In April 2014, Climate Investigations Center sent a short survey to the top PR firms in the United States asking the following questions:
- Does your company acknowledge the threat and challenge of climate change as companies like Walmart, CocaCola, Apple, Google, AIG, Swiss Re, NRG, Unilever and others have done?
- Does your company have any internal carbon accounting policies or energy use reduction targets? Have you taken actions to reduce your “carbon footprint”?
- Does your company have an internal Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy regarding climate change or the environment generally?
- Has your agency advised any client corporations on communications around CSR programs with a specific climate change focus, or on other climate change related public relations efforts?
Four years later, in June 2018, we decided to follow up with the same PR firms, and see where they stand now on these issues. In letters addressed to the PR firm’s CEOs, we asked the following questions:
- Does your company have a climate change position statement?
- Has your company done internal carbon accounting?
- Does your company have rules about what clients you will and will not take, or the types of tactics you deploy?
Click on the links below to see individual PR firm responses:
Responded to Climate Survey in 2018
Did Not Respond in 2018