Innovation + Responsibility

On Friday, in a nailbiter of a legislative session, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 219 - 212 in favor of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, aka Waxman-Markey, aka climate change legislation. As a founding member of BICEP - Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy - Sun was actively engaged and involved in discussions and debates that ultimately led to this bill's passage.  With great leadership from Ceres and unwavering participation from all the BICEP member companies (Sun, Nike, Starbucks, Timberland, Levi Strauss & Co., eBay, Symantec, Aspen Skiing Company, Gap, Inc., Seventh Generation, The North Face,
Clif Bar) we successfully brought a new business perspective to the climate change policy debate.

As the Waxman-Markey bill was being drafted, circulated and considered,
our coalition members met with scores of Representatives and staff
members - I even got the chance to represent BICEP at an Earth Day press conference hosted by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Our goal was to communicate to them that there exists a broad cross-section of
businesses - large and small, energy consumers, job creators, brand
stewards - that support sensible legislation, the goal of which is to promote economic and environmental progress.

Now the bill moves to the Senate, where its passage is again uncertain. But before we move on to this next phase, I'd like to take a moment to celebrate this milestone. When this bill was first introduced, there was doubt as to whether or not it could ever pass. And there was certainly doubt that it would pass on the aggressive timeline set forth by its principal sponsors, Congressmen Waxman (D-CA) and Markey (D-MA). Well, pass it did, although it was a close vote that went largely along party lines.

While there is still much work to be done to improve the bill that was finally passed late Friday afternoon, and while the debate rages on as to whether we are better off with no climate bill than the one that passed, I am proud of our company's leadership and participation on this topic. It was a pleasure to work so closely with Ceres and the other BICEP member companies as we tried to add our muscle (pun intended) to this important debate. I for one learned a great deal about "how our government really works" and