Carbon neutrality is harder than you think, but it’s worth it

For years now, corporations have been flooding headlines with their ambitious pledges to achieve carbon neutrality. Companies like Amazon, Walmart, and even BP, have vowed to do more to reduce their carbon footprint. But like a well-intentioned new year’s resolution, their commitment to these pledges wavers with passing time. Reducing carbon emissions, it turns out, is a lot easier to pledge than it is to do.

It’s a pattern we’re all familiar with. Every New Year, we’re bombarded with a cacophony of resolutions — vows to eat healthier, exercise more, stop drinking, etc. All of these pledges are made with good faith and earnestness. Just as individuals may cut out junk food and start to work out, corporations may at first zealously move toward carbon neutrality by purchasing energy from alternative sources, changing manufacturers or suppliers, and finding alternative infrastructure. 

As with New Years resolutions, the first steps can be incredibly tangible and surprisingly easy to implement. The short-term success of a company that cuts carbon emissions by 20 percent feels great. But it can also fool one into a false sense of accomplishment, which one may later use as an excuse to stop trying when the going gets tough.

Delta Airlines is now facing a massive class action lawsuit for claiming to be carbon neutral, but only achieving that neutrality by buying carbon offsets. Amazon ditched an 11-year plan to make half of its deliveries carbon neutral just four years in. BP backed away from backing away from fossil fuels after watching the impact its renewable generation businesses were having on its balance sheet. Even the federal government has made a myriad of climate pledges, only to discard them later.

The Wall Street Journal’s reporting on certain businesses’ struggles to reach their net zero commitments, while critically important, has created rampant accusations of greenwashing that ignore a much more complicated truth: It is hard for any company to achieve net zero carbon emissions, requiring a lot more time, effort, and collaboration than most of us realize.  

We can’t allow corporations to shirk the promises they made in the media spotlight, but it’s important to keep these commitments in perspective. As someone who has tried and failed with both personal resolutions as well as corporate climate pledges, I understand several of the first steps on the road to success are simply overcoming the stumbling blocks of multiple failures. Just as we often try and fail a few times with our new year’s resolutions, there are naturally going to be missed climate targets.

Berating and shaming companies that fall behind on climate goals is likely to have little impact on a company’s balance sheet, but will instead teach them that it is better to remain inconspicuous and refrain from discussing climate issues at all in order to avoid blowback. The more that happens, the less ability the public will have to hold businesses to account. 

We would do better to treat such resolution-failers the way we would treat friends who fall off their New Year’s health kick, encouraging them not to give up.

Moreover, external support can be as critical for corporations as it is for our friends. Though the U.S. has largely balked at the prospect of instituting carbon regulations on businesses, it will be incredibly difficult for any large company to achieve its carbon goals without some sort of framework. Few companies would willingly forego their obligations to shareholders in favor of environmental obligations. Without regulations to push companies forward, environmentally-friendly CEOs who may otherwise risk some degree of shareholder value in pursuit of climate-friendly policies risk finding themselves replaced. 

Those with positions of authority within corporations should take the same advice that can make any New Year’s resolution more successful: collaborate. Regardless of your company’s size, industry, or location, you can join, or create, a group of peers committed to reducing the climate impact of their businesses. Working collectively provides more perspectives, ideas, and accountability to endure the challenges.

So rather than blindly flame those companies who have tried and failed to meet big climate promises, let’s encourage them to keep trying. When a company says “It’s too hard,” don’t just let it give up. Approach their claim with a blend of kindness, skepticism, and encouragement to persevere. There are more than enough companies guilty of hiding information and undermining climate efforts for their own gain, who are deserving of the torches and pitchforks.

Profound transformation and self-improvement demands a combination of flexibility, ingenuity, and a robust collaborative ethos, capable of reshaping supply chains, re-engineering products and infrastructure, and revolutionizing business models. Success in reducing emissions depends on persistence and mutual support, and the path to success is rarely a straight line.

If we all embrace this attitude, we may all be better for it this time next year. 

Chris Yoko is the founder of Yoko Consulting and Carbon Off.