The business case for climate advocacy

Has there ever been a harder time to be a CEO? The complexity. The pressure. The stakes. Leading a company is no longer just about performance. Today’s CEOs are expected to show up with a point of view and a plan on the issues shaping our future.

Climate change is one of those issues. It’s gone from abstract to omnipresent with seemingly never-ending heat, floods, wildfires, rising energy bills, and growing anxiety. It’s affecting stakeholder productivity and morale. But for CEOs, it feels removed from day-to-day business decisions.

Most companies start on climate by reducing emissions in their own operations. This is a necessary and currently insufficient path to solving a systemic, interconnected challenge. The good news? There’s a tool every company can use that’s high-impact, high-leverage, and often overlooked: climate advocacy.

WHAT IS CORPORATE CLIMATE ADVOCACY?

Corporate climate advocacy is using your company’s influence to push for solutions beyond your direct footprint and control. It complements your existing sustainability work and scales your impact. 

It also works. Earlier this year, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” included a proposal to sell millions of acres of public lands in the American West. Once public lands are sold, they are privatized, often by extractive industries like oil and gas, and can no longer be used for recreation.

In response, 100+ outdoor sport companies launched an advocacy campaign with calls, letters, op-eds, and meetings with lawmakers. In just a few weeks, their efforts helped stop the sell-off. Beyond protecting public lands, these companies also reduced macro risk, strengthened their reputations, built new relationships, and set the stage for stronger financial performance.

That’s the business value of advocacy.

IS ADVOCACY POLITICAL? 

Not necessarily. Advocacy isn’t activism or partisan politics; it’s influence. You don’t have to wade into political fights to support climate positive solutions like cheaper energy, better transportation, or modern infrastructure. In fact, nonpartisan, pragmatic business voices are often the most powerful and successful in this work.

An example of where your advocacy strategy can effectively skirt politics is civic engagement in elections. The biggest voting bloc in America is neither Democrats nor Republicans. It’s nonvoters. Encouraging employees to vote and leading by example is a nonpartisan way to support a healthier democracy, which is essential to any climate solution.

WHY MORE COMPANIES DON’T DO IT

Some companies hesitate because advocacy feels abstract or political. Others wait to reach a predetermined goal like net zero before speaking up. But that’s like waiting to go to the gym until you’re already in shape. If your company is making any progress on sustainability, you’re ready for advocacy. 

Sustainability teams are drowning in measurable, but inward-facing, reporting structures and proof points. Have the courage to pursue more scalable impact, even and especially when attribution is challenging. Advocacy is a long game, most similar to building your brand, talent, and culture. It may not deliver quarterly numbers, but when it lands, the impact is huge and you own a piece of it.

A company that understands the business value of climate advocacy is Bemis Associates. Bemis, a member of Protect Our Winters’ brand alliance, is a family-owned, New England-based manufacturer serving global industries such as apparel, automotive, medical, and consumer electronics since 1910. At first glance, this might not seem like your big name environmental advocate. But Bemis has been a public, powerful force advocating for climate and pro-environmental legislation, including going to Washington DC this year to advocate for public land protections. In addition to feeling a sense of responsibility for climate action, their work has increased their product awareness, recruited top employees, and helped close new customers.  

WHAT ACTION LOOKS LIKE

Start with executive sponsorship for corporate climate advocacy directly from the CEO. Assign operational ownership to the CMO, CFO, or sustainability lead depending on your structure. Partner with frontline nonprofits who know the space and can deliver both expertise and deployment. At Protect Our Winters, we have worked with hundreds of companies for almost two decades, so we codified our learnings into a CEO Playbook with eight strategic steps and real-world examples to guide your progress.

Looking for hope? We have the science and technology today to solve climate change. What we need now is leadership to make it happen. When companies use their platforms to build momentum and shape policy, progress for our businesses, communities, and planet will follow.