Carbon reporting: ignore it at your peril

The slow train towards mandatory carbon reporting is building a head of steam with the publication of a new ranking system for the top 100 UK companies according to their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

With the introduction of compulsory carbon emissions reporting just round the corner – expected to be introduced by 6 April 2012 – corporate finance departments are increasingly responding to the call.

The Environmental Investment Organisation’s (EIO) newly published rankings shine a light on the reporting, disclosure and verification of carbon reduction data, but more importantly will eventually lead towards a series of investible indexes based upon these rankings.

The ET UK 100 is the first in a series of carbon rankings, where the largest companies worldwide will be covered through the forthcoming ET Global 800, Europe 300, North America 300, Asia-Pacific 300 and BRICS 100.

Speaking at the launch of the UK 100 Carbon Rankings in London yesterday, Sam Gill, operational director of the EIO, said: “The idea then is that if we can get enough people to actually track these indexes, we can start to apply pressure to a company’s share price. This is where it gets really quite interesting.”

He then touched in the relevance of the listed company index to smaller businesses.

• The UK 100 Carbon Rankings - Full list
• For more debate around this issue, join our Sustainability discussion group.

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