The moment from Rebecca Henderson’s interview that will stick with me a year from now is when she shared the anecdote about the corporations she spoke to about their own projections around the future, specifically in regard to carbon regulation. It’s legitimately frightening to me that just six years ago, corporations expected the climate crisis to just “go away” with no intentional action around carbon reduction on their part. How can business leaders be so blind in the 21st century? Particularly for me, as a member of Gen Z, who has grown up with the idea of climate catastrophe looming over my life for as long as I can remember, I find it absolutely chilling the recklessness of some corporate leaders depicted by this anecdote — their wishful thinking has the power to doom us all. I suppose I should be relieved at this idea of socially conscious investors pushing these companies in the right direction, but really, I expect that I will be deeply concerned to think about this story even a year from today.
The aspect of this interview that I believe will most impact society’s future is the idea that employees are pushing their companies to address climate change — even those led by CEOs who are deeply skeptical that climate chance is a real issue. I’m heartened to learn that there is real pressure from the bottom up at the companies that will shape the future around climate change, for better or worse, and that the views of employees are making a difference in this regard. I do believe based on this video and my own life experiences that we are approaching a sea change in the way corporations act around the climate — Gen Z, in my view, perceives the issue entirely differently than some of the earlier generations, and I believe more than any generation before us, we understand the existential stakes of the coming crisis. As we enter the workforce and come to be the model consumers, companies will be forced to take environmentally conscious steps that could alleviate the rate of climate change and combat its worst effects. There is no doubt in my mind that this change will be, in my view, society’s make or break moment on the climate change issue, and will be hugely consequential to our collective future. I was very pleased to hear that Rebecca is seeing signs of this in her own work.
I agree that it was shocking to hear from Henderson about the unwillingness of businesspersons in powerful roles to take action with the climate crisis. They are in a rare position to do something and yet they choose not to in accordance with the free rider principle. I believe that government regulation will likely be the only way to get business leaders to play ball.