Economic Message of the Week: Survey: More Corporations Now Mindful of Emissions

According to a new survey, more top corporations are keeping close track of their greenhouse gas emissions and assigning personnel to manage or curb them.

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a nonprofit organization that advocates the calculation and public dissemination of carbon footprint statistics in the business world, says 332 of the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 companies responded to this year's survey on emissions numbers–66 percent, up from 64 percent last year.

For the first time, the CDP project is ranking companies according to their compliance with requests to publicize emissions numbers and the steps they are taking to fight global warming.

Comerica Inc. was the leader in this year's rankings, followed by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Chevron Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. Best Buy Co. Inc. and News Corp. also placed among the top firms.

This year's survey also finds an increase in corporations establishing targets for reducing emissions. Fifty-two percent of the S&P 500 firms responding to the study disclosed specific reduction targets, up from 32 percent in 2008.