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Video - Companies Combating Climate Change (CDP Report)

October 25, 2014 Add Comment Edit

In this video, Lord Adair Turner, Former Chairman of the Financial Services Authority, James Bevan, Chief Investment Officer at CCLA and Paul Simpson talk about the CDP report which ranks companies in terms of their climate performance. This report comes on the heels of Standard & Poor's Ratings Services which stated that climate change will hit countries' economic growth rates and public finances. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson recently said that climate change is, "the single biggest risk that exists to the economy today."

The IPCC has also indicated that we are a mere 30 years away from exhausting our carbon budget. The current emissions trajectory is dangerously unsustainable. To address the crisis we face both businesses and governments need to substantially raise their carbon reduction efforts.

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The Best and the Worst Climate Performers (CDP)
Climate Action Enhances Profit by 9.6% (2014 CDP Report)
Sustainability is Profitable According to the CDP's 2014 Climate Change Report
CDP Studies: Growth of Sustainability and Profitability
CDP Report Shows Sustainability Offers a Competitive Advantage & Better ROI
Corporate America is Benefiting from Taking Action on Climate Change
CDP Climate Disclosure Leaders List 2014
CDP Climate Performance Leaders List 2014
CDP Global 500 Climate Disclosure Leadership Index 2013
CDP Global 500 Climate Performance Leadership Index 2013
CDP Global Climate Change Leaders 2013: Top 12 Companies According to Both CPLI and CDLI
The CDP's 2013 Top Fourteen US Companies (Disclosure and Performance)
CDP Studies: Growth of Sustainability and Profitability
The Low Carbon Business Opportunity
US Firms are Improving but they are Being Outperformed on Sustainability
Top Ten Companies in the 2012 Carbon Disclosure Project Report
CDP Report Shows a Growing Number of Companies See the Risks Posed by Climate Change
CDP Identifies Germany as the Global Sustainability Leader
CDP Report Shows a Growing Number of Companies are Embracing Sustainability

The Best and the Worst Climate Performers (CDP)

October 22, 2014 Add Comment Edit

In addition to ranking corporate leaders, the most recent CDP report lists the leading sectors in terms of climate performance. It reviews regional and national climate leaders and laggards. The report also singled out a few large corporations which refused to disclose their climate performance data. Performance leaders are those who received an "A" grade in the report.

According to the CDP, the sectors most represented in the 2014 Climate Performance Leaders Index are Information Technology, Financials, Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary and Industrials. Together these four sectors constitute 86 percent of the A list index.

According to the CDP's climate performance list, almost half of the leaders are based in Europe, with a further third located in either the US or Japan. More than a quarter of the Spanish and Belgian companies that took part in CDP’s climate change program were awarded an A rating. Other nations that performed well are Portugal, the Netherlands and South Korea.

By contrast, the laggards on climate performance are Canada, Switzerland, Australia and China.

Of those corporations that failed to disclose vital climate change data, the three largest in terms of market capitalization are Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon and Comcast.

© 2014, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Related
Video - Companies Combating Climate Change (CDP Report)
Climate Action Enhances Profit by 9.6% (2014 CDP Report)
Sustainability is Profitable According to the CDP's 2014 Climate Change Report
CDP Studies: Growth of Sustainability and Profitability
CDP Report Shows Sustainability Offers a Competitive Advantage & Better ROI
Corporate America is Benefiting from Taking Action on Climate Change
CDP Climate Disclosure Leaders List 2014
CDP Climate Performance Leaders List 2014
CDP Global 500 Climate Disclosure Leadership Index 2013
CDP Global 500 Climate Performance Leadership Index 2013
CDP Global Climate Change Leaders 2013: Top 12 Companies According to Both CPLI and CDLI
The CDP's 2013 Top Fourteen US Companies (Disclosure and Performance)
CDP Studies: Growth of Sustainability and Profitability
The Low Carbon Business Opportunity
US Firms are Improving but they are Being Outperformed on Sustainability
Top Ten Companies in the 2012 Carbon Disclosure Project Report
CDP Report Shows a Growing Number of Companies See the Risks Posed by Climate Change
CDP Identifies Germany as the Global Sustainability Leader
CDP Report Shows a Growing Number of Companies are Embracing Sustainability

Climate Action Enhances Profit by 9.6% (2014 CDP Report)

October 20, 2014 Add Comment Edit

Engaging climate change is becoming almost synonymous with profitability. According to a new study, the more a company does to address climate change the more it appears to profit. This is a solid refutation of the conservative line the we simply cannot afford to manage climate change. It flies in the face of the false argument that we must chose between combating climate change and economic growth.

Companies from Apple to Zurich are showing climate leadership is not only a corporate responsibility it is also spawns a bevy of bottom line benefits. According to new research from CDP, companies that assume the responsibility to engage climate change outperform their peers. In fact, in the period between 2010 and 2014, companies that showed leadership through action to mitigate climate change outperformed the Bloomberg World Index by 9.6 percent.

From a total of 1,971 companies a total of 187 earned a top grade and ended up on the CDP index. Together these companies have reduced their carbon emissions by 33 million tons in the last year alone. The A List represents just 9 percent of almost 2000 companies assessed but they account for $23 billion of the annual investment to reduce carbon emissions. The complete list of 1,971 companies invested $50 billion in carbon reduction.

The CDP says that these companies will yield win-win results; apply a business lens to climate change; raise the bar on investment; and shift away from short-termism.

This is the finding in The A List: The CDP Climate Performance Leadership Index 2014 (CPLI).

"The unprecedented environmental challenges that we confront today – reducing greenhouse gas emissions, safeguarding water resources and preventing the destruction of forests – are also economic problems," says Paul Simpson, chief executive of CDP. "One irrefutable fact is filtering through to companies and investors: the bottom line is at risk from environmental crisis."

© 2014, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Related
Sustainability is Profitable According to the CDP's 2014 Climate Change Report
CDP Studies: Growth of Sustainability and Profitability
CDP Report Shows Sustainability Offers a Competitive Advantage & Better ROI
Corporate America is Benefiting from Taking Action on Climate Change
CDP Climate Disclosure Leaders List 2014
CDP Climate Performance Leaders List 2014
CDP Global 500 Climate Disclosure Leadership Index 2013
CDP Global 500 Climate Performance Leadership Index 2013
CDP Global Climate Change Leaders 2013: Top 12 Companies According to Both CPLI and CDLI
The CDP's 2013 Top Fourteen US Companies (Disclosure and Performance)
CDP Studies: Growth of Sustainability and Profitability
The Low Carbon Business Opportunity
US Firms are Improving but they are Being Outperformed on Sustainability
Top Ten Companies in the 2012 Carbon Disclosure Project Report
CDP Report Shows a Growing Number of Companies See the Risks Posed by Climate Change
CDP Identifies Germany as the Global Sustainability Leader
CDP Report Shows a Growing Number of Companies are Embracing Sustainability
CDP Report Shows Sustainability Offers a Competitive Advantage & Better ROI
Corporate America is Benefiting from Taking Action on Climate Change

Sustainability is Profitable According to the CDP's 2014 Climate Change Report

September 30, 2014 Add Comment Edit

Some interesting insights came to light in the 2014 version of the annual CDP S&P 500 Climate Change Report. Overall the report suggests that companies in the S&P 500 are actively managing and planning for climate-change and the companies that do so are more profitable. The report indicates that for companies that are addressing climate change the return on equity was 18 percent higher than their peers and 67 percent higher than companies who do not disclose on climate change. The dividend yield for shareholders was 21 percent stronger then low ranking peers.

Further their results indicate that such efforts make them more stable with 50 percent lower volatility earnings over the past decade than low ranking peers.

As explained in the report, "Investors should take note that the debate has squarely moved from the moral to the material and should reward climate leaders with higher valuation multiples."

In addition to making some global observations, the report ranks companies based on their climate related disclosures to investors. Two indices are included in this report. the Climate Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI) — a measure of a company’s transparency — and the Climate Performance Leadership Index (CPLI), a measure based on the transparency of the company’s actions to address climate change.

Bank of America, Cisco, General Motors and HP are among the eight leading S&P 500 companies in carbon-reduction efforts and disclosure. These companies along with Autodesk, BNY Mellon, Pepco Holdings and Spectra Energy, all earned an A grade for their actions to reduce climate change and the highest possible disclosure score, 100 out of 100 points.

To access the full report click here (PDF)

© 2014, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Related
Video - Companies Combating Climate Change (CDP Report)
The Best and the Worst Climate Performers (CDP)
Climate Action Enhances Profit by 9.6% (2014 CDP Report)
CDP Studies: Growth of Sustainability and Profitability
CDP Report Shows Sustainability Offers a Competitive Advantage & Better ROI
Corporate America is Benefiting from Taking Action on Climate Change
CDP Climate Disclosure Leaders List 2014
CDP Climate Performance Leaders List 2014
CDP Global 500 Climate Disclosure Leadership Index 2013
CDP Global 500 Climate Performance Leadership Index 2013
CDP Global Climate Change Leaders 2013: Top 12 Companies According to Both CPLI and CDLI
The CDP's 2013 Top Fourteen US Companies (Disclosure and Performance)
CDP Studies: Growth of Sustainability and Profitability
The Low Carbon Business Opportunity
US Firms are Improving but they are Being Outperformed on Sustainability
Top Ten Companies in the 2012 Carbon Disclosure Project Report
CDP Report Shows a Growing Number of Companies See the Risks Posed by Climate Change
CDP Identifies Germany as the Global Sustainability Leader
CDP Report Shows a Growing Number of Companies are Embracing Sustainability

CDP Climate Disclosure Leaders List 2014

September 30, 2014 Add Comment Edit

CDP Climate Performance Leaders List 2014

September 30, 2014 Add Comment Edit

Burgeoning Consumer Awareness Driving Corporate Sustainability

January 29, 2013 Add Comment Edit

Consumers growing environmental awareness will continue to drive sustainability in 2013 and beyond. The American economy appears to be inching slowly in a positive direction and a spate of extreme weather events over the last couple of years is contributing to consumer's burgeoning environmental awareness. Increasingly consumers are looking beyond the barcode to help them make their purchasing decisions. Businesses need to respond to consumer demand to gain customers and avoid losing their market share. Here is a succinct summary of salient sustainability trends for 2013:

A short time ago consumers carbon footprints meant nothing to consumers. Now many consumers not only understand the concept of environmental impacts they are demanding that businesses act to make their operations more sustainable. Consumers can increasingly be expected to seek out products and services with smaller footprints. This can include everything from manufacturing to packaging.

Consumers and investors want environmental impact information, they expect to see annual sustainability impact reports. Some stock exchanges already require sustainability metrics.

Buyers are increasingly asking suppliers to measure their environmental impacts and carbon emissions in their value chain. In many cases failure to provide such information, or performing poorly can undermine these business relationships.

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Sustainability is an Economic Imperative: The 2012 CK Prahalad Award Winners (Video)

January 05, 2013 Add Comment Edit

See how the 2012 winners of CK Prahalad award are weaving sustainability into their business models and flourishing in the process. Companies like Unilever and Sustainable Apparel Coalition are leading the way and showing that the business case for sustainability is undeniable. As explained in this video sustainability is an imperative for all companies. The questions that must be asked is how can you have a business model that continues to take away from future generations? Any company that does not pay attention to its environmental interface is doing so at its own peril. The companies in this video prove that commitments to sustainability initiatives pay off while the failure to engage sustainability poses a very serious risk.

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Bridging the Gap: A Financial Approach to Sustainability (White Paper)

July 18, 2012 Add Comment Edit

"Do good and you will do well!" pundits and companies often assert. While the tagline sounds great, the reality is that many companies struggle to connect sustainability with core business goals such as increasing sales, reducing costs, or reducing risks. As a result, sustainability departments are often seen as tangential to the core business, and annual CSR reports are mostly filled with anecdotal feel good stories. More often than not, environmental impacts, costs, and risks are mostly hidden and do not show up in companies' main accounting systems. As long as a CFO or Procurement Officer does not have visibility on such costs and risks in financial terms, the environment will at best remain a Chief Sustainability Officer issue.

The good news is that change is underway, mostly driven by buyers recognizing their own costs and risks from environmental impacts and asking their suppliers to be a part of reduction efforts, as seen in recent efforts by large retailers and organizations like the US Department of Defense.

Download the new white paper from Enviance to learn how a Fortune 100 company is responding to buyer pressure and effectively connecting sustainability and profitability, with a rigorous accounting of sustainability impacts, costs, and risks. You will also learn about the 4 KEY STEPS to make sustainability departments integrated partsof core business operations.

To download the white paper click here.

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Highlights of the Opportunity Green Conference 2011

December 11, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Opportunity Green is an annual business conference in Los Angeles and according to organizers, the November 2011 edition was the best conference yet. It was the "gathering place" for individuals and companies committed to building profitable and sustainable enterprises while solving some of the world's toughest problems. The conference reviewed new trends, critical knowledge and winning partnerships for a world where profits, people and the environment are truly interconnected.

Opportunity Green gave big companies, small startups, and environmental nonprofits the chance to discuss things like energy efficiency and supply chains.

Some of the world's leading sustainable brands were in attendance including companies like Starbucks and Nike. Here is a summary of some interesting developments in sustainability reviewed at the conference.

The industrial paper company Domtar is talking about its Earth Choice line. Brand manger Louis Fix says his clients want clear-cut tools to reduce paper use, energy bills or carbon emissions, and firm data to count that savings. He says everyday shoppers may be confused about what's truly green or not, but global corporations can't afford to be. According to Fix, the business side of things is at a more advanced stage than the consumers are. Companies want to get out ahead of environmental issues, and maybe even cut some costs in the process.

As head of the World Resources Institute Manish Bapna works with business leaders. Bapna indicated that we are increasingly seeing many businesses look at sustainability in terms of profit and in terms of opportunities for new markets or innovation. This is a profound business shift.

Karen Solomon founded the Opportunity Green conference five years ago. She calls corporations the driver for change. According to Solomon businesses are acting in the absence of policy.

Bapna says that although companies are getting involved with efficiency initiatives and waste reduction, its nowhere near enough. We need to see reductions of greenhouse gas emissions on the scale of 80 to 90 percent in the next few decades. We need to see government policy that offers businesses long-term certainty. Bapna notes that some big corporations have started to lobby for climate change regulation. Because now that they've started down the road of sustainability on their own, they need better maps to see where they're going.

Opportunity Green is working feverishly to upload pictures, press articles, interviews and video from OG11. Everything from the inspiring speeches by Yves Behar of fuseproject to Gaylon White displaying the world-changing HydroPack to the 3rd Annual OG25 Innovative Start-Up fast pitch competition, to the amazing evening under the glow of Downtown Los Angeles’ skyline at the Taste of LA After Party.

Follow Opportunity Green on facebook and twitter to be instantly updated, and share your comments.

For photos, videos and more information click here.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Cooperation Between Environmental Organizations and Businesses

April 14, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Increasingly we are seeing cooperation between environmental organizations and businesses. All around the world, grassroots environmental organizations are teaming up with corporations in the service of the environment.

Environmental organizations have commonly pressured corporations to change. Greenpeace's widely publicized campaigns against unsustainable companies are some of the best known examples.

Other environmental campaigns are less adversarial and more inclusive. There are many strong partnerships were the business community is working alongside environmmental groups. For example, Xerox has partnered with The Nature Conservancy to promote sustainable forestry, preserve biodiversity and help minimize forest loss and degradation that contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.

Strong partnerships are forming where non-profits are putting their expertise to work guiding businesses. Some of the most productive partnerships involve information sharing between environmental groups and companies. Greenpeace has partnered with companies like Cisco and Google, Carbon Trust has put out a Green Guide for SMEs and the WWF-UK has launched its Green Game-Changers initiative for Business. The WWF is involved in training business executives for sustainability through its Sustainability Training Program. The WWF has partnered with the IMD to create a Sustainable Business Program. The WWF also provides training to business leaders through its One Planet Leaders Program The Environmental Defense Fund has the comprehensive Innovation Exchange and Ceres has been integrating sustainability into capital markets for more than 20 years.

Other campaigns work with companies to foster change from within the business community. For example, 350.org's "The US Chamber of Commerce Doesn't Speak For Me," campaign.

Various professional and development organizations support sustainable businesses. The B Corporation, certifies businesses as change agents, The ISSP, International Society of Sustainability Professionals, promotes professional development, as well as providing networking and sharing of best practices.

Although the EPA is a government organization, the public - Private cooperation that fuels its Green Power Partnership program has yielded impressive results.

Cooperation between businesses and environmental organizations is helping to produce a greener world. These partnerships illustrate that capitalism and environmentalism can converge in ways that benefit the planet.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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