NEW YORK ? The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a London-based nonprofit organization that tracks carbon dioxide emissions generated by industry and by nation, has persuaded some U.S. companies to change their energy practices and submit to a central clearinghouse detailed reports of their emissions, The New York Times reports.
The voluntary project is persuading energy practice change well before many governments step in to regulate emissions. Indeed, as evidenced in Copenhagen earlier this month, a global pact is not imminent, and many company executives say that voluntary programs like the CDP is one of the best ways to implement change while encouraging investment.
?With the regulatory framework changing, how companies handle carbon is a core risk factor,? said Jack Ehnes, chief executive of CalSTRS, the California teachers? pension fund. ?Smart companies will take CDP information and realign their strategies.?
Mary Armstrong, Boeing?s vice president for environment, health and safety, said her company began filling out the CDP forms in 2007.
?The questions take you through and say, ?Do you have environmental performance targets?? We didn?t, but now we do,? Armstrong said. The companies? individual responses are posted at the project?s Web site.
Paul Dickinson, CDP?s founder and chief executive, said that his group is not a substitute for government regulation, but rather a path toward curbing emissions.
Critics of CDP argue that the emissions figures do not pas through external audits, unlike the financial figures for public companies. Additionally, they say that it has no influence over polluting companies that refuse to take part. Nonetheless, 2,500 companies completed at least part of the project?s questionnaire last year.
In the United States, CDP almost solely targeted companies in the S&P?s 500-stock index, and received roughly 330 filled out forms.
Overall, the project has response rates of at least 60 percent for most industry sectors in the United States, though it has higher rates for utilities and materials companies.
Rob Bernard, chief environmental strategist for Microsoft, said that the impact of the reports is growing.
?With each year we are able to compare performance on greenhouse gas information with new levels of granularity,? Bernard said. ?Now we just have to hope that more people read it and care.?
NACS first reported on the Carbon Disclosure Project in January 2008.
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