Sustainability Energy and Climate Resources
CDP 2009 Preview: Carbon Reduction Targets Are Evolving from 'Nice-to-Have' to Must Do (ClimateBiz.com, September 14, 2009)
What concrete actions are firms taking to tackle climate change in 2009?
This week Paul Dickinson -- CEO of Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) -- will try to answer this question by offering a daily "sneak peek" at the results of this year’s CDP Global 500 and S&P 500 Reports, produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers, in advance of the organization's September 21 launch date in New York.
Backed by 475 institutional investors with assets of more than U.S. $55 trillion, Carbon Disclosure Project’s climate change questionnaire was sent to 3,700 of the world’s largest corporations to discover how businesses are managing their carbon emissions and climate change risks and opportunities.
Cara Pike, Meredith Herr, and The Topos Partnership, Climate Crossroads A Research-Based Framing Guide (The Social Capital Project, 2009)
For most of the past several decades, public discourse concerning global warming has been driven by the state of scientific knowledge. As early as the 1800s, scientists recognized that gases in the atmosphere trap heat, and by the turn of the century some were suggesting that man-made carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere would result in global temperature rise. However, it wasn’t until the late 1950s that scientists began to warn of a climate problem and not until the 1970s when the public began to learn of the impending crisis. Scientific consensus began to emerge clearly in the 1980s.
This document is a first step towards a unified conversation on global warming. It is a summary of what is known to date about the most effective communications approaches, developed by drawing on more than 25 advocacy organizations’ experiences in the field, the body of research they built over the years, and new research conducted specifically for this project.
IBM - Mastering carbon management: Balancing trade-offs to optimize supply chain efficiencies (IBM Institute for Business Value studies, February 2, 2009)
As the planet heats up, so do regulatory mandates to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Much of the opportunity to address CO2 emissions rests on the supply chain, compelling companies to look for new approaches to managing carbon effectively – from sourcing and production, to distribution and product afterlife. The trade-offs in the supply chain are no longer just about cost, service and quality – but cost, service, quality and carbon. By incorporating carbon reduction into their overall SCM strategy, companies can help reduce their environmental emissions footprint, strengthen their brand image and develop competitive advantage.
Sheila Bonini, Greg Hintz, and Lenny Mendonca, “Addressing Consumer Concerns about Climate Change,” Mckinsey Quarterly (March 2008).
Business executives are catching up with consumers in expressing concern about global warming and other environmental issues, two global surveys indicate.1 In a sea change over the past 12 months, executives now regard the environment as the sociopolitical issue that will attract the most attention, by far, from the public and politicians over the next five years.
Taking action on global warming and other environmental issues seems critical for narrowing a general trust gap between consumers and corporations. Yet this kind of activism will not be a panacea for companies hoping to address the growing societal expectation that business should contribute more to the broader public good.
