Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: Salesforce is actively and positively engaged on climate change policy in the EU and US, with evidence of state-level engagement in California and Virginia. The company appears supportive of the energy transition and the development of carbon markets. However, Salesforce’s broadly positive positions on climate policy starkly contrast with the engagement activities of some of its industry associations, including the US Chamber of Commerce and California Chamber of Commerce (CalChamber).
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Salesforce appears to generally support government regulation to respond to climate change in its top-line messaging. In its most recent Stakeholder Impact Report, released April 2024, Salesforce states its support for carbon pricing, emphasizing the potential for business-based approaches to improve carbon markets, while also stating that it “welcome(s) further regulatory developments.” Salesforce was a signatory to a March 2024 coalition letter with the Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) that advocated for ambitious implementation of the EU Green Deal and Fit for 55 package to “allow the EU to lead the global race of development of sustainable industrial ecosystems and industries.” Salesforce was named in a May 2023 press release by Ceres as a participant in its annual Lawmaker Education and Advocacy Day (LEAD) on a Clean Economy, which aimed to “urge policymakers to ensure the US fully capitalizes on the opportunity presented by the Inflation Reduction Act,” among other climate-related objectives.
Engagement with Climate-Related Policy: Salesforce demonstrates positive engagement across a range of policy strands. The company appears generally supportive of emissions trading policy, highlighting its support for Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in its FY24 Stakeholder Impact Report. As a signatory to a March 2024 CLG coalition letter, Salesforce advocated for the EU to adopt a 90% greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction target by 2040, emphasizing that “90% should be considered as the floor rather than the ceiling for ambition.” In the same letter, Salesforce supported a “large-scale roll out of energy efficiency measures in industry and buildings” as one mechanism to assist in achieving the 2040 target.
In October 2023, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff participated in a coalition letter with the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders that issued a broad and urgent call for government action to scale up renewable energy development. Benioff also signed onto a “B Team” coalition letter in September 2023 calling on G20 heads of state to integrate nature-based solutions into climate change agendas, highlighting the potential for land-use policies to aid in supporting biodiversity and carbon sequestration.
Positioning on Energy Transition: Salesforce actively supports the energy transition. Its FY24 Stakeholder Impact Report highlights its high-level energy-focused advocacy, such as calling on G7 governments to commit to ambitious decarbonization targets, supporting the phase out of fossil fuel subsidies, and advocating for federal permitting reform in the US. Salesforce has been a strong proponent of the clean energy provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, as reflected in a September 2023 blog. In an August 2023 coalition letter with the Ceres Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP) Network, Salesforce advocated for more ambition within the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed power plant rules, urging the Administration to expand the scope of the regulations to cover a larger proportion of gas-fueled power plants, and to move timelines for compliance forward to capitalize on the momentum of clean energy investments included in the IRA.
At the state level, Salesforce was a signatory to another Ceres coalition letter in October 2022 supporting California’s Climate Change Scoping Plan, calling on the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to adopt ambitious decarbonization targets with the ultimate goal of reducing the state’s GHG emissions by 92% by 2045.
Industry Association Governance: Salesforce is not fully transparent about its indirect engagement on climate policy. The company discloses a partial list of its industry association memberships on its website, but does not provide detail on the groups’ climate policy positions or engagement activities. Salesforce is a member of the US Chamber of Commerce and the California Chamber of Commerce (CalChamber), both of which actively oppose climate policies at the federal and state level. For example, though Salesforce strongly supported ambitious implementation of the EPA’s proposed power plant rules in August 2023 coalition comments, the US Chamber has been a vocal opponent of the rules, and submitted coalition comments challenging EPA’s authority to implement the regulations in August 2023 and December 2023. Similarly, CalChamber has consistently endeavored to weaken the ambition of California’s Climate Change Scoping Plan, and directly advocated for the continued use of oil and fossil gas in June 2022 comments opposing the Plan.
InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in Q3 2024.