We welcome Boston University students to participate in our research work! Currently, we are looking for students to help with the following project(s). If you are an interested student, please contact Susan.
Corporate Carbon Risk – Which companies are on track to meet their future carbon-reduction targets?
As companies learn more about the risks they face from climate change, they are increasingly setting carbon-emissions reduction pledges for specific values by specific years. However, we know that not all companies met the pledges they set for 2020, and others state that they do not know how they will meet their future goals. Knowing that making a pledge doesn’t necessarily mean they will achieve a goal, we are looking to determine how we can evaluate the likelihood that any carbon-emissions pledge will be achieved.
We are looking for students to join our team and help us learn:
How often do past carbon reduction trends correlate with future achievements?
Which companies have previously met their carbon-reduction targets? How often to they achieve such targets?
Are certain types of targets (mandatory vs voluntary) achieved more frequently?
Does a detailed analysis of planned corporate investments provide a better prediction of target achievement?
Do their investment plans match the carbon-reduction timeline?
Does the technology exist to do what they say they will do?
Anticipated Outcomes:
A better understanding of what is most material in several industries to achieving carbon reductions
A detailed look at the reasons why individual companies met or missed their past targets and the key factors influencing our assessment of the risk associated with their future targets
A methodology to better evaluate which companies are on track to achieve carbon goals
Proposed new data fields that must be reported by companies in order for investors to better gauge the risk of achieving carbon targets.
We have two different types of positions available for students interested in helping us answer these important questions.
1) Corporate Research Assistants
In this role, you will:
Select a company and take a detailed look at their carbon-reduction targets over time, emissions over time, carbon-reduction plans, and investment plans
Compare this detailed analysis with what we can predict based on just looking at past targets and past progress against these targets
We are currently focusing our analysis on the Utility sector, but will likely expand to other industries this summer
Specifically you will:
Select a company
Find all corporate carbon targets publicized by this firm since 2010
Did they meet past targets? Why or why not?
What are their future targets? What evidence exists to support expected achievement of these targets?
Where will you find this info?
Public databases (e.g. CDP, Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Regulation, Bloomberg Terminal)
The CDP provides information on carbon targets and emissions and investments related to energy or emission reduction for the reporting year.
(For Utilities only) Operating company’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP)
The IRP provides information on future carbon targets, investment plans, and net present value (NPV) for each plan.
SEC 10k
The SEC 10k discloses a company’s capital resources and load, amongst other operating and financial results for the fiscal year. This data source is valuable as it would provide us insight into the investments of non-regulated utility companies.
Press releases and/or Sustainability Reports
Press releases provide information on historic and forward-looking data on carbon targets, carbon emissions, and total capital expenditures (with no differentiation or specificity). Sustainability reports often report historic carbon emissions, but focus past and planned actions for carbon reduction.
Investor Presentations
Most public companies discuss their investment plans at a high level during their quarterly earnings call and at their annual meetings with major investors. In many cases, these presentations are posted or reported by Wall Street analysts who follow the company.
When?
Join weekly IMAP meetings to learn where to find this information and share your progress with the larger team. Most work will be conducted independently according to your own schedule.
2) Data Analyst and Data Visualization Assistants
In this role, you will:
Apply your computer science and data analysis tools to unanswered questions regarding corporate carbon emissions
Help extract corporate emissions data, and qualitative carbon planning statements from large excel files of survey responses (such as the CDP), and other text-based sources
Architect and build a database structure to support the visualization of this data by the IMAP research team
Build an online tool to allow asset managers and other interested parties to view and utilize this data together with the additional data created by the corporate research assistants.
Desired skills:
Experience extracting and manipulating complex datasets
Ability to construct visualizations of data to aid in communication
Coursework in computer science or data science/analysis
Experience with Python, Jupyter and/or Microsoft BI
When?
Join bi-weekly IMAP meetings to share your progress with the larger team. Most work will be conducted independently according to your own schedule.
Benefits to you:
Great learning experience; Contribute to important research; Potential payment
