Mighty trees and green shoots

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On another beautiful spring day in Sweden, with growth literally buzzing in the air, it’s easy to understand why I’m reminded of the saying, ‘Mighty oaks from little acorns grow’. The summer marks the end of the “reporting cycle”, an important season at my organisation, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Acting on behalf of investors representing US$78 trillion, we provide a global system for companies across the world’s major economies to measure and communicate their greenhouse gas emissions and assessment of water and climate change risk and opportunity. Eleven years after its conception the CDP seed has grown to a substantial tree, which is now bearing fruit: we hold the largest collection globally of self-reported climate change data. Last year over 3,700 organisations disclosed their climate change information through our platform. This fruit goes on to feed decision-making across the business, investment and political communities. A recent study by Harvard Business School found that CDP data points are downloaded through Bloomberg terminals approximately 1 million times every 6 weeks*. Through our work with supply chains we see that companies worldwide are shifting their operating models, most frequently in procurement, in recognition of the carbon management imperative. By engaging with their suppliers through CDP, these companies are unlocking the business benefits of efficient climate change strategies. Over a third of the major corporations that we analysed as part of our most recent supply chain global report have benefited from new revenue streams or financial savings as a result of their suppliers’ carbon reduction activities. The majority of the companies that are members of our supply chain programme place carbon management within their procurement policies, and the proportion of companies claiming they will deselect suppliers on environmental grounds within five years has more than doubled in the space of a year. In late summer we will collect CDP’s 2012 harvest by drawing on the new batch of corporate disclosures through CDP. We will share this feast to inform and inspire action on climate change. Although there is much more to be done, we will also celebrate the hard work that is going on in corporations all over the Nordic region to achieve the shift to a low-carbon economy. Collaboration is important to the CDP: Caring for Climate, a joint initiative between the United Nations Global Compact and the United Nations Environment Programme, recommended the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) as a reporting framework for its signatory companies in reporting guidance issued at the beginning of May; we also collaborate with the UN PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment), and the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) with which we work to ease the reporting burden for companies. With decreasing media coverage of climate change and governments seemingly more focussed on the precarious state of the European economy, it may seem that climate change has been placed firmly on the backburner. For some, this is the case but the fecundity of CDP’s activities suggests this is not a universal truth. Those that drag their feet on climate change action will have to work hard to remain competitive as we head towards an increasingly resourced constrained, low carbon economy. [Footnote]* Based on November 2010 – April 2011 data from Eccles, Robert G. and Serafeim, George, Harvard Business School, and Krzus, Michael P. and Mike Krzus Consulting, Market interest in nonfinancial information, published in Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Volume 23 Number 4 (autumn 2011). Skrivet av Amanda Haworth Wiklund på Hagainitiativets blogg.