Our in-class discussion of partnerships in sustainability was quite interesting. I hadn’t realized how many companies there are working together on environmental and social initiatives. Most of our discussions revolved around large companies in partnerships with other large firms or non-profits, presumably due to the fact that their emissions are much larger and important for the overall reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and waste. But growing up with a small family business, I was more interested to see what initiatives there were, if any, for smaller firms to form partnerships.
After conducting some research online, I found several articles about a ‘partnership’ of 24 small breweries. They came together to sign a ‘Climate Declaration’, which media purports pledges them each to take their own actions to reduce emissions and to support political action at the national level in the US. These news articles stated that these breweries are recognizing that their business is currently inefficient with large usage of energy and water. As well, the hop and barley needed for beer is sensitive to climate change, so supporting political action that goes further than their own reduced emissions is important since such small brewing companies can hardly make a large enough impact on their own.
This climate declaration is organized through a third party non-profit organization called Ceres and doesn’t even have any commitment attached to it. The declaration has been signed also by several other businesses in the US. It is simply a statement that climate change is a real and an important issue in the US to show that American companies are in support of climate change policy. While the President has tweeted positively about it, the efficacy of the declaration is unknown. It does allow small businesses to have a voice along with larger firms, which is nice to see. But it also acts as a statement to consumers that these companies are in fact doing something sustainably when in reality, they could only be hiding behind the declaration itself.
What do you think of the climate declaration? Just buzz or real game changer?
Read more about it here:
Why this company signed the declaration.
Oregon’s Breweries join the declaration.