A recent review of 100 companies' sustainability delivered 50/50 results.
The study found that 51 percent of the reviewed companies are emitting unsustainable levels of carbon dioxide, a 3BL Media news release reported.
The review was carried out by Climate Counts and the Center for Sustainable Organizations.
The objective of the study was to identify how many of the 100 reviewed companies had stayed within sustainability goals between the years of 2005 and 2012. The report called to attention the fact that businesses as well as sovereign nations must work to slow climate change since 40 percent of the "largest economic entities in the world" happen to be corporations.
"There has been great progress made in how companies measure, manage and report their CO2 emissions" Mike Bellamente, executive director of Climate Counts, said in the news release. "But it's clear from this report that the time has come for corporate carbon targets to be grounded in science."
In order to make their findings the Organizations used a combination of methods. They looked at "output and financial performance" to determine a specific company's carbon budget. They then checked to see if the company had stayed within the budget over the past five or so years.
"Most of what passes for best practice in sustainability measurement and reporting today falls short of the mark, precisely because it fails to take real social and environmental thresholds into account," Mark McElroy, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Sustainable Organizations said. "What businesses need, instead, are science- and context-based tools that bring meaning to measurement. The context-based carbon metric used in this study can help show the way."
The researchers also packaged some findings of the study in a user-friendly webpage.
"We've packaged the results of our study in a way that the average reader can digest our findings without having a degree in science," Mike Bellamente, Executive Director of Climate Counts said. "As a consumer-facing organization, the hope is that we'll spark a connection about the role of the citizen in addressing climate change through their own consumption habits and buying behaviors."
