Top down pressure from regulators along with bottom up pressure from customers and activists are forcing businesses to look closely at their impact on the planet, for economic as well as environmental reasons.

Businesses linked to the fossil fuel industry are already finding themselves unable to access bank finance, or even to secure public relations assistance to clean up their image. In South Africa, both Nedbank and FNB, for example, have announced they will no longer be financing coal companies. And, in both the UK and the US, there are campaigns afoot in the PR industry to encourage agencies to drop fossil fuel clients (and even clients with exposure to fossil fuel in their supply chains) altogether.