A Three-Pronged Approach to Corporate Climate Strategy

This document presents a brief background on business reactions to climate change, and lays out a simple spectrum of actions towards carbon neutrality, including efficiency, offsets and renewables. These actions offer managers greater choice in defining climate strategies. In addition to this business guide, BSR is designing a new climate change initiative for companies.

The answers won’t shock anyone who’s been paying attention — they involve some combination of making energy efficiency improvements, using renewable energy, and offsetting remaining emissions. Still, the BSR report covers the ground well, with real-life examples.

Perhaps most interesting is the report’s guidance for successful organizational change in a company’s approach to climate. The guidelines include both the obvious (“Initiate change before the threat becomes severe”) and the not-so-obvious (“Build internal capacity, and avoid long-term dependence on external entities”). And, perhaps, most importantly, “Communicate early, fully, and often.”