It’s been written that when a company makes a strategic decision, there are potentially four critical outcomes: legal, financial, operational and reputational. Now comes a bridge between the legal and reputational challenges and opportunities in corporate environmental management.
Corporate Counsel today delivered its “9 Environmental Challenges for US Businesses in 2014” with the ringing well, counsel, that environmental management via sustainability and corporate social responsibility is critical to long-term corporate success.
Here’s a summary of the article.
The topic sentence: “The shifting focus on environmental concerns beyond regulatory compliance and risk management to sustainability and corporate social responsibility will significantly influence corporate thinking about how best to manage environmental affairs, and what the environmental priorities should be.”
Those are voices from the traditionally conservative (with good reason) legal profession.
Other gems in this new analysis:
. “Environmental sustainability is of significant importance to CSR advocates and businesses …Sixty percent [surveyed] agreed to do so even if such actions resulted in increased costs.”
. “…environmental sustainability need not be unprofitable. In 2013, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Business Civic Leadership Center launched its Environmental Innovation Map. This special initiative details 100 projects in which the business sector has turned environmental challenges into business opportunities.”
The Corporate Counsel Big 9 Environmental Challenges: Corporate Social Responsibility (also see interview with Georg Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact @ http://bit.ly/M51RAk), Water Scarcity (see interview Water Is Life — The United Nations Global Compact CEO Water Mandate @ http://bit.ly/M53KwS), Shifting Federal Enforcement, Green Chemistry, Nanotechnology, Public (Mis)perception of Specific Environmental Issues, It’s Not All About the EPA, Social Cost of Carbon, Renewable Energy vs. Environmental Interests.
Not surprisingly, the legal experts urge caution: “understanding these concerns is a step in the right direction, and U.S. businesses must remain vigilant to ensure that this litany of concerns does not translate into a negative impact on the bottom line.”