Marian Moynihan, Consultant at Greenstone, attended the Annual CDP UK Workshop held in London last week. In this blog, Marian reflects on some key take-aways from the event.
“When the world changed” was the opening speech at this year’s Annual CDP UK Workshop. Lord Deban, the chairman of the Committee on Climate Change captivated the room as he spoke passionately about the “battle on climate change” and the steps we need to consider to mitigate the impacts. This opening paved the way for a day of thought provoking presentations and useful workshops focusing on various areas of the CDP questionnaires.
Reflecting on the day it is clear that an underlying theme for all of the morning speakers was COP21 and the outcomes from Paris. Desiree Lucchesse, Technical Director at CDSB, spoke about the ties between CDP and COP21, how it supports its implementation and the commitments leading companies should be taking in regards to climate change.
Another hot topic on the lips of many attendees was the setting of science-based targets. The science-based targets method aims to ensure companies take global context into consideration to be able to stick below the 2°C temperature rise and therefore prevent the worst effects of global warming. Although this method is still in its infancy, it is clear that CDP fully supports the science-based targets method and encourages reporting organisations to adopt this method to set emissions targets going forward. As part of the agenda, CDP held some expert workshops focused on science-based targets to help attendees understand more clearly the concept of the method and how to adopt it into their organisation. Throughout the day, it was highlighted that science-based targets have wide business benefits and can help to add credibility to a business’s carbon strategy claims, and create long term competitive advantage.
The agenda also included some interactive sessions giving attendees the chance to discuss reporting challenges in an intimate peer-to-peer setting. In small groups, like-minded sustainability professionals from a variety of sectors gathered for dedicated workshops to learn more about responding to different areas of CDP. Participants discussed challenges they were having or hurdles they have overcome all in the presence and with the help of a CDP expert.
CDP climate disclosure is seen as a business opportunity for an increasing number of companies and now nearly one-fifth of global emissions are managed through CDP as reported by companies who represent over half the capital market [1]. CDP has accredited Greenstone as an official Climate Change Software partner as part of its partnership programme. This partnership provides Greenstone’s clients with a CDP accredited software platform to collect, manage, analyse and report non-financial information. Greenstone’s Enterprise solution includes the CDP reporting questions, which simplifies the reporting process for organisations and enables them to collect the exact data required for reporting to CDP.
[1] https://www.cdp.net/Documents/Brochures/CDP-Business-Booklet.pdf
