Five years and counting...our plans for 2020.

Washington businesses are making some big shifts in their business operations to reduce their impact on climate.  We found this out for certain last month when a group of about twenty business leaders from the tech, healthcare, services, manufacturing, retail and energy sectors came together to envision next year’s steps for the Washington Business for Climate Action network.  Over the last five years, we have worked together to advance climate literacy in the business world and engage businesses on smart climate policy.  We are proud of that work.  And happy to say there's more to come in 2020.

At our recent meeting, the business leaders in the room reaffirmed our dedication to addressing climate change. Many folks shared their work around climate policy engagement.  But just as powerfully, we were all inspired as we shared concrete steps our businesses were taking to reduce carbon emissions, like:

• Improving operations to reduce energy and waste.
• Revisiting science-based targets.
• Engaging employees on ambitious carbon reductions at home.
• Investing and researching renewable energy.
• Working toward zero emissions without offsets.

All of these steps taken by Washington business are worthy of amplification and sharing.  That’s why this year we have developed three main goals for our network:

• Gather and highlight innovation:  Host a fun, casual gathering of business leaders on a quarterly basis to share best practices on innovative actions businesses are taking to address climate – both the best practices and lessons learned.   
• Continue to educate on policy: Kick off and then close out the legislative session with policy briefings from partner NGOs.
• Truly engage the entire state: Reach out to more businesses across the state to give them more of an opportunity to engage.

We hope we will see you in this exciting year ahead.  Join us, and receive invitations to our events, by signing the Climate Declaration!