By Bill Somplatsky-Jarman. Photos by Carol Somplatsky-Jarman.
On Saturday, the two of us headed for the Saxo Grammaticus Room at the Bella Center where four business leaders recounted their experiences in moving their companies toward sustainability, and more climate-friendly practices at a seminar (called Side Event in UN parlance). Sponsored by the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) and Ceres’ Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP), the seminar featured Nike, The North Face, Sempra Energy and Johnson Controls.
All four companies, active in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, came to Copenhagen to lend their voices to the need for the U.S. to pass comprehensive energy and climate change legislation, and for the world to achieve an ambitious, post-2012 international agreement.
Moderator Beth Daley, the Boston Globe’s environmental reporter, elicited amazing stories of current practices. Hannah Jones, Vice President for Sustainable Business and Innovation at Nike, described significant reductions that have already been achieved simply by working on energy efficiency in the nearly 1,000 factories in 52 countries that produce Nike shoes and gear. Letitia Webster, Director of Corporate Sustainability and Strategic Marketing at The North Face, noted how valuable the process of developing a corporate sustainability report had been to the company. It helped identify their carbon footprint, and ways to measure and reduce emissions.
Bill Ichord, Vice President at Sempra, reported on their efforts to produce 30% of their electricity from renewable sources, a higher percentage than required by California law. He noted that significant emissions reductions could be achieved simply by eliminating wasted energy in powering products not in use (think of all the “instant on” things you own). Clay Nesler, Vice President for Global Energy and Sustainability at Johnson Controls, told about retrofitting the Empire State Building that achieved significant enough reductions to reduce the payback period to three years. All the technology and engineering plans are publicly available to permit easy reuse in other projects (a concept called Open Sourcing strongly endorsed by all four panelists).
All four called for a clear reductions target to create a level playing field, and set the stage for businesses to do what they do best: innovate and create new technologies to meet the challenge. They noted that the amount of collaboration among businesses has increased substantially, and said the challenges posed by climate change should be seen as opportunities.
Nike and The North Face are Ceres companies committed to increasing environmental performance and transparency. Ceres, a coalition of investors, consumer groups, public pension plans, labor unions and community organizations, is a partner of the PC(USA) Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment. Ceres launched the Global Reporting Initiative, the blueprint for verifiable corporate reporting used by hundreds of companies worldwide.
Photo 1: Clay Nesler of Johnson Controls responds to a question while Bill Ichord of Sempra Energy and Letitia Webster of The North Face listen intently.
Photo 2: Letitia Webster of The North Face explains why her company affiliated with Ceres to Bill Somplatsky-Jarman, Presbyterian Church (USA) staff person. Bill serves on the Ceres Board of Directors as part of his work on Mission Responsibility Through Investment.
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