While politicians bicker over international action on global warming, many companies are taking the lead and cutting
greenhouse gas emissions on their own. While such efforts are unlikely to be enough without strong incentives and regulation
from governments, environmentalists are encouraged by how seriously some in the private sector are taking climate change.
They range from small startups based on ideas like a nearly waterless washing machine or carbon-negative cement to a
“greening” of supply chains by major multinationals and big retailers.
These environmentally minded companies have started lobbying in favor of a tough international agreement on climate
change instead of against it, removing an important obstacle to action, said Dax Lovegrove, head of British business and
industry at the conservation group WWF. They are also helping customers to reduce their ecological imprint, he said.
“The response is still not equal to the challenge,” Mr. Lovegrove said. “But things are moving in the right direction.”
London-based Novacem is one of the companies WWF is highlighting in its Green Game-Changers Initiative, a collection of
companies whose sometimes radical ideas have the potential to produce big shifts in their sectors.
With early support from Imperial College and several public financing bodies, Novacem has developed a cement that absorbs
carbon dioxide while it is being manufactured rather than emitting it.
Conventional cement production generates a huge amount of carbon dioxide, and the industry accounts for an estimated 5
percent of global emissions.
Novacem, which has replaced carbon-releasing limestone with magnesium silicates in its mixture, hopes to make a big dent
in that pollution by licensing its technology to big industry players so that construction firms around the world have access to
the material, said its marketing manager, John Prendergast.
While some companies have simply reduced the environmental effects of their own operations by making factories more
energy efficient or reducing truck use, Novacem is thinking bigger, he said.
“There are huge opportunities in how we create energy, how we create materials and how we use them to build great new
businesses, like we’re intending to do,” he said.
Given that most emissions come from business activity, such efforts are crucial to tackling climate change, he said.
“I don’t see how you can deliver a low-carbon world without the private sector taking a huge amount of responsibility for
achieving it,” he said.
Another of what WWF calls the “disruptive innovators” whose ideas might lead to big changes is Xeros, a British company
developing a washing machine that uses up to 90 percent less water than a conventional machine. In the new machine,
recyclable nylon beads that spin with slightly wet clothing attract stains and dirt. The company hopes to bring its technology
to market late next year.
Using less water saves the energy that would otherwise be needed to clean and heat it, and could be valuable in
drought-prone areas whose water supplies are likely to become increasingly strained as temperatures rise.
It is not only the small start-ups that are putting priority on cutting carbon. Among the big multinational companies seeking
to make themselves more environmentally friendly is the consumer products giant Unilever, which this month introduced a
well-received sustainability plan.
The company, whose hundreds of brands include Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Dove soap, pledged that by 2020 it would cut
the greenhouse gas effects of its products in half and also cut in half the waste associated with their disposal. In addition, it
said it would obtain all of its agricultural raw materials from sustainable sources.
The big retailers that Unilever supplies are trying to stock their shelves with less harmful products, and the company feels
that making its shampoos, detergents and foods more sustainable is good business, said Gavin Neath, senior vice president
for sustainability.
It helps the company cut costs, create new products and expand in developing-world markets that are likely to be hit hard by
global warming, he said.
With efforts to secure a global climate treaty barely inching forward, multinational companies have a special responsibility to
take action, Mr. Neath said.
“Big companies like ours, which have very extensive supply chains, reaching across all continents and 60, 70 countries, can
make a difference,” he added.
Some major retailers are making similar moves. In the United States, WalMart is pushing to expand its use of renewable
energy. The British home supply chain B&Q has set out an ambitious set of goals, which include reducing its carbon
emissions 90 percent as well as offering in-store eco-advisers and energy-efficient appliances and building materials.
Companies that began with steps like cutting their stores’ energy use have now focused on the environmental footprint of
their products, from the origin of the raw materials to how the goods are used by consumers, said Mr. Lovegrove, of the
WWF.
He called that an important shift, saying that it was where companies had the biggest potential to have a larger effect.
Some businesses have started lobbying for, not against, tough environmental regulation.
Last year, nearly 1,000 companies endorsed the Copenhagen Communiqué, calling for a strong international climate deal at
the summit meeting in Denmark. Last month, 29 companies working with WWF urged the European Union to increase its
emission-cutting goal to an ambitious 30 percent by 2020.
Environmentalists say that none of the private sector changes will be sufficient to make a real dent in the climate problem
without government incentives and regulation, which would make environmentally sound business practices profitable and
competitive.
“We really have to have a nonvoluntary agreement here,” said Gail Whiteman, professor of sustainability and climate change
at the Rotterdam School of Management. While some companies are taking real action, many others pay little attention to
environmental concerns, she said. “The amount of inertia is just, to me, endlessly shocking.”
Some businesses have urged governments to structure environment incentives in a way that will help them reap profits, she
said. And while there are multinationals making real efforts, the practices basic to their business models, like using global
supply chains and urging people to consume more, may be at odds with a healthy environment, she said.
Mr. Neath, at Unilever, also conceded that despite the efforts environmentally minded companies were making, the changes
so far did not match the scale of the climate problem.
“In 30 years’ time, when our children look back on this, will they say we’re doing enough?” he asked. “I doubt it.”
（转自New York Times）