The article in the url link below makes a succinct and convincing case for voluntary carbon emissions reporting by firms (Chapter 1: A Rational Argument for CSR, p17):
“So why are so many companies doing it? In short, because it's always better to know than not to know. If a nationwide carbon market is created in the next few years, as seems likely, businesses that have been tracking and reducing emissions will be favorably positioned. If it comes to regulatory compliance, they'll have a head start. And if green continues to be "the new black," they'll have good PR fodder.”
The article also shows how far this practice has already diffused among large firms in the US:
“Around 60% of the S&P 500 now participates in the CDP's voluntary emissions-disclosure program, and momentum is building.”
More important than all of the reasons to be collecting and analyzing these data presented in the article, however, is the author’s focused cost benefit analysis of the practice (Chapter 1: An Economic Argument for CSR, p18):
“… every business that takes a hard look at carbon emission comes to see it for what it is: gaseous evidence of inefficiency. It costs money to create carbon dioxide, so cutting emissions slashes costs.”
Take care
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther/
Carbon Copy
Disclose your greenhouse-gas emissions? Sounds crazy. Why Wal-Mart and P&G are doing it--and you should too.
Fast Company Magazine
From: Issue 121 | December 2007 | Page 78 | By: David Roberts | Illustrations by: Aaron McConomy
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/121/carbon-copy.html
