This morning, retailer Marks & Spencer announced ambitious plans to become carbon neutral by 2012 (see BBC story).
This afternoon, the Conservatives moved the discussion of the responsibilities of business back to individual responsibility. How much should business do? How much can we do? And how much is the responsibility of government?
PR Studies 
Hi Richard,
The short answer is all of the above.
The longer one is that while the CEO of M&S has managed more in one day than we could in a decade of recycling cans, I believe there is much that PR can do.
Research (quoted in Toward a Coherent Theory of Environmentally Significant Behaviour: Paul Stern, Journal of Social Issues, 2000) indicates, not surprisingly, individuals can achieve more by influencing the organisation they belong to than by private action alone.
Perhaps Stuart Rose listened to PR advice, telling him that the public are keen to see more happening on climate change, and mostly expect big hitters like M&S to be doing the work.
For the figures see here: http://goodgreenpr.blogspot.com/2006/10/sdrn.html.
And there are more ideas your students might like to engage with – about whether this is a job for marketing or PR skills – here: http://goodgreenpr.blogspot.com/2007/01/warm-words.html
Green Monday? That sounds like a good opportunity to point out that next Monday 22 is Blue Monday – the year’s most depressing day – for which I’m organising some feel good initiatives. Have a lookee at http://www.beatbluemonday.org.uk