The Business of Green - Company Promises

Individuals or states acting ahead of federal/state legislation on environmental issues is something the International Herald Tribune reports well.

The same is true of companies, and an excellent example is the announcement of CLP, one of the largest power companies in Asia, to 'commit itself to sharply reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas, for every kilowatt-hour of electricity it generates'. This story was flagged on the front page under the Business of Green logo and appeared in the business section (Asian utility plans major emissions cuts; Friday, December 7, 2007).

The article got down to the nitty gritty of just what power generation means in terms of CO2 emissions, and provided exactly the type of global perspective I turn to the IHT for.

'CLP estimates that its operations emit 0.84 kilograms of carbon dioxide for each kilowatt-hour of electricity generated. The company plan's call for it to cut emissions to 0.8 kilograms in 2010, 0.7 kilograms in 2020, 0.45 kilograms in 2035 and 02. kilograms in 2050.

By comparison, the Chinese power sector emits 1.01 kilograms per kilowatt-hour, the U.S power sector emits 0.64 kilograms and the Japanese sector emits just 0.35 kilograms, according to data from Carbon Monitoring for Action'.

Lots of companies are making lots of claims, announcements and plans, and this blog is also going to serve as my own personal track record of those promises.

I hope to be able to remind the IHT to revisit this story in 2010 (if the IHT still exists then - by no means certain; more on that another time) and see how CLP are getting on.

So many companies are making green claims it's hard to keep a track of them and the IHT advertising revenue is benefiting from this (see the full page advert from Exxon Mobil on page 11 of the same day's edition). I hope that editorial are keeping their own database of these claims and not let these stories run as worked-up press releases (not that this one did) and then be forgotten.