As corporations have come to recognize growing interest in their environmental impact, most firms have chosen to constructively engage with the public. The “greenest” companies have reduced their energy use and the impact of their products and operations, and many others have at least claimed to do so.

Such “greenwashing” is a concern of investors who consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in their evaluations of corporate sustainability. But even as major firms have chosen, perhaps grudgingly, to work with their ESG stakeholders, at least one business lobby has taken a different tack.

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This week, in a statement cited at Green Inc., Nike said that it “fundamentally disagrees” with the US Chamber of Commerce’s position on climate policy. The shoe giant joins three major utilities in opposing the Chamber’s recent lobbying efforts, which include a call for a “Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century” regarding man-made climate change.

Why are some corporations so eager “to boost their green credentials,” in the words of Ann Fifield of the Financial Times? Perhaps these firms would rather defy their peers than alienate their customers – or their Senators.

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On September 21, Newsweek introduced its landmark Green Rankings of the 500 largest publicly-traded US companies. This project, for which KLD was the lead research partner, was guided by an advisory panelof academic and non-profit policy leaders, including Wood Turner of ClimateCounts.org.

The Green Rankings are a recognition that public interest is the key to better corporate environmental practices.

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A new study of water companies’ ESG disclosure finds that, with some exceptions, utilities in developing nations “disclose far more performance data” than their EU and US counterparts. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) reviewed water suppliers’ reporting of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics. “Liquid Assets: Responsible Investment in Water Services” also surveyed a representative sample of 12 major global water utilities, scoring them on 21 “key disclosure issues.”

In the report’s executive summary, ICCR notes that control of the global water supply is a sensitive topic, but also says that “it is not the purpose of this report to debate the merits of public versus private ownership.” Instead, “Liquid Assets” explores how well utilities – whether investor- or government-owned – communicate with stakeholders. In calling for better disclosure of comparative ESG data, ICCR says: (read more…)

Environmental Leader, along with most major news outlets, reports that Walmart is preparing to develop a sustainability index for its suppliers and products. The index will try to account for the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of Walmart suppliers “in such a way that consumers [can] easily discern the sustainability of one product over another.” Marc Gunther at The Big Money writes: “For the [Walmart] index to work, consumer-goods makers will need to understand the origins of everything they put into their products.”

Recent news about the global supply chain has made me think about my own origins.

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As the Senate deliberates over the House’s Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, Politico has presented a debate on the bill’s potential impact on the US economy. Mindy S. Lubber, of the environmental coalition Ceres, argues that Waxman-Markey “deserves our support.” In response, William L. Kovacs of the US Chamber of Commerce tells why he believes the economy will be harmed by the bill’s provisions.

Their discussion is a useful summary of pro- and anti-Waxman-Markey arguments. It also shows that a productive public policy debate depends on data. While both sides marshal projections and estimates to make their case, neither can present hard numbers on the cost of carbon emissions by American business. Many companies disclose some data, but without standardized, economy-wide reporting, no one can know the real costs or benefits of a cap-and-trade scheme.

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As the Obama Administration seeks to overhaul financial regulation, a multi-trillion-dollar coalition of investors has argued that the government should require corporate disclosure of climate change-related risks. Climate Risk Disclosure in SEC Filings – a deceptively modest title – calls for replacing the current hodgepodge of voluntary disclosure with a federally mandated reporting regime.

Ceres, the Environmental Defense Fund, and other sponsors of this Corporate Library-produced study formally presented their findings to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a June 12 letter.

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Miller-McCune is a new magazine whose tagline is “Turning Research into Solutions.” On its website, it reports on a 30-year study of green attitudes among adolescents. The results are sobering.

“A research team led by Laura Wray-Lake of the Pennsylvania State University’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies examined data from the ‘Monitoring the Future‘ study, a sophisticated survey of the beliefs and behaviors of American secondary school students. The scholars mapped trends in a variety of environment-related areas, including conservation-conscious behaviors, feelings of responsibility for the environment and faith in technology.

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In May, the Obama Administration announced new fuel economy standards for cars sold in the US. According to activist Daniel Becker, as quoted in the New York Times, “This is the single biggest step the American government has ever taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions.”

More big steps are to come. The EPA has been soliciting public comments for “the first comprehensive national system for reporting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG) produced by major sources in the United States.”

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On May 26, Responsible Investor reported on a new study calling for pension funds to better prepare for climate change. Pension trustees may even have a fiduciary duty to account for climate-related risk, according to study authors Craig Mackenzie and Francisco Ascui of the University of Edinburgh Business School.

Investor Leadership on Climate Change, written on behalf of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), explores the role of investors in reducing global carbon emissions. As reported by RI’s Hugh Wheelan, the study finds that this role will be immense:

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