100 Best Green Workplace winners sound alarm over U.S. withdrawal from Paris climate deal


Photo by | Jason Kaplan

Amid rumors of the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate pact, several of the top ten Best Green Workplaces in Oregon called on local businesses to take the lead in reducing carbon emissions.

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During the Oregon Business 100 Best Green Workplace awards luncheon yesterday, top ten winners Research Into Action, Rose City Mortgage and Living Room Realty said business and community leaders need to ramp up climate change mitigation efforts in the absence of leadership from the Trump Administration.

“We can’t count on the federal government,” said Rose City Mortgage owner Renee Spears.  “Maybe we never could.”  

In their acceptance speeches, the companies and organizations echoed a theme introduced by keynote speaker John Morris, vice president at energy efficiency firm D+R International

Morris noted the U.S. was poised to pull out of the Paris climate pact. He said the global clean energy transition was well underway and states that took the lead in carbon pricing would prosper.

Morris called on businesses to move beyond internal sustainability efforts to support an Oregon cap and trade plan similar to the one adopted by California several years ago.