New CSR Report: Doing Climate Change Business Better

There have been some high profile companies recently, including energy heavy hitter BP, that have stepped away from dealing with climate change. However, corporate engagement with climate change is not dead. Not even close.Just this week, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) has just released a report providing guidelines on how companies can improve their engagement with climate change and public policy. The report identifies three areas of climate reporting businesses can do better.

The first two are the usual suspects: greenhouse gas accounting and areas that present both risks and opportunities related to climate change. The third, and increasingly important area, is engaging national and state level politicians on climate policy.

At this point, climate legislation is inevitable. When it will happen isn't very clear, but when it does, it will very much define what kinds of action companies have to take to reduce emissions and increase efficiency. The earlier the legislation, the less strict the caps will be on greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, its in businesses' best interest to get a framework in place as soon as possible. Even if their reasons for doing so differ from individuals and environmental non-profits, its important to emphasize that all parties are working towards the common goals of averting catastrophic climate change and undue economic hardships.

In recent years, companies have been taking a more proactive approach about policy, engaging more with national level legislators. We may see even more engagement by corporations now given the recent Supreme Court ruling freeing them to contribute to political campaigns. If the goal is to have companies take responsible stances on mitigating climate change, then stakeholders need to put their money where the emissions aren't. BSR's report has some positive news on that front. Many companies are already taking a proactive stance on climate change reporting and making strides to reduce emissions.

The report contains some interesting number about how much companies care about dealing with climate change. The follow is a short list of quick hits:

- More than 1000 global business with a marketshare of $11 trillion and 20 million employees are calling for serious and effective climate policy.
- In addition, 1000 companies in the US are asking for the same.
- In the US, lobbying on climate change is up 300% from five years ago.
- According to the Carbon Disclosure Project, of the 150 companies involved, about 95% submitted information on their climate change activities in 2009.
- Of those 150 companies, around 80% reported they are involved in climate policy efforts including activities such as testifying before Congress.
- Company websites were the second most popular way to disseminate information. Some companies even had pages dedicated solely to climate change-related activities.

The report notes that business has a key role in informing climate policy because companies can show how it will benefit the market and stakeholders. Unfortunately, right now there is a very vocal group in the business industry pushing against climate change. However, there are an even greater number of companies that are being proactive about how to deal with it. It is these companies that will lead innovations in energy and take us into the 21st century. And they are the companies that to support and promote if you want strong climate policy. The businesses choosing inaction and the people that support them with look just like the source of the fossil fuel they run on.

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