Several major shipping companies took important steps in 2008 to improve their climate performance, according to Climate Counts, which released its second annual scorecard for the shipping industry in December 2008.
Annual Climate Scorecard for Shipping Companies Shows Widespread Improvement
DHL was the leader again this year with a score of 67 points (up from 45 in 2007), followed by FedEx with 53 points (up from 28 last year), the U.S. Postal Service with 50 points (up from 43) and UPS at 40 points (up just one point from its 2007 score of 39).
Climate Counts, which publishes a yearly ranking that measures how effectively shipping companies address global warming through their business practices, said improvements were made throughout the shipping industry in 2008.
“This is great news for holiday shoppers looking to make their gift-giving as green as possible this year, and an indication of what we hope to continue to see from the shipping sector,” said Wood Turner, project director of Climate Counts, a nonprofit organization that was launched with financial support from Stonyfield Farm. “We are glad to see improvements across the board in this sector since last year. It certainly contrasts with the fast-food sector, which continues to lag in meaningful efforts to address global warming and energy conservation. Hopefully, the shipping sector’s progress will be an example to others.”
FedEx Achieves Most Improved Climate Performance in 2008
Since the first Climate Counts shipping scorecard, released in late 2007, the biggest improvements in the sector have come from FedEx and DHL. FedEx nearly doubled its score to place second among major shippers after coming in last in 2007.
Along with other improvements, both FedEx and DHL did a better job of measuring their global warming pollution in 2008. The two companies also strengthened their goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improved their reporting on the achievement of real reductions, and increased the climate accountability of their management. In addition, both DHL and FedEx have taken positive and increasingly vocal positions on public policy and legislation that would address global climate change.
How Climate Counts Scores Shipping Companies’ Climate Performance
The Climate Counts annual ranking for shipping companies uses a scale of one to 100 (with 100 being the best) that is based on 22 criteria. The scorecard measures companies’ efforts to assess their carbon footprints, reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, support or oppose progress on major climate legislation, and communicate their efforts clearly and comprehensively.
The Climate Counts Company Scorecard offers shoppers who want to “ship green” the chance to flex their consumer muscles and exercise the power of their pocketbooks by supporting the companies that are most aggressively pursuing solutions to the growing climate crisis.
The Climate Counts Company Scorecard was developed with oversight from a panel of business and climate experts from leading nongovernmental organizations and academic institutions. The criteria were chosen for their effectiveness at accomplishing a single goal: to stop global warming. Climate Counts researchers then used these criteria to rate companies based on a point system for climate-related actions. Companies were given an opportunity to confirm the public data sources that Climate Counts used for scoring or to provide public sources of their own.
