Carbon emissions: here's what we can do to hit 'science-based targets'

What can business do to help keep global warming in check when new research shows that manmade carbon emissions will cause bigger and more disasters? Set more ambitious emission-reduction targets based on climate science. We explain what it all means

• The new bottom line: money is no longer the dirty word in sustainability
• Best Buy's e-cycle program is ambitious, successful and unsustainable
• Science will help push companies toward a low-carbon future

The vast majority of global companies have no obligation to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. Still, many of them try. But the overall efforts aren't nearly enough to help deal with the potential devastating impacts of climate change, from increasing droughts and wildfires to the mass extinction of species. Critics say businesses need to do more, including setting more ambitious carbon reduction targets and proving they can hit those goals. Now, an increasing number of environmental consulting and advocacy groups are using science-based targets to describe the types of goals they say companies and businesses need to achieve in order to make a difference.

But what are science-based targets? Here is what you need to know: