In 2007, the technology giant EMC Corp. turned to a Boston nonprofit to help it
become more environmentally sensitive — but worried that relations could become
tense.
financial, environmental, and social issue specialists, including critics ready to tell
executives things they might not want to hear. But the relationship proved
productive, and EMC, by one measure, reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 40
percent from 2005 and energy consumption per employee by more than 35 percent.
“The intent is not to get yelled at,” said Kathrin R. Winkler, EMC chief sustainability
officer. “The intent is to collaborate to find ways to move the needle.”
Ceres, celebrating its 25th anniversary, has become one of the world’s most
influential environmental advocates by harnessing capitalism to convince companies
that sustainability is central to their competitiveness and bottom lines. Ceres pushes
its way into corporate boardrooms by enlisting a network of some of the nation’s
biggest institutional investors — including the $300 billion California Public
Employees Retirement System — and once there demonstrates how combating
climate change, cutting energy use, and preventing damage to the environment is in
firms’ economic interests.
Ceres has spurred multinational corporations such as PepsiCo Inc., Nike Inc., and
Ford Motor Co. to change the way they act on climate change, including Ford’s
support of higher fuelefficiency
standards. In addition, the nonprofit has persuaded
more than 1,000 companies, including General Motors and Apple, to sign the
nonprofit’s “Climate Declaration” urging Congress to adopt new laws to combat
global warming.
“What will change the debate on climate in the US Congress,” Ceres chief executive
Mindy S. Lubber said, “will be when leaders of the largest economic firms and
financial firms go up and say, ‘We need to act because this is hurting us financially.’ ”
From its offices on Chauncey Street, Ceres also has become a significant player in the
international climate debate, demonstrating that producing less waste and using
renewables helps a company’s bottom line. Lubber has spoken at the United Nations,
last year addressing 500 global financial players at the Investor Summit on Climate
Risk, and the World Economic Forum, a gathering of policymakers, intellectuals,
political leaders, and corporate executives, in Davos, Switzerland.
Ceres was founded in 1989, just months after the Exxon Valdez oil spill that dumped
more than 250,000 barrels along a pristine section of Alaska’s coastline and
ultimately cost Exxon, now ExxonMobil, more than $4.3 billion in penalties, lawsuits, and cleanup costs. The disaster inspired the idea that still drives Ceres: Corporations
are harmed financially when they don’t pay attention to the environment — and that
matters to investors.
Ceres today works closely with 65 companies, stressing that if businesses manage
their waste, energy, and supply chain well, it shows they can manage the entire
enterprise, attracting investors, customers, and employees.
“They were one of the first to articulate the economic as opposed to the ethical
argument in terms of investing,” said Geoffrey M. Heal, a professor at Columbia
Business School who teaches the business of sustainability. Heal called Ceres a
“forceful player” and said, “They’ve set out the arguments clearly.”
Ceres’s clout with corporations comes from its network of 110 institutional investors,
which see the connection between sustainability and profitability, including public
pension funds in New York and California. All told, these investors control $13
trillion.
“We’re thinking decades, generations out,” said Anne Stausboll, chief executive of the
California Public Employees Retirement System and cochair of the Ceres board. “We
have a lot of focus on longterm
sustainability.”
This support makes it much easier for Ceres to open the doors to corporations, where
the nonprofit aims to make decisionmakers
aware of their companies’
environmental and social effects. The backing gives Ceres the clout to insist on buyin
at the chief executive level, access to company data, and rigorous examination of
operations by investors, environmental specialists, and social activists chosen by the
nonprofit.
The companies then pay Ceres for this work.
Bloomberg L.P., the financial data and news organization, enlisted Ceres in 2008.
Ceres has helped Bloomberg determine how to reduce its carbon emissions by 20
percent by 2020 from what it was in 2007, a period during which the company will
double in size. Among the steps: using energyefficient
LED lighting and encouraging
recycling and composting at its facilities.
Curtis Ravenel, global head of sustainability at Bloomberg, said Ceres was able to
challenge the company’s practices and drive change, without being adversarial.
“What I like about Ceres is that they are aggressive, but not too aggressive,” Ravenel
said. “You want them to be pushing you. That’s why I hired them, to keep us honest.”
Heal, the Columbia professor, said it’s difficult to measure the effect that Ceres has
had. Investors and companies are much more aware of climate change, partly
because of the media attention, partly because of Ceres, and partly because of other
players, he said. “They’re pushing on a door that’s slowly opening anyway,” he said.
Lubber, however, maintains that Ceres is responsible for significant changes in
attitudes about climate change in capital markets. The organization, for example, was
a partner in a 2011 Citigroup report that made an economic case for increasing fuel
efficiency standards in the auto industry.
Following the report, the average fuel economy standard was raised to 54.5 miles per
gallon by 2025, with the support of GM and Ford, both of which work with Ceres.
Ceres officials also want corporations to include environmental data, such as
greenhouse gas emissions and reductions in toxic materials into regular earnings
reports so investors can weigh their progress on these issues.
Already, some 6,000 companies voluntarily disclose greenhouse gas and energy
efficiency data through a program created by Ceres and later spun off as an
independent organization known as the Global Reporting Initiative.
As companies and investors learn the economic benefits of sustainable practices,
Ceres hopes that they’ll work to convince lawmakers that acting on climate change is
not only good policy, but also good for their businesses. After all, Lubber said, money
talks.
“That’s part of our theory of change,” she said, “that investors care about these issues
and care mightily.”