Abstract
Many companies respond to climate change by taking action within their direct area of influence, be it in the form of emission management, reporting initiatives, or investment in new technology (often with Scope 1 and 2 emissions). Indirect emissions upstream and downstream in a company’s value chain (Scope 3) are often abated due to the difficulty of collecting high-quality data and the lack of direct control, even though, in most industries, they constitute the majority of a company’s inventory. This chapter examines, using the example of an international consumer goods corporation, how companies may respond to climate change beyond their company gates. We show how sustainability governance and management, organizational practices, and policy engagement reinforce a virtuous cycle of climate change ambition, climate action, and the acceleration of climate action. The microlevel practices behind the corporation’s acceleration of climate action are explained and visualized in a grounded model. The resulting insights may inspire and aid practitioners in implementing climate change mitigation and adaptation action, specifically through examples for accelerating climate action beyond company gates.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bhattacharya CB, Sen S, Korschun D (2011) Leveraging corporate responsibility: the stakeholder route to maximizing business and social value. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA
Boiral O, Henri J-F, Talbot D (2012) Modeling the impacts of corporate commitment on climate change. Bus Strateg Environ 21(8):495–516
Böttcher CF, Müller M (2015) Drivers, practices and outcomes of low-carbon operations: approaches of German automotive suppliers to cutting carbon emissions. Bus Strateg Environ 24(6):477–498
Busch T (2011) Which emissions do we need to account for in corporate carbon performance? Response to Murray and Colleagues. J Ind Ecol 15(1):160–163
Carbon Footprint (2019) Deforestation. https://www.carbonfootprint.com/deforestation.html. Accessed 11 Nov 2019
Carfì, D, Donatob, A, Incoronata Fredellac, M, Squillanted, M (2019) Plastic Ocean and climate change: a competitive integrated risk management approach. Paper presented at AGU fall meeting 2019, San Francisco, 9–13 Dec 2019
CDP (2018) Closing the gap: scaling up sustainable supply chains. https://6fefcbb86e61af1b2fc4-c70d8ead6ced550b4d987d7c03fcdd1d.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/cms/reports/documents/000/003/014/original/CDP_Supply_Chain_Report_2018.pdf?1518084325. Accessed 16 Dec 2019
CDP (2019) Fast moving consumers. Which consumer goods companies are ready for the low-carbon transition? Executive summary. https://6fefcbb86e61af1b2fc4-c70d8ead6ced550b4d987d7c03fcdd1d.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/cms/reports/documents/000/004/150/original/CDP_Consumer_Goods_2019_Exec_summary.pdf?1551891654. Accessed 16 Dec 2019
Chatterji AK, Toffel MW (2018) The new CEO activists. Harv Bus Rev. https://hbr.org/2018/01/the-new-ceo-activists?referral= Accessed 1 Sept 2019
Chen X, Benjaafar S, Elomri A (2019) On the effectiveness of emission penalties in decentralized supply chains. Eur J Oper Res 274:1155–1167
Collins J (1999) Turning goals into results: the power of catalytic mechanisms. Harv Bus Rev 77(4):70–82
Dahlmann F, Branicki L, Brammer S (2019) Managing carbon aspirations: the influence of corporate climate change targets on environmental performance. J Bus Ethics 158:1–24
Deloitte (2019) European CFO survey autumn 2019. Into the woods. https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/finance/articles/european-cfo-survey.html Accessed 16 Dec 2019
Dyllick T, Muff K (2016) Clarifying the meaning of sustainable business: introducing a typology from business-as-usual to true business sustainability. Organ Environ 29(2):156–174
Garnaut R (2008) The Garnaut climate change review: final report. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne
George G, Howard-Grenville J, Joshi A, Tihanyi L (2016) Understanding and tackling societal grand challenges through management research. Acad Manag J 59:1880–1895
GHG Protocol (2011) Corporate value chain (Scope 3) accounting and reporting standard. https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/standards/Corporate-Value-Chain-Accounting-Reporing-Standard_041613_2.pdf. Accessed 12 May 2020
GlobeScan (2019) Climate change: a GlobeScan insight. https://globescan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/GlobeScan-Radar-2019-Climate-Change-13Dec2019.pdf. Accessed 2 Nov 2019
GlobeScan/SustainAbility (2019) Sustainability leaders: celebrating 20 years of leadership. https://globescan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/GlobeScan-SustainAbility-Leaders-Survey-2019-Report.pdf. Accessed 4 Nov 2019
Hengst A, Jarzabkowski P, Hoegl M, Muethel M (2019) Toward a process theory of making sustainability strategies legitimate in action. Acad Manage J, forthcoming. Digital version: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2016.0960 . Accessed 16 Dec 2019
Howard-Grenville J, Buckle SJ, Hoskins BJ, George G (2014) Climate change and management. Acad Manag J 57:615–623
Huang YA, Weber CL, Matthews HS (2009) Categorization of Scope 3 emissions for streamlined enterprise carbon footprinting. Environ Sci Technol 43(22):8509–8515
Jambeck JRR, Geyer C, Wilcox TR, Siegler M, Perryman A, Andrady R, Narayan, Law KL (2015) Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science 347:768–771
Jay J (2013) Navigating paradox as a mechanism of change and innovation in hybrid organizations. Acad Manag J 56(1):137–159
Jeswani HK, Wehrmeyer W, Mulugetta Y (2008) How warm is the corporate response to climate change? Evidence from Pakistan and the UK. Bus Strateg Environ 17(1):46–60
Kaplan S (2019) Beyond the business case for social responsibility. Acad Manag Discov, Advance online publication (6)1 https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2018.0220
Kissinger G, Herold M, De Sy V (2012) Drivers of deforestation and forest degradation: a synthesis report for REDD+ policymakers. Lexeme Consulting, Vancouver. http://www.somcon.com/sites/default/files/userfiles/1file/6316-drivers-deforestation-report_0.pdf. Accessed 14 Nov 2019
Kolk A, Pinkse J (2005) Business responses to climate change: identifying emergent strategies. Calif Manag Rev 47(3):6–20
Kolk A, Levy D, Pinkse J (2008) Corporate responses in an emerging climate regime: the institutionalization and commensuration of carbon disclosure. Eur Account Rev 17(4):719–745
Lowles N (2019) What are the most important issues facing the world today? https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/2019/09/20/climate-change-wont-just-cause-extreme-weather-but-extreme-politics. Accessed 16 Dec 2019
Murray J, Wiedmann T, Dey C (2011) Comment on “corporate carbon performance indicators revisited”. J Ind Ecol 15(1):158–160
Powell J (2019) Scientists reach 100% consensus on anthropogenic global warming. Bull Sci Technol Soc 37(4):183–184
RobecoSAM (2019) DJSI 2019 review results. https://www.robecosam.com/csa/csa-resources/industry-leaders.html. Accessed 4 Oct 2019
Science Based Targets Initiative (2018) From commitment to action: science-based targets momentum continues with 100 approved targets. https://sciencebasedtargets.org/2018/04/17/science-based-targets-go-mainstream-with-100-approved-targets/. Accessed 1 Oct 2019
Stern N (2007) The economics of climate change: the Stern review. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Sustainability Consortium (2016) Greening global supply chains: from blind spots to hot spots to action. https://www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/impact/impact-report/; 5 Mar. 2018. Accessed 16 Dec 2019
UN IPCC (2018a) Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/06/SR15_Full_Report_Low_Res.pdf. Accessed 16 Dec 2019
UN IPCC Special Report, October 2018b.: https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15. Accessed 16 Dec 2019
United Nations (n.d.) The Paris agreement. Bonn. https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement. Accessed 12 May 2019
Van der Vegt GS, Essens P, Wahlström M, George G (2015) Managing risk and resilience. Acad Manag J 58:971–980
Wang H, Tong L, Takeuchi R, George G (2016) Corporate social responsibility: an overview and new research directions: thematic issue on corporate social responsibility. Acad Manag J 59(2):534–544
We Mean Business (2019) Leading companies are committing to bold climate action through the coalition partners initiatives. https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/companies Accessed 4 Nov 2019
Weinhofer G, Hoffmann VH (2010) Mitigating climate change – how do corporate strategies differ? Bus Strateg Environ 19(2):77–89
World Economic Forum (2019) Insight report: the global risks report 2019, 14th edn. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Risks_Report_2019.pdf. Accessed 16 Dec 2019
World Research Institute (2015) What does it really mean when a company commits to “zero deforestation”? https://www.wri.org/blog/2015/05/what-does-it-really-mean-when-company-commits-zero-deforestation. Accessed 2 Nov 2019
Wright C, Nyberg D (2017) An inconvenient truth: how organizations translate climate change into business as usual. Acad Manag J 60(5):1633–1661
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Hoyer, C. (2021). Accelerating Climate Action Beyond Company Gates. In: Luetz, J.M., Ayal, D. (eds) Handbook of Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57281-5_139
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57281-5_139
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-57280-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-57281-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences