Climate and corporate risk: Michael Kobori responds to the ‘woke’ question
Was this discussion of climate change too hot, too cold – or just right?
Chapter Zero special guest Michael Kobori sparred with Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan last week after she accused him of being “too woke”.
In an appearance on her drive-time show, Kobori – former Chief Sustainability Officer at Starbucks and Vice President of Sustainability at Levi’s – was introduced as “this woke guy” and immediately challenged: “How is being woke actually good for business, in the face of everything we are seeing at the moment?”
“Well, Heather, I would say it isn’t so much about being woke – it’s about doing what is good for your business,” Kobori replied, before delivering a clear explanation of why sustainability has been good business for Starbucks, why reducing emissions matters, and how climate change could be disastrous for coffee.
When du Plessis-Allan asked whether Starbucks was “wasting money on trying to cut emissions”, instead of focusing on mitigation and adaptation, Kobori didn’t miss a beat.
“Well, Heather, we’re doing both,” he said, explaining that Starbucks’ shareholders, customers and employees expect the company to act on both fronts.
For Starbucks, climate change presents a specific and existential threat. At current rates of warming, the land suitable for growing coffee beans could be halved by 2050.
As Kobori pointed out, while adaptation and mitigation are both essential, “if we don’t do anything to reduce our carbon emissions, then we are not addressing the source of the problem, right?”
Given the rising risks to societies, economies and ecosystems, Starbucks’ “woke” approach – reducing emissions while investing in adaptation – starts to look increasingly like good business.
Kobori is speaking at a Chapter Zero New Zealand event in Auckland on 7 November. See here for details.
You can listen to the full interview with Michael Kobori here.