Greens in the boardroom: director attitudes and corporate climate policy

Lerner, Michael ORCID: 0000-0002-2402-0300 and Osgood, Iain (2025) Greens in the boardroom: director attitudes and corporate climate policy. Business and Politics. ISSN 1469-3569 (In Press)

Text (Climate_and_Director_Attitudes_main_final) - Accepted Version Pending embargo until 1 January 2100. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB)

Abstract

How green are the leaders of U.S. corporations, and are their attitudes reflected in corporate climate policy? Using data on individual contributions to green political candidates, we develop a proxy measure of the personal environmental views of directors sitting on the boards of public companies. Corporate America’s boards have become greener over time, although there remains significant variation in the number of green directors both across and within industries. Accounting for economic interests and outside pressures, firms run by green directors are more likely to make decisions that promote climate action internally—publicly reporting emissions, hiring sustainability officers, and announcing net-zero commitments—and externally, by joining proclimate groups. The environmental beliefs of board members are robustly associated with pro-climate action, suggesting the path to corporate sustainability runs through the boardroom.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Government
Subjects:	J Political Science G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
Date Deposited:	11 Mar 2025 11:24
Last Modified:	12 Mar 2025 10:03
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/127545

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