It's not just about money as large shareholders turn a shade of green

We're not talking the nauseous green of Bear Strearns' stockholders when they heard "$2." And now with reumors of an offer of as much as $10 per share those BearStearnsians are lookin a lot rosier of cheek.

The green I'm writing about is in attitude, worldview, corporate governance even. And there are significant attempts in many companies to force greener policies, or at least some consideration of the environment before a cmpany makes a major investment. Ceres is an investor coalition and it's found over four dozen active sharholder action in the U.S. that smack of greening of the corporation.

Targets of the green initiatives range from the obvious (oil companies and home builders) to the slightly surprising (airlines). Though air travel per person creates far greater carbon footprint thanb other methods of transport, the airlines are a relative minor contributor to the overall CO2 and greenhouse gas output globally.

The 54 shareholder filings cited by Ceres are based on global warming. There can be some gain by the shareholders. On its site Ceres claims an energy firm, Dynegy, will report to shareholders on how it plans to meet the challenge of climate change. Dynegy has been to build as many as six new coal-burning plants to generate electricity. I recently blogged about the headlong rush to burn coal is driving up the price and lowering the horizon for coal use on the planet.