Insurers Aviva, Axa and RSA ranked among top 10 greenest firms in Europe

The ET Europe 300 Carbon Ranking highlights the best and the worst of the continent's top businesses, focusing not just on emissions but also on levels of disclosure and verification.

First place Aviva is followed closely by Dutch insurer Aegon in second, with respective Carbon Intensities of 0.85 and 1.35 (tCO2e/$M turnover).

Axa came fourth (1.71) and RSA seventh (4.23).

EIO claims to employ a transparent methodology for its ranking, based on public reporting of Scope 1 and 2 emissions according to the widely accepted Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

The companies mentioned above rank in the top category of the ET Carbon Rankings because they publicly report ‘public, complete and verified' data for their Scope 1 & 2 Greenhouse Gas emissions, EIO added.

The number of companies providing data in this category totals 129 across Europe's largest 300 companies.

Sam Gill, operational director of the EIO, said: "The purpose of the carbon rankings is two fold: to highlight the carbon emissions and levels of disclosure of the world's largest companies with the aim of fostering greater transparency and to form the basis of a series of stock market indexes, designed specifically to provide the investment community with a viable tool for tackling climate change.

"Despite most companies producing corporate social responsibility reports there remains a remarkable lack of transparency and clarity in greenhouse gas emissions reporting

"Through our series of global, regional and national ET carbon rankings, the public can access emissions data in an understandable format in one place, highlighting the leaders and laggards."

Having already launched its ET UK 100 carbon ranking in February and today the Europe 300, the EIO will be rolling out further regional rankings in the coming months with the ET North America 300, Asia-Pacific 300 and BRICS 100 all under development.

These will be followed by the ET Global 800 which will rank the largest companies in the world with no geographical bias. All ET Carbon Rankings follow the same simple methodology.

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