IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v19y2010i2p77-89.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mitigating climate change – how do corporate strategies differ?

Author

Listed:
  • Georg Weinhofer
  • Volker H. Hoffmann

Abstract

Many companies are facing increasing pressure by governments, shareholders and other stakeholders to reduce their CO2 emissions in order to mitigate climate change. The importance of managing CO2 emissions and crafting adequate CO2 strategies has increased for those companies affected. We present a framework that conceptualizes a company's CO2 strategy as the focus on one or a combination of several strategic objectives: CO2 compensation, CO2 reduction and carbon independence. In order to investigate the CO2 strategies of a worldwide sample of 91 electricity producers we perform a content analysis of their answers to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). We demonstrate the measures the companies take to manage their emissions, the CO2 strategies they adopt and antecedents that influence these strategies. We find that half of the companies take parallel emission management measures that aim at all three strategic objectives, while the other half pursue selected objectives only. We also find that companies with different CO2 strategies significantly differ in terms of regional affiliation, company size and absolute amount of CO2 emissions, while we could not identify a significant difference in relative CO2 emissions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Georg Weinhofer & Volker H. Hoffmann, 2010. "Mitigating climate change – how do corporate strategies differ?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 77-89, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:19:y:2010:i:2:p:77-89
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.618
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.618
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.618?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sioshansi, Fereidoon P., 2005. "Global climate change: here to stay," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 240-246, September.
    2. Magali Delmas & Michael W. Toffel, 2004. "Stakeholders and environmental management practices: an institutional framework," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 209-222, July.
    3. Hoffmann, Volker H., 2007. "EU ETS and Investment Decisions:: The Case of the German Electricity Industry," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 464-474, December.
    4. Schultz, Karl & Williamson, Peter, 2005. "Gaining Competitive Advantage in a Carbon-constrained World:: Strategies for European Business," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 383-391, August.
    5. Repetto, R. & Henderson, J., 2003. "Environmental exposures in the US electric utility industry," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 103-111, June.
    6. Javier González‐Benito & Óscar González‐Benito, 2006. "A review of determinant factors of environmental proactivity," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 87-102, March.
    7. Harish Kumar Jeswani & Walter Wehrmeyer & Yacob Mulugetta, 2008. "How warm is the corporate response to climate change? Evidence from Pakistan and the UK," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 46-60, January.
    8. Jonatan Pinkse, 2007. "Corporate intentions to participate in emission trading," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(1), pages 12-25, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sanjay Patnaik, 2020. "Emissions permit allocation and strategic firm behavior: Evidence from the oil sector in the European Union emissions trading scheme," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 976-995, March.
    2. David Christopher Sprengel & Timo Busch, 2011. "Stakeholder engagement and environmental strategy – the case of climate change," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(6), pages 351-364, September.
    3. David Littlewood & Rachel Decelis & Carola Hillenbrand & Diane Holt, 2018. "Examining the drivers and outcomes of corporate commitment to climate change action in European high emitting industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1437-1449, December.
    4. Olivier Boiral & Jean‐François Henri & David Talbot, 2012. "Modeling the Impacts of Corporate Commitment on Climate Change," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(8), pages 495-516, December.
    5. Ehrenfeld, Wilfried, 2012. "Towards a Theory of Climate Innovation - A Model Framework for Analyzing Drivers and Determinants," IWH Discussion Papers 1/2012, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    6. Harish Kumar Jeswani & Walter Wehrmeyer & Yacob Mulugetta, 2008. "How warm is the corporate response to climate change? Evidence from Pakistan and the UK," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 46-60, January.
    7. Neelam C. Poudyal & Jacek P. Siry & J. M. Bowker, 2012. "Stakeholders' Engagement in Promoting Sustainable Development: Businesses and Urban Forest Carbon," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 157-169, March.
    8. Simon Cadez & Albert Czerny & Peter Letmathe, 2019. "Stakeholder pressures and corporate climate change mitigation strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 1-14, January.
    9. Jabbour, Charbel José Chiappetta & Neto, Angelo Saturnino & Gobbo, José Alcides & Ribeiro, Maisa de Souza & Jabbour, Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa, 2015. "“Eco-innovations in more sustainable supply chains for a low-carbon economy: A multiple case study of human critical success factors in Brazilian leading companies”," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 245-257.
    10. Natalie Slawinski & Jonatan Pinkse & Timo Busch & Subhabrata Bobby Banerjeed, 2014. "The role of short-termism and uncertainty in organizational inaction on climate change: multilevel framework," Working Papers hal-00961226, HAL.
    11. Satish Kumar & Riya Sureka & Weng Marc Lim & Sachin Kumar Mangla & Nisha Goyal, 2021. "What do we know about business strategy and environmental research? Insights from Business Strategy and the Environment," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(8), pages 3454-3469, December.
    12. A.D. Nuwan Gunarathne & Ki‐Hoon Lee & Pubudu K. Hitigala Kaluarachchilage, 2021. "Institutional pressures, environmental management strategy, and organizational performance: The role of environmental management accounting," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 825-839, February.
    13. Corsini, Filippo & Appio, Francesco Paolo & Frey, Marco, 2019. "Exploring the antecedents and consequences of environmental performance in micro-enterprises: The case of the Italian craft beer industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 340-350.
    14. Tarmo Räty & Anne Toppinen & Anders Roos & Maria Riala & Anders Q. Nyrud, 2016. "Environmental Policy in the Nordic Wood Product Industry: Insights Into Firms’ Strategies and Communication," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 10-27, January.
    15. Su-Yol Lee & Young-Hoon Kim, 2015. "Antecedents and Consequences of Firms’ Climate Change Management Practices: Stakeholder and Synergistic Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(11), pages 1-16, October.
    16. Konstantinos Evangelinos & Ioannis Nikolaou & Walter Leal Filho, 2015. "The Effects of Climate Change Policy on the Business Community: A Corporate Environmental Accounting Perspective," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(5), pages 257-270, September.
    17. Qi Guoyou & Zeng Saixing & Tam Chiming & Yin Haitao & Zou Hailiang, 2013. "Stakeholders' Influences on Corporate Green Innovation Strategy: A Case Study of Manufacturing Firms in China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, January.
    18. Hang Thu Nguyen & Tra Thi Dan Vu & Hiep Manh Nguyen & Michael Troege, 2022. "Political embeddedness and the adoption of environmental management practices: The mediating effects of institutional pressures," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(4), pages 965-983, July.
    19. Marlen S. Krause & Nils Droste & Bettina Matzdorf, 2021. "What makes businesses commit to nature conservation?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 741-755, February.
    20. Christin Seifert & Edeltraud Guenther, 2020. "Who cares?—Stakeholder relevance for voluntary environmental management in hospitals," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1786-1799, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:19:y:2010:i:2:p:77-89. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.