Your Company Can Be a Climate Leader: Here’s How Success + Environmental Care Go Hand-in-Hand (-in-Tree)
Businesses Tackling Climate Change as a Social Justice Issue
The recently released U.N. climate report warned of the impending worsening effects of greenhouse gas emissions and a warming planet as soon as 2030: extreme temperatures, increased incidents of heavy precipitation, and more intense or frequent droughts.
“Climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security, and economic growth are projected to increase,” the report says.
While everyone on Earth will feel the effects of global warming, if its progress is not slowed and reversed, the report notes some populations will bear a heavier burden. These include “disadvantaged and vulnerable populations, some indigenous peoples, and local communities dependent on agricultural or coastal livelihoods.”
Because the effects of climate change fall most heavily on populations that are already marginalized — including people who are young, elderly, low-income, or who have existing health conditions such as asthma — global warming and carbon emissions aren’t just environmental issues, they’re social justice issues.
And they also have business implications. The U.N. report notes that avoiding the projected effects of global warming is possible with reduced greenhouse gas emissions through widespread changes in energy, industry, buildings, transportation and cities — that means businesses and their workers and customers have an important role.
Within that business framework, B Lab added five climate-related metrics to the 2018 Inclusive Economy Challenge (IEC) for companies striving to create more equitable and diverse workplaces:
- Greenhouse gas inventory;
- Renewable energy;
- Energy efficiency improvements;
- Greenhouse gas targets and improvements;
- Carbon offsets.
While climate change is an immense issue that often feels overwhelming, the five IEC metrics help frame where businesses can take immediate climate action and make progress to mitigate its effects. Incorporating these measures helps organizations take responsibility for their negative impact and make critical connections between business benefit and social and environmental impact. IEC participants are empowering people to make meaningful change, at home and at work.
An inclusive economy is one that creates opportunity for all people of all backgrounds and experiences to live with dignity, to support themselves and their families, and to make a contribution to their communities. Access free resources from B Lab to build a more inclusive economy through your business.
Where Should B Corps Begin?
The five new climate metrics in the IEC have their roots in a session at the 2017 B Corp Champions Retreat — the annual gathering for the B Corp community — where a few attendees shared their interest in the potential for collective action on climate change. That led to formation of a Climate Working Group, whose members are Evan Goldsmith of NativeEnergy, Katie Clark of Happy Family Organics, Gretchen Grani of Guayaki, Andrew Nobrega of Pur Project and Kevin Bayuk of LIFT Economy.
Clark, director of sustainability at Happy Family Organics, was introduced to corporate sustainability at her first job out of college at MOM’s Organic Market, an East Coast grocery chain that she says “lives their mission to protect and restore the environment in every business decision they make.” There, Clark witnessed how for-profit companies can “move the needle” and be responsible for sustainability and climate change.
As part of the Climate Working Group, Clark hopes to help other businesses begin or enhance their sustainability journey. While five metrics in the IEC aren’t exhaustive, they can be daunting. Pulling from lessons learned during her sustainability work at Happy Family, Clark says organizations must measure where they stand before they move forward.
“The first place to start is to understand where your company’s impacts are, whether that’s through carbon impact assessment or water use, so you can know what strategic actions to take,” she says. “Also think about it from a materiality perspective: What do your consumers think is most important for you to focus on? Understand which different types of topics you can focus on as a company that are important to consumers, employees and your board of directors. Consider the risks in each of those areas and what could lead to innovation.”
At Happy Family, she says, the company decided to focus on climate, packaging and sustainable agriculture, then developed programs in each of those areas to make an impact. For example, after calculating the company’s full-scope carbon footprint, Happy Family invested in carbon offsets generated from renewable energy projects through NativeEnergy, starting with emissions from Happy Family’s direct operations in year one and increasing its investment each year. The company also launched numerous internal programs to reduce the impact of its packaging by increasing post-consumer recycled content and optimizing the size to limit unnecessary excess packaging.
A B Lab partnership with the Climate Collaborative will double the resources and the recognition for companies working on renewable energy and energy efficiency goals as a part of the Inclusive Economy Challenge. Companies participating in the IEC will now have access to Climate Collaborative’s resources.
Goldsmith, client strategy director at NativeEnergy, agrees that it’s vital to begin by determining your organization’s climate footprint and identifying big emissions drivers. “Then figure out what resonates most for your business and take action to address the biggest emission drivers accordingly,” he says.
Through his work at NativeEnergy, Goldsmith helps companies do just that: evaluating their value chain emissions, measuring business travel and other big greenhouse gas generators, and seeing how to address or offset them. This year he worked with Bodhi Surf + Yoga, a Costa Rican B Corp and Inclusive Economy Changemaker that wants to be a leader in the sustainable tourism industry.
“They’re a small retreat in Costa Rica, so they don’t have a huge environmental impact locally,” he says. “But where they do have a big impact is from their guests flying to the retreat. They identified that right away. For their business to be in the sustainability business, they have to account for the greenhouse gas emissions generated from their guests coming to them.”
NativeEnergy worked with Bodhi to identify and partner with a wind farm in Costa Rica that produces clean wind energy and generates credits that can be used to offset the carbon emissions from guests’ flights.
“It was a nice circle that connects back to their community,” Goldsmith says. “Bodhi went through the full process: measuring, identifying, coming up with a program to address its climate impact, communicating it to their guests and finding the right type of project to support. They went through the whole process in less than a year.”
Measurable Progress in the B Corp Community
As renewable energy opportunities grow around the world, so do potential community partnerships. Local connections created climate opportunities for 2018 Inclusive Economy Changemakers Ecotone Software Consulting and Paintbox Catering and Bistro Inc. The Toronto-based B Corps both have signed up with Bullfrog Power (also a Toronto B Corp) to offset their energy use with renewable energy.
At NativeEnergy, Goldsmith also works with companies that are diving deeper into their climate-mitigation efforts and developing custom emissions-reduction programs.
“These companies are integrating this into their value chain,” he says. “This can happen through trying to create emissions reductions through changes in your sourcing or how a key ingredient is grown. An investment you’re making in your own value chain will not only deliver the desired climate results but can support a project that’s changing an entire agriculture process and benefiting the communities where you’re sourcing from.
“This creates closer ties between your business and the supply communities you rely on, and deeper engagement around a key ingredient that could reduce risk in the future for your company,” he says.
Two 2018 IEC participants are good examples of this deeper investment. Dr. Bronner’s, a 2018 Inclusive Economy Changemaker, this year began monitoring and recording its greenhouse gas emissions by developing a calculator to produce accurate measurements.
The Vista, California-based B Corp, which produces soaps and other organic, fair-trade personal care products, is installing an oil refinery at its headquarters that will allow the company to refine olive and palm oils onsite rather than sending them to a third-party refinery in Holland. When the refinery goes online early next year, the company anticipates large reductions in its carbon emissions from reduced shipping.
In 2018, Dr. Bronner’s also agreed to purchase renewable-energy certificates from a community-supported solar project led by fellow B Corp OneEnergy Renewables. In combination with Dr. Bronner’s on-site solar panels and its partnership with a local utility to draw locally generated renewable electricity from the grid when necessary, the company headquarters now operates with 100 percent renewable electricity.
Its headquarters also boasts 14 recently installed electric vehicle charging systems to reduce the climate impact of worker commutes. Dr. Bronner’s covers all fees associated with the charging and offers a $1,000 incentive to employees who purchase or lease fully electric cars.
Renewable energy and carbon mitigation strategies, products and programs are at the heart of business at B Corp 3Degrees, another IEC participant. This year, its climate goals included tracking of emissions created by others in its supply chain, known as scope 2 and 3 emissions. Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy, while scope 3 emissions are the indirect emissions not included in scope 2 that are produced by others in the 3Degrees supply chain.
3Degrees reported these emissions for 2017 to The Climate Registry for its verification process and pursued an assessment of setting a science-based target assessment. Once it has that assessment, it will decide on next steps to reduce emissions.
What’s Ahead for Businesses Responding to Climate Change?
As the U.N. climate report notes, the deepening effects of climate change aren’t far off in the future — they’re barely more than a decade away, which makes the B Corp community’s work urgent.
Goldsmith and Clark say the Climate Working Group is thinking bigger for future opportunities while also focusing on purposeful participation. Because the B Corp community comprises small to large businesses at different paths on the sustainability journey, the Climate Working Group faced some related challenges, Clark says.
“I didn’t anticipate that there would be such a range in interest in terms of what B Corp companies would consider a collective climate action that they could take on for their company that would make sense for them,” she says. “We found it a challenge to reconcile the original idea with the diversity of B Corps and how we could create something that would be relevant for as many as possible.”
Goldsmith envisions a project that would support the B Corp movement, provide exposure for participating organizations and encourage more companies to participate at a meaningful level.
“There’s a great opportunity for the B Corp community of companies to drive a climate-focused project that has measurable and tangible impacts that they can claim causality for,” Goldsmith says. “The big challenge is balancing that against the desire and need of companies to want to invest in actions that will be solely beneficial to their company — and globally in terms of climate change mitigation.”
What that group push might be has yet to take shape — as with most work toward meaningful change — but through the IEC, B Corps will continue their multiyear progress toward a more equitable and diverse economy that works for the good of all people and our planet.
B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
