Many Corporations Have Set and Met Significant Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Targets

As a follow up to the post on the Porter and Kramer article published in the Harvard Business Review, I wanted to point out some of the companies who have taken on climate change issues.  While greenhouse gas emissions are debated in Congress and in public discourse, the media, and the Internet, the Pew Center has listed numerous carbon reduction goals set by various corporations, many of which have already been met. These companies are climate change leaders, and will be well ahead of the game when a cap-and-trade system is eventually implemented in the United States.

Alcan

• Completed--Reduce GHG emissions by 575,000 tons CO2e between 2001 and 2005.
            (To date, emissions have been reduced by more than 2.9 million tons CO2e.)
      
• Completed--Reduce GHG emissions by 35% from 1990 until 2005.

BP

• Completed--Reduce GHG emissions by 10 percent from 1990 levels by 2010.
• Maintain net emissions at or below 2001 levels over the next decade.

Deutsche Telekom

• Completed--Reduce energy use by 15 percent from 1995 levels by 2000.
• Reduce energy use by 3 percent from 2001 levels by 2004.

DuPont

• Completed--Reduce GHG emissions by 65 percent from 1990 levels by 2010.
            (Actual reduction by 2002 is 67 percent.)
           

• Hold total energy use flat at 1990 levels through 2010. (Actual use in 2002 was 9 percent below 1990 levels while production has increased by almost 30 percent.)

• Source 10 percent of global energy use from renewable resources by 2010.

IBM

• Conserve annually 4 percent of the energy that would otherwise have been consumed;
• Reduce CO₂ emissions associated with IBM’s fuel use and electricity consumption by an average annual 4 percent of what would otherwise have been emitted.
• Have 100 percent of the new product models introduced during each year meet Energy Star® criteria.

• Completed--Reduce PFC emissions from semiconductor manufacturing worldwide by 40
            percent from 1995 levels by 2002 (indexed to production); and
• Completed--Achieve an absolute 10 percent reduction in PFC emissions from IBM's
            semiconductor manufacturing processes by year-end 2005, using 2000 as a
            base year.

PG&E Corporation

• Completed--Reduce annual sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆ – a greenhouse gas) emissions by 50
           percent, compared with the 1998 baseline. 
• Reduce SF₆ emissions by 60 percent by year-end 2007, compared with the 1998 baseline.
• Completed--Reduced overall energy use at 88 facilities by 24 percent compared with the
            1998 baseline.
         

Rio Tinto

• Completed--Reduce on-site GHG emissions per unit of production by 4.8 percent from
            1990 levels by 2001.
• Reduce on-site GHG emissions per unit of production by 4 percent from 2003 levels by 2008.
• Group-wide energy efficiency target that seeks to reduce energy use per ton of product by 5 percent by 2008 from a 2003 base.

Rohm and Hass

• Completed--Reduce energy consumption by 5 percent per pound of product from
            mid-1999 levels by year end 2001.
• Completed--Implemented a corporate wide energy metrics program in 2001 and achieved
            targeted year on year energy utilization reductions in 2002, 2003, and 2004.
• Reduce energy consumption by at least 1 percent per pound of product each year as compared to the year before.
• Establishing business-level energy management programs with individual targets.

Royal Dutch/Shell

• Completed--Reduce GHG emissions by 10 percent from 1990 levels by 2002.
• Meet 5-year (2002-2007) energy efficiency targets for global oil products and chemicals business units. For refining, this target is to improve its Refining Energy Index (REI) from 135 in 2002 to 128 by 2007 (or a 5 percent improvement in its REI). For chemicals, the target is to improve its Chemical Energy Index (CEI) from 100 in 2002 to 92 in 2007 (or an 8 percent improvement in its CEI).

• Actively manage GHG emissions such that by 2010 emissions are still 5% or more below 1990 levels, even while they grow their business.

SC Johnson

• Completed--Achieve an absolute GHG reduction of 8 percent for all U.S. operations from
            2000 levels by 2005 (or reduce GHG emissions intensity by 23 percent (per
            kilograms of product manufactured) from 2000-2005.)
• Completed--Reduce GHG emissions from the top five factories worldwide by 5% per year
            from 2000 to 2005.

Toyota

• Reduce CO₂ emissions by 5 percent from 1990 levels by 2005, and by 10 percent from 1990 levels by 2010.
• Completed--Reduce energy consumption per unit of production by 15 percent from 2000
            levels by 2005.

TransAlta Corporation

• Completed--Return GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2000.
• Achieve zero net GHG emissions from the company’s Canadian operations by 2024.

United Technologies Corporation

• Completed--In 2003, successfully achieved goal of reducing energy consumption
            as percent of sales by 25 percent from 1997 levels by 2007 (target
            reached in 2003 resulted in a 15 percent reduction in absolute GHG
            emissions since 1997).
• Completed--In 1997, UTC resolved to reduce its global energy consumption by 25
            percent (normalized for revenues) from 1997 levels by 2007.  The
            company has already exceeded that target and has increased the goal
            to a 40 percent reduction in energy use worldwide by 2007.
• UTC is accomplishing its climate change goals directly by reducing greenhouse gas emissions produced by UTC operations and indirectly by developing and manufacturing products that use less energy and emit smaller amounts of greenhouse gases.