Highlights in 2011
activity to reduce emissions by responding companies is to improve energy efficiency in processes, with a total of 163 initiatives underway. Figure 11 also highlights the number of energy efficiency initiatives which have a payback period between one and three years, 37% or a total of 61 initiatives have a short-term economic justification. The second highest number of emissions reduction initiatives implemented are energy efficiency improvements in the management of buildings with a total of 88 active initiatives. The payback period for these activities is somewhat longer, only 16% (14) of the initiatives have a return period of three years, while 39% (34) of them have a payback period of three years or longer. Other initiatives in emissions reductions do not have a clear payback period. From these results we can deduce that among the responding companies in the Iberia 125 sample the most common investments are in emissions reduction activities with short-term financial returns. This differs from the Global 500 results which indicate that companies in that sample are more willing to invest in activities with a medium to long term payback. However, there are many initiatives, over 230, listed by the responding companies in the Iberia 125 sample which did not include an estimated payback period, thus the
assumption can be made that some companies are implementing emission reduction initiatives for reasons other than the direct financial returns.
Also noteworthy are initiatives related to behavioural change (50 activities) which is the third most popular type of initiative carried out by the Iberia 125. Initiatives centring on behavioural change have the highest proportion of activities with a return period of less than one year (43% of the actions pay for themselves in this period).
Aside from the financial return of emissions reductions initiatives, companies can generate financial return from developing new business in the low carbon solutions sector. Up to 79% (38) of the responding companies already offer products or services helping third parties to reduce their emissions.
Emissions reductions
A total of 39 (81%) companies in the Iberia 125 sample provide consistent and comparable data for Scope 1 and 2 emissions and their emissions from the previous year. Table 3 shows these companies together with the volume of emissions and the percentage change from the previous year. Based on this data, the total emissions from these companies for
the past year is 166,307,505 tCO2e, and a reduction of 13% of emissions has been achieved by these companies compared to the previous year. It should be noted that this calculation includes Scope 2 emissions so there could be double counting of the emissions. However, it is a valid estimate that was made possible due to the progress of companies in providing more detailed responses to the CDP questionnaire.
As in previous years, Utilities are responsible for a greater amount of emissions. Four of the five largest Iberia 125 companies in terms of quantity of emissions are from this sector. This sector has also achieved the largest emissions reductions over the previous year, in total 46%. It is also important to consider that Utilities have a greater margin of emission reductions than other sectors.
When handling these figures one must bear in mind that not all companies have yet established emissions inventory systems to allow for comparison, especially those companies reporting their emissions for the first time.
25
Figure 12: Percentage of
companies in the Iberia 125 sample offering products or services helping third parties to reduce emissions
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