Can Business Be Cool？Why a growing number of firms are taking global warming seriously.Com

Can Business Be Cool？

Why a growing number of firms are taking global warming seriously.

Companies supporting environment protection

Rupert Murdoch is no green activist. But in Pebble Beach later this summer, the annual gathering of executives of Mr Murdoch's News Corporation--which last year led to a dramatic shift in the media conglomerate's attitude to the Internet--will be addressed by several leading environmentalists, including a vice-president turned climate-change movie star. Last month BSkyB, a British satellitetelevision company chaired by Mr. Murdoch and run by his son, James, declared itself "carbon-neutral", having taken various steps to cut or offset its discharges of carbon into the atmosphere.

The army of corporate greens is growing fast. Late last year HSBC became the first big bank to announce that it was carbon-neutral, joining other financial institutions, including Swiss Re, a reinsurer, and Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, in waging war on climate-warming gases (of which carbon dioxide is the main culprit). Last year General Electric (GE), an industrial powerhouse, launched its "Ecomagination" strategy, aiming to cut its output of greenhouse gases and to invest heavily in clean (i.e., carbon-free) technologies. In October Wal-Mart announced a series of environmental schemes, including doubling the fuel-efficiency of its fleet of vehicles within a decade. Tesco and Sainsbury, two Of Britain's biggest retailers, are competing fiercely to be the greenest. And on June 7th some leading British bosses lobbied Tony Blair for a more ambitious policy on climate change, even if that involves harsher regulation.

The other side

The greening of business is by no means universal, however. Money from Exxon Mobil, Ford and General Motors helped pay for television advertisements aired recently in America by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, with the daft slogan "Carbon dioxide: they call it pollution; we call it life". Besides, environmentalist critics say, some firms are engaged in superficial "greenwash to boost the image of essentially climate-hurting businesses. Take BP, the most prominent corporate advocate of action on climate change, with its "Beyond Petroleum" ad campaign, high-profile investments in green energy, and even a "carbon calculator" on its websites helps consumers measure their personal "carbon footprint", or overall emissions of carbon. Yet, critics complain, BP's recent record profits are largely thanks to sales of huge amounts of carbon-packed oil and gas.

On the other hand, some free-market thinkers see the support of firms for regulation of carbon as the latest attempt at "regulatory capture", by those who stand to profit from new rules. Max Schulz of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, notes darkly that "Enron was into pushing the idea of climate change, because it was good for its business".

Others argue that climate change has no more place in corporate boardrooms than do discussions of other partisan political issues, such as Darfur or gay marriage. That criticism, at least, is surely wrong. Most of the corporate converts say they are acting not out of some vague sense of social responsibility, or even personal angst, but because climate change creates real business risks and opportunities—from regulatory compliance to insuring clients on flood plains. And although these concerns vary hugely from one company to the next, few firms can be sure of remaining unaffected.

The climate of opinion

The most obvious risk is of rising energy costs. Indeed, the recent high price of oil and natural gas, allied to fears over the security of energy supplies from the Middle East and Russia—neither of which have anything to de with climate change—may be the main reason why many firms have recently become interested in alternative energy sources. But at the same tim

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