Appetite for change - Accountancy Nieuws

pwc.com/appetiteforchangeFor most businesses, becoming carbon neutral will requirethe integration of carbon and energy management systemswith operations and key performance indicators. Ratherthan being just an annual number crunching exercise, thesesystems will inform investment decisions and therefore needto be readily available and reliable. For long term or strategicinvestments in infrastructure or energy projects (producingand consuming), companies need to understand sensitivitiesto different policy, carbon price and climate scenarios.Business executives currently consider reputation the secondmost important influence on environmental behaviour aftercompliance (see fig. 1 on page 9), but the influence of otheroperational and strategic issues is likely to grow. Cost savingsis already the third most important influence. One cost beingtargeted by an increasing number of businesses is energy.Across sectors, pressure on margins and cash flows hasreinforced the need for energy efficiency. New technologiesand shorter payback periods (of two to four years, forexample) are creating many options for businesses as they tryto identify projects that are competitive within their portfolios.Figure 29The impact of climate change on different sectors90%8080%7070%6060%5050%4040%3030%2020%1010%00While 58 per cent of business leaders say they have alreadychanged the way they conduct business as a result of climatechange, 84 per cent expect changes in the next two to threeyears (see fig. 5 on page 14 and fig. 7 on page 17). Theincrease in activity will be greatest in some of the sectorswhich are least impacted to date, such as financial services,communications and entertainment.All sectorsFelt impact alreadyRetail & ConsumerEnergy, Utilities& MiningIndustrial ProductsExpect impactTelecommunications,Information,Communications& EntertainmentFinancial ServicesNet changeAppetite for change. PricewaterhouseCoopers. 41