Corporate Emission Profiles: Analyzing the 160 largest German Companies

Addressing climate change is a critical imperative of the 21st century. Large companies are a significant contributor to global carbon emissions, making it crucial to understand their ecological impact. This paper examines the emission profiles of the 160 largest publicly listed German companies, focusing on their environmental and financial impact on decarbonization efforts. The aim is to analyze the progress in corporate carbon reporting, identify the biggest drivers of emissions and better understand companies' baseline for decarbonization. A quantitative research approach is used to analyze data from financial and sustainability reports of the DAX, MDAX and SDAX companies. The results show that carbon reporting is at different stages in Germany depending on the company size. Scope 3 is responsible for most emissions across all company sizes, which is largely attributable to purchased goods and services and use of sold products. Product manufacturing emerges as the most important source of emissions, underlining its crucial role in decarbonization. In addition, industrial companies emit by far the most emissions but face the lowest profits per ton emissions, making decarbonization a complex task. Although service companies emit fewer emissions and generate the highest profits per ton emissions, they must contend with numerous smaller emission drivers. Overall, the results underline the importance of the engineering department within the companies as well as the collaboration with suppliers and customers for effective decarbonization.