Denmark holds some of the worlds's most climate-conscious companies
On top of the good news yesterday for Danish power company Ørsted, CDP released its annual A list with the world’s most pioneering companies leading in environmental transparency and performance. CDP puts four Danish companies - Ørsted, Novo Nordisk, Lundbeck and LEGO - on the A-list, which counts just 178 companies out of a total of 8400.
Denmark - a hub for sustainable companies
A study conducted by CDP concludes that besides ambitious climate laws, green initiatives and reduction targets, Denmark can also boast some of the world's most climate-conscious companies. In recent years, climate has been high on the agenda in Denmark, and the topic has been discussed at both political and personal levels. For that reason, a number of Danish companies have joined the climate fight.
The A-list companies are considered to be global leaders in their field of business because of the companies' extensive climate data, analyses and practices in the area of climate change initiatives such as attaining a sustainable production. For example, LEGO is among other things put on the A-list due to the Group's ambition to use only sustainable materials for production in 2030.
According to the the Corporate Knight and director of CDP's European activities, Steven Tebbe, there might be a connection between the companies' green actions and overall performance. According to the director, the Stoxx Climate Leaders index, which indexes the A-list companies, shows that the companies have managed 5.5% better annually than its competitors in the period 2011 to 2018.
"Being a leader in climate action is good business in today's economy - it will be essential business in the future world economy"
However, it is not necessarily the green initiatives that form the basis for this development, confirms the director to Ritzau Finans.
"Of course, it can be a result of many things. We are not saying that there is causality, because we cannot prove that. We are just saying, that it looks like there is a correlation. It's not the CDP's job to conclude, but much of what we've seen indicates that companies outperforming climate change are simply better-managed companies"
About CDP
CDP is the world’s leading non-profit investor-cooperative organisation that recognise more than 170 corporates as the leaders acting to address climate risks and build future zero-carbon economy. The organisation collects data on corporate climate action and ambitions to then standardize the data and make it globally accessible to global investors. It is a tool for investors to see how "green" a company is.