DURBAN, South Africa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Carbon War Room, The Gigaton Throwdown, and the World Climate Summit today awarded Suntech, Tesco, Philips, Schneider Electric, Swisscom, and Centrica Gigaton Awards for outstanding business leadership in carbon emissions reduction. The Gigaton Awards celebrate high standards of disclosure, exemplary performance, and inspirational behavior to lead their respective sectors to long term sustainability.
“We applaud the 2011 Gigaton winners for their outstanding efforts that will set the industry standard in carbon reduction and sustainability,” said Sir Richard Branson, Co-Founder of the Carbon War Room. “My fellow Academy of judges picked the very best companies from a great shortlist, and we look forward to seeing the ripple effect their efforts will inspire.”
The 2011 Best-In-Class Gigaton Award winners were recognized for the following:
- Consumer Discretionary—Tesco plc, UK— for its work on supply chain emission reduction and Knowledge Hub showcasing pilots of carbon reduction plans and training
- Consumer Staples—Philips, Netherlands—for its EcoDesign process - identifying environmental impact in terms of energy efficiency, hazardous substances, take-back, recycling, weight and lifetime reliability
- Industrials—Schneider Electric, France—for its leadership in energy efficiency and the development of the smart grid
- Telecommunications—Swisscom, Switzerland—for its portfolio of green ICT products and services - supporting a more sustainable work and lifestyle for its customers
- Utilities—Centrica, UK— for its ‘energy in a low carbon world program’ - enabling consumers to generate their own low carbon energy and energy efficiency
The Gigaton Prize was awarded to Suntech, the company that has grown the renewables energy sector, while at the same time, growing a profitable business.
Twenty-five companies were nominated for awards, based on an assessment of performance on a range of metrics, including disclosure, and reductions in the volume and intensity of emissions over the last year. Company data was taken from the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Global 500 Report which examines the carbon reduction activities at the world’s largest public corporations. This information was then analysed by the CWR and its partner, Greenstar, along qualitative and quantitative criteria specific to their sector. The winners were then selected by the 21-seat independent Academy – including Yvo de Boer, former director general of the UNFCCC; Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC); Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin; Kevin Conrad, Special Envoy and Ambassador for Environment & Climate Change, Papua New Guinea and Prof Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, as well as senior executives from top global companies, politicians and NGOs.
A Special Gigaton prize, newly awarded this year, for the country that has been the most inspiring example for renewable energy and energy efficiency investment and deployment was given to Germany.
Carbon War Room’s 2011 Gigaton Awards were made possible through a unique partnership of The Carbon Disclosure Project, Greeenstar, The Gigaton Throwdown Initiative, The World Climate Summit and Greenbiz. It was all made possible by Siemens, Gigaton Awards Auditor Ernst & Young, and NedBank.
For more information, please visit www.gigaton-awards.com.
About the Carbon War Room
The Carbon War Room harnesses the power of entrepreneurs to unlock gigaton-scale, market-driven solutions to climate change. Over 50% of the climate change challenge can be addressed today — and profitably —under existing policy and technology conditions. We seek to facilitate a better flow of capital to entrepreneurial solutions that make economic sense right now.
For more information, visit www.carbonwarroom.com.
About the Gigaton Throwdown Initiative
The Gigaton Throwdown Initiative inspires companies, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and investors to think big about solutions to the climate crisis. Founded by Sunil Paul in 2007, it sponsors research and awards to educate and inspire the private sector to achieve climate stability. For more information visit: www.gigatonthrowdown.org
About World Climate Summit
The World Climate Summit is a new, open and collaborative framework for business, finance and government leaders to accelerate solutions to climate change until 2020. It is a global platform facilitating large-scale collaboration between businesses, financiers, philanthropists and governments on regional, national and global solutions to climate change.
http://www.wclimate.com/world-climate-summit/wcs-2011/