Here’s the lie: Green Business Lie #45: Global warming won’t affect us (even if there is such a thing), so who needs “green”?
Here’s the truth — excerpted from The Truth About Green Business:
TRUTH 45: Profit, value, and risk
Swiss Re and Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurance companies, are all about risk. So how do they approach the challenge of climate change? In effect, they have said, “We’re not scientists, but based on our actuarial analysis, we can’t afford the risk of even the possibility that the science is right. The scale of potential damage is so large that even a small risk is already unacceptable.” That’s why these “conservative” companies are driving greenhouse gas reduction programs at the companies they insure.
Swiss Re, (which set up a unit in 2001 to look at the corporate implications of global warming), famously notified its customers that it might choose to decline Directors and Officers (D&O) insurance to companies that fail to competently address the risks of climate change. Would you think that would get some attention in boardrooms? It did.
Read more in The Truth About Green Business by Gil Friend, coming May 29 from Financial Times Press. Pre-order your copy today! (And come back tomorrow for another Green Business Lie.)