Seventy percent of companies believe that climate change has the potential to affect their revenue significantly, according to a new report by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) in partnership with Accenture.

Two years ago, the director of sustainability at a $1bn consumer-products company suggested the corporate budget committee add a new criterion in deciding which capital projects to approve: the project's environmental impact. The director devised a metric for measuring the impact in categories such as water usage, waste reduction, packaging and carbon emissions. The idea saved $20m the first year.