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As governments continue to falter on their commitments to the 2015 Paris agreement, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts warming in excess of 3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century if ambitions do not increase. 

IPCC scientists consider 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming to be a significant tipping point, upon which the severity and intensity of storms, droughts, floods, and heat waves will increase around the world. In a 2018 report, the IPCC warned that we're on pace to exceed the 1.5-degree mark in less than 12 years and that warming even half a degree more could substantially worsen climate impacts. 

At the Climate Action Summit during the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York this week, Secretary-General António Guterres challenged world leaders to come prepared with long-term net-zero targets and new, more ambitious national climate action plans. “The climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win,” he said in a statement. “This is not a climate talk summit. We have had enough talk. This is not a climate negotiation summit. You don’t negotiate with nature. This is a climate action summit.”

Meanwhile, the rising youth movement led by teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg brought a renewed sense of urgency to the proceedings. In an emotional speech at the Assembly, which quickly went viral on social media, Thunberg put world leaders on notice, saying: "You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”

"We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is the money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth," she continued. "For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you're doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight."

As Guterres implored world leaders to increase their commitments to the Paris agreement, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC)—which convenes businesses around U.N. goals—is looking to bring the private sector into the fray. 

Back in June, the UNGC and U.N. Development Program called on business leaders to set emissions reduction targets that align with the global push to cap temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius. On Sunday, ahead of the U.N. Climate Action Summit, the UNGC announced that 87 companies had signed on to its Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaign. 

The latest companies to come on board include American power company NRG Energy, Danish multinational pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk and natural household products company Seventh Generation, among others. These businesses—representing more than 4.2 million employees and a combined market capitalization of over US$2.3 trillion—committed to setting science-based emissions targets that support a 1.-5-degree trajectory. 

Can a public-private "ambition loop" move the needle on climate change?

(Image: UNGC CEO Lise Kingo speaks with Bill Weir, CNN's chief climate correspondent, at a side event during the U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York on Monday.)

Importantly, signatories of the Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaign agreed to track—and reduce—greenhouse gas emissions across their entire value chains. On average, value-chain (or Scope 3) GHG emissions are 5.5 times greater than those associated with a company’s operations, according to the UNGC and CDP, yet few companies account for them. To put this in perspective, these companies' annual operational emissions alone are equivalent to the annual emissions of 73 coal-fired power plants. (You do the math.) 

Companies including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, SAP, Levi Strauss and Unilever extended their GHG commitments to their entire value chains as part of the new campaign, after previously committing to 1.5-degree-aligned reductions for their operations. 

According to the UNGC, this action from the private sector has the potential to create an “ambition loop,” with governments and businesses playing off one another and ultimately driving climate action to the next level. 

"We need an ambition loop between the business sector and governments to really push this agenda forward," Lise Kingo, CEO and executive director of the UNGC, said at a side event during the Climate Action Summit on Monday. "The Secretary-General has been very bold and very inspirational, so we want to do everything we can to support him."

More than 10,000 corporate members already file annual reports with the UNGC that track their alignment with U.N. goals around climate change, human rights and fair labor. Signatories to the Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaign must also have their emissions plans approved by the voluntary Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) within the next two years and commit to reach net-zero emissions by no later than 2050.

Of course, this is easier said than done. "The commitment is easy to understand, but the road there is very challenging," Jesper Brodin, CEO of Ikea Group, said in New York on Monday. Ikea Group has committed to become climate positive by 2030, meaning the GHG reductions associated with its renewable energy and clean technology investments will exceed its annual value chain emissions. "Then we ask: How is that even possible?" Brodin continued. "It’s part of a systematic equation that begins with science-based targets and with verifying that we are serious about them."

Guterres praised the signatories for their early action but warned that this must be a beginning, not an end, if we hope to avert a 3-degree warming scenario. “It is encouraging to see many first-movers in the private sector align with civil society and ambitious governments by stepping up in support of a [1.5-degree] future,” he said in a statement. “Now we need many more companies to join the movement, sending a clear signal that markets are shifting.”

TriplePundit is covering the U.N. General Assembly and Climate Week NYC through the weekend. You can follow our coverage here. 

Image credits: Mary Mazzoni/TriplePundit

(Image: Award-winning children’s author David Ezra Stein hosted a special story time at the Queens Public Library in July to celebrate the launch of Soar with Reading's 2019 season.) 

As the school year gets into full swing, students all over the country are excitedly telling their classmates and teachers how they spent their summer vacations. For thousands of kids in New York City, that story now includes plenty of time spent with free books from JetBlue’s Soar with Reading program. This summer, JetBlue placed free book vending machines in areas identified as “book deserts” in every New York City borough including two in Queens. 

Launched in 2015, Soar with Reading is an award-winning literacy initiative that tackles the lack of books available in low-income communities. Such communities are often virtually bereft of books for sale, especially age-appropriate children’s books, even in New York where NYU Steinhardt's most recent study found that over 75 percent of students reported they liked to read, a surprising difference compared to a study by the National Literacy Trust that reported only 1 in 4 enjoyed reading.

The repercussions of limited access to the books kids crave are serious for children who are learning to read. Children who are frequently read to by adults intuitively begin to understand how print works, how stories are told and retold, and how print matches to speech sounds in these early language lessons. Even more importantly, books open up the world of information, and begin to orient children toward building knowledge, essential for reading comprehension and school achievement. Studies have shown that owning 25 books or more has a sizable effect on achievement, with each additional increment of books, such as 10 or more, improving achievement.

The lack of access to books is most dire to students’ development over the summer, when kids lose the access to books that school otherwise provides. One recent study showed that 20 percent of kids between the ages of 6 and 17 didn’t read a single book over summer vacation. Those with limited print experiences are likely to start school behind and stay behind, as children who aren’t strong readers are frequently assigned simplified text with easy vocabulary words while their more proficient peers are grappling with complex text and content.

To improve book access for children in need, the private and public sectors can achieve the most success when they work together. JetBlue is one company that has stepped in to fill the void of accessible books for children over those critical summer months. Soar with Reading has located its innovative book vending machines in book deserts in five cities in as many years and has made an impact on the markets it serves by ingraining itself in the very heart of in-need communities. Before entering a new market, the Soar with Reading team spends extensive time identifying and exploring neighborhoods that qualify as book deserts before deciding where to place machines to have the greatest impact. 

Getting to know the community is essential for the machines to wind up in the highest foot-trafficked locations by populations of need such as community centers, grocery stores, rec centers and state parks. It is through the networks already created by these community organizations that corporations seeking to make a measurable impact have the greatest chance of creating real change. Through this kind of partnership, both sides create greater value for the community than they could achieve on their own. The corporate partner is able to provide targeted resources to those who need them most, and the nonprofit partner benefits from the resources that often come along with a corporate responsibility partnership.   

It is partly due to this kind of partnership that JetBlue was able to distribute 66,000 books in low-income New York communities this summer through its free book vending machines and will provide 34,000 books to its nonprofit partners for programming throughout the school year. Some who hear about the dearth of books in communities might argue that it’s simply a matter of supply and demand: Low-income people are less likely to value or buy books, and therefore, proprietors are less likely to stock them. JetBlue’s continued success with Soar with Reading dispels this notion: The program has donated more than $3.75 million since its inception. 

Another important factor behind Soar with Reading’s continued success is modeling. It is imperative that children see the adults around them reading and that they see themselves represented in the books they read. According to Scholastic, about 6 in 10 parents (58 percent) report diversity is extremely or very important in the books their child reads, and nearly 4 in 10 kids ages 9 to 17 (38 percent) agree. JetBlue understands this need and stocks its vending machines each year with titles that feature diverse characters and language options that reflect the makeup of each community. 

Next summer the Soar with Reading program will land in Boston, and JetBlue is already working to understand how to best reach students and parents alike. By meeting families in the spaces they already frequent—and offering accessible and relatable solutions—JetBlue expects to give away more than $4 million worth of books by the time next year’s program ends. Book deserts are a solvable problem, and companies can best be part of the solution by taking steps to get stories in children’s hands that they remember for many summers to come.

This article series is sponsored by JetBlue and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team. 

Image courtesy of JetBlue via the 3BL Media Newsroom  

Employee donations, a vital income stream for non-profits addressing many societal issues at the grass-roots level, are on the rise and agencies like America's Charities are simplifying workplace giving. 

“It’s clear that employees of all kinds expect to be able to give at work, they want to be in the driver’s seat of their individual giving and they want technology to make it easy,” said Jim Starr, president and CEO America’s Charities, which establishes and manages workplace donation programs in partnership with not-for-profit agencies. “Those expectations are only going to get more widespread, and more resilient, as the next generation joins the workforce.”

Since its founding nearly 40 years ago, America’s Charities has raised more than $700 million for more than 20,000 nonprofits involved with needs such as education, human rights, hunger, poverty, research, animal welfare, veteran assistance, disaster relief and health services, according to the agency. “America’s Charities works at the intersection of uniting the desire of employers and their employees wanting to do good, with the charitable organizations that are delivering good,” Starr said.

Despite economic ups and downs, job security fears and increasing demands on the average paycheck, workplace giving is growing at a rapid pace--employee engagement programs make up more than $4 billion annually in contributions to charitable organizations.  “In some ways, workplace giving is the unsung hero of individual giving,” according to Starr.” It’s easy, safe, convenient, and it provides nonprofits with sustainable support. Businesses recognize the value it brings.”

America’s Charities’ employee donor research showed that 86 percent of employers understand that their employees expect them to provide opportunities to engage in the community, and 87 percent believe their employees expect them to support causes and issues that matter to those employees. 

While millennials often have been cited as lobbying for more socially conscious giving, America’s Charities’ research showed the trend spans generations. When it surveyed employee donors, it asked them questions about why and how they give at work. “Nearly 6 in 10 employees told us it was imperative, or very important, to work where culture is supportive of giving and volunteering,” noted Starr. “When we looked at the survey results, we found something surprising. After scrutinizing the data, we found millennials weren’t the only group that wanted this experience. Baby Boomers, too, and every generation otherwise – Gen X, Gen Z – want to give at work as a means of giving back, connecting with their colleagues, and better understanding the impact of their giving.”

For about 20 years, America’s Charities has conducted research regarding trends in workplace donations. In 2013, it began its Snapshot series, surveys of specific segments of the stakeholder of social change, such as employers, employee donors and nonprofits. Starr said the series helps provide insight into what employees view as important for workplace donation programs and how that matches up with employers’ perceptions and ideas. “We know from our employee donor research that 71 percent of employees believe it's imperative or very important to work where the culture is supportive of giving and volunteering,” according to Starr. 

Crucial to employee participation is being able to choose who receives their donations, research shows; not having a choice stops 30 percent of employees from donating through the workplace, Starr said. “The ability to donate how and when an employee wants is among the top five critical factors in making a positive giving experience.”

The bottom-line: employees—no matter their age, rank, or experience—want to work for a company where charitable giving and volunteering is supported, Starr added. “They want to improve the world around them, and now more than ever, they expect their employers to offer opportunities to support the community via time, money and skills.” 

Don’t forget: Next month, we're hosting 3BL Forum: Brands Taking Stands – What's Next, October 29-30, at MGM National Harbor, just outside Washington, D.C. Together, our 90-plus speakers promise to make this two-day event one that is fast-paced, high-octane and invaluable with their perspectives on the latest in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) community.

We're proud to have America's Charities as an important sponsor for this event.

We're pleased to offer 3p readers a 25 percent discount on attending the Forum. Please register by going to the 3BL Forum website and use this discount code when prompted: NEWS2019BRANDS.

Image credit: Pexels

In today’s competitive labor market, companies that lead with innovation, transparency and commitment have a better chance of onboarding and retaining talented employees. But among many challenges employees face, benefits designed to take on mental illness are either lacking, or are not accessed as often as they should be. As Starbucks moves forward with a novel mental health initiative to support all U.S. and Canada employees, the company may be leading the way to “break the stigma.”

That’s according to John Kelly, Starbucks senior vice president of global public affairs and social impact who also recently told CNN that the company’s initiative has the goal to “really normalize that your mental health is just as important as your physical health.”

Mental health has a huge impact on companies' performance

The CDC references that one in five Americans will experience a mental illness in a given year. The impact can be devastating, as struggles with our mental health can affect our ability to relate to others, handle stress and perform daily functions.

Starbucks innovative approach could spark a wider trend for other companies, large and small, to beef up mental health benefits. Not only is the company’s new plan gaining favorable attention, it is also working to support a healthy bottom line.

Mental health issues account for 30 percent of all disability costs. Studies show that taking effective steps toward managing mental health can produce a 15 to 33 percent reduction in health care costs.

How Starbucks’ mental health benefits go beyond what’s required

In the U.S., the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) requires that group health plans and health insurance issuers to ensure that financial requirements (such as co-pays, deductibles) and treatment limitations (such as caps on total allowed visits) applicable to mental health or substance use disorder benefits are no more restrictive than the requirements or limitations applied to most other medical benefits.

While the MHPAEA law supports inclusion of mental health benefits, the law is the baseline. In North America, many mental health benefits go unused because of stigma or because mental health benefits only kick in after the overall health plan deductible has been met. This can equate to paying between $60 to $120 out-of-pocket for the average 45 to 60-minute session. If you have higher-quality coverage, costs average between $20 to $50 per session, or of that equal to a typical health plan’s copay.

Starbucks’ new initiative is different in that it also includes an enhanced employee assistance program (EAP) and mental health training for store managers. Starbucks is training managers to respond to signs of mental illness and substance abuse on the frontline by partnering with Mental Health First Aid, a national program that gives people the skills to help someone experiencing an issue with mental health. Managers can act as on-site emotional support for their teams and encourage team members to access available benefits and resources.

By January, the company will also provide U.S. and Canada employees access to subscriptions for the app Headspace, which offers hundreds of guided meditations for a broad range of issues relating to stress, sleep and more.

Moreover, this isn’t the first instance the company has taken steps toward improving mental health benefits. In 2016, Starbucks Canada increased the amount employees can use annually to cover the cost of therapy from $400 to $5,000.

Going beyond more generous employee benefits

Last year, subsequent to the federal tax overhaul, the company pledged to spend $250 million on new employee benefits, including an increase in pay for U.S. employees. Another added benefit included the addition of six weeks of paid parental leave for hourly employees who become new dads. This benefit previously had been only offered to new mothers and adoptive or foster parents. The company also added subsidized childcare for all U.S. employees.

This time around, in addition to the EAP, Starbucks will partner with organizations that support ending the stigma around mental health. Born This Way Foundation, a mental wellness nonprofit founded by singer Lady Gaga, and Team Red White & Blue, a nonprofit that supports veterans’ well-being, will have reciprocal relationships with Starbucks and its employees.

“If we take a positive step forward, you know, sometimes that can be a catalyst for others to take a positive step forward and create a movement,” Kevin Johnson, Starbucks CEO, said in a recent interview.

As comprehensive, inclusive benefits become stronger motivators for workers to stay loyal to companies, employers like Starbucks that take steps to support a healthier workforce can gain the edge needed to succeed.

Image credit: Nik Shuliahin/Unsplash

Part of our special coverage of Climate Week NYC 2019.

Today, United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Action and former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced his support for the U.N. Secretary General António Guterres’ initiative to stop the development of new coal-fired power plants after 2020. Earlier this year, Bloomberg also announced his intention to invest $500 billion to shut down remaining coal plants in the U.S. by 2030.

These initiatives and investments mark the latest efforts to hasten the demise of already-weakened coal-fired power in the world’s energy portfolio. Coal as an energy source has already been on the decline for several years. It no longer makes economic—or environmental—sense to invest in what is essentially a 1970s energy strategy.

The case for moving on from coal

Coal is the fuel of the past. The rise of cheap natural gas accelerated the cost-ineffectiveness of coal and significant decreases in the cost of solar and wind have led to predictions of bettering global grid parity with fossil fuels by next year. Combine that with increased energy efficiency across all sectors (residential, commercial, and industrial) and you are left with a poor economic outlook for coal.

Other factors are also important to consider. In a changing climate, with water stress and scarcity increasingly a concern, thermoelectric power is responsible for about 40 percent of all U.S. freshwater withdrawals. That number has decreased in recent years as the oldest coal plants are taken offline and energy efficiency, solar PV, and wind deployment have increased, which all use little to no water. Coal makes up about 27 percent of the U.S. electric generation (considerably less than just ten years ago) and is one of the thirstiest fuel sources. Technology aimed at making coal less dirty, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), has turned out to be much more expensive than going with a cheaper electricity source (and CCS also places additional stress on already-stressed water supplies).

Transitioning from coal won't be easy

Despite all this, shutting down old coal plants and preventing new coal plants from being built is complicated beyond just the basic economics of coal itself. Transitioning utilities to more renewable energy, in particular incorporating distributed energy resources into its business model, will require some out-of-the-box thinking by the utilities themselves. The traditional business model relies on selling kilowatt-hours of electricity, so restructuring the business model to sell a service (distributed generation, demand response programs, and so on) rather than a commodity will be key. Some utilities have thus far resisted this change, even in the face of cities and states adopting clean energy goals.

Further, transmission and distribution systems will need investment to enable them to better dispatch demand, improve grid operations, and better integrate renewable energy and storage. Finally, while regions with heavy coal production have already faced significant stress related to job loss, there is a huge opportunity to retrain workers, but it will require significant investment in money and other resources, not just sound bites on campaign trails.

Bloomberg’s announcement also calls on the private sector, and utilities in particular, to undertake some of these transformative actions and notes that his foundation and philanthropies are working with developing countries to help them leapfrog into the clean energy economy. In order to see this goal through in the U.S., sustained interest and investment from the private sector—utilities, not least among them—and the public sector—climate change policies and workforce development—are essential.

Image credit: Diana Parkhouse/Unsplash

Los Angeles has the most installed solar capacity of any U.S. city, thanks in part to this massive solar installation atop the LA Convention Center, managed by AEG. 

This article series is sponsored by AEG and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.

The gravity of moments can be hard to judge during their passing, but there is no denying the significant impact that the courageous teenage climate activist, Greta Thunburg, has already had on the world. Her Global Climate Strikes movement serves as a bookend for today’s U.N. Climate Action Summit and the beginning of Climate Week NYC 2019. 

Will this be the week that future generations will look back on and point to as the time when humanity started making meaningful progress to address the global climate crisis? We certainly hope so. There’s simply no time to waste. 

A little less than a year ago, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its Global Warming of 1.5˚C special report. The report addresses the impacts of 1.5 degrees Celsius in global temperature rise, compared to a 2-degree scenario.

According to the IPCC report, human activities have already caused approximately 1 degree of global warming above pre-industrial levels. As a result, we have already seen a certain amount of damage to our environment, infrastructure, and health and safety. This damage will only increase if warming continues to 1.5 degrees or higher. For example, extreme heat events are expected to be 2.6 times more severe under the 2-degree scenario than at 1.5 degrees. Higher levels of warming, expected if business-as-usual conditions persist, could lead to disastrous or catastrophic consequences.   

We saw the IPCC’s report as a solemn warning and a clear roadmap for the future. AEG was one of the first companies to adopt a science-based target for greenhouse gas emissions reductions based on the report. Per its guidance, AEG is committed to reducing our overall carbon footprint by 45 percent from 2010 to 2030, and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. As noted in our most recent sustainability report, we have made significant progress in reducing our GHG emissions, and in 2018 we were just 4 percent above our emissions goal for that year. 

Although we are confident we can meet and exceed our targets for GHG reductions, our footprint is a relatively tiny piece of a much larger inventory of global emissions. So even if we do our part, our fate—and the fate of all humanity—depends on the ability of the global community to achieve the reductions recommended by the IPCC, which notes that achieving the level of carbon reduction to arrest global warming at 1.5 degrees would require “unprecedented” changes in our economies, lifestyles and habits. 

We recognize that appreciation of this situation can overwhelm and paralyze, preventing individuals and organizations from taking action. What if our actions don’t make a difference? Has the die already been cast? Shouldn’t we just start preparing for the worst? 

The answer is that our actions do make a difference. Every amount of avoided emissions will mitigate the future impacts of climate change and will save lives. Our fate is not sealed, and we can avoid the worst. But we have to act now, take whatever actions we can for those emissions within our control, and, crucially, we have to influence others—our partners, neighbors, even rivals—to do the same.
 
How does a company like AEG do such a thing? For one, our events reach over 100 million fans a year, giving us a unique opportunity to influence GHG emissions far beyond our direct footprint. That is why we are redoubling our efforts to leverage our visibility and communications platforms to sound the alarm and join the global dialogue. 

AEG is a founding partner of the Green Sports Alliance, a coalition of sports organizations dedicated to using the power of sports to help protect the environment. Our premier sports franchises, the LA Kings and LA Galaxy, have their own branded sustainability programs that help those teams engage with their fans about environmental sustainability.

And in May 2019, AEG announced that six of its sports organizations, the LA Kings, Berlin Eisbären, Ontario Reign, LA Galaxy, Amgen Tour of California and AEG Rugby, became the first in their respective leagues to join the U.N. Sports for Climate Action Framework, a worldwide initiative and a new movement dedicated to collective action on climate change. Our live music division, AEG Presents, just joined the Music Declares Emergency, a group of artists, music industry professionals, and organizations that stand together to declare a climate emergency. And AEG will work with its fellow winners of the inaugural Beyond Sport Collective Impact Award to drive impact for climate action.     

As we must, we will continue our efforts to fully eliminate the carbon emissions associated with our operations and to support our communities and partners who are on the same journey. Global climate change is a serious, potentially catastrophic crisis that impacts us all, and we all have a responsibility to join the fight. The time is now.  

Image courtesy of AEG via the 3BL Media newsroom

There was plenty of climate related news last week besides the Global Climate Strike (shown above in Augsberg, Germany and discussed here). Last week, Salesforce introduced its Sustainability Cloud with an aim to “empower every business to drive impactful climate action.”

The platform has a nifty Salesforce look and feel, allowing clients to track, analyze and report reliable greenhouse gas data that offer efficiency and insights to managers and create dynamo reports and dashboards to catch the eye of the c-suite. The move is precipitated both by Salesforce’s headline sponsorship of Climate Week in New York next week, and, according to the company’s sustainability vice president Patrick Flynn, by its involvement in the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD). 

But as we know, TCFD is focused on the financial impact of climate-related risks and opportunities on an organization, rather than the impact of an organization on the environment. In other words, TCFD is reflecting that businesses and stakeholders recognize the urgent issues of climate change more than ever including the risks that climate change is creating for their growth. In other words, corporations are worried about the physical impacts - both shocks and stresses - of climate change. This is an area that the Salesforce Cloud does not touch.

While I can think of dozens of carbon accounting platforms, for an industry that is old and acquisition-rich by Silicon Valley standards (check Hara, for instance, which more than a decade ago had become industry leading enough to be acquired by Verisae, which was subsequently acquired by Accruent), the resilience analytics marketplace is not so crowded and is ripe for a new entrant like Salesforce. 

A day before Salesforce’s Sustainability Cloud launch, the Climate Bonds Initiative released its Climate Resilience Principles that provide a framework for assessing climate resilience investments. Created with input from over 40 experts around the globe, the principles first aim to guide investors to understand climate risks faced by assets, activities and systems. Second, they address these risks through risk-reduction measures and third to increase the number and quality of investments that deliver resilience benefits over and above addressing identified risks.

These principles are solution to the urgent issue of climate impacts on business operations and growth. Moving beyond carbon accounting, one thing the principles rely on: the nascent risk and resilience metrics arena that Salesforce could capture and grow.

I have no doubt that Salesforce will be a force for good. With close to two hundred thousand clients, they are certain to make it easier for many more corporations to measure their carbon emissions. This captive market may be Salesforce’s disruption of the relatively mature carbon accounting marketplace.

But the real white space is for easily accessed and applied data that can help corporations assess and act on their current and future climate change hazards and vulnerabilities. Let’s hope the swift work of Salesforce’s epic workforce will not be disrupted by climate risks, such as San Francisco’s wildfire-driven poor air quality, increasing National Weather Service heat-related danger days or more frequently flooded commutes - to move ahead toward that truly newsworthy task.

Image credit: Wiki Commons

There are several reasons why within the corporate sustainability world, conference season gets heaviest in the fall—starting with the fact that flights are usually reasonable, as many people are saving their airline miles and travel budgets for the Thanksgiving, Christmas and late December holidays. From San Diego to Philly, there is a long list of events that can help make your job easier, jolt your staff with new perspectives, and provide fantastic networking opportunities, which is invaluable for those toiling in this space.

Of course, our own top choice is 3BL Forum, which the team here at TriplePundit and across the 3BL Media family has been organizing and curating over the past three years. This year’s Forum, October 29-30 in National Harbor, Maryland, (a short hop from Washington, D.C.), focuses on what’s around the corner in the world of corporate responsibility. We don’t just go on stage and tell you what we’re doing—we dive into the how and why, what’s hard and, this year, what’s next.

We’re proud that we plan on having about 90 leaders onstage across two days—and these sessions are short, snappy, to the point and promise to be impactful. We’re also thrilled that, at last count, about 55 percent of our speakers are women.

So check your calendar, save October 29-30 for 3BL Forum, and calendar these other noteworthy events while you're at it: 

The Responsible Business Summit West, October 9-10, San Diego, California: Ethical Corporation will bring over 200 CEOs, sustainability leaders, investors, government representatives and NGOs to show how they’re going to deliver the blueprint for the future economy.

EHS&S Management Forum, October 15-18, Toronto, Ontario: A can’t-miss for EHS (environmental, health and safety) decision-makers. And yes, if you’re more focused on the environmental or sustainability side of things at your organization, this should be on your calendar, too. Our friends at NAEM expect over 700 people from more than 300 companies to arrive.

Verge, October 22-24, Oakland, California: “The platform for companies, cities and communities accelerating the clean economy,” says event organizers GreenBiz, and for good reason – 30,000 people are expected to attend the 120 sessions and programs focused on clean technology.

NetImpact, October 24-26, Detroit: Flying from Oakland to Detroit on the 24th? Then, the learning continues: NetImpact will host its popular annual gathering for purpose-driven university students, along with the organizations seeking to harness their talents after graduation, in Motown. This year’s theme is “Widening the Lens.”

BSR, November 12-14, San Jose, California: Do you know the way to San Jose? Well you should, because employee and CEO activism are both on the rise; climate change is wreaking havoc now; and all of your company’s stakeholders are excited and anxious about what new technologies can make possible. Hence this year’s theme, “The New Climate for Business.”

Corporate Citizenship Conference, November 13-14, Washington, D.C.: “Solve Together” is this year’s theme at this two-day event run by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Themes include integrating social impact strategies business-wide and how to develop a more diverse and inclusive corporate culture.

New Metrics, November 18-20, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Overwhelmed by the role integrated reporting can have on investor relations? Trying to get your head wrapped around next-gen metrics, from soil health to circularity? This may just be the event for you!

We’ll be on the ground at many of these events, so we look forward to seeing you!

We’re pleased to offer TriplePundit readers a 25 percent discount to attend 3BL Forum: Brands Taking Stands - What's Next. Please register by going to the 3BL Forum website and use this discount code when prompted: NEWS2019BRANDS.

Image credit: Gibson Hurst/Unsplash

Public enthusiasm for the Global Climate Strike was practically a given, but U.S. corporations were slow to catch on at first. In recent days, hundreds of businesses have publicly promoted the event and taken steps to encourage their employees, customers and clients to participate. Meanwhile, as of press time, the crowds worldwide, from Berlin to Sydney (shown above), have been huge.

Now, the real question is: What happens after September 20?

The Global Climate Strike gathers steam

As of last week, only a handful of progressive companies—like Lush, Ben & Jerry’s, Nature’s Path, Patagonia, Seventh Generation and Burton Snowboards—were publicly supporting the Global Climate Strike, most of them through the climate action organization 350.org. Last week, hundreds more also signed on to a new Digital Climate Strike, deploying their websites to help ramp up public awareness.

That trickle turned into a tsunami practically overnight. Earlier this week, the American Sustainable Business Council, representing 250,000 businesses, announced its support for 350.org and the Global Climate Strike on September 20, as well as a cap-off event on September 27.

More than 300 companies have now signed onto the 350.org statement in support of the Global Climate Strike, and thousands of websites have joined the digital strike.

Tech giants climb on board the Global Climate Strike train, kind of

Though the list of businesses publicly participating in the Global Climate Strike has grown, so far, the focus is mainly on smaller companies with long established track records in corporate social responsibility.

Noticeably silent are the U.S. tech giants. However, there is some indication that the grassroots movement is gathering steam. The newly formed Tech Workers Coalition, for example, lists worker groups publicly joining the Global Climate Strike at Amazon, Atlassian, Cobot, Ecosia, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Square and Twitter.

Among those companies, Australia-based Atlassian is notable because the company itself is also actively promoting the day of action.

Amazon and climate action

Amazon is also noteworthy, though for another reason. Workers at the company have spent several years circulating petitions and lobbying the company to ramp up its climate initiatives, to little avail.

Earlier this month, hundreds of workers took their efforts to the next level by publicly pledging to join the Global Climate Strike as Amazon employees.

Coincidentally or not, on September 20—hours away from the beginning of the strike—Amazon announced that it was pairing with the firm Global Optimism to launch a new climate initiative aimed at meeting the Paris Agreement goal 10 years early.

Through its so-called “Climate Pledge,” Amazon has committed to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 and net-zero carbon by 2040. To kick off the activity, Amazon has ordered 100,000 all-electric delivery vehicles, invested $100 million in reforestation projects, and launched a new sustainability reporting website.

Still, Amazon has some unfinished sustainability planning, as the company faces pressure from employees to address issues like immigration policy and worker rights.

Nevertheless, the new Climate Pledge demonstrates that the company has been paying attention to its employees. That’s an important step for companies that seek to attract the best and brightest in the up-and-coming generation of workers, in addition to retaining top talent.

Microsoft dips a toe in Global Climate Strike—not

Microsoft, unfortunately, took a more tone-deaf approach. Last week, Microsoft president Brad Smith exhorted attendees at a Thomson Reuters event in New York City to “know what you stand for” and “connect the courage of your convictions” with a focus on the bottom line.

Microsoft workers have taken that message to heart. As reported by Gizmodo earlier this week, shortly after Amazon workers announced their intentions to join the Global Climate Strike, workers at Microsoft followed suit through their group, Microsoft Workers 4 Good.

Nevertheless, on September 17, following on the heels of Smith’s speech and just days before the strike, Microsoft announced that it was pairing with two giants of the global fossil fuel industry, Chevron and Schlumberger, to accelerate oil and gas extraction through a “digital transformation” of the industry.

The news prompted a gloves-off response from Microsoft Workers 4 Good, which drew attention to their company’s recent contracts with two other titans of the industry, Equinor and ExxonMobil, as well as its participation in a global oil and gas conference under the theme of “Empowering Oil and Gas with AI [artificial intelligence].”

In their response, the Microsoft group hammered on the emerging issue of employee complicity in the fossil fuel industry, and in other aspects of social responsibility.

Unless Microsoft and companies like it turn the wheel around, the next generation of innovators, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs will find work that makes them contributors to progress, not enablers of business-as-usual.

Image credit: Marcus Coblyn/Wiki Commons