The Courage to Continue: Stay the Course on Sustainability to Secure our Future

The Courage to Continue spotlights the non-partisan American tradition of environmental stewardship and its relevance in today’s business and political landscape. President Trump’s second term brings a whole-of-government national security strategy that permeates other policy priorities – energy, global trade, deregulation, military spending, industrial policy, immigration, and more.

Although the Trump administration’s agenda includes rolling back environmental protections and propagating fossil fuel development, enshrining environmental security has long been an area of political cooperation. In fact, most environmental protections were passed and reinforced by Republican Presidents like Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Herbert Hoover, George H.W. Bush, Richard Nixon, and Theodore Roosevelt. All understood that environmental security serves as the basis of national security and economic prosperity.

In the spirit of finding more in the middle, this book advocates for a refreshed, non-partisan approach for business leaders to evaluate the reasons why they should continue to advance their corporate sustainability goals. This book evaluates the multi-dimensional rationale: the favorable economics of the renewable energy transition, broadening foreign and state-level environmental disclosure requirements, increased climate litigation risk, AI’s application to remove cost and friction, and America’s need to compete with China on renewable technology, critical mineral access, and more. This is a bridge to both sides of the aisle to see environmental security as a platform to help make America a better version of itself. By making the environment great, we can better respond to climate threats and challenges from foreign adversaries. We can ensure long-term economic prosperity by mitigating the financial and personal loss that climate disasters bring. Ultimately, we will have bolstered U.S. national security and enshrined global leadership position.