Tip of the Day: Go green, go public or go home

In case you didn’t have enough incentive to go green, here’s another: Public company officers and directors could face real liability from shareholders and securities regulators over improper disclosures over their greenhouse gas emissions, one attorney concludes.
 
Mia Mazza, a securities litigator with law firm Morrison & Foerster, examines this new corporate risk and outlines steps for how companies can get ahead of potential securities problems in their environmental policies.
 
“Investors are becoming increasingly interested in understanding the carbon footprint of each of their investments, sometimes for altruistic reasons and always for financial ones,” Mazza writes.  “Investors are concerned that future developments in the government regulation of greenhouse gas emissions will have a significant financial impact, not only on companies that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases, but also on those who do business with large emitters.”
 
At the least, business leaders need to be aware of how their shareholders view environmental issues and understand this is a front-burner, permanent issue, not a short-term trend.
 
“The pressure for public companies to make ‘voluntary’ climate change-related disclosures is increasing, and will continue to do so over time,” Mazza explains.

She advises employers to take serious stock of how they are disclosing emissions and other climate change policies to stakeholders, and particularly need to keep tabs on whether their competitors are voluntarily disclosing carbon footprint information. Not doing so could leave boards and corporate officers unprepared for the competitive future that includes new climate change regulation and expanded environmental liabilities.