, Columnist
The Startups That Could Close the Greenwashing Loopholes
The fintech revolution offers a roadmap for how to accurately measure carbon footprints.
How much is greenwashing?
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images North AmericaThis article is for subscribers only.
Greta Thunberg threw the “greenwashing” charge at financial officials at COP26 last week in what has become a regular problem for companies grappling to become more environmentally friendly. But here’s one reason the slur is so widespread: measuring a carbon footprint is hard.
If you’ve ever tried doing your own taxes, think back to that convoluted task and multiply it by 10. That is carbon accounting, a practice so mind-bogglingly complex that it is hard to imagine anyone but the Big Four consultancy firms, or cloud giants like Salesforce Inc. and SAP SE, doing it properly.