The three main lines of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), identified by John Elkington in 1994 as the triple bottom line; the three P’s of people, planet and profit, are commonly translated as social, environmental and economic.
As the impact of climate change is increasingly felt, the environmental part of CSR is becoming increasingly important. With each day that passes it’s clearer that simply reducing carbon emissions is no longer enough: we need emergency measures that go much further. California governor Jerry Brown, who I mentioned recently in regard to his decision to require 100% of the energy generated and consumed in the Sunshine State to be clean by 2045, has also signed an executive order requiring state agencies to work out how to make the entire economy carbon neutral within the same period. The order requires “net negative emissions” beyond 2045, which means using plants or technology to draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, and reuse or store it.
Increasingly, the idea is to help build a carbon economy capable of eliminating more carbon dioxide than is emitted. An economy that, according to some calculations and taking into account the difficulties involved, could contribute $26 trillion to the global economy.
Following this principle, some companies have begun to redefine their CSR policies to prioritize the environmental, which until a few years ago was considered simply by many as a “nice to have”, giving the annual report a feel-good factor. Now, Lyft has announced it is investing millions of dollars toward carbon neutrality, saying it aims to offset around one million metric tons of carbon dioxide within a year. It intends to do this through the acquisition of supervised compensatory credits (investments in activities that offset the company’s emissions), making its fleet electric, using non-emissions vehicles such as bicycles or electric scooters and encouraging use of public transport.
IKEA has announced it is in the process of converting its delivery vans to electric, a transition it aims to achieve by 2020 in Amsterdam, Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Shanghai, and by 2025 for the rest of the cities of the world. The Swedish furniture company is following the lead of courier companies such as DHL, which since 2016 has been incorporating self-developed electric vehicles to its delivery fleets in Germany with the aim of achieving 70% of last mile logistics with emissions-free vehicles free by 2025. Last March, UPS, announced last March it was transitioning toward an electric fleet in London (which since January requires all new taxis to be zero emissions) using a vehicle that looks like something from a Pixar movie.
These kinds of measures extend beyond the economy into policy: C40 is a network of cities working to reduce emissions, measuring their progress in this regard and the measures taken. As with CSR, concern for the health of the planet is good for PR and raises awareness among the public that could translate into improved sales or votes.
CSR is taking on a deeper hue of green, which is a good thing. Now we need to extend the conversation to include all of us. We need to move forward from the irresponsible idea of climate change as something that might happen in the distant future to understanding the gravity of the situation and the threat it poses. We face an emergency that requires all of us to act now, before it really is too late.
Originally published at Forbes.