The discourse around climate change has become both polarized and politicized, as beliefs about its existence, causes, and severity have become markers of partisan affiliation. As such, a full understanding of corporate strategies toward addressing climate change requires paying attention to the political beliefs and ideologies of key corporate stakeholders. The primary goal of this study is to examine the influence of board political ideology and stakeholder attributes on how firms go about reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We argue that the political ideology of a firm’s board will carry a main influence over the firm’s pursuit of a pro-climate strategy. However, how firms manage the reduction of their GHG emissions will depend on the ideology of the local communities where their facilities are located and the degree of civic organizations in these communities. As a consequence of pursuing “doing good” for those stakeholders with whom the board is more aligned, however, areas that are objectively subjected to greater climate risk will go overlooked. We empirically test our hypotheses using a sample of 18,412 observations from 2,700 facilities in the United States, finding strong support for our hypotheses.
