For anyone who doesn't want to reduce carbon emissions, China seems like a great scapegoat. The defenders of the status quo argue that U.S. companies will be at a disadvantage if we tax carbon or invest in clean energy because "China's not doing anything."

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio recently

This is the exclusive, short story of how Diageo North America, with creativity and guts, both in operations and in the senior ranks, achieved the holy grail of carbon emissions reductions. They did it without using carbon offsets -- and about 38 years earlier than they had to.

Here's what...

It's time once again to try and summarize the last 12 months in a handy list. But before I dive in, some quick thoughts.

It was an odd year for green business, and it began with some mixed signals about how far companies were coming on sustainability....

Now that the long national nightmare of 24/7 presidential election coverage is well behind us, we can get around to discussing some other important voting results. In particular, I've been thinking about a result that got much less attention than it deserved: the defeat of Proposition 37 in...

A nerd hasn't been this popular since, well, ever. Nate Silver, the creator of the election poll statistical hub FiveThirtyEight was declared the clear winner in the presidential election. And on Fox News, election math was at the center of one of the most

Hurricane Sandy has killed more than 100 people in the U.S. and the Caribbean, and caused billions of dollars in damage. The scene around my Connecticut home is not pretty, with downed trees and power lines everywhere. It's a serious time, and a time for some serious questions....

Walmart's efforts to green its supply chain are about to get much more effective. Sustainability will now play a role in its merchants' performance reviews, which help determine pay raises and potential for future promotion. This is a big deal: These merchants are high-level managers responsible for multibillion-dollar buying decisions....

Here's a surprising new fact about energy in the United States: the percentage of our electricity coming from the greenest sources -- that is, the non-hydroelectric renewables such as solar, wind, geothermal and biomass -- has doubled in just four years to nearly 6 percent. (Thanks to climate...

It finally seems to be dawning on many Americans that there's something to this climate change thing. The historic drought has been hard to ignore. While belief in a long-term trend because it's hot out right now is a bit ridiculous, it's a start.

You can see a...

Kaiser Permanente (KP), one of the largest health care providers in America, has a clear mission: improve health. In a surprising and welcome twist, KP is publicly recognizing that climate change threatens that mission. This health care leader is showing how an authentic, mission-driven connection to global issues can drive...

This week, Microsoft is announcing an unusual initiative that it hopes will change how the company operates: an internal fee on carbon.

Starting July 1 -- the beginning of the company's fiscal year 2013 -- the software giant will charge all of its 100-plus global offices and data...

The media seems intent on giving climate skeptics much more than equal time. Today the New York Times printed a cover story about the last arrow in the climate skeptics arsenal, the argument that cloud cover will adjust to a warming world and let more heat escape to space.

Aside from tiny Bhutan and their pursuit of Gross National Happiness, every country bases economic policy on the pursuit of endless GDP growth, and companies are right there with them. But common sense tells us that nothing can grow forever, and thus national and corporate-level goals alike have...

Is corporate sustainability on the wane or growing more important to top executives? At the beginning of the year, two big-picture reports on the state of green business painted divergent pictures.

In GreenBiz's annual review of 20 indicators of "how business is doing" on green, we learn that...

Will we see the day when all products carry environmental labels with data on carbon emissions and other impacts? Recent news tells us a definitive... maybe. Within a couple days of each other, GM announced new eco-labels for some Chevy models, while UK mega-retailer Tesco pulled...

Is there such a thing as too much profit? A disciple of Milton Friedman would say "never." The idea that companies should only maximize shareholder value has had a stranglehold on the business world for decades. It's time to rethink this assumption.

A couple of weeks ago, Apple reported

(Note: This blog is co-authored with Andy Wales, Global Head of Sustainable Development for SABMiller plc, one of the world's largest brewers).

When we talk about natural resource constraints on business -- such as shortages in water or increases in the cost of energy or agricultural products --...

In the days right before this last, zen week of family time and no email, I read a few news items about the sorry state of our global commons. From the real costs of extreme weather ($52 billion in damages in the U.S. alone in 2011) to massive dangers...

Yes, it's December again somehow: time to look back on what we've learned and oversimplify into a handy list. Here's my take on the 10 big stories in sustainability and green business this year:

1. The usual sustainability drivers got stronger
Ok, this one is cheating a bit, but...

(Note: This blog is co-authored with Andy Wales, Global Head of Sustainable Development for SABMiller plc, one of the world's largest brewers)

It's hard to put into words how dry and hot Texas was this past summer. "Off the charts" is both figuratively and literally accurate: