How would you respond to these environmental questions?

How can thinking about climate change affect your life? Environmental Forum readers, you may have seen our Sept. 13 announcement about being included in Carbon Disclosure Projects's (CDP) Carbon Performance Leadership Index . The index recognizes companies for excellence in carbon disclosure reporting as well as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction performance.

We're certainly proud to be in the index, and congratulate all the other companies that are in the index with us. As a CDP signatory, we also appreciate the companies that have responded to the CDP questionnaire. According to CDP, 81% of corporations from the Global 500—the largest companies by market capitalization included in the FTSE Global Equity Index Series —and 69% of the S&P 500® companies responded to the CDP questionnaire this year.

Completing the CDP questionnaire is no easy task, but it's very worthwhile because it provides a framework for thinking about how climate change can affect your business. When I'm working on it, I can't help but think about how the questions are also applicable to individuals.

With that in mind, I'd like to take this opportunity to pose some of the survey questions to YOU. I've paraphrased a sampling of questions for individuals versus businesses.

Is climate change integrated into your strategy for how you live life? Are you thinking about it?

If yes, how is your lifestyle influenced by climate change? What aspects of climate change have influenced your lifestyle and what are the expected long-and short-term outcomes? (i.e. How are you affected by it and what are you doing about it?)
If no, explain why not.

Have you identified any climate change risks (current or future) that have the potential to generate a substantive change in your life, home, income, or spending habits?

If yes, please describe those risks.
If no, please explain.

What are your GHG emissions? (Tip: You can use the EPA Household Carbon Footprint Calculator to estimate your emissions. It's easy and takes just about 15 minutes or so.)

Have you set a goal to reduce your GHG emissions?

If yes, please describe the goal and how much progress you've made towards meeting that goal. How are you meeting that goal? How much have you spent to or invested in reducing your GHG emissions, and has it been worth it in savings?
If not, please explain why not.

How would you respond to the questions? Take some time to think about them and please use the comment section to share your responses with us and other forum readers! If you're interested in our responses, they're currently available to the public on the CDP website, and will also be posted on our Environmental Affairs page later this year.

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