Global Warming Footprints
One particularly powerful application of the Social Footprint method involves global warming issues, and the problem of organizational contributions to climate change. The question we ask of organizations is, 'To what extent are you contributing towards achievement of a plan to lower greenhouse gas emissions and stabilize CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere to safe levels?’
To quantitatively pose the question, we've relied on a specific plan to reduce and stabilize CO2 emissions in the atmosphere, known as the 'WRE350' scenario. Developed by Wigley, Richels, and Edmunds, three well-known climatologists, the WRE350 scenario specifies a pattern of CO2 emissions in the 21st century and beyond required to lower CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere to a stable state of 350 parts per million (ppm).
In the organizational analyses listed below, we studied actual CO2 emissions by a random set of organizations to see how they compared to the levels specified by the WRE350 plan. It should be stressed that all of the data shown in the associated reports are unconfirmed, and were mostly gathered from public sources, such as corporate financial and sustainability reports. None of the reports were prepared with assistance from the organizations involved.
Organizations interested in having Global Warming Footprints performed for their own operations should contact CSI's Executive Director, Mark W. McElroy, for more information.
