President Joe Biden’s order to reduce the federal government’s carbon footprint poses a new reporting onus for contractors over climate information.
The Dec. 8 executive order directs the General Services Administration to track major contractors’ disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions, carbon reduction goals, and financial risk from climate change.
The order comes as they’re already bracing for the Securities and Exchange Commission to release its own climate disclosures rules. Neither the SEC nor the GSA has released detailed plans on potential disclosures—such as whether the required reporting would include both direct and indirect emissions.
Contractors that are publicly traded could face competing reporting standards that require them to make environmental, social, and governance disclosures at various times and in different ways, creating challenges and potential risks for their businesses, lawyers told Bloomberg Law.
These companies could be accused of greenwashing and violations of the government-fraud combating False Claims Act, if they were to make inconsistent disclosures, said Paul Freeman, a senior counsel in Crowell & Moring LLP’s environment and natural resources and government contracts groups.
“There’s risk that you could be doing multiple disclosures for multiple purposes with different standards,” Freeman said.
The executive order...
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