Why Do Some Companies Revise their Carbon Disclosures?

By: Bahar Gidwani and Cedric Bleuez

Reducing carbon emissions has been the generally-accepted first step towards slowing global climate change.  A growing list of government and social organizations have called for corporations to take a leading role in this area.  They have asked companies to disclose how much carbon they generate and then commit to reduce their carbon footprint.

A high percentage (>50%) of the world’s 5,000 largest companies are currently disclosing data on their carbon profile.  However, a surprisingly large number of companies revise their disclosures each year.  We sought to discover the source of these revisions.  One of our partners, Carbon Market Data, built a list of 40 companies who had made major revisions between 2013 and 2014.  We compared various aspects of the sustainability reporting profile of these 40 companies to those of 272 other companies who may face similar regulatory and social pressures to accurately report this information.

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About the Authors

About Carbon Market Data

Carbon Market Data is a carbon market research company and data vendor offering information, consulting and technology services to a wide range of organisations in the world. Carbon Market Data developed the World Carbon Market Database, a unique and innovative carbon disclosure solution gathering data on the world's carbon trading markets.

A Demo version of the World Carbon Market Database is accessible online at http://www.carbonmarketdata.com.

Cedric Bleuez

Email: cedric.bleuez@carbonmarketdata.com

https://www.carbonmarketdata.com

https://twitter.com/CmarketData

https://www.linkedin.com/company/carbon-market-data

About CSRHub

Bahar Gidwani is CEO and Co-founder of CSRHub.  He has built and run large technology-based businesses for many years. Bahar holds a CFA, worked on Wall Street with Kidder, Peabody, and with McKinsey & Co. Bahar has consulted to a number of major companies and currently serves on the board of several software and Web companies. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy. He plays bridge, races sailboats, and is based in New York City.

CSRHub provides access to the world’s largest corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings and information.  It covers over 15,000 companies from 135 industries in 132 countries. By aggregating and normalizing the information from 400 data sources, CSRHub has created a broad, consistent rating system and a searchable database that links millions of rating elements back to their source. Managers, researchers and activists use CSRHub to benchmark company performance, learn how stakeholders evaluate company CSR practices, and seek ways to improve corporate sustainability performance.

See the companies reviewed in this study on CSRHub.