and to demonstrate how commitments stated in your Environmental Policy have been fulfilled. As there are many ways to prepare your EPR, it will be advantageous to start by pinpointing the most suitable approach for your department/bureau/organization. Factors to consider at this stage include your organization's key objectives of reporting, responsible persons involved, target audiences and their expectations, a suitable report format and style, and the timing for the issuance of the report.

To get started, it is also useful to establish a report production programme to guide the initial planning process. This programme should clearly identify the areas and issues to be reported on, the information to be gathered and prepared, the personnel that will be leading and conducting the tasks, the timeframe allowed, as well as any interim and final, or internal and external, deadlines. A simplified example of a report production programme is presented below:

	Click here to COER Guide Chapter 2 Getting Started for details on Step 1
	Click below for related FAQ(s) from the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
	Q4 - Who would be the readers of my report, what are they concerned with, and how should their concerns be addressed?       Q9 - How should I encourage fellow staff members and the management level to be involved and enthusiastic about reporting?       Q12 - What medium should my department/bureau use for reporting? Paper or electronic or web?       Q13 - When should my department/bureau publish its report?
	Click below for related tip(s) from the "10 Tips for Successful EPRs":
	Tip #4 - Work closely with the Green Manager and/or Green Executives.

At the start of Step 2, you should be well aware of the essential elements that need to be covered by your EPR to satisfy HKSARG reporting requirements. These are stipulated in the ETWB Circular Memorandum No. 1/2007 , discussed in Chapter 3 of the COER Guide and further explored in Section 2 of this Step-by-Step Guide. Once you have identified the essential elements, you can plan the detailed contents. This process is known as "scoping".

Scoping is a very useful step in the report planning process that screens issues for inclusion in your EPR. The output would be a framework that guides you along your report preparation process. To obtain the full benefit of scoping, begin it well before your report needs to be published. You will need time to collect yearly data and report these data to support your performance claims. As such, you may need to establish a data collection mechanism(s) one year prior to reporting so that a complete set of data could be available for the annual EPR.

Scoping your report in light of your Environmental Policy is one of the most effective and efficient ways to demonstrate how your department/bureau/organization has performed to fulfill the environmental commitments as stated in your Environmental Policy. For example, if your Policy has a commitment on energy conservation, your EPR should report on the energy-saving measures that were taken to achieve this and the results of these measures including before-and-after energy consumption levels. Apart from this, it is useful to scope your EPR in light of various stakeholder groups' concerns. This useful step will help you report on issues that your readers are interested in, thereby enhancing dialogue with your stakeholders.

	Chapter 3 of the COER Guide provides ideas to setting up the report framework. Click here to COER Guide Chapter 3 Report Framework and Contents for details on Step 2
	Click here to Step-by-Step Guide Section 2 Essential Elements of an EPR for a closer look into the essential elements of the EPR
	Click below for related FAQ(s) from the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
	Q1 - What must I include in our department/bureau's environmental report?       Q3 - What is the best approach to select the issues for inclusion in the EPR?
	Click below for related tip(s) from the "10 Tips for Successful EPRs":
	Tip #1 - Plan ahead and start by scoping your report.       Tip #2 - Remember the importance of report coherence.       Tip #5 - If possible, integrate the responsibilities and processes for environmental management with environmental reporting within your organization.       Tip #8 - Learn from EPRs produced by comparable organizations, either local or overseas.

Once you have established your Report Framework, next steps involve determining how you will report on your performance for all the issues to be covered in your report and gathering the necessary data and information. Some issues will require qualitative descriptions of your approach and performance against the issue and others will involve measurable performance indicators.

After you have assessed your overall performance, it is time to identify where improvements can be made and where you can set objectives and targets for inclusion in the report.

Once you have gathered all the necessary data and information for your report you are ready to produce your report. Apart from drafting the text, preparing charts and images, and releasing and distributing the EPR, additional tasks may include graphic design, printing, and the production of web and/or pdf versions of your report. Most importantly, you will need to obtain internal approval for the report contents, perhaps at different stages from different levels of management. It may be useful to form an ad-hoc team to put together the EPR, particularly if your organization is large or if reporting issues are complex and involve a variety of units within your organization. This is also a useful way to raise awareness and involve responsible staff in your environmental performance and reporting initiative.

	Chapter 4 of the COER Guide provides ideas to setting up the report framework. Click here to COER Guide Chapter 4 Report Preparation for details on Step 3
	Click here to Step-by-Step Guide Section 3 Preparing a Quality EPR for hints and practical considerations to prepare a good EPR
	Click below for related FAQ(s) from the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
	Q2 - What should I consider when establishing and updating the environmental policy?       Q5 - How should I meaningfully report environmental performance? Is describing the specific environmental initiatives and programmes that are undertaken in the reporting year enough?       Q6 - What indicators would be suitable for my department/bureau to use to measure and report environmental performance?       Q7 - How to determine what reporting timeframe to adopt? Should I produce the report based on the calendar year, the government financial year, or the fiscal year?       Q8 - How should I set objectives and targets in light of the pressure that those set objectives and targets will need to be achieved and will be more difficult to achieve year after year?       Q9 - How should I encourage fellow staff members and the management level to be involved and enthusiastic about reporting?       Q10 - Is there an available environmental report template that I could readily adopt?       Q11 - How do I balance my department/bureau's need to produce a short report (i.e. constraints on report length) while meeting the requirements of the ETWB Circular Memorandum No. 1/2007, the EPD Guidebook and the Benchmark Tool?       Q12 - What medium should my department/bureau use for reporting? Paper or electronic or web?       Q13 - When should my department/bureau publish its report?       Q14 - To whom should I distribute the report? How should this be done and how to determine the number of copies needed?
	Click below for related tip(s) from the "10 Tips for Successful EPRs":
	Tip #2 - Remember the importance of report coherence.       Tip #3 - Coherence between consecutive yearly reports is also important!       Tip #4 - Work closely with the Green Manager and/or Green Executives.       Tip #6 - Review existing environmental data and information to facilitate data collection and reporting.       Tip #7 - When measurement is not feasible, apply common sense and educated estimation to obtain performance level information.       Tip #8 - Learn from EPRs produced by comparable organizations, either local or overseas.

It is good practice to establish follow-up mechanisms to facilitate review for improvement in the next reporting exercise. Possible follow-up actions include collecting feedback on the EPR and evaluating the effectiveness of the EPR.

The target audience's feedback on the EPR is extremely valuable to determine whether or not your EPR is an effective communication tool and to provide you with areas to address to improve your next EPR. Nonetheless, feedback is sometimes difficult to obtain. There are various ways to encourage feedback. Some examples include:

	Encourage feedback from internal parties (e.g. staff members) in addition to external parties (e.g. communities, green groups, academics and other partner government departments, the Sustainable Development Unit of the HKSARG, Legco members, etc.)
	Arrange meetings or telephone interviews with target audience groups or individuals
	Email feedback forms to target audience groups or individuals

	Find ideas in Chapter 5 of the COER Guide. Click here to COER Guide Chapter 5 Possible Follow-ups for details on Step 4
	Click here to Step-by-Step Guide Section 4 Systematic Techniques to Improve your EPR for techniques to systematically evaluate your EPR
	Click here to download EPD's Self-scoring Template to evaluate your EPR
	Click below for related FAQ(s) from the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
	Q15 - How can I encourage readers to provide their comments and feedback on our report?
	Click below for related tip(s) from the "10 Tips for Successful EPRs":
	Tip #8 - Learn from EPRs produced by comparable organizations, either local or overseas.       Tip #9 - Improve the quality of your EPR by benchmarking, and assure its credibility by independent verification.       Tip #10 - Register with international reporting organizations to receive their free monthly updates on sustainability and environmental reporting and relevant issues.
	Click here to Useful Resource Documents, Reference Materials and Links for more information