|
Carbon Management Becoming a
Key Source of Competitive
Advantage
London, UK, 19 September
2005 - Last
week's
release of The Third Carbon Disclosure Report (CDP3)
provided some insights into how companies in the Financial
Times Global 500 (FT500)—the world's 500
largest companies by market capitalisation—are
managing greenhouse
gases (GHG). ICF Consulting has a
unique vantage point from which to comment on CDP3's
findings through the valuable insights it has gained
advising more than 50 of the FT500 in the design and
implementation of their strategies to manage GHGs.
"CDP3, supported by investors with assets of US$21
trillion, has successfully increased the participation
of both the investment community and respondent companies
among the FT500. This is a tremendous achievement. In the
year that has passed from CDP2 to CDP3, global carbon markets
have rapidly matured and clearer signals have emerged about
the price of carbon. As carbon constraints become more
financially material, however, there may be diminishing
returns from future CDP efforts in obtaining meaningful
insights through an investor survey approach," says
Craig Ebert, an ICF Consulting Executive Vice President
who manages the firm’s global
climate change services.
"One of the limits of CDP is that informed investor
decisions must be predicated on a much more rigorous analysis
of each company’s individual portfolio of operations,
product markets, marginal costs of abatement, and ability
to pass on carbon costs. For example, one of the early
lessons of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme
(EU ETS) is that there is not a correlation between carbon
intensity and the level of financial exposure, yet many
financial analysts continue to use this metric as a key
indicator," says Abyd Karmali, an ICF Consulting
Senior Vice President who leads the firm’s climate
strategy services in Europe.
"From our experience, the financial benefits realised
by companies that have developed and introduced to market
low-carbon technologies or products are often much more
financially material than costs of individual operations’ exposure
to carbon constraints,"says Mr. Karmali. "Each
company’s overall approach to carbon management is
increasingly becoming a distinct source of competitive
advantage—akin to key decisions that it makes on
selecting geographic markets, managing its supply chain,
or investing in technology. We detect a trend in CDP3 for
companies to shy away from revealing their strategies.
This is appropriate given the opportunities for companies
to derive significant financial returns from taking innovative
approaches to carbon management."
|
ICF International (Nasdaq: ICFI) partners with government and commercial clients to deliver consulting services and technology solutions in the energy, environment, transportation, social programs, defense, and homeland security markets. The firm combines passion for its work with industry expertise and innovative analytics to produce compelling results throughout the entire program life cycle, from analysis and design through implementation and improvement. Since 1969, ICF has been serving government at all levels, major corporations, and multilateral institutions. More than 1,800 employees serve these clients worldwide. ICF’s Web site is http://www.icfi.com.
|
|
For Immediate Release
United Kingdom Contact: Abyd
Karmali
Tel: 44 (0) 20.7092.3005
United States Contact: Douglas
Beck
Tel: 1.703.934.3820
|
|
