Cummins Posts First TCFD Report on Climate Actions

Global power leader Cummins has posted its first environmental sustainability report aligned to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), a platform created to improve and increase reporting of climate-related information. 

The company’s TCFD report joins Cummins reports aligned to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), and the CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) in addition to Cummins Sustainability Progress Reports. The company has been reporting annually on its sustainability work since 2003.

Cummins’ 27-page TCFD report details the company’s strategy to address climate change, governance at Cummins for overseeing the company’s climate-related initiatives, its structure to manage climate-related risks and the metrics and targets the company uses to evaluate its impact on climate issues.

The new report borrows significantly from PLANET 2050, Cummins’ environmental sustainability strategy. PLANET 2050 includes science-based goals timed to 2030 and aligned to the Paris Agreement on climate change, as well as the aspiration to be carbon neutral by 2050. The new TCFD report also draws heavily from information included in the company’s annual CDP Climate Report. Cummins has been reporting to the CDP framework since 2006 and posting its response publicly since 2014.  

Finally, the new report includes extensive information on the company’s two decades of leadership on emissions related issues, from having the first heavy-duty engine certified to tough new EPA standards in 2002 to the unveiling of PLANET 2050 in the last quarter of 2019. Cummins has long supported tough, clear and enforceable regulations that spur innovation in the commercial power industry. It has actively advocated for action on the world’s climate challenges.

TCFD has emerged quickly as an important platform in environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting over the past five years. 

The TCFD standards received a major boost in 2020 when Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, an investment management corporation based in New York City, called the standards a “valuable framework” for reporting on climate risk in his influential annual letter to CEOs.