7 minutes read: OpEd “Getting real on climate strategy” | Over the Horizon “DEEC-Tec: new patented wave energy technology” + news Thailand’s full plastic import ban | Nike in-store sneaker repair bot | – from the desk of The Green Link team.
Op-Ed_
[ Getting real on climate strategy]
From intention to action
By now everyone knows we collectively need to fix our climate trajectory. Studies after studies show that climate, the environment, sustainability (pick your preferred wording) has become a critical component of a company’s business strategy.
The rise of job posting in sustainability nothing like we’ve seen before… And still 65% of companies don’t know where to start or say they don’t have the resources to act.
OliverWyman and the have recently released “Getting Going”, a sequel to their previous “Getting real” report released at Climate Week NYC in 2021. This report highlights that though many companies have taken seriously sustainability, the road is treacherous from intention to impact.
What we found fascinating in the “Getting Going” report is that if matches what we’ve seen on our end after over our own 60 interviews of sustainability leaders across industries & geographies:
“The organization needs a vision to set goals and priorities and give shape to an otherwise disparate and tactical agenda. This vision must be embedded in the reality of the organization’s operation. And the organization must align people’s overall accountability — not specifically for climate — in a way that supports and incentivizes the actions required.” – extract from Getting Going.
Overcoming the white-page syndrome is critical
It is not sufficient just to set up a goal and put someone in charge, under the public spotlight, if you don’t embark your employees to be part of the transformation journey.
You can’t build a positive movement by coercion or fear. As a leader in your company, your role is to empower your employees, to put-in place the stepping stones on which they can build their own drive to contribute.
This is where we would strongly differ from the findings of Exhibit 7 of the report where respondent still rank “A sense of a burning platform instilled” as a key enabler for the transformation.
Telling anyone they are about to die will most likely freeze their brain and prevent them from brainstorming how to solve this issue.
We must never forget that our reptilian brain is still largely dominating our reaction. Fight or flee are the only 2 responses its geared to propose. So, if there are no hope, if the task is to daunting why fight?
Thankfully, the “Getting Going” report also unearthed key barriers on which positive messaging can be applied to foster involvement.
Creating a positive forward-looking mindset.
Let’s dive into them – they are located in Exhibit 6: Breakthroughs — the approaches that break through the barriers.
As you browse through OliverWyman & The Climate Group Exhibit 6, you have all the required perspective to help every employee (from top management to middle management to ground staff) understand what type of role they can play.
Interestingly, these matches almost all of our findings of solutions to pain points experienced by sustainability leaders & teams when it comes to operationalizing the strategic intention.
Our IDEAL_ platform can provide the tools to operationalize these exhibit’s approaches. It supports sustainability teams in creating lasting internal momentum & positive impact, fast.
We would also suggest to adopt an internal pricing engine not just for carbon but for ALL physical metrics used to assess your company’s environmental impact – like the one we built inside our IDEAL_portal.
Focusing solely on carbon might have adverse side effects for land biodiversity or plastic pollution at sea. And what good would it be to switch to 100% renewable energy if we’ve killed our oceans?
We need to approach climate strategy from a holistic perspective. It’s absolutely critical that sustainability becomes a core component of every function’s role & processes. It is truly a new mindset to have in mind that can also bring tremendous business benefits.
And when we talk about business benefits with our clients, it’s not just a question of financial return on investment. Other benefits come in to play such as:
- Brand equity
- Talent attraction & retention
- Customer attraction & retention
- Easier access to financial capital
We still have time and any conscious business decision made will leverage the full might of your organisation to create a much greater and lasting positive impact than individual actions.
As sustainability is now fully embedded in business strategy, let’s get real and get going on operationalizing it.
Call to action:
• Download the report “Getting Going” report
• Share and discuss in your respective functions how you can cascade your company goal at operational level
• Take our Sustainability Maturity Quiz – see below – to assess how ready is your company to embark on a true transformation journey
• If your company has taken a public pledge, be vocal and ask “HOW are we going to get there?” otherwise such public attention will backfire – remember greenwashing is corporate suicide.
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Sustainability Maturity Quiz
If you’re a regular reader of Catalyst and you’d like to assess if your company is ready enough to leverage our IDEAL_ portal to reach its sustainability goals, here is a small quiz |
Yes = 1pt / No = 0 pt
- Has your company defined its sustainability goals?
- Has someone been appointed to lead the sustainability strategy?
- Has your company taken a public pledge or disclosing its environmental progress?
- Does the Sustainability team have the financial resources to fund initiatives?
- Is your company embarking every function in its transformation journey?
If your company score above 3 points, then you’re in a prime position to best leverage our Sustainability as a Service portal.
Pragmatic, action-oriented, it allows our clients and teams to leverage over 6,000 proven “resources” (best practices, clean technologies, alternative materials, solution sets…) to successfully design HOW to achieve their goals and report on the positive impact generated.
For more details – click here – and if you’d like to book a demo – click here.
