The first tranche of company scores awarded under a new approach designed to more holistically assess corporate climate efforts have been released by businesses piloting the system.
The results provide an in-depth look into what companies are doing — or not doing — to address climate issues. At the top, France-based energy technology company Schneider Electric earned a 79 percent score for cutting emissions, scaling low-carbon products and other activities. At the other end of the rankings, Weyerhaeuser, a U.S. timber business, scored 40 percent, in part due to slow progress on emissions and limited supplier engagement.
The Climate Contribution Framework was launched last November by Sweep, a sustainability data platform, and the Mirova Research Center, which studies sustainable finance. In addition to assessing the integrity of emissions targets and reductions, the assessment recognizes efforts to help suppliers decarbonize, investments in climate solutions, sales of products that help avoid emissions and other factors. Weightings for the different metrics vary between business sectors to reflect the potential for different companies to tackle climate change.
Three pillars
Schneider’s success in reducing emissions — it cut the intensity of its Scope 3 emissions, by far its largest source, by an average of 9 percent annually between 2021 and 2025 — helped earn an 84 percent score for footprint minimization, one of the frameworks three “pillars.” Sales of energy-saving electrical devices contributed to a 71 percent score on the climate solutions pillar, while the company’s philanthropic efforts in climate pushed its finance pillar result to 68 percent. As an energy-sector company, the first pillar dominates Schneider’s score, leading to its 79 percent overall total.
The focus on the second two pillars was one reason why the company trialled the framework, said Chief Sustainability Officer Esther Finidori: “There are many things you can do as a company through financing, philanthropy and other tools that contribute to your impact and that are rarely factored into sustainability evaluations.”
Diverse results
Schenider’s score is one of 10 released last month, following an earlier pilot by the French utility EDF. The results reveal a diversity of corporate approaches to climate:
- Telecommunications company Orange scored 52 percent. The company earned high marks for cutting emissions, but was dinged for doing little to increase revenues from climate solutions, a relatively important pillar for its sector.
- Bel, a French cheese company, scored 75 percent on footprint minimization, helping it to an overall result of 69 percent. Its investments in peatland regeneration and other climate solutions beyond its value chain scored 96 percent for climate finance, the highest result in this pillar across the 10 businesses.
- Weyerhaeuser’s 40 percent score stemmed from its emissions trajectory — Scope 3 emissions, which account for around 90 percent of the company’s total, are falling by just over 1 percent annually — and the D+ score awarded by InfluenceMap, a nonprofit that monitor corporate lobbying on climate.
Schneider received its results a few months ago and the scorecard has since prompted internal conversations about where to focus sustainability efforts, said Finidori. By scoring companies for investments beyond customers and suppliers, for example, the framework provides her with a reason to lobby for such work. “It’s way for me to push forward those projects and get their sponsorship,” she said.