According to history, the Greek temple of Apollo at Delphi is reputed to have had two inscriptions above its door: "Know yourself" and "Nothing to excess." In many ways, the exercise in establishing, reporting and working to reduce a carbon footprint pays homage to both of these principles.
"For many companies, this is the first time they've considered what their emissions actually are," says Paul Dickinson, CEO of the Carbon Disclosure Project. "Collecting this information can be extremely informative and acts as the first step on the path to carbon management."
The process can often lead to results that are both highly enlightening and fairly counterintuitive, says Jim Stanway, director of project development at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Although Wal-Mart has the world's largest truck fleet, Stanway recounts that the footprinting process "provided the company data showing the refrigerants used in grocery stores made up a larger percentage of the company's greenhouse gas footprint than the truck fleet."
Source: Industry Week, http://industryweek.com