ABSTRACT
Businesses need to be responsive to their social and ecological surroundings of which they are part, maintain healthy practices, and innovate where practices are less healthy. Many point to letters from Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest private asset manager, and his exhortations for business to take a broader view, as an indicator that the tide has turned. In 2020, he announced “the evidence on climate risk is compelling investors to reassess core assumptions about modern finance,” signaling that they would remove companies that generate more than 25% of revenues from coal production from their actively managed portfolios. The climate-meets-business media network GreenBiz surveys the sustainable business profession biannually, to unearth the trends, drivers, and programs which businesses are advancing. In addition to packaging and the associated plastic pollution that has become a heightened concern for businesses; another evolution that affects both climate and business is the extension of organic to beyond-organic farming, fiber, and foods.
