Going Beyond Climate Change Risk Management: Insights from the World’s Largest Most Sustainable Corporations

Evangeline O. Elijido-Ten, Peter Clarkson

Journal of Business Ethics · 2019 · Volume 157 · Issue 4

Abstract

In this study, we investigate whether firms recognised as superior sustainability performers respond differently to climate changeregulatory,physicalandotherrisks/opportunities and examine whether such differences predict sustainability performance in subsequent years. Further, we seek to gain insights from climate change programs and strategies of both superior and inferior sustainability performers. Adopting mixed methods, we use a merged sample from the Top500 world’s largest firms and the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations. Our quantitative analyses show that greater awareness ofphysicalandotherclimate change opportunities is what sets superior performers apart, and that superior future sustainability performance is related to a firm’s stated awareness of these two types of opportunities. Qualitative content analysis of narrative disclosures confirm that superior performers provide more detailed description of climate change strategies that go beyond managing climate change risks. Our study contributes to the limited amount of research highlighting the value of proactively seeking opportunities rather than merely focussing on risk management.

Keywords

Climate change risks and opportunities, World’s largest firms, Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations, Carbon Disclosure Project, Mixed methods

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