BMW Group, Siemens and DHL among CDP’s A-list on corporate climate action

The CDP has published its A-list report for 2017, highlighting companies that lead in environmental performance, such as climate change action, water and forest management.

CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project has established a global disclosure system that enables companies, cities, states, and regions to measure and manage their environmental impacts.

The methodology includes questionnaires on climate change, water, and forests, with each questionnaire evaluating responses across 4 levels; disclosure, awareness, management and leadership.

Every year, it grades the companies from A to D in collaboration with ADEC, CDP’s Global Climate Change Scoring Partner, and South Pole Group, its partner for Water and Forests scoring.

For climate change, the company’s score is made up of 2 main factors; the level of detail and how comprehensive responses are, and awareness of climate issues, management methods, and progress on addressing climate change.

Among the top scoring companies for this year were Autodesk Inc., BMW Group, Deutsche Post, Eaton Corporation, Fortum, Siemens, Kellog Company, L’Oréal, and Nestlé.

With BMW Group making it to the A-list for eight consecutive years Ursula Mathar, Head of Sustainability and Environmental Protection said: “The BMW Group is delighted with its strong performance in the CDP rating”.

“Climate protection remains a central theme of our sustainability strategy. It is especially important for a premium automobile manufacturer to strive for continuous progress in emissions from its products and production systems”.

At the same time, CDP published a parallel series of statistics based on a sample from 1073 companies which currently disclose their environmental business practices to CDP.

Out of the 1073 companies, 89 percent now have carbon emissions targets; 68 percent have set emissions reduction targets through to at least 2020, and 20 percent have long-term targets through to 2030 and beyond.

Paul Simpson, CEO of CDP said: “Tracking progress is critical for measurement, accountability, and transparency, and we need to do that because Governments, investors, and consumers all need to know what a company is doing on climate change and what more do they need to do”.

You can check the A-list here. 

Climate Action is particularly proud that Autodesk Inc., BMW Group, Deutsche Post, Eaton Corporation, Fortum, Siemens are sponsoring the 8th Sustainable Innovation Forum, taking place alongside COP23 in Bonn, Germany, 13-14 November.

Read the interview with Ursula Mathar, Head of Sustainability and Environmental Protection to see what BMW Group is doing regarding sustainability here. 

Read what Frank Campell, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) President at Eaton discussed with Climate Action about the role of the technology in the sustainability transition here. 

Read our interview with Kari Kankaanpää, Senior Manager of Climate Affairs at Fortum about the role of various renewable energy technologies and the pathway to a circular economy here.