Toronto / Montreal – Many major Canadian corporations are integrating climate change into their business strategies even though there is no regulatory requirement to do so, according to new findings published on October 12 by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Accenture.
The CDP Canada 200 Report 2011 shows 75 per cent of responding companies are already integrating climate change into their business strategies, with 54 per cent now providing products and services to help third parties reduce greenhouse gas emissions, up from 47 per cent in 2010, and 34 per cent in 2009.
The move to incorporate climate change into business strategy is driven in part by recognition of the resulting commercial opportunities. For example, many of Canada’s top corporations see opportunities related to potential climate change regulation, such as cap-and-trade programs.
“Understanding the opportunities that lie ahead in a carbon-reduced economy will bring considerable value to those that have the fore-sight to make this goal a priority today,” said Zoe Tcholak-Antitch, Director, CDP North America. “This report provides a window into how the largest public companies in Canada are managing carbon and addressing climate change.”
The study indicates that companies see three key climate-related risk factors for corporations in Canada: changes in regulation; changes in physical climate; and other climate-related developments.
Of these, risks in climate regulation were identified as being most significant to 65 per cent of the Canadian companies which responded, with companies in the energy sector most concerned. Even so, most respondent companies said these regulatory risks would cause only low to medium increases in their operational costs. Companies in Canada’s mining sector balanced their concern about increased operational costs associated with a cap-and-trade regime with optimism that selling carbon credits could become an additional revenue stream in the future.
Each year, CDP requests information from 200 of the largest corporations in Canada by market capitalization. In 2011, this request was sent on behalf of 551 institutional investors with more than US $ 71 trillion in assets. CDP teamed with Accenture for the preparation of the 2011 Canada 200 Report, for which Accenture analyzed company responses and served as the report writer. Accenture considered results from 108 Canadian corporate respondents related to carbon-related governance, strategy and initiatives, targets, communications, risks and opportunities and emissions. This year saw the highest number of Canadian company respondents yet at 54 per cent up from 46 per cent (92 companies) in 2010.
“Canada’s largest businesses have begun to seize the opportunities that addressing climate change can offer. It demonstrates that the CDP process enables the business community to go beyond compliance and put sustainable business models at the heart of their commercial strategies,” said Michael Denham, Managing Director of Management Consulting for Accenture in Canada. “As a global partner of the Carbon Disclosure Project, Accenture is proud to help accelerate solutions to climate change by working to develop the most comprehensive disclosure processes, for the largest database of primary corporate climate change information in the world.”
For the first time, the companies in the Canada 200 Report are also ranked according to the quality and comprehensiveness of their disclosure to CDP. The leading 10 per cent of companies by carbon disclosure score are recognized in the 2011 Canada 200 Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI) as follows:
About CDP
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an independent not-for-profit organization holding the largest database of primary corporate climate change and water information in the world. Some 3,000 organisations across the world’s largest economies now measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, water usage and assessment of climate change and water risk and opportunity through CDP, in order that they can set reduction targets and make performance improvements. This data is gathered on behalf of institutional investors, purchasing organisations and government bodies and made available for integration into business and policy decision making. For more information, visit www.cdproject.net.
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 236,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US $ 25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011. For more information, visit www.accenture.com.
Source: Accenture.
