August 30, 2006—The Center for Sustainable Innovation has introduced a new application of its “social footprint” method for calculating corporate social bottom lines, this time for global warming.
The report includes six detailed examples of global warming bottom lines calculated for BT, BP, Shell, Johnson & Johnson, United Technologies Corporation, and an anonymous university. Only half of them scored sustainably.
Unlike other corporate global warming reporting tools, the Social Footprint’s treatment of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by organizations is deeply rooted in the science of climatology, says CSI. Of particular significance is its use of a scientific forecast that shows how carbon emissions, in particular, must be curtailed in the years ahead if humanity is to have a chance of reversing the current trend.
Thus, each example featured in today’s report compares actual organizational emissions of carbon between the years 2001 and 2005 with what such emissions would have to be in order to reverse global warming and stabilize CO2 concentrations in the earth’s atmosphere. Only organizations that emit carbon within those limits can score sustainably under CSI’s approach.
Free downloadable copies of the report can be found on the CSI Web site.
