All right, you can stop giving Al Gore awards now. We get it: We need to reduce pollution. It’s often said that what gets measured gets managed, so if we’re going to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other climate-warming gases, we need to know exactly who’s emitting what. A serious effort to address climate change will require most businesses to track and publicly disclose carbon emissions.
That sound you just heard was 1,000 accountants moaning in unison. In a post-Sarbanes-Oxley world, another complex reporting requirement sounds like a royal pain in the financials.
Yet some businesses–hundreds, actually–are already tracking and reporting their emissions, voluntarily. Are they hippie do-gooders? Or have they figured something out?
Efforts are afoot to put the power of law behind disclosure. In September, a group of shareholder activists filed a formal petition with the SEC asking that carbon disclosure be required by securities law. (The EPA is for sissies; real greens go SEC.) And at least one bill floating around Congress, the National Greenhouse Gas Registry Act, would require all businesses (save small ones) to report emissions.
