﻿ How Corporations Can Fight Climate Change—and Why They Should

Choose your location to get a site experience tailored for you.

Remember my region and language settings
How Companies Can Combat Climate Change hero

How Companies Can Combat Climate Change

Fighting climate change and preserving functioning ecosystems are at the top of the global agenda. But environmental sustainability is not only a social and economic imperative; it’s also a major business opportunity. In response, businesses are turning to new approaches to ensure that the planet’s needs—and humanity’s—are met.

The world’s population has more than doubled since 1960, and estimates have it reaching an astonishing 8 billion by 2024. Consumption is soaring—putting an unprecedented strain on access to water and other natural resources. To address these challenges, commercial enterprises must take a hard look at their environmental impact and help address the urgent question facing all of us:

Eight Steps Businesses Can Take to Develop Sustainable Business Models and Fight Climate Change

Environmental sustainability, including solutions to global climate change, is a social and economic imperative. It’s also a major business opportunity. To meet that imperative and seize the opportunity, businesses must:

  1. Perform a diagnostic. Assess current business practices impacting the climate and environment.
  2. Conduct materiality assessment. Identify and focus on the highest impact sustainability topics.
  3. Define vision and ambition. Understand leadership’s desired target state of their total societal impact (TSI)/sustainability strategy, as part of their core business strategy.
  4. Translate TSI to TSR. Articulate the strategy and its value to both the organization and to society.
  5. Identify portfolio initiatives. Define priority initiatives close to the core business, and take action.
  6. Create and execute implementation plans. Design a tactual implementation plan with timeline, milestones, roles, and responsibilities for each initiative.
  7. Establish organization and governance. Ensure the right resources and capabilities are in place to deliver upon the strategy.
  8. Execute stakeholder management and communications strategy. Develop a transparent and comprehensive stakeholder plan, including a feedback loop to capture responses.

Given the forces reshaping today’s world, organizations must view the relationship between business and the environment from a fresh perspective. Those that do so will be in the best positon to combat the impacts of climate change and ecosystem degradation while also capturing valuable new business opportunities.

Learn More About Climate and Environment

Feeding the Panda: BCG's Partnership With WWF

Feeding the Panda: BCG's Partnership With WWF

Three Thoughtful Ways to Conserve Water

The Director General of WWF International on Moving Toward a Sustainable World

Read More About Our Work in Climate and Environment

Saving the Baltic Sea

BCG joined forces with WWF to evaluate an approach to conserve and restore the health of the Baltic Sea.

BCG’s Partnership with WWF

Since 2012, BCG has partnered with WWF in support of its mission to stop the degradation of our planet's natural environment.

Meet Some of BCG’s Experts in Climate and Environment

BCG's consultants and industry experts focusing on climate and environment continue to partner with leading social organizations, corporations, nonprofits, and philanthropic bodies to arrive at solutions for environmental sustainability. These are some of our experts on this topic.

  • Business model innovation
  • Strategic planning
  • BCG TURN—turnaround, restructuring, and transformation
  • Strategy cosourcing and megatrends
  • Social Impact
  • Economic development
  • Impact assessment and prioritization
  • Strategic planning
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Post-merger integration
  • Operation transformation programs
  • Social impact
  • Strategy
  • Large-scale transformation
Social Impact