A new business paradigm to address climate change

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Diana O’Brien et al., Purpose is everything: How brands that authentically lead with purpose are changing the nature of business today, Deloitte Insights, October 15, 2019. View in article

Dr. Michela Coppola, Thomas Krick, and Dr. Julian Blohmke, Feeling the heat? Companies are under pressure on climate change and need to do more, Deloitte Insights, December 12, 2019. View in article

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An exhaustive review of the extensive scientific literature on climate change is beyond the scope of this article. For what is likely the most definitive statement, see Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “Global warming of 1.5C,” accessed September 16, 2020. View in article

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See, for example, David Wallace-Wells, The Uninhabitable Earth (Penguin, 2019). View in article

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Coppola, Krick, and Blohmke, Feeling the heat?. View in article

“Net-zero emissions” entails reducing GHG emissions, and removing from the atmosphere an equivalent amount of GHG for those emissions that cannot be abated by, for example, various carbon-capture mechanisms such as reforestation. It is carbon neutral. See Kelly Levin and Chantal Davis, “What does ‘net-zero emissions’ mean? 6 common questions, answered,” World Resources Institute, September 17, 2019. View in article

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See, for example, US Global Change Research Program, Fourth National Climate Assessment Vol. II: Impacts, risks, and adaptation in the United States, 2018. View in article

For one of the milder examples, see Ken Gillingham, “Carbon calculus: For deep greenhouse gas emission reductions, a long-term perspective on costs is essential,” Finance & Development 56, no. 4 (2019). View in article

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Eamonn Kelly and Jason Girzadas, Recharting our course: The evolving focus of business leaders in a challenging world, Deloitte, 2020. View in article

See, e.g., Business Roundtable, “Our commitment,” accessed September 16, 2020. View in article

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See, for example, research on hyperbolic discounting: G. Ainslie, “The cardinal anomalies that led to behavioral economics: Cognitive or motivational?,” Managerial and Decision Economics 37, no. 4–5 (2016). View in article

Paul Woolley, “Short-term thinking is undermining sustainable business models,” Financial Times, April 17, 2019. View in article

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Simon Evans, “Mapped: Climate change laws around the world,” CarbonBrief, May 11, 2017. View in article

There are a variety of options that can be explored, from quick, free, off-the-shelf tools to much more rigorous and comprehensive assessments. Regardless, the goal should be to achieve a clearer view of what types of emissions are attributable to which of your organization’s activities. View in article

We Mean Business Coalition, “Carbon pricing,” accessed September 15, 2020. View in article

UCLA Sustainability, “What is sustainability?,” accessed September 15, 2020. View in article