New York - Apple, Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet are among the companies doing the most to fight climate change, according to a global ranking that grades corporations according to their environmental credentials.
The three US technology giants, worth a combined $1.6 trillion, are among the 113 corporations awarded an ‘A’ grade for their efforts to reduce heat-trapping emissions, according to the report Wednesday from the UK nonprofit CDP. That list was whittled down from a larger pool of 1 997 companies around the world that submitted data to the group formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project.
The efforts by companies from Japanese brewer Asahi Group Holdings to South Africa’s Nedbank Group illustrate a growing trend by corporations around the world to step up efforts to protect the environment. Nine in 10 companies now have actions in place to reduce greenhouse gases, up from less than half in 2010, CDP said.
“We must take swift and bold action to address the root causes of climate change,” Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman said in a statement. “This means disrupting the status quo: changing the way we do business, holding ourselves and others accountable, and creating innovative solutions that drive a low-carbon economy.”
Climate deal
The United Nations has sought to engage companies as 195 nations work to seal a global deal to fight climate change at a meeting in Paris in December. The UN has set up a separate online portal to collect emissions-reduction pledges from companies, complementing those of countries.
Hewlett Packard was also given an ‘A’ grade in the CDP report. Other companies on the list include German manufacturer Siemens AG, Swiss foodmaker Nestle SA and Spanish telecoms company Telefonica SA. CDP rates companies according to the level of their efforts to curb emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change, as well as the transparency of their actions.
The biggest corporations not to disclose information for the report were Agricultural Bank of China, Berkshire Hathaway, and Facebook, according to CDP, which produces the annual disclosure report on behalf of 822 institutional investors with more than $95 trillion of assets.
BLOOMBERG