Erica Lasdon is the Director of Climate Change and Environmental Justice and Timothy Smith is the Senior Policy Advisor at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). This post is based on their ICCR memorandum.
Introduction
Over the past two years, the public conversation around corporate climate commitments has shifted considerably. Some companies that spoke openly about decarbonization have grown quieter, a phenomenon often described as “greenhushing”. Regulatory momentum behind mandatory climate disclosure at the federal level shifted to reverse, and sustainability language in public debate has increasingly been recast as a “woke” political position rather than a sound business judgment. And of course, the EPA relentlessly works to eradicate climate rules and regulations, including questioning science. Additionally, the SEC has moved to eliminate any company climate disclosure rules as they formerly propose to end the climate rule.
However numerous major American and global corporations continue to acknowledge that climate change is a critical risk and material business issue. When a food company states changing weather patterns threaten its agricultural supply chain or when an electric utility describes its net zero commitment in the environmental strategy section of its annual report, these are not political statements. They are assessments of business risk and opportunity, made by managements and boards with fiduciary obligations to their shareholders.
