Status: 07.12.2021 12:23 p.m.
The “Carbon Disclosure Project” evaluates the extent to which companies around the world are making efforts to protect the climate. In the current ranking, a total of 14 German companies appear further up.
The London Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has evaluated the environmental reports of a total of 12,000 companies worldwide for its global climate protection ranking. However, the experts still only certify a small number of companies that they are actively striving to protect the global climate.
Whether climate-friendly management, protection of forests and water reserves – very few of the numerous companies that the CDP has checked meet all or only one or two of these three criteria. Among them is only one German company that counts the project among the most climate-friendly in the world in all three areas: the flavor manufacturer Symrise, based in Holzminden, Lower Saxony.
Only 272 out of 12,000 companies with a top grade
The Dutch consumer goods group Unilever, the electronics manufacturer HP and the Austrian wood processor Lenzing are also represented on this top list of 14 companies. The tobacco company Philip Morris International also strives to conserve resources in all three categories, although the company is unlikely to be included in many sustainability rankings because of its products.
In the climate protection ranking, there are only 272 companies that have achieved the top grade A in at least one of the three categories – this corresponds to a rate of only two percent. In order to receive this rating, companies must, among other things, conclusively prove that they are reducing directly and indirectly caused climate-damaging emissions and that their climate protection plans can withstand scientific scrutiny.
200 companies worldwide achieved this in the criterion of climate protection, only 24 of the companies have explicitly committed themselves to the protection of forests, and 118 companies received the top rating for the careful use of water as a resource.
More than half of the companies do poorly
By contrast, 58 percent of the companies were given the worst grades – C or D. “Companies that do not disclose their environmental impacts and do not act accordingly endanger both the planet and themselves,” said the CDP’s European director, Maxfield Weiss. “If you carry on as you have done, you will be on the wrong side of public opinion, regulation and the capital markets.”
In addition to Symrise, the companies on the CDP list of the most active climate protectors include a further 13 Germans: including Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Telekom and the software group SAP. The steel manufacturer Thyssenkrupp, HeidelbergCement, the pharmaceutical company Bayer, the energy giant Eon and the car company Volkswagen are also among them. The Nivea manufacturer Beiersdorf, the automotive supplier Bosch, the conglomerate Gea, the wind power specialist Siemens Gamesa and the industrial gases manufacturer Linde also appear on this list.
Oil multinationals and Warren Buffett with no environmental reports
The number of “A companies” in the CDP ranking has fallen by 40 percent from 280 to 200 year-on-year. This is also due to the fact that the project specifications have become stricter. The organization has also listed prominent companies that do not submit any environmental reports. These include the US oil companies Chevron and ExxonMobil, the mining company Glencore, but also the holding company of US star investor Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway.