Businesses see green in going green

More and more US companies see the changing climate as a threat to their brand images and bottom lines, according to a December 2018 report from CDP Worldwide. Formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project, CDP gathers environmental impact reports from businesses around the world.

While some companies are explicitly highlighting the business risks that a shifting climate throws their way, other companies cloak that information. A number of businesses tout their strategies to deal with these risks; others are mum.

However, a common theme among the businesses was dismay at a lack of coordinated policies around environmental issues from the federal government and among states.

As an example, telecoms giant Verizon recently announced that it will derive 50 percent of the energy it uses from renewable sources by 2025 after more than 33,000 people signed a petition calling on it to go greener; it previously had set the target at 4 percent.

The report gathered data from companies in Texas, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, California, Ohio, and Illinois.

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Some businesses use government’s policy chaos or vacuum as an excuse to stay away from issues of sustainability. Companies with a broader vision increasingly are stepping into the vacuum that regulators have left and establishing their green credentials by showing investors and customers that environmental awareness and stewardship