SNK Capital Trust believes that the way investors value companies is changing into a model that takes into account sales, profits and dividends but also long-term environmental and social costs. Phrases like “going green”, “eco-friendly” and “sustainable practices” are now much more than just cants to investors.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for a company to assume that the environmental effects of its business will have no cost. For example, many global economic giants are in the process of creating strategies and regulations that will put a discrete cost on emitting GHG. (Greenhouse Gases). From a regulation and public relates vantage point they may not have much choice
In Europe, The European Union Emission Trading Scheme is a multi-national effort by countries that have signed the Kyoto Protocol and pledged to reduce GHG through caps and emissions trading for carbon credits. Emissions trading has been going on in Europe since 2005, and global trading in carbon credits grew to $30 billion from $11 billion in just one year (2005 to 2006), according to the SNK Capital Trust and the Harvard Business Review
Some companies, like SNK Capital Trustwill be leading the charge (whether for image or substance) even doing things aren’t instantly profitable in the short term; others will be happy to wait on the sidelines until they are driven to change, either through taxation or regulation. When the future inevitably becomes the here and now, companies who arrive late to the game not only risk higher than anticipated costs, they also risk falling behind their competitors in knowledge and shareholder image.
