Vodafone and Nokia show off their green cards

It’s no good ticking a few green boxes if nobody knows about it. Thankfully there’s a company that can help you with that.

CDP describes itself as a ‘not-for-profit charity that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts.’ Quite how it got that gig is unclear, but we’re expected to just accept that it’s ‘the gold standard of environmental reporting’.

Fair enough. This reporting takes the form of giving companies marks from A to D on their eco-virtue. ‘Our scoring measures the comprehensiveness of disclosure, awareness and management of environmental risks and best practices associated with environmental leadership, such as setting ambitious and meaningful targets.’

So this seems like one of those set-ups where an organization doshes out accreditations of virtue to companies that jump through a specified set of hoops. Two companies that have not just done so, but felt moved to issue special press releases to ensure everyone knows about it, are Vodafone and Nokia.

“Vodafone’s inclusion in the CDP A List reflects the progress we have made  on our strategy to address climate change, and since the latest disclosure we have got even further through our commitment to reduce carbon emissions across our entire operations to ‘net zero’ by 2040,” said Vodafone Group External Affairs Director Joakim Reiter.

“This year alone we have brought forward to July 2021 our commitment to power our entire European network from 100% renewable electricity, enshrined new environmental criteria into our choice of suppliers, and set out ambitious new targets to help our business customers reduce their own emissions through our services.”

“Amidst the challenges of COVID-19, we are immensely proud to have been recognized for our actions on combatting climate change,” said Karoliina Loikkanen, Nokia Global Head of Sustainability. “Connectivity delivers economic prosperity, opportunity for all people and a healthier planet. By increasing productivity, mobile communication technologies have the potential to decrease emissions in other sectors 10 times the amount of emissions produced globally by the mobile networks themselves. We are delighted to have earned a place on CDP’s Climate A List.”

Green stuff is especially fashionable these days as countries vow to ‘build back better’ from the economic devastation caused by shutting down much of the global economy in lieu of a Covid-19 vaccine. If you want to have a seat at the Davos high table, you’d better make sure your eco-credentials are in order and CDP is happy to help you with that. We wonder if there are any fees involved in the process.