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Greener Frontiers

Cutting-edge companies like NRG Energy, Jones Lang LaSalle, SAP, VF Corp. and Starbucks confront climate change. (Lauralee Martin of Jones Lang LaSalle)

By Anne Field | Updated on August 01, 2011
Steve CornelliMany, if not most, major companies are doing something to cut their greenhouse gas emissions—reducing their use of electricity perhaps, or starting a recycling program. But cutting-edge businesses are rising to another level—taking more ambitious and sophisticated steps to address the rise in global temperatures caused by climate change. Concerned about an array of issues, from the excessive use of water at suppliers’ plants and potential risks posed by government regulation to an increasing investor focus on climate change, companies are venturing beyond the tried-and-true. They’re trying new strategies that range from producing a trailblazing sustainability report to helping farmers participate in carbon offset exchanges or changing the firm’s very business model. “These companies recognize the serious business risks to the long-term sustainability of the company,” says John Jarrett, director of research at GovernanceMetrics International. “With world resources becoming increasingly limited, they see the imperative of addressing issues that previously weren’t even on the radar screen.” Here’s what five such companies are doing.(NRG’s Steve Corneli, left)

NRG: It’s All About Diversity

NRG wasn’t always focused on clean and renewable energy. But 20 years after it was spun off from Northern States Power in Minnesota, the $9 billion, Princeton, N.J.-based independent power producer’s business model has an unusual emphasis on diverse sources of energy, ranging from coal and natural gas to solar and wind.

NRG Energy started in the 1980s as a co-generation company and affiliate of Northern States Power. Then Northern States took advantage of a recently passed law encouraging utilities to buy energy from other power producers and used NRG to acquire power plants around the country, picking up around 12,000 megawatts (MW) of power in about two years. In 1992, NRG was incorporated. But buying all those plants sunk it into debt and in 2003 the company declared bankruptcy.

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