Carbon Disclosure Project: Italy 100 Report 2011

This report by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) collates the climate change and greenhouse gas emission performance of the 35 Italian companies that responded to this year’s request for information. The report identifies the carbon leaders in Italy for 2011.

The Carbon Disclosure Project is an independent, not-for-profit organization that has collected companies’ data on climate change strategy since 2002. Its aim is to put information on companies’ climate change strategies and management of greenhouse gas emissions at the heart of financial and policy decision-making. The authority behind CDP’s information request lies in its list of investor signatories which has grown from 35 investors with assets of $4.5 trillion under management in 2003 to 551 in 2011 with assets of $71 trillion under management.

The Italian companies invited to respond for this report are the 100 largest, by market capitalization, on the Italian stock exchange. Companies were scored according to the CDP methodology explained in the CDP 2011 Reporting Guidance and available to all through the CDP website. Kyoto Club is the scorer for the Italy 100 sample.

The number of respondents to the survey in 2011 rose to 35 from 21 in 2010.

• Responsibility for climate change management is entrusted to a senior executive in 29 of the 35 respondents.

• Eighty-two percent of respondents have integrated climate change into core business strategy.

• The percent of responding companies with targets for emission reduction has declined to 67 percent (76 percent in 2010).

• All those respondents with targets for emission reduction have more than one target.

• Seventy percent of respondents have disclosed information regarding the estimated payback period, meaning that 51 percent of reported reduction initiatives are backed by some form of financial consideration.

• Forty-seven percent of emissions’ reduction activities reported by respondents have a payback period of three years or less; 53 percent have paybacks of greater than three years.

• Seventy-two percent of respondents consider climate change is a source of opportunities related to regulation, changes in physical parameters and other possible climate-related developments.

Despite the massive and ongoing economic crises facing the European economy, pressure on companies to take action on sustainability issues has not weakened. Policy makers, institutional investors and customers are scrutinizing firms corporate behavior more carefully than ever, demanding greater accountability and performance from business in providing positive contributions to the economy, society and the environment. The integration of sustainability into corporate strategy is now a key issue on many CEOs’ agendas.

It is noteworthy that the proportion of respondents with targets for emission reduction has reduced. Within this group, absolute targets are marginally more common than intensity targets. Of all the 186 reduction programs reported, energy efficiency (26%), low carbon energy (16%) and transport (12%) are the most commonly identified activity types.

By contrast, behavioral change, which is the third most popular type of activity being carried out globally, currently accounts for only 5 percent of the initiatives in place among Italian respondents.

Publication of information about climate change and greenhouse gas emission performance (outside of this report) has decreased by 2 percent.