Companies face growing employee climate activism
The climate catastrophe is provoking action in the boardroom as pressure mounts among the workforce. Management teams are changing business plans to be more climate-friendly or risk losing talent.
FORESIGHT magazine
In October 2021, more than 1100 employees at McKinsey, a US consultancy, signed an open letter to the managing partners of the company urging them to disclose the level of carbon emitted by their clients. “Inaction on (or perhaps assistance with) client emissions poses a serious risk to the companies, clients and ability to hire and retain qualified employees,” the letter read. The dissension started after it was revealed by The New York Times newspaper that McKinsey has advised at least 43 of the world’s 100 biggest corporate polluters, including BP, Exxon Mobil, Gazprom and Saudi Aramco, generating significant revenue for the firm. This is just one out of several examples in the last couple of years of employees putting pressure on business decisions and driving their bosses to do more in regards to climate action. According to Esben Lanthén from consultancy Nordic Sustainability, pressure from employees has become a catalyst for climate action and decisions for many businesses. “All of the companies we are involved with say that employee pressure… is part of the reason for stepping up in regards to climate ambitions and action,” he says. Torsten Geelan, a fellow at the Department of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen agrees that employee activism is a growing trend, assisted by social media. “The shift to remote online working during the Covid-19 pandemic coupled with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) starkest warning yet means this is likely to be accelerating. Companies may suffer from substantial reputational damage if they don’t address the legitimate concerns of their employees,” he says.