The Vice President of Corporate Environmental Affairs and Product Safety, and Chief Sustainability Officer, is the top environmental executive at IBM. This person is authorized to set IBM's strategy for environmental affairs, including matters related to climate change, and to establish the company's environmental requirements, goals, and management system to drive consistent execution across IBM's global operations and achieve results consistent with environmental leadership.
The Directors and Corporate Governance Committee of the IBM Board of Directors oversees policies and practices related to corporate social responsibility, sustainability and other environmental, social and governance matters. The Vice President of Corporate Environmental Affairs and Product Safety, and Chief Sustainability Officer, meets with the board committee annually to discuss IBM's environmental programs, performance, challenges and emerging issues.
Climate change is a serious concern that warrants meaningful action on a global basis. In addition to other risks identified by our enterprise risk management (ERM) process, we consider risks identified by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) in our risk management profile. IBM, like other companies, is subject to potential climate-related risks and costs, such as those resulting from increased severe weather events, prolonged changes in temperature, new regulations affecting hardware products and data centers, carbon taxes, and increased environmental disclosures requested or required by clients, regulators and others.
Our senior management assesses the significance of environmental and climate-related risks and opportunities and manages them accordingly. Reports on IBM’s environmental programs, challenges, and emerging issues are regularly provided to the Board and its Directors and Corporate Governance Committee.
We do not expect compliance with environmental laws and climate change regulations to have a disproportionate effect on the company or its financial position, results of operations and competitive position. Conversely, we believe there is opportunity to use IBM’s AI, hybrid cloud, and other technologies to assist clients with managing their climate-related risks.