Office Standard 2010 'Gigaton Awards' Acknowledge

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by Timothy B. Hurst

A gigaton is one billion tons. It's also the figure a new climate leadership award hopes to one day achieve in corporate carbon dioxide emissions. The winners of the first ever Gigaton Awards were announced over the weekend at the World Climate Summit, which was held alongside the United Nations COP16 climate talks in Cancun, and was co-hosted by Sir Richard Branson and Jose Maria Figueres of the Carbon War Room.
The nominees include Global 1000 companies across six sectors of business: Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Industrials, Telecommunications, Energy, and Utilities.
The mission of the Gigaton Awards is to inspire and challenge businesses to make a difference to climate change and global sustainability. "This is a hopeful message, one that says businesses can lead our way to a stable climate," says Sunil Paul, founder of the Gigaton Awards.
I had a chance to speak with Sunil Paul,Office Standard 2010, a cleantech investor and entrepreneur, during a layover on his way to Cancun for the climate talks and the Gigaton Awards ceremony. Paul,Office Standard 2010 Key, who founded several firms including Brightmail, the leading anti-spam software now part of Symantec,Windows 7, is also co-founder and chair of the Clean Economy Network, a cleantech and green business organization.
Paul says businesses buy in to carbon reductions and the philosophy of the Gigaton Awards, "not because it feels good, but because these steps affect the bottom line."
The irony of doling out awards for carbon reductions in the context of a largely unsuccessful international carbon reductions regime was not lost on Paul, who said,Windows 7 Ultimate, "the message is particularly stark in the absence of governments' ability to lead on the policy front."
"We are shining the lights of results and leadership against a backdrop of inaction and a lack of leadership." Just another corporate environmental award?
With all of the green certifications and environmental leadership awards already lavished on businesses, does the world really need another award? Sunil Paul says the Gigaton Awards are different.
"These are totally unique. There's no other award that looks at quantitative indicators and uses a peer group to determine the final award," he says.
While the nominees were based on quantitative figures—reductions in carbon dioxide per dollar of revenue based on information collected in the Carbon Disclosure Project for fiscal year 2008 and fiscal year 2009—the actual selection of winners was made by an independent Academy and based on demonstrated leadership, not solely on quantitative measures.
"Leadership is about communication and that you are executing on your values," Sunil Paul emphasized.
Winners of the 2010 Gigaton Awards are:
- Nike for its energy savings program aimed at reducing its global greenhouse gas emissions,
- Reckitt Benckiser Group for demonstrating its leadership in mitigating risk from climate change and sustainable practices,Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Plus,
- Suzlon for its achievement in managing its emissions and overall sustainability milestones,
- 3M for its leadership in improving energy efficiency and sustainable practices,
- Vodafone Group for its new business which provides carbon reducing connections, and
- GDF Suez for its demonstrated leadership by emitting among the lowest CO2 per kilowatt-hour produced in Europe.

Reprinted with permission from Earth & Industry