March 24th, 2008

Support Companies Working to Stop Climate Change

Posted by Jessica Jensen

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In addition to working to conserve energy in our personal lives and supporting political candidates who are serious about the environment, we can also work to buy from companies that are working to stop climate change. These days we have so many good green choices available–and more are coming on the market every day. We urge you to put your money to work for the climate by supporting companies that are actively working to slow the march of global warming.

But how do you find these companies, you ask?

Fortunately there are some great resources you can use. One of our favorites is Climate Counts.org and their Climate Counts Company Scorecard.  Climate Counts use a 0-to-100 point scale and 22 criteria to determine if companies have:

  + Measured their climate “footprint”
  + Reduced their impact on global warming
  + Supported progressive climate legislation
  + Publicly disclosed their climate actions clearly and comprehensively

Climate Counts rates the companies and then classifies them as “stuck,” “starting” or “striding.”  You might be interested to know that Amazon.com gets a 0 (ouch–very stuck!), Yahoo.com gets a 36 (striding!) and Google.com gets a 17 (starting).  On the household front, Proctor & Gamble gets a 53 (striding!) and Colgate-Palmolive gets a 40 (starting).  Check out the site and investigate other companies you buy from!  (Click here for a complete list of rated companies.)

Another good resource for us as consumers is the United States Climate Action Partnership (or USCAP). United States Climate Action Partnership is a group of businesses and leading environmental organizations that have come together to call on the federal government to enact strong national legislation to require significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. USCAP has issued a set of principles and recommendations to highlight the urgent need for a policy framework on climate change.  The group includes such environmental luminaries as the Natural Resources Defense Council and The Nature Conservancy. It also includes major multi-national companies like BP and Johnson & Johnson. One could certainly argue that several of the members have been rather slow or even un-helpful in their climate-related activies in the past (uh-hum, GM, anyone?), but it’s good to seem them trying to get on board with positive action now.

Finally we recommend you check out Ceres.org.  Ceres is a national network of investors, environmental organizations and other public interest groups working with companies and investors to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change.  In 1989, Ceres announced the creation of the Ceres Principles, a ten-point code of corporate environmental conduct to be publicly endorsed by companies as an environmental mission statement. Over 50 companies have endorsed the Ceres Principles.  Committed companies include Aveda, Seventh Generation, Bank of America and Gap Inc.  To see the full list of Ceres companies, click here.

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