Corporate environmental data disclosure project. A dashboard platform to give more visibility on the world top companies’ climate change-related targets and achievements

In 2020, with COVID-19, the world has faced one of the first major consequences of a problem it created on its own, through mass production, consumerism, centralization and constant relocations, putting the global economy on hold for months. It emphasizes the limits of a system based only on the economic efficiency of governmental institutions and companies. Economic models are developed to maximize production efficiency and cost-effectiveness, too often at the expense of people’s wellbeing. That is why, it is more than ever the time to build, as the OECD already stated it for its post crisis recovery plan in 2014 [1], more “Resilient Economies and Inclusive Societies”. Indeed, a country or a company cannot base its key performance indicators (KPI) only on its gross domestic product (GDP) for the former or its annual financial report (10-K) for the latter anymore, but need to take into consideration a more systemic approach, implementing social and environmental indicators when the time comes to take stock of the situation. The purpose of this research work is to focus on the environmental aspect of this issue. Thanks to academic research on the topic, supranational institutions’ recommendations, and the experience I acquired during my final internship at the global energy company ENGIE, I tried to develop an interactive data disclosure platform giving more visibility and transparency on most of the multinational companies’ environmental targets and achievements. Most of the database utilized in this project comes from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), an organization that accompanies major corporations and cities to disclose their environmental impact. CDP annually asks around 9,600 of the biggest companies in the world to disclose their actions regarding climate change. Therefore, the platform created consists in disclosing some of the most relevant ones, specifically related to the energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions, in a very condensed and straightforward dashboard using a data visualisation and user experience-oriented design approach. In a world where data analysis is becoming ubiquitous as it allows new field of possibilities but also raises some essential ethical issues, this data driven platform aims to provide further insights, environmentally speaking, to various stakeholders. From the company’s own clients to suppliers, from green investors to possible future employees, and more generally every individual concerned about climate change, all could possibly benefit from having, at a glance, a vision of a company’s environmental targets and achievements.