A few weeks ago, the Center for Climate Strategies released a study showing that making national policy of 23 measures already in play in Red and Blue and Purple states across the nation would lead to millions of additional jobs and significant carbon reductions. This study shows, quite clearly, that serious climate mitigation efforts should not be discussed as “cost”, but as “investment” that will lead to significant benefits. Two notable items about this study: 1. The strongly supported conclusion that the more aggressive the action, the greater the economic benefits. and 2. This is a conservative study.
carbon accounting softwareWhile other industries are sputtering along or even tanking, as a result of the global recession, the emerging Enterprise Carbon Accounting (ECA) software market is experience a phase of phenomenal growth. The number as providers has almost doubled, venture capital money is flowing freely and Groom Energy predicts that ECA software purchases will increase 600 percent by 2011
Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) instructed publicly held companies to “…consider the effects of global warming and efforts to curb climate change when disclosing business risks to investors.” One significant ramification of this SEC action is that CFOs will now need to take the initiative in identifying and reporting the risks that climate change may have upon their company’s investors. This is a sea change in CFO fiduciary responsibility.
Stephen Hinton, provides a compilation of professionals that will see growth as the US economy goes green. He predicts that those in STEM professions (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) will experience the most job security.
Companies with facilities emitting or products related to GHGs may consider taking the following initial steps to evaluate appropriate measures related to the first time ever requirement that they begin monitoring their emissions of GHGs.
The following is an account of one day on the job with Kathrin Winkler. She is Sr. Director and Chief Sustainability Officer at EMC Corporation, where she has a history of taking on entirely new roles in which she has to fill in the interstices between more traditional functions. She took on the full-time sustainability position in July of 2008.
