Thomas Cook promises investors it will outline its carbon footprint

Terry Macalister
The Guardian,
Monday October 13 2008

Thomas Cook has agreed to provide information on its carbon footprint after being "named and shamed" by investors last week, amid growing political clamour for change.
The travel group was one of more than 100 companies in the FTSE 250 list of leading companies on the London Stock Exchange that declined to reveal how they were trying to tackle global warming.
The reluctance of a large number of firms to respond to the annual survey by the Carbon Disclosure Project led 60 MPs to write to Gordon Brown demanding that carbon reporting should be mandatory.
Thomas Cook, InterContinental Hotels and waste management group Biffa are just some of the groups that have refused to participate in the study. A spokesman for the travel group told the Guardian that it would from now on support the scheme, which was set up by investors holding trillions of dollars of assets under management.
"We can confirm that we did respond to the Carbon Disclosure Project and in doing so explained that we were unable to take part for the current project, but would do so in future years," said a spokesman for Thomas Cook. "Given the year that the project was reporting on was the year of the merger of Thomas Cook and MyTravel, unfortunately we did not have a common set of measures for our newly formed group.
"We assured the Carbon Disclosure Project in our response in June 2008 that we have every intention to take part in the future. We are committed to operating in a responsible and sustainable way by minimising our negative and enhancing our positive environmental impact through cultural change and significant investment."
Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, and former environment ministers Michael Meacher and Elliot Morley are among the signatories to a letter to the prime minister expressing grave concern that the government has weakened a provision in the Climate Change Bill to force companies to disclose their carbon footprint.
"It is absolutely essential that we know how much CO2 companies are pumping into the atmosphere if we are to have any chance at all of combating the disastrous consequences of climatic change," said Morley, who has been working with companies and campaign groups that are part of the lobbying Aldersgate Group.