2Sustain

The newly updated Climate Counts scorecard, released earlier this month, reveals that over the past year businesses have made some improvements with regard to sustainability issues. However, huge differences remain between sectors, and it appears that, in general terms, industry as a whole is failing to meet the climate challenge. Taken altogether, Climate Counts Executive Director Wood Turner describes the results as “disappointing.”

Here are a few of the details:

• Out of the 47 firms evaluated for this scorecard, 30 improved their scores –and a few did have impressive gains. Kenmore, for example, climbed 29 points. Lego rose 22 points, and AB Electrolux increased 19 points, moving into the second-highest place in the Large Appliance sector.

• But, most of the improvements weren’t as significant. In total, 32 of the 47 firms lost ground, held steady, or gained fewer than five points out of 100.

“Small improvements will not meet this challenge — we need real innovative leadership to solve the climate crisis, and as large investors in renewable energy technology begin to turn away from the US to other parts of the world more poised to lead, the implications for slow-moving business are certainly concerning,” Turner says.

Climate Counts also found wide variation between sectors. For instance, the scorecard evaluates 15 pharmaceutical firms, and all but three scored higher than 50 points. But, a quick scan of the toy sector tells a different story. In fact, this sector appears to be completely failing to address environmental issues. Of the 13 toy companies Climate Counts analyzed, eight scored zero. Hasbro ranked the highest, with 37 points.

The complete scorecard with rankings in all 17 sectors is available here.