How Will You Estimate, Disclose and Record Your Carbon Footprint?

The carbon tax is almost here. Since politicians do not like to admit they raise taxes, it is being called a Cap and Trade Initiative.

A key part of this movement is the carbon footprint of the company’s ENTIRE supply chain, not excluding the non foreign part of the process where they do not obey or really worry too much about American level regulatory costs. In case some of you from service companies are thinking, glad I do not have to worry. Start worrying. Service companies will be required to measure this and impacted by it. There already are websites like cdproject.net described in more detail below and software programs being used for these estimates, and the investment banking analysts are already estimating what they are calling an off balance sheet financial liability.

If you weren’t concerned about your company’s carbon footprint in the past, it’s time you started to focus attention on the impact the carbon tax will have on your company’s operations and bottom line. No company or industry will be exempt from the carbon footprint issue: the Green Movement’s political influence and public popularity is creating a perfect storm by which all companies will be levied a tax measured by their carbon footprint.

To see how far this process is advanced, look at the website for Cdproject.net . It states that: The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an independent not-for-profit organization which holds the largest database of corporate climate change information in the world. The data is obtained from responses to CDP’s annual Information Requests, issued on behalf of institutional investors, purchasing organizations and government bodies. Since its formation in 2000, CDP has become the gold standard for carbon disclosure methodology and process, providing primary climate change data to the global market place.

In addition, institutional investors’ increasing focus on a company’s carbon footprint liability provides more evidence that the carbon tax will soon be a reality. In fact, the website GlobalReporting.org shows the format institutional investors want for estimated carbon usage.

Using that type information, analysts and the Chicago Carbon Exchange chicagoclimatex.com can estimate your impact from the carbon tax and cost increases.

How much attention does your strategic planning or enterprise risk management process (ERM) devote to the clean energy transition and carbon tax impact on your company?It’s only a matter of time before your company’s carbon footprint may be seen as a liability that can impact your company’s equity. How will that impact your balance sheet, income statement and access to credit?