UK companies report only fitfully on their climate change impacts and
need to introduce more rigour into their disclosure, says a new
analysis of some of the best sustainability reporters.
A study
of entrants to the 2006 UK Sustainability Reporting Awards found
pockets of good practice in climate change reporting, but said that
most documentation was ‘variable or limited’ in quality and none of the
companies in question disclosed information of a consistently high
standard on key criteria.
The study, which looked at reporting
by the 42 entrants considered to have a high or medium impact on
climate change, was conducted by FTSE and Ethical Investment Research
Services. There were 87 entrants in all.
David Aeron-Thomas,
head of metrics at Forum for the Future, who was on the five-strong
panel that assessed the reports, said companies needed to improve if
they were to satisfy stakeholders that they are taking the issue
seriously.
‘Overall there were some excellent examples of how
to report well, but we found no single organization that covered all
the ground,’ he said.
Aeron-Thomas said the researchers were
concerned that one in five companies published no absolute data on
climate change, that less than a quarter disclosed both short- and
long-term emissions reductions targets, and that about a third
published information without explaining it.
He urged more
companies to follow the example of National Grid, which has a clear
target of a 60 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, and of
Transport for London, which puts its figures in the context of the
capital’s total emissions.
Half of the 42 publicly expressed
support for the scientific evidence on climate change, with good
examples being Shell and BAA.
Only one in 20 provided a
breakdown of emissions from their various activities, with Centrica,
which publishes emissions data for all its production and generation
sites, singled out as an example for others to follow.
Just over half of the reports assured by a third party specifically mentioned climate change in the assurance statement.
Many
of the criteria examined by FTSE and Eiris are among new climate change
standards to be applied to companies eligible for inclusion in the
FTSE4Good index (EP8, issue 10).
Of the 250 companies listed by FTSE as being affected by the criteria,
fewer than 50 are thought to be meeting the standards at present.
