Texas Businesses Aren't Waiting on President Trump to Fight Climate Change

The White House is dropping out of the international effort to limit global warming. But in Texas, candy and pet food giant Mars isn't slowing its climate change plans designed to protect Waco-made Snickers from West African drought and shield pet food production in Temple from failed wheat harvests.Mars is not alone. For years, companies say, they have been reducing their carbon footprints and embracing renewable energy to cut costs and appeal to a younger workforce and customers. And that will continue with or without government leadership, they say. "I'm not aware of anyone with a sustainability program that started because there was a policy initiative," said Kevin Rabinovitch, global sustainability director at Mars.Mars’ 10-year-old climate change efforts, he said, predated the Clean Power Plan, Trump’s electoral victory and the Paris accord, an agreement among 197 nations to strive to keep global warming to “well under” 2 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels.Other corporate giants operating in Texas, including newly-arrived Toyota, are pushing forward aggressively on climate-change mitigation. The Japanese company’s new U.S. headquarters in Plano has a 7.75 megawatt solar array, enough to supply a fourth of the building’s electricity. And the automaker is committed to eliminating all greenhouse gas emissions from its cars, operations and supply chain by 2050.  Continue reading...