8.14.2007 - 12:00pm ET

(CSRwire) CHICAGO - August 14, 2007 - This September, Chicago will host an unprecedented gathering of 20 top companies to share their climate change and sustainability strategies at Corporate Climate Response. Among those companies presenting is Caterpillar, Ford, BP America, Abbott, Time Inc, Motorola, Walgreens, Anheuser-Busch, Wal-mart, Dow, McDonald's, IBM, AIG, Excelon, Intel and Baxter Healthcare.

'If we are to truly address climate change and other environmental issues we must have everyone at the table,' said Mayor Richard M. Daley. 'This gathering of some of largest companies in the world is definitely a step in the right direction.'

'It's significant that so many large US firms are willing to openly share elements of their emission reduction efforts,' added Adrienne Baker, producer of Corporate Climate Response. 'This shows that despite the current lack of federal regulation, US companies are committed to carbon mitigation and want to share their ideas with other organizations.'

Corporate representatives will be discussing a variety of topics related to emissions reduction including carbon footprint and life-cycle analysis, energy efficiency, waste management, fleet management, green power and RECs, carbon offsetting, emissions trading, and engaging the public. 'Companies often work on these projects in isolation so an event like this allows participants to benchmark their own activities and network with their peers,' said Dr. Andrew Slavin, director of Corporate Climate Response.

Along with the fundamentals of climate action, companies will also be exploring the need for national carbon targets with members of the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) present. 'Regional and state by state climate change initiatives are problematic,' said John Disharoon, Director of Sustainable Development at Caterpillar, a founding USCAP member and Corporate Climate Response participant. 'The US needs a federal policy that works in concert with international frameworks to address climate issues.'

National and state regulatory experts will also be coming to Chicago to update companies on what to expect from upcoming regional and federal actions on carbon emissions. Organizations currently assisting corporations to set their own carbon reduction goals including WWF, NRDC, and Environmental Defense will also be participating. The UK government-funded Carbon Trust will also be present to discuss its recently announced carbon labelling scheme, which attempts to calculate the embodied emissions of individual consumer products.

'The idea is that attendees will walk away from this event with the information they need to either implement or update their own organization's climate response as well as insight into what type of national emissions curbs or carbon cap-and-trade system to expect in the future,’ said Corporate Climate Response's Baker.

Corporate Climate Response is being organized by Green Power Conferences and takes place on September 25th and 26th at the Courtyard Marriott Downtown in Chicago.

To download the event brochure, please visit the Corporate Climate Response web site at: http://www.greenpowerconferences.com/corporateclimateresponse/index.html

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