![]() If you don't fight the seasons quite so aggressively, your heater and air conditioner won't have to work so hard.Īnother simple fix: Seal the cracks and holes around the house that allow air to blow through. That could mean relying more on natural ventilation to cool your home in summer while turning the thermostat down during the night in winter and staying cozy with more blankets instead. "I would start off with heating and cooling my space smartly," Srivastava says. Rohini Srivastava, a senior researcher at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, says it makes sense to start with small, simple and cheap steps that save energy.įor instance, there's that energy-control device called a thermostat. We talked to experts and collected tips for how to proceed. CEOs will listen carefully when their bread and butter is at stake.Rather than relying on a thermostat to control the temperature, try natural ventilation to cool your home in summer. Policymakers at all levels of government, industry regulators and institutional investors like the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan must team up and mandate that corporations provide CEOs with financial compensation for reducing carbon footprints. To effectively reduce carbon emissions, CEOs and their companies must take bold, risky steps, like divesting from current profitable ventures that have higher carbon emissions, in favour of investing in green technology, which may or may not succeed. ![]() Greenwashing corporations have large carbon footprints but portray themselves as environmentally friendly to investors. Our findings illustrate that not only are overly risk-averse CEOs hesitant to take steps to reduce carbon emissions, but that carbon-emitting firms use greenwashing to cover up their environmental harms. While this is correct, CEOs can still take steps to lower emissions in the long run, without pay cuts and job losses. Naysayers may state that some of those carbon emissions are not within the control of the CEO and they cannot change it overnight. Similarly, CEOs should be penalized for not achieving certain carbon reduction goals. One of the most effective ways to reduce a firm’s carbon footprint over the long run is to entice CEOs with monetary compensation. Consumers share the same environment as corporations, which means that doing right by the environment results in buy-in from sustainability minded consumers - now the majority of the consumer base. There is a chance that corporations and investors might have to take the hit in the short-term, but in the long run it will pay off. Instead of punishing CEOs for implementing environmentally friendly policies, they should be compensated. ![]() ![]() While there may be short-term repercussions for investing in carbon footprint reductions, such as lower profitability, cash depletion or increased debt, this should not impact CEO pay. Because of this, one of the most effective ways to reduce a firm’s carbon footprint over the long run is to entice CEOs with monetary compensation. Enticing CEOs with better payĬEOs are the strategic leaders of corporations and, often, their pay is the only leverage their companies have on them. For example, Maple Leaf Foods president and CEO Michael McCain made the bold move take his company carbon neutral in 2019. Ultimately, bold and risk-seeking CEOs are the ones responsible for the drastic changes needed to reduce corporate emissions. ![]() However, investing in those sectors is also immoral because of the detrimental impacts carbon emissions have on the environment and people’s lives. (Shutterstock)įrom an economic perspective, it’s rational for CEOs to invest in sectors that increase carbon emissions, if those sectors make them money. Maple Leaf Foods president and CEO Michael McCain committed to taking the company carbon neutral in 2019. If we want to meet our climate goals, we need to use more preventative approaches. The Canadian federal government’s proposed tax credit for investing in carbon capture, storage and removal is one recent reactionary example. Long-term climate change results can only be achieved by identifying why certain firms are still emitting such high amounts of greenhouse gases and addressing those underlying causes.Īs a society, we are prone to reactionary, not preventative, approaches when it comes to addressing the environmental harms done by corporations. Among the different factors identified by climate scientists, greenhouse gas emissions - which have doubled since 1990 - are the main contributors to global climate change.Īs significant contributors to the climate crisis, carbon-emitting companies are under increasing regulatory and social pressure to reduce their carbon footprints. Climate change is widely recognized as one of the most profound challenges ever to face the human race and life on Earth. ![]()
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