Commercial, Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions  -  January 22, 2020

Alphabet, Citigroup, Walmart make CDP corporate climate leader A List

Alphabet, Citigroup, Microsoft and Walmart were included in the list of 179 companies on CDP’s ‘A List’ for corporate transparency and action on climate change, created from the scoring of over 8,000 companies worldwide.

Other North American companies that made the list were Best Buy, CVS Health, General Mills, Hilton Worldwide, Adobe and Stanley Black & Decker. The U.S. had 35 companies make the list, representing the second-highest ranked country behind Japan’s 38.

“CDP’s A List showcases companies that model true corporate sustainability leadership and are forging forward to become environmentally and financially sound companies,” Bruno Sarda, president of CDP North America, said in a statement. “I’m proud to see leading North American companies reflected in this year’s list. While climate change is already upon us, these companies know sustainability presents an exciting race to the top, an opportunity to innovate and rethink business as usual. Companies across the U.S. and Canada are proving again and again that environmental responsibility is not just good for society—it simply makes good business sense.”

CDP cited these examples of leadership and innovation from the North American companies on the Climate A List:

• Alphabet purchased enough renewable energy to power all global operations in 2017 and 2018 and became the world’s largest cumulative corporate purchaser of renewable energy through 3.75 GW of long-term renewable energy agreements.
• Adobe offers solutions that lead to carbon reduction, like its Adobe Sign product which avoids 23.4 million pounds of CO2 for every one million transactions that use its platform instead of traditional print, sign or fax.
• Citigroup has a 10-year, $100 billion environmental finance goal to finance and facilitate environmental and climate solutions.
• General Mills is working toward its goal of sustainably sourcing its top 10 priority ingredients by 2020 and as of 2018, 85% were certified sustainable.
• Stanley Black & Decker has a program to create efficient off-grid pumps to supplement the inefficient diesel-powered pumps prominent in India that consume 20% of the country’s electricity.
• Walmart is engaging its suppliers to avoid one billion metric tons of emissions from its value chain by 2030 through its Project Gigaton.

Only 2% of the companies surveyed made the CDP A List. Data from STOXX also showed that the A List has outperformed its global benchmark by an average of 5.5% per annum over a seven-year period.

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