Industry sector CERs

By 1994, well over 100 companies worldwide had published CERs. A division of these by industry sector showed the chemicals sector at the top of the league, with 22% of the total, closely followed by energy, with 19%. Some of the first chemicals companies to emerge with CERs were ... 

Environmental reporting for this industry sector has predominantly occurred in two regions Western Europe and North America, respectively accounting for 20 (57%) and 8 (23%) of the total number of CERs. In all, 14 countries were involved, with just two countries (Japan and South Africa) outside these two main regions. 

In a UNEP technical report on Company Environmental Reporting, issued in 1994, it was stated that well over 100 companies worldwide have now published corporate environmental reports . This served to confirm that at that point in time the CER concept was under-way. In order to build up a picture of this first wave of CERs, in terms of country location and industry sector, an analysis of the companies contained in this UNEP report was carried out. The results are shown in Table 3.1. 

Source of first 100 CERs, by country and industry sector... 

The estimated number of CERs given above was confirmed by analysis of the chemicals industry CERs. This in-depth examination of one industrial sector yielded about 35 CERs. Fortune 500 identifies a total of close to 50 individual sectors. Assuming about half of these have a significant degree of environmental sensitivity, this would indicate a world market CER figure approaching 900. 

The 1999 KPMG international survey identified a large variation in environmental reporting level across a range of industries. Chemicals led the field, with 59% of the top companies producing CERs, in contrast to a figure of 8% for the finance and insurance sectors. 

The two sectors have similar scores on emissions, contacts, social responsibility, and prosecutions and fines. However, the chemicals industry CERs are substantially better with respect to environmental management systems (+25%), internet reports (+22%) and occupational illness (+20%). Also there is a significant improvement on external verification (+17%). On the other hand, the chemicals CERs provide much less information on business profile (manufacturing countries (-25%) and operations (-24%)) and give significantly less attention to supplier involvement (-30%) and water consumption (-18%). 

Judging from CERs produced within the chemicals sector, some of the chemicals companies are already actively following the above guidehnes. A good example is provided by the Tioxide Group, which is a supplier of titanium dioxide pigment to the paper industry. 

It is interesting to note the observations made by the ACCA with regard to NGOs and public sector bodies. Here, they report that the number producing CERs continues to be minimal. Also as yet, despite their many demands on industry to report environmental performance, the environmental pressure groups do not appear to have produced CERs. 

The two sectors have similar scores on emissions, contacts, social responsibility, and prosecutions and fines. The chemicals industry CERs are superior with respect to the following EPIs ... 

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