Number of Investors Seeking Water Data Doubles

by | Feb 4, 2011

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The number of institutional investors using the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) to seek data on companies’ water management has risen by over 150 percent, the CDP has announced.

This year 354 investors signed the CDP’s request to companies for water information, up from 137 last year. Those 354 investors control $43 trillion in assets.

The request went to the 400 most water-intensive companies in the FTSE Global 500. This is the second year that CDP has provided a system for businesses to report their water use and water management.

This week the CDP also sent its 2011 requests for climate change information, to 4,800 listed companies, on behalf of 551 institutional investors with $71 trillion in assets. CDP sends its carbon information requests to the largest listed companies in about 60 countries around the world.

Some of the investors signing both CDP’s climate change and water information requests are Allianz Group, Aviva, BBVA, CalSTRS, HSBC Holdings plc, ING, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and National Australia Bank.

“It is clear that the effective management of both carbon and water will have a direct impact on a company’s ability to compete and grow in the future,” CDP’s chief executive Paul Simpson said.  “Companies that do not take action now will fall behind their peers who are already beginning to capitalize on the opportunity that the management of climate change and water brings.”

A recent study by researchers at the University of California – Berkeley and the University of Otago in New Zealand found that all other factors being equal, the greater a company’s greenhouse gas emissions, the lower its stock value. The study looked at firms in the S&P 500 and the top 200 firms traded in Canada, and used CDP’s primary corporate emissions data.

The FTSE CDP Carbon Strategy Indices have outperformed their UK benchmarks by 1.5% over a three year period, the CDP said.

“CDP has become the gold standard for reporting and sourcing corporate carbon data,” Yulanda Chung, head of sustainable business for CDP signatory investor Standard Chartered, said.

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