ABSTRACT
The external governance pressures that the retailers faced and the specific stakeholders involved in exerting these pressures differed between countries and even between companies within a particular country. The companies reached different conclusions about the business importance of corporate responsibility issues in general and climate change in particular. Mirroring the findings from the UK, the retailers reported that they had seen limited evidence that companies’ performance on climate change was an important influence on where consumers chose to shop. The weaknesses in the external pressures for action on climate change were reflected in the manner in which US retailers managed their greenhouse gas emissions. In Japan, the primary drivers for corporate action on climate change have come from the Japanese government. Aeon's corporate targets evolved in a similar manner to the UK retailers, moving from relatively short-term, efficiency-focused targets to longer-term absolute emission reduction targets.
