NEW YORK; Sept. 24, 2009 -- The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) today announced plans to build an improved and upgraded version of its global climate change disclosure system. The system will make available primary information on corporate emissions performance, collected for use by institutional investors, businesses and the world’s national regulatory systems, to drive greenhouse gas emission reductions and performance improvements. The provision of high quality data on climate change and corporate carbon footprints will be vital to supporting a global framework post Kyoto, bridging the gap between corporations’ climate change reporting and government regulation.

Beginning in 2010 corporations will report to CDP through the new data system which will increase the quality of disclosure globally, meeting the demand from investors for more detailed, consistent, comparable and actionable data. It will streamline reporting for companies by providing enhanced tools and guidance through a single, fully accessible reporting platform. This platform will enable data to be easily shared with and analyzed by institutional investors, corporations and the world’s national regulatory systems. With more user friendly output of information, CDP’s upgraded system will drive greater use of corporate climate change information within financial and strategic decision making.

CDP is partnering with world leading consulting and technology companies Accenture, Microsoft and SAP to deliver the new version of its data system.

Measurement, reporting and verification of emissions is a vital step for organizations looking to increase awareness of the impact of climate change. It enables them to lower costs by identifying efficiency measures, reduce climate change related risk to the business and also reveal commercial opportunities. It also enables a fuller assessment of senior management’s options with regard to strategic direction, innovations and capital projects. These developments will not only help companies reveal emissions hot spots so they can be better managed, but also help to prepare companies for future regulation.

CDP’s Chief Executive Paul Dickinson said: “Climate change is a global issue that requires a global solution. With our new improved data tools and capabilities we are providing a world class reporting platform that will assist in the sharing of high quality climate change data on an international scale and eventually integrate with existing national regulatory systems. This global hub of information will be essential to supporting a global deal post Kyoto.”

CDP has selected a consortium of implementation partners. Accenture will work as solution integrator and provide strategic guidance for the implementation of the new reporting platform. ”Effective carbon disclosure helps corporations mitigate investment risk and achieve more sustainable performance,” said Mark Foster, Group Chief Executive, Management Consulting & Global Markets at Accenture. ”The simplicity, standardization and transparency of disclosure will make CDP the de facto process for reporting carbon emissions and an indispensible tool for helping the corporations and governments of the world take action.”

Microsoft will work on all aspects of data capture within the new version of the CDP platform, enabling companies to report more detailed and standardized climate change information.
“Gathering and tracking environmental data is one of the biggest challenges facing organizations today,” said Rob Bernard, Chief Environmental Strategist at Microsoft. “Technology and innovation can play a significant role in driving solutions to address the world’s environmental challenges. Microsoft is pleased to partner with CDP to deliver a software solution that enables organizations to be more transparent and make decisions that benefit both their bottom line and the environment.”

SAP will leverage its SAP® BusinessObjects™ BI OnDemand solution to store and deliver the carbon disclosure reports and dashboards to users.

"As a driving force behind CDP's carbon benchmarking analytics, SAP technology will provide organizations, investors and governments around the world clarity on progress against carbon reduction targets," said Anirban Chakrabarti, Vice President and General Manager of SAP Carbon Impact. "Reducing the carbon emissions of both SAP and our 89,000 global customers is a top-level strategic and operational issue for our company. SAP technology enables our customers to measure, report and reduce their carbon emissions and, in doing so, increase the efficiency of their business networks."