Climate: Survey: 60 percent of large companies with CO2 targets

Around 60 percent of the large German companies surveyed by the management consultancy Deloitte have set themselves fixed CO2 reduction targets.

Almost 40 percent were aiming for CO2 neutrality, Deloitte announced on Thursday. “In a European comparison, German companies can assert themselves in the upper middle field.”

Deloitte interviewed 158 CFOs in major German companies in September. The subsequent CO2 reduction is particularly important in the consumer goods and chemical industries. In trade and mechanical engineering, on the other hand, more than half of the companies have no specific goals.

All in all, it is “amazing how quickly companies have reacted with regard to climate protection and sustainability management and how quickly they have set themselves ambitious goals,” said Deloitte partner Rolf Epstein. “Here, the majority of CFOs have recognized that they have to be active in these fields in order to survive with their customers in the long term.” As a decisive motive for their own climate protection strategy, 63 percent named strengthening their reputation with customers, 41 percent cost reductions, 39 percent customer requests, 36 percent regulatory requirements.

Two thirds of the companies focus their climate measures on avoiding their own emissions. 46 percent each aim to reduce emissions in the supply chain and to develop climate-friendly products and services themselves.

Deloitte still sees gaps in sustainability management: “Only 49 percent of the participants have already implemented sustainability goals in their external reporting,” said Markus Seeger, Director at Deloitte and one of the authors of the study. There are also “gaps” in the definition of sustainability goals and the provision of relevant data as a basis for decision-making.