A study released by the Environmental Investment Organisation (EIO) in April 2013 shows that most of the world’s largest companies do not report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions fully or correctly and do not have the data independently verified. Based on the latest publicly available data, which for most companies was from 2011, the Environmental Tracking (ET) Global 800 Ranking Report found that only 37% of the world’s 800 largest companies disclosed complete data and correctly adopted the basic principles of emissions reporting. Only 21% had their data externally verified and only one firm, German chemicals producer BASF, reported emissions across its entire value chain – from business travel and transportation to distribution and investments. This transparency enabled BASF to achieve the number one ranking among all companies. In addition to BASF, the best companies at reporting emissions were telecoms firms such as Canada’s BCE, Swisscom, Singapore Telecom, Spain’s Telefonica, BT Group and Deutsche Telekom. The bottom companies, with no publicly disclosed emissions data, consisted mainly of Russian and US utilities and oil and gas companies including Phillips 66, Lukoil, Edison International and First Energy.
The report’s key findings include the following:
BASF came out on top, disclosing 15 Scope 3 Categories, with a combined Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions intensity of 932.74 tCO2e/$M turnover.
US based First Energy came last, with no public data and an inferred combined Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions intensity of 10,342.03 tCO2e/$M turnover.
63% of companies report incomplete data or no data at all, indicating the scale of the GHG reporting challenge.
Europe leads the world on all disclosure metrics: 35% of companies report complete and independently verified data. This compares to 11% for the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), the lowest of any region.
In total, only 21% of the ET Global 800 companies report public, complete and independently verified data, as defined by the ET Global Carbon Ranking Methodology.
Italy and Spain rank joint highest in terms of disclosure and verification with 62% of companies reporting complete data and a further 54% having their data verified.
33% of companies within the ET Global 800 report one or more Scope 3 categories. However, only 2%, report 5 or more Scope 3 categories.
Companies are under increasing pressure from the public and policymakers to report the environmental impacts of their daily business activities. While some companies are starting to measure and disclose environmental performance in their annual reports, the lack of utilizing transparent and internationally accepted standards like ISO 14064-1 and ISO 14021 means that both reporting formats and content vary widely and remain toothless tigers.