Adding a new company to Climate vs Change is an easy process. We've built a climate change algorithm that takes the main pledges and goals set out by companies and we process this data into a score. That score is used to give people a clear, unbiased view of how a company is pledging to tackle climate change. It's a great way to easily compare against others in the same sector too.
It's impossible to understand what each and every company is doing when it comes to climate change. When it comes to similar companies in the same industry, that process is even harder. What if, there was a way to very quickly and easily see how one company compares to another when it comes down to climate change action that every company should be committed to? That's what we here at Climate vs Change aim to achieve, with help from you, the community.
We'll immediately process the data to give them a score. We even check if their website runs on 100% renewable energy!
We ask that each submitted company is populated with the key climate data relating to carbon emissions. This allows us to work out the required climate rating, using the same data set from one company to the next. This way we can compare companies using the same metrics, to keep a fair comparison.
We ask that everyone attempts to find the following information for each given company that is submitted to Climate vs Change.
There are numerous ways to determine if a company is or pledges to run a net zero business. The quickest and easiest way we've found is using Google.
Example searches to find if a company has a net zero pledge;
"company name" climate change
i.e. exxonmobil climate change
"company name" climate change net zero
i.e. bp climate change net zero
We first would recommend researching the companies website's press/media releases. When searching these documents/websites, you're looking for a date when that company says they'll achieve net zero, or a date in the past when they already did. Take this date and pop it into the add a company form on our website.
Similar to when researching if a company is or pledging to be net zero business, you can switch out the search term "net zero" and replace it with "carbon free". Again you are looking for a date this has or will happen. Most companies will typically pledge to achieve net zero by 2050.
Again, similar to when researching if a net zero business, you can switch out the search term replacing it with "carbon negative". However, when a company pledges to be or is carbon negative, this is a very bold claim. We suggest taking extra care and doing a little more research to check these claims. Becoming carbon negative is the ultimate dream and the best step for climate action and because of this, a company's ranking will heavily reward this.
During our market research, we found this step to be the 2nd hardest pledge to find (with funding climate change being the hardest of them all). You're looking for a date when they claim to use (or already using) 100% renewable energy. We don't want to include dates of when companies say they'll reach, for example, 80% of business operations using 100% renewable energy. We only reward the 100% renewable energy score to those using it in 100% of business operations. At this time we are currently excluding third-party business operations from this calculation.
As already mentioned, this step is the hardest as people and businesses don't publicly like talking about money (or money they spend). Funding climate change research, projects, and action shouldn't be hidden from the public as it is a cause for good. One of the main findings we've noticed is companies like to say they fund climate change projects, but in reality, don't.
Following the same techniques already used for the other climate goals, if they shout and dance about funding convert that amount into USD dollars (if any our currency other than USD, again for keeping our data sets consistent) and we'll reflect that in our algorithm.
Every company, business, climate positive project emits CO2, but some generate their main profits by producing a lot of CO2, e.g. fossil fuel companies. Generally, if their main purpose in business is to make a profit from fossil fuels, mining, (some) manufacturing, then they are considered a direct emitter.
However, car manufacturing companies, manufacturing ICE vehicles in particular aren't classes as a direct CO2 emitter because, the product they make doesn't directly emit CO2 when made, even though when the car is driven, it does. This topic is somewhat up for debate, but along with the climate change community, we are working together to create the best possible climate change algorithm around. All in the lead-up to some major global climate events, 2025, 2030, 2040, and the big one 2050.
During our research, we failed to find all the details required for around 20% of companies. If you can not find out the information we're looking for, don't worry, and simply select the "not sure" option in the dropdowns. Any missing data here is taken into account during scoring.
This way we can hold companies accountable if they fail to reach those goals. We're rapidly running out of time, so missing key climate goals is critical. If the major companies that have millions of people spending money with them yearly aren't living up to climate standards, we'll know where to turn next.
To add to consumer confusion, there are numerous terms and definitions for the same climate related term. Because of this, we've created a handy guide so it is easy to match similar terms together to ensure we're collecting the correct data for each company.
We're always on the lookout for website feedback, addition or amendments to climate data, and algorithm feedback. If you'd like to help, get in touch with us.
