Reducing American Corporate Environmental Impact

Climate Change, Anthropocene, & Associated Issues

Date posted: 08/08/16

The evidence is clear that the commercial sector is a major contributor to climate change. It also can be a major force in reducing it. Addressing climate change is good business, and even small green actions and policies by American companies have a significant impact on decreasing damage to the environment and producing positive results. To understand how business can reduce its environmental impact, we need to understand that impact more clearly... The Earth average temperature has increased 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 100 years, and geoscientists expect it to rise an additional 0.5 to 8.6 degrees Fahrenheit in the next century. Even these seemingly tiny temperature changes translate to large and potentially dangerous shifts in climate and weather, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. A recent report by Richard Heede of the Climate Accountability Institute found that 90 investor- and stated-owned companies produced 63% of the greenhouse gas emissions from 1751 to 2010. These firms cumulative global carbon dioxide and methane emissions equal about 914 gigatons of carbon dioxide. Almost one-third of the emissions were produced by the top 20 companies studied. Even organizations that do not produce impact-intensive products, such as oil, gas and cement, contribute to climate change.