A pair of Washington lawyers is hoping to brand a new kind of corporate executive: the CCO, or chief climate officer. A small but growing number of companies have been jumping on the climate bandwagon in recent years, trying to figure out how to make their products and processes greener. The trend has caught on in various industries, from apparel to technology to foodstuffs, and many companies have turned their strategies over to an in-house climate czar.
 A pair of Washington lawyers is hoping to brand a new kind of corporate executive: the CCO, or chief climate officer.
A small but growing number of companies have been jumping on the climate bandwagon in recent years, trying to figure out how to make their products and processes greener. The trend has caught on in various industries, from apparel to technology to foodstuffs, and many companies have turned their strategies over to an in-house climate czar.
But as environmental attorneys Peter Gillon and Peter Gray see it, these czars have come in so many flavors that no one knows exactly what a company's climate boss is supposed to do.
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In January, they're inviting corporations to the Association of Corporate Climate Change Officers' first meeting, where that question and others will be on the agenda.
"What are the resumes of a climate change officer? What are the core skill sets required to do their jobs, and what should their responsibilities be?" said Daniel Kreeger, a businessman who co-founded the organization, posing the questions that will be raised.
Companies have handled the climate issue in vastly different ways, Kreeger said. While some have chosen to address it through their environmental and health offices, others have assigned it to their government affairs staff -- or even their finance experts.
Some companies consider climate part of a larger "sustainability" effort that includes water conservation, recycling and even social goals like fair wages and better working conditions. Others just hand it off to marketing.
Similarly, climate czars have come from a kaleidoscope of backgrounds: Some are scientists, others are regulatory experts and some are businessmen above all.
Trying to define an 'evolving position'
"It's an evolving position, it's one that hasn't existed before a few years ago," Kreeger said.
Corporations have run into a similar issue before, albeit with other issues. Ten years ago, he said, companies had no standardized way to fight money laundering. "The skill set didn't exist, because nobody had ever done this before," Kreeger said.
But after the Sept. 11 attacks, new federal legislation pushed companies to come up with a common set of practices -- and a new officer: the anti-money-laundering specialist. Kreeger helped found their professional association.
At ACCCO's inaugural meeting on Jan. 12, Kreeger and his associates will ask companies for feedback on the concept of a standard for CCOs. They hope that in the future, ACCCO will serve as a regular meeting spot for CCOs to share carbon-cutting strategies and bone up on climate science and policy.
ACCCO will also aim to set up a program to give CCOs certificates -- to prove they all have a general knowledge of regulatory, technical, scientific and other aspects of climate change that affect businesses.
"It's like any other body of professionals; at some point it becomes more advantageous for them to have a formal structure," said Bob Sheppard, who directs the Business Program at Clean Air-Cool Planet.
Can a bank and a yogurt company talk?
Even companies that are competitors can learn a lot from each other on climate issues, he said. In the footwear industry, for example, many companies use factories in poor countries -- and sometimes even the same one. So when rival companies like Nike and Timberland want to squeeze green out of their supply chains, Sheppard said, they might end up looking in the same place, and cooperation through a forum like ACCCO could be fruitful.
"A bank, an ice cream company, a yogurt company, a dairy, they all have a lot of varieties of common interests," he said. "It really comes down to energy, buildings and transportation issues" -- and companies benefit when they have similar practices in such areas as buying carbon offsets, measuring emissions and cooperating with stakeholders.
But giving the CCO a single focus could come at the cost of other pressing issues, some say. Erin Meezan, sustainability director at carpetmaker Interface Inc., said sharing information among companies' climate officers can only be helpful.
But at Interface, "sustainability" covers a wider range of issues than climate alone, incorporating the "triple bottom line" of "financial, environmental and social returns." If climate is all that matters, she said in an e-mail, "what about water? Social equity? Are we missing the larger issue of how to operate businesses in a sustainable way that allows for business growth and continued health of the planet -- where is the association of corporate officers for that?"
This article is reproduced with kind permission of E&E Publishing, LLC.Â
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