Climate change is at the forefront of mainstream awareness and pertinent to organizations that are grappling with how to respond to the risks and opportunities it presents.
Exactly how organizations should communicate their response to climate change is a question facing many organizations, particularly since the introduction of the new indicator in the G3 EC2: Financial implications due to climate change.
New research just released by GRI and KPMG Sustainability responds to these questions. The new publication Reporting the Business Implications of Climate Change in Sustainability Reports (PDF) critiques current practices on reporting and climate change, and questions how organizations are currently responding to this issue.
The research, conducted in early 2007, found that although most businesses report on climate change, the majority avoid reporting the risks to their business posed by this environmental threat. Rather they extensively report on new business opportunities arising from it, such as establishing carbon funds.
A total of 50 sustainability reports selected from the Financial Times Top 500 companies were analyzed in the survey. In order to represent the geographical diversity of the reports, approximately 10 reports were taken from 5 geographical regions: USA & Canada; Europe; Japan; Asia Pacific excluding Japan; and South America & Africa.
Download Reporting the Business Implications of Climate Change in Sustainability Reports (PDF)
Contact GRI for more information on this project.