Blog Posts: business

From record-breaking temperatures to rampant wildfires, the signs of climate change are everywhere. Companies can respond by measuring their emissions, setting science-based targets to reduce them and pricing carbon.

Most people blame consumers for the 1.3 billion tons of trash the world generates every year. The reality is that there are more systemic issues at play.

Imagine businesses that make money by improving the land and communities around them. Imagine an economy that rewards those who nourish and restore the environment. Here's what some of those businesses look like.

Large companies with global supply chains often produce as much greenhouse gas emissions as entire countries. With this scale comes responsibility, argue WRI President Andrew Steer and Mars, Inc. CEO Grant Reid.

Many businesses measure growth by selling more stuff to more people. But in a resource-constrained future, companies can't thrive under this model.

WRI Business Director Kevin Moss thinks that marketing that encourages people to buy less can help shift consumers and producers away from the ceaseless cycle of over-consumption.

New WRI research examined businesses that are part of the burgeoning "new restoration economy." The results were clear: Restoring degraded landscapes can yield big returns.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s new film, Before the Flood, is a sobering work. DiCaprio guides the audience on a global tour of how climate change and the forces driving it are upending human lives and fraying the biological fabric of the planet.

Why do we let history repeat itself? Less than six months ago, fires raged in Indonesia, blanketing the region in toxic smoke and releasing more greenhouse gas emissions than Germany produces in a year. Eventually the fires subsided, the air cleared, and the world stopped talking about this crisis. But it will happen again. These fires, caused by unsustainable forest management and agricultural practices, are a devastating and costly cycle that we have been repeating for decades.

I was “on location” last week in Paris at the Business & Climate Summit, where leaders from business and climate policy came together. At the opening plenary, I heard from the CEOs of Statoil and Carrefour, from UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christina Figueres, from President Francois Hollande and many others.