Nov. 9, 2009 (Business Wire) -- Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK), a world leader in 2D and 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, has developed a new and more rigorous methodology for corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) target setting. Autodesk developed the Corporate Finance Approach to Climate-Stabilizing Targets (C-FACT) to align its own GHG reduction targets with global scientific and policy climate stabilization targets.

C-FACT is more science-driven, business-friendly, and transparent than current methodologies being used by most companies. In measuring its GHG emissions, Autodesk aims to lead the field in taking responsibility not just for direct emissions, but also for a wide range of indirect emissions including business travel, leased facilities, employee commuting, major conferences, and data center vendors. Uniquely, these are all included under Autodesk’s new GHG target.

“Corporate GHG target setting has become a little like the Wild West, with few laws, little scrutiny, and quite a bit of aimless shooting,” said Emma Stewart, senior program lead for Autodesk’s sustainability initiative. “C-FACT takes a different approach that accommodates the normal changes to our business. And we are challenging other companies to reduce their GHGs in line with scientific and policy climate stabilization targets of 85 percent by 2050.”

Autodesk’s C-FACT advocates that companies adopt a normalized goal using a more nuanced approach that recognizes they are GHG emitters but simultaneously create economic value. It takes the 2008 BT Climate Stabilization Intensity model a step further by changing the measure of added value to be universally acceptable by any accounting system, and it introduces new mathematical principles that allow it to be:

• Proportional, Replicable and Verifiable: Corporate commitments should be proportional to the company’s value to the economy, while holding performance accountable with replicable and verifiable information.
• Non-prescriptive, Flexible, and Predictable: Allows individual business units to make decisions and commit to targets to; adapts to short-term deviations from the target trajectory; predictable forecasting incorporated into business planning and optimization of cost-savings.
• Compatible and Fair: Compatible with generally accepted corporate finance principles and fair to companies of all sizes, GHG footprints, and growth prospects.

Autodesk has committed to C-FACT through 2020, as well as performance reports against the stated target at the close of each fiscal year (FY).