This report from the Chartered Management Institute highlights a big green problem in the corporate boardroom:
The CMI’s ‘Lean and Green’ report shows a striking disparity between senior and junior staff members at UK organisations in terms of their passion for, and willingness to take action to combat climate change in the workplace. While 81% of managers recognise energy usage is a key business issue, just 26% report that their organisation actively addresses its carbon footprint.
This inertia seems to stem from the very top; more than half of all directors are identified as ‘climate change cynics’. In contrast senior management commitment is recognised by 82% of managers as the most important driver of environmental practices, followed by cost savings and regulatory compliance. While an encouraging 73% of managers say they would be turned off by an employer with a poor environmental record, fewer than half are proud of the environmental record of their current employer, further bolstering the argument that good intentions do not translate into actions. This also means businesses not addressing their environmental impact risk losing out on the most talented recruits.
There is as much scientific controversy over climate change as there is over evolution. Why on earth is there still any doubt. We think a lot lies in the media's constant search for a non existent controversy and general catastrophic thinking. The media also thinks that they have to supply both sides of the story, not understanding that scientific doubts over climate change are essentially non-existent. But with a media that confuses Jeremy Clarkson as scientific fact as opposed to entertainment, is it any wonder that the bosses, already infected with a long term view that runs about 90 days at best, are so far behind the times.
Interestingly enough, this story got one paragraph in the FT, and zero coverage anywhere else, while the CBI dinosaurs' catastrophic whingeing of Monday made it to the front pages...
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