U.S. companies are integrating their responses to climate change into their overall business strategy, according to a survey of S&P 500 companies by the Carbon Disclosure Project, which represents more than 500 large investors.
For starters, climate change is getting more attention from top executives, with the board or senior management overseeing efforts at 87% of the companies, up from 68% in 2010. And 65% of the companies say they've integrated climate-change considerations into their business strategy, up from 35% last year, while 54% provide monetary incentives related to climate-change efforts, vs. 35% last year.
Disclosures related to climate change are becoming more prevalent, with 91% of companies reporting on their greenhouse-gas emissions, up from 88% in 2010 and 80% in 2009, while 64% disclose their emissions-reduction targets, vs. 51% in 2010 and 52% in 2009.
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The 339 large companies that responded to the survey reported a total of more than 1,000 projects aimed at reducing emissions, ranging from implementing efficient-building services and reducing process emissions to making changes in product design. And the companies estimated that 60% of those projects had payback periods of three years or less.
In the July-August issue, Treasury & Risk profiled five companies with cutting-edge sustainability efforts.
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