Corporate cash deposits are a huge source of carbon emissions, and sustainability leaders need to engage their bankers. Most companies don’t report the "hidden" carbon emissions generated by how their corporate cash deposits are invested, but it’s larger than many realize. If Apple, Google and Salesforce included that data in their disclosures, their total emissions would rise by 128 percent, 207 percent and 206 percent, respectively, according to an analysis published this week by a group of NGOs. Their analysis found that non-financial companies in the United States cumulatively hold $7 trillion in cash and investments. The cumulative emissions enabled by those cash holdings account for more than 20 percent of all U.S. emissions, according to the Carbon Bankroll 2.0 report. By engaging with their financial partners to decarbonize those portfolios, those corporations could facilitate major emissions reductions, the report concluded. Emissions linked to financial investments are part of a company’s Scope 3 footprint, which includes emissions related to upstream and downstream business activities over which a company doesn’t have direct control. Most companies don’t disclose their "financed emissions" information voluntarily, but the numbers were "a bit shocking" for Patrick Flynn, former global head of sustainability for Salesforce, when he learned of the scale of these emissions for the company in 2021. Salesforce is considered a pioneer in supplier engagement on decarbonization. "We had analyzed our supply chain emissions every which way," wrote Flynn, now corporate climate action lead at Topo Finance among other roles, in the new report’s preface. Financial firms are the "most important supply chain partner for climate action," wrote Flynn. Some of the most powerful levers for climate actions can be found in what have been traditionally seen as mundane administrative decisions. In the Carbon Bankroll 2.0... |