Corporations Turn Green in Anticipation of Government Regulation

Eugene S. Takle
© 2006

Major US corporations, worried more about the impact of future government regulation than the impact of climate change, are looking for ways to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Leaders of many major corporations remain unconvinced that buildup of greenhouse gases will have the impacts projected by some environmentalists. However, they are very alert to changes in the marketplace, and the marketplace is in transition toward a carbon-constrained world, according to Andrew Hoffman, professor of management at the University of Michigan. Dawson (2006) notes that, as of July 2006, mayors of 266 US cities had signed climate protection agreements committing their cities to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. As citizen action groups inventory local emissions, major producers of greenhouse gases will come under more intense scrutiny for their actions on emissions reductions.

References

Dawson, J, 2006: Corporations embrace bottom-line global warming plan. Physics Today, December 2006.