Shareholders, investors and other curious minds have a new source for finding data about whether a company has adequately disclosed its greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and measurements of its actual emissions.

The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), a coalition of 300 faith-based institutional investors, has partnered with TruCost, an independent environmental data company that houses the world’s largest record of greenhouse gas emissions, in addition to more than 700 other environmental indicators that include water use, waste disposal and pollution.

The partnership has resulted in a record of how the leading publicly traded companies compare to others in their sector when it comes to mitigating their effects on environmental issues.  ICCR’s Web site contains a list of 150 companies and their rankings in the “climate risk profile.”

Concerned shareowners are increasingly expressing demands, raising expectations and pressuring companies for change in behavior and performance, such as trying to convince companies to be more environmentally responsible. When agreements can’t be reached, this results in proxy resolution. After compiling information from 2009 shareholder resolutions filed by responsible investors, and interviewing the companies directly, TruCost put that data into a model that estimates companies’ emissions based on their business activities.

For the technology sector, Google got the best ranking while Intel got the worst. Ameriprise Financial, Inc. came out on top for the financial services industry while Goldman Sachs ranked at the bottom. In the chemical sector, Chemtura ranked best with Dow Chemical Company ranking worst. Verizon received the lowest score out of the 150 surveyed.

ICCR hopes this information will “push investors to diversify portfolios and provide an empirical basis for assessing corporate efforts to reduce climate risk,” said Leslie Lowe, ICCR’s director of energy and environment program. She said this data will enhance investor value by pushing companies to become cleaner and greener, and should play a critical role in how much investors continue to dole out to companies. 

The report also links to the resolutions each company has made to address corporate social responsibility. Examples include Goodyear addressing internal pay equity, and Citigroup's commitment on executive compensation.
 
 

Image: Flickr's Acousti Engineering