- What is Carbon Disclosure Project?
- History of CDP
- CDP results and reports
- How CDP works
- Its growing influence
- The influence of CDP on the food and grocery sector
- What is CDP hoping to achieve?
- Your company and CDP

What is Carbon Disclosure Project?

Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an independent not-for-profit organisation holding the largest database of primary corporate climate change information in the world. It aims to inform investors of the risks and opportunities presented by climate change in the corporate world.

CDP works with organisations worldwide to drive transparency in climate data reporting. It relies on funding, donations and sponsorship to continue and expand its global initiative.
 

	Number of companies responding

History of CDP

CDP launched at the turn of the millennium in London. Since the first request for climate change information in 2003, the numbers of companies responding to CDP has grown year-on-year.

Over the years, CDP has grown considerably with the help of an extensive network of partner organisations.
 

CDP results and reports

CDP publishes the responses to its annual survey on how organisations and public sector bodies from around the world are responding to climate change. The reports provide detailed analysis of the information supplied each year to CDP and indicate important trends and developments.
 

How CDP works

On behalf of its institutional investors, CDP seeks information on the business risks and opportunities presented by climate change and greenhouse gas emissions data from the world’s largest companies. Over 2,000 organisations in some 60 countries around the world now measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate change strategies.

These organisations include the largest listed companies in Asia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Scandinavia, South Africa, Switzerland, UK, US, and the Electric Utilities and Transport sectors.
 

Its growing influence

Its fifth report, published in 2007, received answers from 76% of FT500 companies listed globally and a total of 1,449 corporations. CDP has seen a large increase in responses to its questionnaire, with the first request in 2003 receiving responses from only 45% of FT500 companies and 235 corporations. With the increasing number of investors and funding, CDP is becoming a globally recognised organisation.

This significant increase in participation of CDP’s information request shows the growing support for what it is doing within the corporate world. With many food and grocery companies featuring in the FT500, and with about 40% of the food retail sector and around 30% of the manufacturers reporting in 2007 that they have a CO2 reduction programme, it is likely more companies will follow suit.
 

The influence of CDP on the food and grocery sector

In 2009, CDP acts on behalf of 475 institutional investors, holding $55 trillion in assets under management and some 60 purchasing organisations such as Wal-Mart, PepsiCo and Cadbury.

In September 2007, Wal-Mart announced that it would be asking more than 60,000 suppliers to measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions.

Wal-Mart will first run a pilot involving around 30 companies in seven product categories. Jim Stanway, head of Wal-Mart’s global supply chain initiatives has said: ‘our objective here is to find efficiencies in the supply chain. If we remove carbon, which equates to energy, which equates to costs, we fulfil our objective of getting low prices to the customer and having a positive environmental impact.’

The announcement by Wal-Mart is likely to encourage other companies to do the same as well as motivate them to measure and reduce their own emissions as it could give them a competitive edge.

Most recently in 2009, Wal-Mart announced the creation of a sustainability index to bring about a more transparent supply chain. Wal-Mart will be asking its suppliers to answer 15 questions on the sustainable practices of their companies, around four key areas, including Energy and Climate.

Wal-Mart is sending a message to its suppliers of the benefits in measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and has selected CDP as the standard system for suppliers to report through. Of the 15 questions in the index, one will ask suppliers if they respond to CDP.
 

What is CDP hoping to achieve?

As CDP is making its requests and responses from corporations publicly available it is helping drive the activities of policymakers, consultants, accountants and marketers and therefore making businesses more transparent and accountable.

CDP believes that both investors and corporations have a huge role to play in working against the effects of climate change and in driving emissions reductions globally. By encouraging corporations to measure so that they can manage and reduce emissions CDP plays a vital role in highlighting the risks and opportunities presented by climate change.
 

Your company and CDP

To check whether your company is part of a CDP listing use the following links:

View all companies in the CDP Investors sample
View all CDP Supply Chain members that may be customers of your company
View all CDP Public Procurement members that may be customers of your company

	Related Internet Links: Carbon Disclosure Project Information on the Carbon Disclosure Project with links to becoming a signatory investor, member and much more. The CDP reports can be accessed here. Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change A forum for collaboration between pension funds and other institutional investors on issues related to climate change. Carbon Trust Helps business and the public sector cut carbon emissions, and supports the development of low carbon technologies. (IGD is not responsible for the content of external sites)