May 25, 2021
On Earth Day April 22, Sustainability Roundtable, Inc. (SR Inc) turned 13 years old. Like my teenagers who were two and four when we launched and built SR Inc right through the teeth of the global financial panic in 2008, SR Inc has learned empowering lessons and has outrageous possibilities before it.
A dozen years helping almost 100 Fortune 500 and growth companies to “Develop, Drive & Report” their move to leadership in more sustainable high-performance has, however, also instructed on the hubris of youth and the limited but real predictive power of critical analysis. In 2019 SR Inc began helping dozens of clients develop a “2020 Net Zero Vision” wherein before year end 2020 they would be able to see a profitable path to Net Zero Emissions. A motivator for SR Inc clients and team in this work was the Special Report on 1.5C issued in October of 2018 by the UN IPCC. On its release, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres observed that it would be “immoral” and “suicidal” to fail to embrace the guidance of that report. It found that in order to avoid the likelihood of experiencing the worst effects of human caused climate breakdown – including passing “tipping points” to irreversible and self-accelerating global ecological collapse – it was necessary to roughly half global emissions by 2030 and achieve Net Zero Emissions globally by 2050.
Fortunately, the broader global business community also responded with fast growth global companies leading in the ranks of the now more than 9,600 companies reporting to the CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project). More than 1,300 companies have submitted to the rigor of the industry and firm specific Science Based Target initiative, more than 1,000 companies have joined the UN’s “Race to Zero” through committing to Net Zero Emissions (many before 2030), and more than 300 have committed to 100% renewable energy globally. But informed critics like Aspen Ski Company’s Senior VP of Sustainability & Community, Auden Schendler have highlighted that these voluntary “leadership” commitments to decarbonize one company’s operations can be a distraction from our urgent need for public policy supported change to market rules nationally and globally.
That is why the action of the 11 largest climate NGOs was so important when in October 2019 they took out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling on company CEOs to lead by committing to: “Advocate” for science based public policy on climate, “Align” their trade associations with science based public policy and “Allocate” resources to support science aligned climate policy. Now those same 11 NGOs should make clear as the 26th Conference of Parties approaches this November, that the corporate sustainability movement must evolve beyond the paradigm seeking voluntary “climate leadership” from a differentiating few – to a customer, employee, investor and host community demanded “climate responsibility” from all companies worthy of the social license to operate.
Fortunately, the corporate sustainability movement has developed over three decades and now has the global standards, and the professional, corporate and NGO leaders to define a required minimum level of “climate responsibility” that can be smartly demanded of every global enterprise. And that can be as simple as requiring only three public CEO commitments to: (a) recognize our climate emergency; (b) achieve Science Based Target Initiative goals; and (c) Advocate, Align & Allocate for IPCC SR 1.5C aligned public policy at a local, state, national and global level. This will enable alignment with the most sought- after customers, employees, investors and host communities who know science demands nothing less.
Jim Boyle is the CEO & Founder of Sustainability Roundtable, Inc. For more than a dozen years, Jim has led full-time teams of diverse experts to assist nearly 100 Fortune 500 and growth companies in their move to more sustainable high-performance. Specifically, SR Inc has helped world-leading corporations, real estate owners, and federal agencies to set goals, drive progress, and report results in their move to greater Corporate Sustainability. Mr. Boyle led in the creation of SR Inc’s Renewable Energy Procurement Services (REPS), which advises and represents Fortune 500 and fast growth companies across the U.S. and internationally in the development of renewable energy strategies and the procurement of both on and off-site advanced energy solutions. Before founding SR Inc, Mr. Boyle co-led Trammell Crow Company Corporate Advisory Services in San Francisco and returned to his native Boston and Trammell Crow Company’s market leading team in Greater Boston where he received the Commercial Brokers Association’s Platinum Award for the highest level of commercial real estate transactions. Earlier, he advised companies on real estate and environmental matters as an attorney at a large law firm based in Boston. Jim is a graduate of Middlebury College, where he co-captained the football team, and Boston College Law School. Early in his career, he served as a federal law clerk, an aide to John F. Kerry in the U. S. Senate, and on Vice President Al Gore’s campaign for President. Jim lives in Concord, MA with his wife and kids a half mile across the street from Emerson’s house and museum on the route to Walden Pond.
