Kao, Firmenich lead in carbon disclosure

Non-profit organisation CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) has issued its rankings for 2022. These rate about 15,000 companies in multiple industries from about 18,700 who submitted data about their emissions on a scale from A to D- in three categories. In all, 283 received an A for Climate Change, 25 for Forests and 103 for Water Security.

Among many chemical industry and related companies rated, Swiss-based flavours and fragances giant Firmenich and Japan’s Kao Corporation, a manufacturer of personal care, household and cosmetics products, scored A in all three categories. Only 12 companies achieved this. Others in adjacent sectors included Beierdsorf, Danone, Lenzing and L’Oréal.

Firmenich secured its fifth consecutive triple A, one of only two companies to have done this. Meanwhile, Kao received an A grade for the fourth time in Climate Change and the third in the other two categories. Other chemical and related companies to score highly included:

* BASF: A for Water Security and A- in the other two categories

* Sumitomo Chemical, Givaudan, DSM and PTT Global Chemical: A for Climate Change and Water Security

* Symrise: A for Forests and Water Security

* Lanxess and Novozymes: A for Climate Change

* Solvay: A- for Climate Change

CDP collects information from major companies about their environmental efforts on behalf of over 680 institutional investors with over $130 trillion in assets and more than 280 major buyers with $6.4 trillion in purchasing power. It is widely seen as the gold standard of corporate environmental transparency and other ratings agencies also use its data.