The Daily - February 20, 2020 - 42

The Pulse

O P I N I O N

Everything but
What Matters
Why are corporations avoiding real climate
solutions? By Auden Schendler
A HOT AIR BALLOON FILLED WITH

carbon dioxide would hold about
five tons of the gas. If you floated
7.2 billion of them into the air in
a global version of a state fair, the
pastel colors and wicker baskets
would block out the sun-and they
would represent just one year's
worth of human emissions. That
pretty visual belies the crisis we
now all recognize, as Australia
burns and Central Park in January invites T-shirts and tank tops.
Business is starting to understand
and combat the problem. But
unfortunately, it is doing so in ways
specifically designed to fail.
In Denver, at Outdoor + Snow
Show, a coalition of businesses
under the banner #ClimateActionCorps committed to ambitious
carbon reduction efforts. They are
not alone. In the preceding weeks,
Microsoft, Salesforce, Starbucks,
and other corporations did the
same. Others will surely follow.
Each of these firms is lauded in the
press and praised by environmental pundits. And for good reason:
They are stepping out on a limb
even by recognizing the problem-
even more so by bucking traditional economic theory that the role of
business is to make money, period.
There is a problem with all this,
however. Climate change is a huge,
global-systems crisis. And corporations wield enormous power over
that system not through their own
carbon reductions but through pol-

42

icy. Indeed, it was because of fossil
fuel money and influence, and its
capture of governance worldwide,
that modern society could best be
described as "Carbon Man." Most
every action we take is tied to
another puff of emissions, another
hot air balloon above us. Businesses could use their lobbyists, media
presence, CEO influence, and
political gravitas to bend politics
back toward a livable planet. But
with very few exceptions (Burton,
Unilever/Ben & Jerry's, Patagonia),
none has done so. No CEO statement. No media comments. If they
act at all, it's behind closed doors or
on sign-on lists buried among other
businesses. Nothing about this
enables the movement we need.
Instead, like Microsoft and
Starbucks or far too many in the
outdoor industry, they announce
an admirable commitment to operational greening-i.e., reducing
their carbon footprint-but no political action. They avoid any effort
to participate in meaningful movement building. Why? At almost no
risk or cost, Microsoft could have
said: "We're greening our operations and our supply chain. We're
also mobilizing our trade groups,
which will be pushing hard on
policymakers. Our lobbyists will
be working on climate as a priority,
even above and beyond trade. And
our CEO will make a statement on
climate whenever they go on the
news. By the way, our Wall Street

/ OUTDOOR + SNOW SHOW 2020

Auden Schendler
pushes corporations
for real change.

Journal op-ed is on the way."
But Microsoft did not say that.
Starbucks did not. Nobody did. It's
baffling. Not only did they miss
taking the one action that would
actually make a difference, but they
simultaneously gave credence to
government inaction. After all, good
citizens, look: Corporations will save
us! They are policing themselves!
But of course, they will not. And the
last 30 years of emissions growth is
ample evidence of that.
How do we know these actions
are not enough? Recent research
by The Climate Accountability
Institute showed that 63% of
the carbon dioxide and methane
emitted between 1751 and 2010
came from just 90 entities. These
entities are coal, gas, and oil
companies and cement manufacturers. Many are still around.
And with plenty of takers for
their products, none of them will

be reducing their emissions anytime soon, unless governments
intervene. Meanwhile, climate
"leaders" like Microsoft ensure
ongoing carbon pollution by continuing to fund Mitch McConnell,
the Senate's key firewall against
climate legislation.
This is all incredibly discouraging. Society has the technology, the
policy tools, and the know-how to
solve the climate problem for good.
All we need is the political will,
something that could be mustered
if business merely thought differently. To hold the solution to this
great civilizational crisis in our
hands and to not act in a way that
is meaningful-that must be the
saddest thing we know.
Auden Schendler is the senior vice
president, sustainability at Aspen
Skiing Company and author of
Getting Green Done.
The Daily - February 20, 2020

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