Home
Climate Change
C02 Emissions Compare Global
News
RSS feed
Carbon Footprint information
Carbon Calculator
How to reduce your Footprint
Carbon Offsetting -
Surveys
How to save Energy & Money
Government CO2 Targets
Planning Legislation in UK
Company League tables
on C02 emissions -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Energy saving products
Forum
Product Forum -
Recycling
Fun Stuff
Carbon Disclosure Project
Carbon Trust
Defra
Useful links
Contact Us
SITE MENU
-
by James Bruges
Recent articles
-
-
-
-
™
Carbon
Calculator
Fun
Stuff
News
Products
League Tables
Forum
Choose Country
Water (H20) is our 20th Century fuel -
About
Trucost Plc is an environmental research organisation that was established to help companies and investors understand the environmental impacts of business activities. Trucost provides data and analysis on company emissions and natural resource usage and presents these in financial as well as quantity terms, providing the basis for an improved dialogue between companies, investors and other stakeholders.
The external cost methodology employed by Trucost outlines a company's environmental impacts in order of significance, enabling directors and auditors to focus their efforts on those impacts that are likely to be material to the business. This also forms a transparent process by which a company and its auditors can assess whether it should make a public disclosure, for example under the EU Accounts Modernisation Directive.
Fund managers and analysts increasingly need to know how environmental issues may
have a financially material impact on companies' future earnings and make comparisons
between companies in a given sector. Yet their ability to accurately assess this
is currently constrained by the lack of consistent or comprehensive environmental
data disclosure by companies. Trucost's comprehensive coverage ensures that all companies
in an index are included, not just those that disclose environmental information.
Trucost provides data and analysis on over 4,000 companies worldwide, including complete
coverage of the FTSE All-
Carbon Disclosure Project Report
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is a global initiative to inform investors of the risks and opportunities presented by climate change, and to inform company management of their shareholders’ views on the issue. Investors that are signatories to the project represented over $41 trillion of assets under management in 2007, the fifth year of the CDP (CDP5). The number of companies surveyed extended from 2,100 in 2006 (CDP4) to 2,400 companies worldwide this year. The climate change questionnaire was revised for CDP5 to encourage more comparable quantitative reporting of emissions data in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol reporting standard. The scope of questions was also expanded, notably to cover energy usage.
Response rates among FTSE 350 companies increased dramatically from 49% in 2006 to 70% in CDP5. Although 92% of FTSE 100 companies answered the CDP5 questionnaire, the improvement was largely driven by a tremendous increase in responses from FTSE 250 companies from 36% in CDP4 to 61% in 2007. The improved response rate indicates increased recognition of the business implications of climate change and the cumulative effect of the CDP. However, an increase in the number of companies which refused to allow their responses to be disclosed publicly raises questions about their willingness to improve transparency to all stakeholders.
Levels of disclosure varied among the 245 companies which answered the CDP5 questionnaire. While many discussed key issues such as risks and opportunities, carbon reduction targets and strategies, only 45 of those companies listed (excluding Investment Trusts) provided externally verified/audited data to CDP5.
Source :Carbon Disclosure Project /Trucost© Plc
To find out more about the CDP & Trucost Plc, you can visit them here
Carbon Disclosure Project
Trucost© plc
Many of the Uks companies have taken part in the recent CDP5, but only 45 of those had their figures independently verified by external sources.
Some businesses took part but refused to make their data publicly available, questioning the transparency of those companies involved.
“ Some companies may have refused permission for their CDP5 disclosure to be made public to avoid drawing attention to issues such as rising electricity costs. On GHG emissions, Truscost used its database of public disclosure to compare CDP disclosure with other emissions disclosures that are in the public domain. Interestingly, a number of the companies that declined permission for their CDP disclosure to be publicised have placed emissions data in the public domain in documents such as Annual Reports and Accounts or other Corporate Social Responsibility/ Environmental reports. Even more importantly, Trucost observed that, where this had occurred, there were frequently discrepancies between the emissions disclosed privately to the CDP and those that had already been disclosed elsewhere. Sometimes this was due to companies reporting to different standards other than the GHG Protocol in other documents but elsewhere these discrepancies were more difficult to understand”
Source : Trucost plc ‘Analysis of FTSE 350 responses’
Copyright © 2007 -