This report provides the results of a study looking at the changing views of company executives around the world. It uses comparisons from a study in 2005 to show the way the business world is changing, especially with the increasing importance to environmental issues.
Summary
Over 2,500 company executives were surveyed around the world and the results show that executives feel that environmental issues (including climate change) are now likely to gain more public and political attention over the next 5 years compared to 2005 when the biggest issue likely to gain public and political attention was job losses (including offshoring of jobs). The results also show that more than have of the executives surveyed expect that environmental issues will affect shareholder value for companies in their industries far more than any other societal issue (either positively or negatively).
Other key results were:
- Environmental issues are starting to viewed as an opportunity for a company rather than as a risk or having limited opportunity;
- The share of respondents viewing the environment mainly as an opportunity rising from 18% in 2005 to 25% in 2007, while the proportion seeing it mainly as a risk has dropped to 32%, from 41%; and
- Polluting and damaging the environment was the biggest issue executives saw for causing harm to the public good
These results demonstrate that those in charge of the strategic decision-making in companies are starting to understand that they need to respond to social and environmental issues to ensure the long-term success of their companies.
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