This guide provides a framework for business associations to align advocacy, lobbying, and member engagement with science-based climate targets, as a critical lever in unlocking innovation and reducing the physical and transition risks associated with emissions. Knowing that many businesses choose to influence supportive policy through associations, the guide outlines governance reforms, transparency expectations, and escalation strategies to help trade associations accelerate — rather than delay — decarbonization for their members. 

This case examines the challenges multinationals face in pursuing B Corp certification, using Danone as an example. It highlights aligning global operations, governance, and stakeholder engagement with rigorous social and environmental standards, and raises the broader question: What is responsible influence on public policy for companies that have committed to sustainability? 

These guidelines offer key points for membership organisations to consider when designing and implementing climate policies, including Internal Policy Positions, Expectations and Requirements of Members, and External Policy Positions. They are aligned with the Race to Zero 5th P criteria, ISO Net Zero Guidelines and serve as a companion to the Business Associations Climate Action Guide for organisations.  

ESRS G1 sets mandatory disclosure requirements on business conduct, covering corporate culture, supplier relationships, anti-corruption and bribery, whistleblower protection, political influence and lobbying, and payment practices, especially toward SMEs. It links governance and conduct to impact, risk, and opportunity management, making companies explain how business behavior supports transparent, sustainable practices for all stakeholders. 

Resources for the Future's new series, If/Then, focuses on providing rapid, independent economic insights on the consequences of policy choices, drawing from both new and prior research. In a highly polarized environment, it aims to fill critical information gaps by making credible evidence accessible in real time to policymakers, businesses, and stakeholders navigating fast-moving debates.

This framework guides companies to align lobbying with climate goals, focusing on transparent reporting, board oversight, and annual reviews to support efforts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

This empirical study examines how green energy investment, innovation capacity, and political stability jointly drive sustainable economic growth across OECD countries. It finds that institutional stability and governance quality significantly amplify the economic returns of environmental investment, reinforcing the link between political systems and green competitiveness. 

This 60-page report elaborates on the “how” of engaging in meaningful climate policy engagement. Illustrative examples spanning the globe are grounded by five core elements of responsible policy engagement and three key actions to put said elements into practice. 

This article argues that corporate climate transition plans will fail without aligned public affairs strategies. It urges companies to integrate policy engagement, advocacy, and coalition-building into transition delivery, ensuring lobbying and political influence support—rather than undermine—net-zero and sustainability commitments.

As a company’s engagement in social and political issues becomes increasingly fraught, this article lays out decision-making principles companies can use to determine whether and when to engage in social and political issues.

Surveys of a national sample of investors revealed that 87% believe companies should adopt a code of conduct for political spending. Additionally, 91% support measures to ensure that political contributions are lawful and consistent with the company’s public policies and objectives.  

This textbook section introduces major corporate and agency public-relations subfunctions: issues management, media and community relations, CSR and philanthropy, investor relations, marketing communications, government relations, lobbying, internal communication, crisis management, and more. It shows how communication, advocacy, and stakeholder engagement are structured inside organizations, shaping how they respond to risks, opportunities, and public scrutiny.

This playbook sets out practical guidance for companies on how to optimise their indirect “policy footprint”. It covers how to assess and improve associations' alignment and impact, by clarifying their strategic policy priorities, evaluating where to invest in important trade association relationships, and engaging those associations constructively and effectively. 

Provides a framework for boards to manage the reputational, legal, and financial risks of political spending, including misalignment with public commitments, shareholder backlash, and regulatory scrutiny. Emphasizes the need for transparency and alignment with a company’s stated objectives and strategic goals. 

The Recommendation on Transparency and Integrity in Lobbying and Influence provides concrete guidance for governments in ensuring lobbying and influence activities support effective public decision-making while limiting the risks of undue influence, and it provides a framework to support businesses and other influence actors in conducting their lobbying and influence activities in a responsible manner. 

OpenSecrets is a nonpartisan, nonprofit transparency platform that tracks money in U.S. politics, compiling and analyzing campaign finance, lobbying, outside spending, and personal finance data for politicians. It offers searchable tools and educational resources that reveal how money flows around elections and policymaking, supporting evidence-based oversight by media, investors, employees, and the public.

Provides a five-principle framework for responsible lobbying. Helpful for companies trying to orient themselves on their value/stance development in their corporate political activities as actions in the space come under increased scrutiny. 

Lays out core principles—transparency, integrity, accountability, and effectiveness—with practical examples to help professionals and organizations engage in ethical and responsible lobbying. 

This article examines two methods for pricing carbon – the first based on estimating the “social cost of carbon” for current and future generations, and the second based on mandating limits and using a permit system to meet them. Argues for a fixed limit based on tipping points, and points to the challenges of political coordination required to adopt it, and the potential for technology to make that easier.

This work examines how global capitalism’s democratic foundations are eroding, as inequality, institutional decay, policy capture and corporate dominance erode democratic legitimacy. It argues that corporate-state relations and market structures shape democratic outcomes and that without attention to power, voice and influence, business risks operating in unstable systems of diminishing legitimacy. 

The Good Lobby Tracker assesses the major corporate political responsibility initiatives, from sustainability frameworks to ESG ratings, to enhance their transparency, accountability and action-ability. It is designed to help business practitioners, investors, civil society advocates, regulators and other stakeholders select the best methods and standards when assessing the corporate political footprint of companies. 

This article distinguishes between pro-market policies that enhance competition – so businesses that create value are rewarded -- and pro-business policies that favor specific businesses or industries. It argues that government favoritism distorts competition, undermines innovation, reduces opportunity and weakens democratic accountability, urging policymakers to prioritize competitive neutrality and institutional integrity over industry capture. 

Why this resource matters 
It reflects CPR’s Responsibility principle, calling for businesses to “champion   healthy market “rules of the game” that foster competition on the basis of quality, price and long-term value, minimizing costs externalized to other stakeholders and aligning private interests with the broader public good.” 

This article argues that firms are significant political as well as economic actors, with considerable power to shape the rules of the game within which they compete. Fillling in the gap in the prevailing theory of the firm, which ignores the elements of politics and power, Zingales outlines the risk of a “Medici vicious circle,” and how this risk depends on several non-market factors.  He develops a framework for understanding corporate political behavior as endogenous to market systems, emphasizing how firms influence governance structures, competition, and distributional outcomes.