In this story from today’s Boston Globe, the increase in environmental sensibility among corporate culture is examined.
Here is an excerpt.
Corporate America going more for green
Firms consider the environment
By Reuters June 5, 2006
Corporate America, which once dismissed fears about global warming as unfounded, appears to be changing its mind, publicly acknowledging its influence on climate change and striving for a greener image.
Major companies such as General Electric Co. and chemicals maker DuPont Co. are taking steps to make their plants and products more energy efficient and to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
To be sure, U S companies have heavily promoted their change of heart in slick marketing campaigns such as Ford Motor Co.'s ``I guess it is easy being green" television advertisements for its Escape hybrid sport utility vehicle.
Environmental activists say the changes go beyond lip service but they urge lawmakers to prod companies along faster through tougher environmental regulations.
``We've barely just begun, but what we've begun is real," said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of institutional investors and environmental groups that manages more than $3 trillion in assets.
Many scientists say a buildup of greenhouse gas emissions caused by burning fossil fuels such as oil and coal is raising temperatures and could bring catastrophic changes -- from severe heat waves to rising seas.
For many years, major U S corporations asserted that natural swings in temperature made it impossible to tell whether greenhouse gas emissions were influencing the climate.
With some notable exceptions -- including oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. -- U S companies have noticeably changed their tune.
Fairfield, Conn.-based GE -- the world's second-largest company by market value -- last year unveiled its ``Ecomagination" initiative to cut greenhouse gas emissions and increase sales of energy-efficient products.
Sales of Ecomagination products, ranging from washing machines to jet engines, reached $10.1 billion last year and GE aims to double that by 2010. It also aims to double its research spending on such products to $1.5 billion by 2010.
``Our customers are heavy energy users, customers that have fuel issues, that are seeking energy efficiency," said Lorraine Bolsinger, a GE vice president who heads up the Ecomagination program.
Fears that a warmer, wetter planet would spawn devastating storms like Hurricane Katrina, which flooded much of New Orleans and killed more than 1,500 people in Louisiana alone, have also caused insurers to shift thinking on global warming.
