California Businesses Preparing for Climate Change

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) released this year a state-by-state analysis of the business response to climate change in America, including California. The CDP measures and discloses the greenhouse gas emissions of many of the largest corporations, accounting for more than 25% of the world’s emissions.

The report, released in June, outlines how businesses are responding to global warming. Many businesses are taking climate change into consideration for 2015 budgets and strategies, and are considering responding to climate change as a way build a competitive advantage.

In California, businesses are not only preparing for climate change, but also engaging policy makers to help pave the way to a low-carbon economy. These companies see these moves toward sustainability as an opportunity to transform their business and products to make them cleaner and more desirable.

Climate change in California already affects operations. Costs attributed to the drought and wildfires are already considered part of the cost of doing business.

All companies are expecting more regulations, so most are already preparing. While they would like more certainty surrounding future regulations and incentives, the companies that report to the CDP are reducing annual carbon pollution by 619,000 t CO2e, adding to financial savings of $3.5b.

Companies working proactively to integrate climate change into business models, turning risks into profit-drivers, may be coming a little later than some of us would have preferred, but it finally demonstrates that leaders of industry understand that working with the environment in mind doesn’t need to hurt profit – it can help.

Increases in demand for energy-efficient products are generating new revenue. Companies that produce household goods are reducing emissions during the entire product lifecycle. IT Companies like HP are seeing rapid growth in ‘green’ product lines. Many are incorporating natural gas, wind, and solar energy.

Take a look at some of these infographics from the report, which you can read in full here.