CDP to Intensity Environmental Accounting Work After $1.5m Prize Win

The Carbon Disclosure Project will expand its work to set accounting standards for environmental disclosure, after winning the $1.5 million Zayed Future Energy Prize in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

Executive chairman Paul Dickinson told BusinessGreen that winning the prize will also allow the organization to expand its water disclosure initiative and its reporting program for major cities. Currently 72 percent of the world’s 58 biggest cities report to the CDP, and Dickinson said the non-profit will greatly expand that program.

The CDP is in the second year of its water disclosure initiative. In November, its second annual global water disclosure report revealed that only 57 percent of organizations report board-level oversight of water policies, strategies or plans, compared with 94 percent for climate change.

Over 3,000 companies use the non-profit’s guidance to measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions.

CDP won in the prize’s SME and NGO category, which also awarded $500,000 to the Environmental Defense Fund and $1 million to Indian solar power supplier Orb Energy.

Schneider Electric received the Large Corporations award for work to make energy safe, reliable and efficient, while Dr Ashok Gadgil won the Lifetime Achievement Award for development of energy-efficient cooking stoves for use in Darfur.

The Zayed Future Energy Prize is awarded annually by General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

Last year’s big Zayed prize winner was wind turbine maker Vestas, which promptly put half its $1.5 million winnings into the creation of the WindMade label for products made with wind power. It gave the other half to three of the six finalists for the prize: Seventh Generation Advisors, India’s Barefoot College, and thin-film solar manufacturer First Solar.

The vice-chair of the 2012 prize selection committee, Dr. Nawal Al Hosany, recently wrote for Environmental Leader on the power of social entrepreneurship to create a sustainable world.