Nike

While the new year is inspiring individuals and businesses to think about going green, some corporate giants have already made green resolutions and are delivering the goods.

One driving force behind this shift toward sustainability may come as a surprise to shoppers: Wal-Mart. The retail colossus, long criticized for using its heft to obstruct workers’ access to unionization, adequate health care and better wages, and to push big box stores into communities, wiping out small businesses, is now using its clout to send sustainable ripples all the way down its supply chains.

At the heart of its effort is a scorecard that will eventually measure the environmental and social impact of each item on store shelves.

The climate accord announcement is legitimately catching some heat for being too little, too late. The enormity of the crisis cries out for strong binding pollution reduction targets by all countries and massive infusions of public and private capital to catalyze a fast-track transition to a low-carbon economy.

But expecting we’d get all this at COP15 was never realistic. That’s why leading U.S. businesses such as Nike, PG&E and North Face are encouraged by these first positive steps from Copenhagen.

More than two dozen of the United States' most prominent manufacturers, utilities and technology companies sent a letter to President Obama today urging the newly minted Nobel laureate to take a leadership role when he arrives in Copenhagen on Friday and secure a robust international climate agreement.

"This agreement has to include significant near- and long-term emissions reductions targets and strong finance provisions, with a substantial commitment of new long-term finance from developed nations, including the United States," the companies write.

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Nike, under pressure from shareholders, became the fourth company in the span of a week to pull away from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the business group's opposition to federal climate action and its call for a "Scopes Monkey Trial" on climate science.

The sportswear giant announced this morning that it was resigning from the Chamber's board of directors, though it plans to retain its U.S. Chamber of Commerce membership so it can continue "to advocate for climate change legislation."

"Nike believes U.S. businesses must advocate for aggressive climate change legislation and that the United States needs to move rapidly into a sustainable economy to remain competitive and ensure continued economic growth," the company wrote.

"As we've stated, we fundamentally disagree with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on the issue of climate change, and their recent action challenging the EPA is inconsistent with our view that climate change is an issue in need of urgent action."

Nike's positions on federal climate action contrast sharply with those of Chamber executives, who have questioned the very science of global warming in their efforts to block greenhouse gas regulation by the EPA — regulations could change how high-emitting industries do business. Even in backpedaling from his Scopes Monkey Trial comment, Chamber Vice President Bill Kovacs continued to argue that there was no proof that global warming threatens public health and welfare.

Chamber President Thomas J. Donohue tried to clarify the group's position again yesterday

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is beginning to bleed members over its staunch opposition to climate legislation intended to reduce the nation's global warming emissions.

John Rowe, CEO of one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, announced the group's latest loss today: Exelon, a $19 billion company with 5.4 million electricity customers, will not renew its membership in the once-essential business group.

Exelon was the third utility in a week to announce it was leaving the Chamber, and one of a growing number of companies urging the business group's executives to change their tune on climate action. Another member, Nike, is under pressure from shareholders, who will be urging the company in a letter tomorrow to also dump the Chamber.

Rowe explained his support for climate legislation while announcing his company's intentions to leave the Chamber during the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy national conference this morning:

“The carbon-based free lunch is over," the Exelon CEO said. "But while we can’t fix our climate problems for free, the price signal sent through a cap-and-trade system will drive low-carbon investments in the most inexpensive and efficient way possible.”

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Tom Benson, owner of the World's Largest Laundromat in Berwyn, Ill., is tired of listening to conservative industry groups' bluster that climate change legislation is bad for business.

That's because clean energy saved his.

When Benson bought his business a decade ago, all that hot water helping scrub everything from Speedos to sheets ate up a staggering 25 percent of total monthly revenues. With 153 washers using thousands of gallons of hot water daily, you can only imagine the energy costs. And that's before factoring in the 148 dryers.

So to cut his natural gas costs, Benson installed a solar hot water system on his roof. Three dozen 10-by-4-foot solar panels now produce more than 2,400 gallons of hot water daily, saving him some $25,000 a year.

"Our energy bills could have sunk this business," says Benson. "Now, they're a source of pride."

That's why Benson joined 10,000 small business leaders – hundreds of them U.S. Chamber of Commerce members – in signing Moveon.org's petition last week asking the chamber to stop lobbying against the Waxman-Markey clean energy bill. The small biz shout-out echoes the dozens of major U.S. companies already calling for strong policies to build a 21st century clean energy economy.