More than 330 companies in many sectors such as textile, packaging and printing worth nearly US$11 trillion in market capitalization have been included as global leaders in environmental transparency and action on annual A Lists of CDP (Disclosure Insight Action), based on their Climate Change, Forests and Water Security disclosures. These companies have been named on the list out of nearly 15,000 companies scored on their environmental disclosure. While it is emphasised the importance that environmental issues are interconnected and must be tackled together, yet just 12 companies (1.3% of the 900+ companies requested to disclose against all three questionnaires) requested to disclose against all three questionnaires were awarded a Triple A.
The textile, printing and packaging companies are also included in the A Lists of CDP, the international non-profit organisation that runs the world’s environmental disclosure system for companies, cities, states and regions. The names with triple A are HP Inc and Lenzing. Amongst the Climate Change A Listers are Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd., Inditex, Konica Minolta, Mavi Giyim Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. and Seiko Epson Corporation. Kordsa Teknik Tekstil A.Ş. rank on the Water Security A list; FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation on both Climate Change and Water Security A list and Mondi PLC on both Forests and Water Security A List.
While more companies than ever are factoring their climate change impacts into business-as-usual, with more than 280 companies scoring an A for their climate change disclosures with a 34% increase since 2021, progress remains slow on deforestation and water security. There was only a 4% increase in the number of Forests A Listers (just 1 more company than last year) and a 12.7% decrease in the number of Water Security A Listers (118 in 2021 to 103 in 2022). 95% of Climate Change A List companies reported that they have a climate transition plan which aligns with a 1.5°C world, compared to 52% of A- to B- scoring companies, and 21% of C to D- scoring companies.
More than 29,500 companies scored an F in environmental transparency on 2022 CDP Lists
According to the statement of CDP, it is stated that 66% of D- to A- scoring companies did not improve their scores in 2022. More than 29,500 companies worth at least US$24.5 trillion in market capitalization – including Aramco, Tesla, Berkshire Hathaway, Exxon Mobil and Chevron – scored an F for failing to respond to disclosure requests from their investors and clients or providing insufficient information in their responses.
CDP redesigned its climate change questionnaire to align with the TCFD (The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure) recommendations in 2018 and its climate change questionnaire contains over 25 TCFD-aligned questions. These questions are included within the Governance, Risks & Opportunities, Strategy, Targets and Emissions modules of CDP’s questionnaire and include specific methodologies for high impact sectors such as financial services, energy, agriculture, transport and materials. Water security and deforestation questionnaires have been also inspired by the TCFD recommendations and follow a similar structure, enabling companies to organize their environmental management according to similar principles of good practice.
