Going carbon neutral isn't enough to get us out of our climate crisis.
By Chris Conway Senior Staff Editor, Opinion |
A company's commitment to climate action is often measured by how well it is able to reduce its "carbon footprint." But should this really be the main metric of success? |
Auden Schendler doesn't think so. And he knows a few things about climate action. Schendler is the senior vice president of sustainability at the Aspen Skiing Company — sounds like a good gig! — and before that, worked on corporate sustainability issues at the Rocky Mountain Institute, founded by Amory Lovins, the evangelist of energy efficiency. |
Over the years, Schendler has become convinced that corporate efforts to reduce their carbon footprints, however laudable, have failed to turn around our collective trajectory to an ever warmer and more dangerous world. In fact, he says, those efforts have actually played into the hands of the fossil fuel industry. |
Businesses focused on their carbon footprint and the quest to become "climate neutral" aren't moving the ball forward. They're standing still. Becoming carbon neutral means a company's carbon dioxide emissions are offset by an equivalent amount being removed elsewhere — say, by the company protecting part of a forest in the Amazon. Under that approach, he writes, "American fossil fuel dependence would remain intact, and planet-warming emissions would continue to rise." |
We need to do a lot more, he argues in a guest essay today. "The only way to fix" the crisis the world faces, he says, "is through politics, policymakers and legislation." But, he adds, "distressingly, most businesses don't want to play in that arena." |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
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