Mario Di Simine's Profile
WWF, businesses deal on emissions
The debate over lowering greenhouse gas emissions is sometimes depicted as a fight between environmental groups concerned over the health of the planet and businesses concerned about economic growth and bottom-line erosion.
Occasionally, though, there is a meeting of like minds between the two.
The WWF has a program in which it partners with companies to target emissions reductions. The Climate Savers program is an agreement between the WWF and its partner companies to lay out targets and set out projects to meet those goals.
“We want to show that doing business and reducing emissions go hand in hand,” said Matthew Banks, a senior program officer at the WWF and an economist.
The program, started in 1999, is aimed at getting companies to reduce their carbon footprint. Twenty-three companies have signed on, including Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, Nike and JohnsonDiversey. The companies negotiate targets and projects to reach those targets with the WWF and independent experts. Each contract is tailored to the company’s specific circumstances and progress is verified by an outside experts like ecofys.
Hewlett-Packard, for instance, has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 6 million tonnes below 2005 levels by 2010. Japanese transportation company Sagawa aims to reduce its gross CO2 emissions by 6 percent by 2012 compared with 2002.
The WWF is trying to get companies to stretch those targets.
“These are first steps,” said WWF representative Corinne Brunois.
The overarching goal is to achieve a 50 million tonne reduction in CO2 emissions by the beginning of 2010.
“That’s like taking 12 million-14 million cars off the road,” said the WWF’s Banks.
Some of the companies involved also say that moving to cleaner technologies will be better for the economy.
“Call it clean. Call it green. Or simply call it jobs,” Tetra Pak CEO Dennis Jonsson is quoted on the WWF’s Climate Savers website.
Not everyone agrees, though. After the Environment Protection Agency ruled on Monday that greenhouse gases endanger human health, a move that will allow it to regulate planet-warming gases even without legislation in Congress, some business groups and leaders reacted with alarm.
“This action poses a threat to every American family and business if it leads to regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Such regulation would be intrusive, inefficient, and excessively costly. It could chill job growth and delay business expansion,” Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, told Reuters after the EPA’s announcement.
What is certain is that the debate regarding clean energy and technologies is heating up. It won’t end in Copenhagen, but change may be in the cards.
“It is difficult to have gains without pain,” said Pedro Chidichimo, JohnsonDiversey EMA president, “and here I think there are some industries that need to be fully redesigned in order to comply with the regulations going forward.”