Commentary

The Carbon Disclosure Project has an interesting mission.  Before we can get a handle on emissions reductions, we should figure out exactly how much emissions we currently generate.  Here is Mike Foster of the Wall Street Journal describing the CDP in the November 6, 2007 issue:

The not-for-profit initiative has been financed by family endowments, led by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and won the support of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who said at its September conference that you can never get a handle on the way companies cut emissions without measuring what they produce at the outset.

CDP claims to represent institutions with over $41 trillion in assets and they have achieved an amazing 77% response rate to their carbon disclosure questionnaire.  Here is a look at several companies that are participating and not participating:

YES = Target, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS. 
NO = Sears, Kohls, Nordstrom, Federated Department Stores, Circuit City.

YES = Staples. 
NO = OfficeMax.

YES = Yahoo, Google. 
NO = Amazon.com

YES = CitiGroup, Bank of America, American Express, Charles Schwab. 
NO = E-Trade.

Joining the CDP and responding to their questionnaire does not make an angel, and declining does not immediately make you a bad guy.  But participating in the exercise certainly shows that the company sees CO2 emissions as an important issue.  And that's a good start.