This post, by guest blogger Mindy S. Lubber, President, Ceres, was first published here.
So why are Nike, Johnson Controls and Sempra Energy sending top execs to Copenhagen to monitor the international climate talks.
To block a strong climate deal, right? No, wrong.
Dozens of U.S. companies are here advocating for a tough international pact that reduces pollution and accelerates clean energy innovation. The political uncertainty surrounding climate change regulation — both in the U.S. and globally – is stifling their businesses.
“We’re looking to come out with a deal,” said Clay Nesler, vice president of global energy and sustainability at Johnson Controls Inc., a Wisconsin-based company with 133,000 global employees. “We’d like to see the uncertainty reduced. Businesses around the world want this to be settled so they can start reducing their emissions.”
Many of the companies here are unequivocal about the need for dramatically reducing global carbon emissions.
North Face sees the climate threat first-hand through its customers who are skiers, hikers and rock climbers. “U.S. ski resorts are closing at a dramatic pace. Our winters are two weeks shorter,” said Letitia Webster, the company’s director of corporate sustainability.
The company’s suppliers — including Nepalese farmers who provide soft Cashmere fabric for its clothing – are also seeing the effects. “Droughts and flooding are impacting these communities,” she said.
But, like a climber scaling the North Face in the Swiss Alps, the companies are confident of their ability — of corporate America’s ability — to solve the climate challenge. They simply need the right equipment.
Even without a clear map, these firms are finding ways to lower water use, energy use and pollution levels across their entire businesses. Johnson Controls recently teamed up with Jones Lang LaSalle and the Rocky Mountain Institute to achieve a 30 percent reduction in energy use at New York City’s iconic Empire State Building. The project will pay for itself in three years.
Nike recently opened a new distribution center in Tennessee that uses 50 percent less energy per square foot than its predecessor facility. An even bigger focus is cutting energy use at hundreds of factories in China, Vietnam and other countries. “We need to be aggressively pursuing efficiencies across our entire supply chain,” said Hannah Jones, Nike’s vice president of sustainable business and innovation.
But, without stronger policies that reward and incentivize such efficiencies, the large-scale pollution reductions that are needed — in developed and developing countries alike — will never be possible.
Before heading out of Copenhagen, Jones wants to be sure our U.S. negotiators get this message:
“The U.S. delegation, ‘We’ve got your back,” she said. “We need the policy signal to unleash the next wave, the next economic revolution. Copenhagen is crucial.”
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Since American industries that support or at least do not oppose serious climate action outnumber those who do not- what’s going on? Why do the fossil fuel, timber, and utility industries defeat more rational companies in lobbying our Senators? I hope Joe or another reader can answer this, because I’ve wondered about it even before you ran this post.
Of course some businesses support action. Those businesses that are slightly less filthy than their competitors know that they will gain a competitive advantage if climate change legislation is passed. They are largely counter-balanced by their more filthy counterparts, who lobby the exact opposite way.
Is it not the case that the businesses that are supportive of a strong agreement (including reduction targets and enforcement mechanisms) want a level global playing field? If there are large differences in the impacts on companies in various countries, then there is a greater risk of strong competition arising in a location where constraints are lower. There may also be issues about attribution of emissions in determining compliance – even off-shore operations would be charged against the parent company in its headquarters country location. In many Asia Pacific locations where folks like Nike manufacture the majority of their products, energy efficiency is so much lower than that in the U.S. or Europe. Therefore, high emissions in plants in the Asia Pacific region where energy efficiency and generally, therefore, GHG emissions are higher per unit of product manufactured may be attributed to Nike and/or the U.S., not to China or Korea or Thailand, etc.
Kudos to Mindy for a good post and for her years of effort to promote corporate social responsibility.
We at AWEA would like to see a commitment to a strong Renewable Electricity Standard emerge from Copenhagen and the energy & climate debate in Congress. Thirty-seven countries have such commitments and are in a position to reap the green jobs that will result.
Regards,
Tom Gray
American Wind Energy Association
Frank Luntz’ mantra is, “Repeat your message. When you are sick and tired of repeating your message is the first time you’ve reached the first person in your target audience.”
Why does this matter? – None of my friends, educated politically involved people, have heard that any American businesses or American religious leaders or Conservative politicians believe we can create green energy jobs, address global warming, and beat other countries to the punch.
How does this “communication” work?: It embraces time honored tenets:
1. Keep the message Simple.
2. Go for the Unexpected or Controversial.
3. Keep the message Clear.
4. Be Concrete – words and phrases that evoke visual images.
5. Emotional Story.
What’s this mean? Read ‘Made to Stick’ by Stanford Prof. Chip Heath and his younger brother Dan.
This is great news and it is encouraging to know that large U.S. companies are beginning to embrace eco-friendly business practices. The shift if practical in many ways, most notably as a cost saving mechanism and a public relations boost. Americans, and quite frankly global consumers, want to see the private sector taking an active role in reducing emissions and commiting to sustainability. For instance, the website http://www.greencollareconomy.com has a directory of thousands of companies that are embracing green practices and services and who are growing as a result. From adding jobs to expanding revenue, these companies are demonstrating that the U.S. economy can thrive again if we become the eco-leaders.
This, as the late Paul Harvey would say, is “the rest of the story” — the fact that buying green technology does not break the bank, and in most cases will pay for itself in a fairly short time.