# Professor Tensie Whelan underscores the impact businesses can have on society through their activism and engagement efforts

1 Faculty News August 23, 2017 ![Wharton Business Radio logo 192 x 144](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/whartonbusinessradio192x144.jpg?itok=PmOPqb7F)>

Excerpt from [Wharton Business Radio](https://soundcloud.com/user-414944777/t-whelan) -- "I think business can play an incredibly important role. If you think about it, $22 trillion of the U.S. GDP is in business. $3 trillion is in government and NGO. So right there, in terms of the power business has, it's huge. And I think, as we've seen with the recent resignations from the President's council over his various remarks and actions, they can stand up. But they've stood up on others things: transgender issues, climate change issues. We have a coalition called 'We Mean Business' that has said, we're going to go ahead and have 60% of greenhouse gas emissions, no matter what the government does. We're going to really commit to what the Paris Accord laid out on our own."

[Listen here](https://soundcloud.com/user-414944777/t-whelan)