Business meets Washington, D.C., meets carbon
By Bob Sheppard,
COO and Manager of the Corporate Program,
Clean Air-Cool Planet
When Clean Air-Cool Planet came into being the concept of businesses working to reduce their firms’ greenhouse gas emissions was still in the embryonic stages. In those days meetings with corporate executives frequently meant watching their eyes roll back, fidgeting in their seats, and the checking of wrist watches as they reached the boundaries of their comfort levels.
The world today is very different. Rising energy prices, the recession, action by competitors, consumer and media interest in climate change are all powerful drivers in helping to promote behavior change – and now there is the specter of federal action. Where once there were few groups such as Clean Air – Cool Planet encouraging voluntary action, there are now a range of non-profits, start-ups, large consulting firms and local activists helping businesses measure, monitor and manage their carbon emissions. As someone who has been involved in the field of sustainability for a decade knowing the significant reductions that must still be achieved, this is a sign of hope. Another such sign that is not getting much attention — though this is more of a personal observation than a proven fact — is that despite the current economic recession few U.S. companies appear to be laying off the people charged with implementing carbon reduction strategies. That was certainly not the case in 2001-02 when many sustainability coordinators/managers in corporate America got their walking papers as they had yet to prove their value to their organizations.
One of the new challenges on our radar screen is bringing more than three-dozen business leaders who are partners of Clean Air-Cool Planet to a greater level of engagement in discussions about designing and implementing a national plan to reduce carbon emissions. As a result of a December 2007 merger with the Washington DC-based Climate Policy Center we now have the ability to provide executive level briefings on best ways to regulate carbon to serve the twin goals of environmental effectiveness and economic efficiency.
Recently I was charged with bringing together business leaders in the state of Maine to review and share insights on the debate that is taking place in Washington. Over the years we have advised these firms on a range of energy efficiency and conservation projects, encouraging them to pilot on-site power generation, switch to bio-fuels, convert their fleets to hybrids, explore the implications of the embedded carbon in their products, and shape messages to vendors, employees and customers.
A May 22 invitation-only briefing featured Clean Air-Cool Planet’s president Rafe Pomerance, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State who has international experience as a policy negotiator on environmental issues. He talked about an economy-wide plan to regulate carbon upstream that would be phased in to minimize the costs of compliance to both businesses and their employees. For a local perspective we included a presentation by Tom Tietenberg, a retired Colby College economist who has written extensively on environmental and natural resource economics and the role of the market in regulating pollutants. Tom has advised the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Agency for International Development and the Environmental Protection Agency as well as several state and foreign governments.
This gathering involved key decision makers from the financial service, manufacturing, retail, and transportation sectors, who are responsible for thousands of jobs across the region. These firms have taken steps to reduce their carbon emissions and realize that legislation under consideration in Congress will impact their ability to compete in the global marketplace. As these business executives, Corporate Social Responsibility Managers, Green Officers, Directors of Sustainable Development, and Vice Presidents joined in lively discussion one thing was abundantly clear. They understood the complexity of issues on the table, favoring a plan that would send a clear message to the market, phasing in regulation of carbon to minimize the impacts of higher energy costs to business, their employees and customer base. They told us loud and clear they want measurable emission reduction targets coupled with price signals that would allow each corporation to make individual decisions on where to invest precious dollars in the most effective and pragmatic solutions.
But there was one underlying theme that also emerged from the dialogue: that “no good deed goes unpunished”. Those businesses who demonstrated climate leadership by taking voluntary action in reducing their emissions want to see a plan from Washington that takes their efforts into consideration in the form of allocations that are fair and equitable for all who are responsible for generating carbon emissions. As the debate over climate legislation heats up this summer it will once again be interesting to see whether the phrase “as Maine Goes So Goes the Nation” extends to this critical environmental issue. Stay tuned…
Tags: business, business and policy, carbon neutrality, climate policy, corporate, corporate carbon emissions, emission reduction, Maine, Maine business, sustainability managers
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