Trucost has received extensive media coverage from the National, Business and Environmental press, and across a broad range of trade media. Here are a few examples:

There is further muddle over the accounts modernisation directive, which requires companies to enhance their non-financial reporting. The government originally incorporated the directive into the requirement that companies publish an operating financial review, a broadly drawn account of the factors affecting future performance, before suddenly abolishing the OFR rule months before companies began to report against it. Simon Thomas, chief executive of Trucost, an environmental consultancy, said: "We've all been talking about the OFR but no one knows that the accounts modernisation directive is out there." After the rule's abolition, Trucost contacted more than 160 company contacts with OFR responsibility and found that less than 10% had heard of the underlying directive. "Companies that were responding to the OFR thought that they now had nothing to report, which is not true," he said.

Thomas, who helped develop the government's [Defra] environmental reporting guidelines, said: "At least the guidance is something that companies can hold on to. This is the official government guide on how to report your environmental performance. The feeling from companies is that at least this piece of the puzzle is clear." [January 2006]

Environmental Finance

"An array of organisations have expressed confusion and anger at the unexpected scrapping of a requirement for large UK companies to publish OFRs. Research company Trucost, which has been helping Defra delineate key performance indicators for the OFR, offered a more optimistic view for those concerned about the environmental impact of business. It says that the mandatory OFR was "a specific implementation of the EU Accounts Modernisation Directive (AMD), which requires companies to produce an 'enhanced directors' report'" and, even if the OFR is scrapped, most UK-listed firms will still have to adhere to this." [December 2005/January 2006]

"The scrapping of the OFR has left companies ignorant over their future reporting obligations. A survey by environmental research company Trucost found that just 9% of the companies surveyed had heard of the EU accounts modernisation directive, which contains many of the same reporting requirements as the OFR, including obligations on environmental disclosure, and is still part of law." [December 2005]

"Trucost, an environmental data provider, has won clients among investors keen to quantify the environmental damage being caused by the companies in which they invest. Jane Ambachtsheer, leader of Mercer Investment Consulting's socially responsible team, said: 'The interest being shown in Trucost's research helps to show the speed at which the climate change debate is moving.' By using available information and making estimates where necessary, Trucost provides data on the amount of carbon dioxide generated by companies around the world. In finalising its carbon audit, Trucost assigns a cost that relates to the price at which carbon dioxide permits are trading in the open market, and government estimates of damage caused to society. Trucost can also calculate potential clean-up costs relating to other forms of pollution. It can then calculate the environmental footprint of stocks held in different portfolios to indicate the net risk exposure." [November 2005]

Financial Times

"One area developing fast is the use of key performance indicators (KPIs)... but precisely which KPIs should be disclosed is up to each company. The choice has been left open so that each market sector can gradually work out what is required. In some areas, such as environmental reporting, work is already under way to create commonality. Trucost has been working with the UK government's Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs to produce such guidance." [November 2005]

Investment and Pensions Europe

"Simon Thomas, chief executive of Trucost, says: 'The reason that investment managers don't factor in SRI is a lack of data from companies. At present only 10% of FTSE companies are disclosing to the minimum level that the government is asking for. So the government asked us to look at their guidelines. With all these new regulatory and other pressures companies would appreciate more guidance. The guidelines will simply recommend to companies what areas they should be reporting on.'" [November 2005]

Investment Advisor

"The research, conducted by Henderson and environmental researchers Trucost, put a figure on the cost of carbon emissions to FTSE 100 companies. Nick Robins, head of SRI funds at Henderson, said: 'Markets do not take into account the financial costs involved in the environmental impact of carbon emissions created by companies. The more climate change can be considered an economic issue the better.'" [October 2005]

IR Magazine

"Universal performance indicators that measure climate change impact are necessary for investors to be able to compare risk across different companies and sectors. In July Trucost and the UK's Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) released reporting guidelines for environmental performance for UK companies. Trucost is seeing an increasing number of investors looking at global warming, and Chaney [head of commercial development at Trucost] says the firm is approaching this from two sides: 'One is the modeling side, which looks at the financial impact, and the other is the engagement side - investors want to know companies are looking at this.'" [October 2005]

Investor Relations magazine

"Global warming deserves its own category in the investment world as an intangible that's difficult to quantify but impossible to ignore. 'The real issue is lack of comparability in data,' notes Vince Chaney, head of commercial development at Trucost, the UK based environmental research company that conducted the Henderson study. Trucost is seeing a number of investors looking at global warming, and Chaney says the firm is approaching this from two sides. 'One is the modelling side, which looks at the financial impact, and the other is the engagement side - investors want to know companies are looking at this.' he says." [October 2005]

Financial Times

"Last July, the UK government published a report on environmental performance indicators - the most important among them being carbon emissions. 'If government thinks it's important for companies to disclose their environmental impact, then it would also make sense to use the same performance indicator to guide procurement decisions' says Mr Thomas." [10th October 2005]

The Daily Telegraph

"In a sign of what may come, Trucost, an environmental research organisation, has analysed the carbon emission contributions of FTSE 100 companies. Portfolios can be compared with this benchmark, and rated green or otherwise. Unsurprisingly, portfolios full of resource shares score poorly in this analysis." [10th September 2005]

Ethical Corporation

"A new set of UK government guidelines on environmental reporting look set to be taken seriously. Progress will be reviewed within between three to five years but a voluntary nature is preferred across both government and the investment community. Simon Thomas, chief executive of Trucost, an environmental research company, says that the balance is for companies to produce useful, comprehensive, comparable data without pressure from an over-prescriptive government. Placing environmental reporting at the discretion of a company director often produces more interesting reports, says Trucost's Thomas." [4th August 2005]

The Guardian

"Henderson's recent Carbon 100 report, produced with Trucost, an environmental research consultancy, has evaluated the carbon emissions of the FTSE 100 index. In terms of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e), Trucost found the 100 companies accounted for 1.6% of the world total. Just five of these companies - Shell, BP, Scottish Power, Corus and BHP Billiton - generated more than two-thirds of the FTSE 100 total. Trucost also estimated that the emissions from products sold by five UK oil and mining companies accounted for more than 10% of total global fossil fuel emissions." [28th July 2005]

Financial Times

"Businesses will be asked to report their impact on the environment from today with a set of voluntary guidelines that will become compulsory if not followed. The guidelines, published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and drawn up with Trucost, an environmental consultancy, cover 25 areas on which businesses should report. These include the management of waste, emissions of greenhouse gases, the extraction of water and use of resources such as fuel." [27th June 2005]

The Observer

"UK-listed oil and gas companies account for by far the biggest segment of corporate Britain's carbon emissions. According to Henderson Global Investors, (which carried out its research with environmental consultants Trucost) which manages a number of socially responsible investment funds, Shell and BP alone are responsible for 40 per cent of the FTSE 100's emissions." [27th June 2005]

Pensions Week

"The Carbon 100, published by Trucost, an environmental research firm, analysed the carbon emissions of the FTSE 100 companies. Commissioned by Henderson Global Investors, the report is an attempt to persuade investors of the environmental impact of their investments." [20th June 2005]

The Independent on Sunday

"The cost of emissions trading will not be insignificant, and most airlines are expected to pass it on to the consumer. Trucost, an environmental research company, calculates that based on a market price of carbon at €17.20 (£11.70) per tonne, the average ticket price in Europe would rise by 1.9 per cent. However, the low-cost airlines would be hardest hit, with ticket prices rising by up to 7.9 per cent." [24 April 2005]

Investor Relations Magazine

"Trucost covers more than 1,900 companies worldwide, including those in the FTSE All-Share, S&P 500, Nikkei 225, DJ Stoxx and SCI indexes. It also recently won a contract from the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to help local companies decide which environmental performance indicators they need to report on in their forthcoming operating and financial review (OFR)." [April 2005]

Financial News

"For most UK companies, the deadline for publishing their first operating and financial reviews is more than a year away. However, groups will struggle to meet the deadline unless they start preparing, advisers say. Simon Thomas, chief executive of Trucost, an environmental consultancy, agreed that company departments will need to work together if the review is to have any cohesion. "I'd encourage a meeting between corporate communications, the company secretary's department and the finance director to look at the issues that they are likely to report on, and what steps they need to take to collect the data,' he said." [21st February 2005]

The Guardian

"Bob Monks is excited about the firm's [Trucost's] ability to assign costs to companies from their environmental impact. "That means you suddenly have numbers. With such numbers can come demands for accountability." Monks thinks this is the beginning of the real game of corporate governance. "I'm trying to move away from a narrow, balance sheet type of accounting," he said. "Everybody knows that accounting is inadequate. It's very, very difficult to get an expanded notion of accounting, where you take into account externalities, soft assets. Investing in Trucost is the beginning of an effort to do that."" [28th January 2005]

Financial Times Fund Management (FT FM)

"Companies will have to pay more attention to risk factors such as the environment under new corporate reporting regulations, including the UK operating and financial review (OFR) and European Union modernisation directive. US companies are also under pressure to provide more information about environmental liabilities in their filings under management's discussion and analysis regulations. Bob Monks said Trucost was the only environmental research firm in the world with a rigorous quantitative approach that institutions and businesses could base key decisions on." [29th November 2004]

Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)

"Trucost has developed a framework that companies can use to determine relevant KPIs for the environmental component of their OFR, making maximum use of the data that they routinely collect." [September 2004]

Real IR

"Less than a quarter of FTSE All Share companies provide quantitative information about environmental issues in their annual reports, according to a recent study by the UK's Environment Agency and Trucost, a non-financial disclosure specialist." [September 2004]

Financial Times

"Only one in ten of the FTSE All-Share companies report on waste, water, energy or climate change, even though the environment department's reporting guidelines recommend all companies report on these issues as a minimum, says a report by Trucost." [15th July 2004]

The ENDS Report

"The Environment Agency commissioned Trucost to establish the baseline of environmental disclosure in the annual reports and accounts of the 570 companies listed on the FTSE All-Share Index. Speaking at the launch, Trucost chairman Simon Thomas said that one of the most striking findings was that overall reporting levels were not related to sectoral impacts but to company size." [July 2004]

Financial News

"Trucost's approach is to put a financial figure on the resources a company consumes and the waste it generates so boards and investors can easily determine those items that present the greatest risk. 'We identify important performance indicators that a company might want to disclose in the OFR by attaching a financial value to a company's particular environmental impacts. We can save companies time and make sure they identify their concerns.' says Thomas. The benefit of Trucost's cost-based methodology is that it allows comparisons across sectors with markedly different environmental impacts." [5-11 July 2004]

Business Voice

"Only 40 of the S&P companies disclose their emissions, according to a report from Trucost. It agrees that utilities and energy are the largest emitting sectors but points out that transport, materials and capital goods also make a large contribution to climate change." [June 2004]

Real IR

"'The common denominator in business is money,' says Simon Thomas, chairman of Trucost, whose firm helps companies to assess environmental issues, then report them in a way that fund managers can understand. Thomas believes that the OFR is good news for companies as well as investors. 'Increasingly it's government policy to make companies bear the cost of their environmental impacts, either through taxation or regulation. Currently, one of the great difficulties is an absence of information. For instance, we simply dont know what environmental resources companies are using. A successful OFR will increase the amount of data that is available, which will help companies and investors develop more sustainable business strategies,' he says" [May2004]

Environmental Finance

"Environmental finance analysis firm Trucost has calculated, for the first time, the carbon dioxide emissions of every company in the S&P 500 equity index. The study is aimed particularly at investors and was prompted by growing shareholder activism on climate change. Trucost highlights the significance of carbon dioxide emissions to investors by calculating the effect that an emissions trading scheme would have on companies in the index." [May 2004]

Daily Telegraph

"Electricity price increases resulting from tougher carbon emission targets planned by the Government will be lower than forecast, according to an independent study. Industrial prices are likely to rise by 2.9pc and domestic charges by 1.4pc, says Trucost, a research company specialising in the impact of environmental change on business. Simon Thomas, Trucost Chairman, also believes that the competitive threat to British companies "may have been exaggerated", and that they will continue to benefit from cheaper power than continental counterparts. The Trucost analysis has gone some way towards identifying "winners and losers" among power generators who will bear the brunt of the extra emission reductions" [12th February 2004]

Financial Times

"Increasingly, companies also want hard numbers to use internally in performance appraisal and incentive schemes...and one organisation has developed a method for narrowing it down to a single figure. The company, Trucost, uses economic modelling and companies' own accounting information to assess the environmental "externalities" which are not captured in conventional financial accounts. The Trucost rating indicates the scale of these unaccounted costs - and since this is a single number, it can be used to compare different companies or the progress of an individual organisation." [29th September 2003]

Financial Times

"It [Trucost] means that any company can get a better understanding of how it affects the environment and how it compares with competitors, while investors can assess the relative environmental exposures of companies within a sector, or of different sectors." [9th September 2003]

Financial News

"Trucost has launched a service that values ecological costs as a proportion of a company's turnover. The aim is to provide companies with information to decide whether a given environmental cost is material, as well as to model the financial impact of environmental legislation or taxes." [16th June 2003]

Investor Relations Magazine

"The model measures the degree of risk exposure compared to competitors, which lets investors make sector comparisons or examine the performance of a company over time. "  [March 2003]

Accountancy Age

"Charles Tucker (Royal Mail Group's Head of Environment) said it had failed to 'grasp the enormity' of the issue until recently despite running one of the UK's largest fleets. Tucker said the process (Trucost Membership) had allowed the company to 'create a clear audit trail' in measuring its environmental impacts." [14th August 2002]