Climate Change: Why It Matters for Your Business

Consumers and investors alike increasingly look to U.S. businesses to take on these environmental challenges and to determine how best to address them. An ever-growing share of consumers and investors favor socially responsible, green companies and impose these political views through selective spending and investment in like-minded businesses. The difficult task for every company's general counsel is to understand the regulatory and political aspects of climate change, to ascertain their footprint on impacting the environment and to develop effective green strategies to minimize these adverse impacts. More important, companies must determine how to accomplish these objectives in a politically correct, socially responsible manner acceptable to consumers, investors and the eco-organizations that guide them. General counsel will be called upon to ensure that these objectives are accomplished in a legally sound, cost effective manner consistent with corporate philosophy, industry expectations and shareholder demands.