Getting Started

Corporate Questions on Global Warming

How do carbon-constraint risks to the company — regulatory, product and technology, supply chain, insurance, litigation, reputation, and physical risk — differ from risk avoidance and containment strategies now in place?
Who takes accountability inside the company? Do we assume the current environmental management team can handle the carbon-footprint management, reporting and other changes? Does our ISO or other standards program fit?
What will stakeholders expect, how will they be affected by carbon-constraint changes, and what’s the best way to engage for their support?
What is the potential for change in our stakeholder base, as the result of product, production and other business decisions? What are the likely government decisions we cannot control, and how will these affect stakeholders?
Do we need to examine the company’s vulnerability to, and possible opportunity in, local climate change perceptions, from civic action to material and food purchases?
What, if any, science contexts will help in business plans and communications?
What are the company’s participation options in carbon emissions trading, what problems and returns can be anticipated, where (which exchange) and when should we engage?
What are the reasons, options and timing for the company to join or form partnerships and coalitions for legislative, regulatory and public relations objectives?
What innovation or development opportunities for the company — such as lower-carbon technologies — will (or could) be encouraged by government tax relief, grants and consumer purchase incentives?
What are our political contexts — how Congress shapes the carbon war; the role of the states, beginning with California, and the probability of municipal government involvement?
What is the regulatory outlook for Federal and state agency rules implementing carbon constraint rules?
How will the company respond to required and voluntary options in providing “carbon disclosure” information to public, NGO and private organizations?
What are the benchmarks for communication relevant to our field? What can we learn from the way other companies are communicating on climate change, what they say, how they use the Internet to convey it, and how this affects the terminology that we use to engage stakeholders? How will we improve the connector channels starting with the Web and blogosphere?

To explore these questions, contact Envirocomm