Sustainability has already evolved from activists/charity’s into the board room. This global tipping point was achieved a few years ago with more and more major corporations addressing this issue by implementing sustainability as part of a business strategy as more and more consumers demand a preference for buying from sustainable businesses.
In February, 2008 – Nearly 50 leading U.S. and European institutional investors managing over $1.75 trillion in assets released a climate change action plan at the United Nations that boosted investments in energy efficiency and clean energy technologies that require tougher scrutiny of carbon-intensive investments that may pose long-term financial risks. Additionally, European investors managing $6.5 trillion in assets supported the action plan “in principle.”
The action plan was announced at the Investor Summit on Climate Risk, hosted by Ceres and the United Nations Foundation, attended by more than 450 investor, financial and corporate leaders from around the world.
Already, most large international companies produce a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or sustainability annual report. While it is not the only indicator that should be used, many companies already declare their greenhouse gas emissions, with over 3000 of the largest corporations registering them with the Carbon Disclosure Project. However, there is a hole in the majority of these reports: most companies do not yet include scope 3 emissions or the emissions from meetings, events and business travel.
As travel and flying is such a large emitter of carbon, you can expect things to change in 2008. So if you are responsible for organizing events or meetings, expect to be asked to consider the environmental impact of your activities and to provide statistics about carbon emission levels, waste levels and resource utilization.
*Information provided by Sustainability Services from mci-group.com