Friday 19 August 2011

Carbon Clear Report: Britain’s biggest companies get to grips with carbon reporting

A report published by Carbon Clear shows that most companies in the FTSE 100 are now regularly reporting on their greenhouse gas emissions and showing evidence of carbon footprint  reductions.

The research shows that 93 of the 100 companies had issued a 2010 carbon footprint report by June 2011, and that 44 companies publish carbon data for at least the past 5 years. An impressive 77 companies report carbon reductions in relative or absolute terms over the previous 12 months.

The researchers scored publically available information from each company against 33 reporting criteria. There was a significant range in scores, from the highest score of 97% to the lowest score of just 12%.

The top 10 performers were British Sky Broadcasting, Marks & Spencer Group, Aviva, Pearson, RSA Insurance Group, GSK, Hammerson, Kingfisher, Sainsbury and Tesco. The Supermarket and Publishing sectors in the FTSE100 are best performers, with the Manufacturing, Mining & Metals and Building Materials sectors coming bottom of the league table.

While most companies seem to be making significant progress reporting their carbon impacts, there
were some noticeable exceptions. 16 companies were unable to report any historical emission reductions
and are yet to publish any plans or targets for achieving future reductions.

The research showed that of the 20 companies that offset their emissioons, 85% also report internal carbon reductions. A total of 6 companies are carbon neutral, but none yet to the new PAS 2060 standard for carbon neutrality.

Mark Chadwick, CEO of Carbon Clear, said “Our analysis identified obvious areas of best practice, and others that fell short. To those companies not yet providing accurate carbon data and reduction plans, I’d urge
them reflect on how they can improve their carbon reporting. Frankly, poor carbon reporting not only
presents a clear commercial risk, but misses an opportunity to capture real business benefits through
reduced resource consumption and better interaction with stakeholders.”

The full report can be accessed here.

(Back to the Carbon Clear website)