BT debuts CSI: carbon reduction

BT has today unveiled a new economic model for measuring a firm's "carbon intensity", which the telecoms giant claims will make it easier for companies to set effective carbon reduction targets.

Launched as BT announced fresh plans to cut its own global carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2020, the new model aims to link a company's carbon emissions with its financial performance, allowing executives to better account for the likely impact of corporate expansion on their carbon footprint.

Developed by BT director of sustainable development Dr Chris Tuppen, the Climate Stabilisation Intensity (CSI) model links data on a firm's carbon emissions and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation), to global emission reduction goals recommended by the UN, to work out an appropriate emission reduction target for the firm.

In the past, some companies have been criticised by environmentalists for adopting carbon intensity targets for reducing carbon emissions in relation to sales that would theoretically allow them to increase emissions as long as sales increased at a faster rate. However, a spokeswoman for BT said the aim of the new CSI model was to instead develop an understanding of a firm's carbon intensity that would allow executives to set more appropriate absolute emission reduction targets.

"Currently, if you grow organically or acquire a new company it is very difficult to adjust your absolute emission reduction target," she explained. " This model allows you to work out what the new target should be and also allows you to compare different companies' relative performance in cutting emissions, even when they are growing at different rates."

She added that the model would allow an expanding company to work out how steep its emission reduction curve would need to be to hit an absolute goal.

Jonathon Porritt, founder director of Forum for the Future and chair of BT's advisory panel, hailed the CSI model as "a groundbreaking new way of setting targets" and urged more firms to adopt the approach.

His comments were echoed by environmental reporting lobby group the Carbon Disclosure Project, which BT said would now work with the company to promote wider adoption of the approach.

BT said it would also use the model internally to draw up an international road map for curbing its own emissions by 80 per cent by 2020. The company – which claims to have already cut emissions by 60 per cent between 1996 and 2008 – said it intended to achieve the new target through a number of measures, including purchasing low-carbon electricity, investing in its own renewable energy capacity and embracing energy efficiency measures.