Accenture: Italian Companies Show Growing Commitment to Carbon Disclosure

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

According to a report published today by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Accenture (NYSE: ACN), nearly half of Italy’s largest companies are disclosing their carbon and emissions performance.

Climate change is taking on greater importance on the agendas of publicly listed companies, with an increasing number of firms (95 percent from 61 percent in 2011) reporting that they have entrusted climate-change management to their boards. The report also shows that over half of companies (58 percent) set reductions targets, which includes seven of 8 utilities respondents and 4 out of 6 from the industrials sector.

Analysis by CDP and Accenture of a sample of 33 of the 46 companies showed that the annual savings that could be achieved from their emissions reductions targets could reach €630 million and out of the total number of emission reduction initiatives, more than half have a payback period of less than three years.

This year companies were all scored by IMQ, the Italian Institute for the Quality Mark, Italy’s certification body and a European leader in conformity assessments. IMQ rated companies according to their climate change transparency with the best disclosers entering CDP’s Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI).  Companies were also assessed according to the scale and quality of their emissions reductions and strategies, and ranked according to performance bands. The best performers enter CDP’s Carbon Performance Leadership Index (CPLI). The indices are used by investors to assess corporate preparedness for national emissions regulation and to guide investment decisions.