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To What Extent is Business Responding to Climate Change? Evidence from a Global Wine Producer

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Abstract

Most studies on climate change response have examined reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Yet these studies do not take into account ecosystem services constraints and biophysical disruptions wrought by climate change that may require broader types of response. By studying a firm in the wine industry and using a research approach not constrained by structured methodologies or biased toward GHG emissions, the findings suggest that both “inside out” and “outside in” actions are taken in response to climate change. While attempts are made by the firm to curtail and reverse climate change through management of carbon emissions, evidence suggests a clear pattern of actions designed to adjust to the adverse consequences of climate change as well. The results both confirm and extend previous findings and suggest that the level and breadth of response to climate change is shaped by situated attention, structural controls, and industry type.

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Notes

  1. Given that only one company was assessed, interrater reliability tests were not conducted.

  2. Speculation is put for lack of evidence of alternative energy use. First, in Australia, a recent report in the wine industry suggests that infrastructure for alternative energy is underdeveloped and costs to the consumer are high (Galbreath 2011a). Second, there are multitudes of ways to reduce energy use (and thereby GHG emissions) in wineries through means other than alternative sources of energy (e.g., florescent lighting, variable speed devices, energy-rated pumps, night over-chilling, and timing of loads). However, analysis of Foster’s did not reveal engagement in any such actions.

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Acknowledgments

The author thanks Kim Benjamin for her research efforts on this study.

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  1. Curtin Graduate School of Business, Curtin University, 78 Murray Street, Perth, WA, 6000, Australia

    Jeremy Galbreath

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  1. Jeremy Galbreath
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Correspondence to Jeremy Galbreath.

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Galbreath, J. To What Extent is Business Responding to Climate Change? Evidence from a Global Wine Producer. J Bus Ethics 104, 421–432 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0919-5

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