Climate Change and Corporate Responsibility, part 1
By Olivia Foskett
In light of the presently ongoing COP26 summit on climate change, we have been investigating what we can do towards that same goal of protecting our planet.
But first, what’s COP26 and why is it so important?
It’s a global United Nations summit where leaders will discuss plans to tackle the climate crisis. It’s an annual event, but the 26th meeting has been delayed since 2019 due to the pandemic. The commitments made at the summit will be more important than ever in light of the worsening climate crisis.
What about corporate responsibility?
What role do we play as businesses and employers in the climate crisis?
We're not sustainable power experts. We're not in the business of cutting down trees to make our products. So isn't it someone else's area..?
This kind of rhetoric belongs in the past.
We are all implicated by the climate crisis. Companies employing hosts of staff, with command over budgets and resources, have more influence than each individual alone. So how are they getting organised?
You don't have to be Big Oil to take stock of your accountability, and your part to play in the fragile balance of our climate. As businesses, we all have an associated carbon footprint, differing with the type of business and it's scale.
The term 'carbon footprint' was actually coined to offload responsibility from big corporations mining fossil fuels and onto the individual. It strikes us that every business, no matter the scale or the industry, has a choice: Dodge responsibility, or openly hold themselves accountable.
We want to do the latter and support others to find ways of doing it too.
Building a real strategy is easier said than done.
That's why we've been on a research journey for this two part blog into ways that we, our partners and any business setting out to improve on their environmental policies can try to tip back the scales, from the small things to the big decisions.
Here’s Five Ways your company can make a difference:
1 - Donate
We are well aware that one of the most unjust factors of the climate crisis is that developing countries that are the least responsible will be the most adversely affected by fires, droughts, rising sea levels and more.
We can offer support through charity initiatives that aim to protect against these effects.
Here’s a few you might not have heard of, and a couple you definitely will:
PracticalAction.org : Helping smallholder farmers in developing countries to adapt to the changing climate and succeed.
CoolEarth – Working with rainforest communities to halt deforestation and wildfires.
RainforestFoundation - Supporting indigenous and traditional peoples of the world’s rainforests in their efforts to protect their environment and fulfill their rights.
RainforestCoalition - Assisting tropical governments, communities and peoples responsibly manage their rainforests.
Oxfam – Their work covers a wide area, including fighting hunger exacerbated by the climate crisis, supporting small scale farmers and workers, protecting natural resources, and more.
2 - Go Plant Based
Here's one inspired by our office host, WeWork.
The company opted to go meat-free in 2018, offering no red meat, pork or poultry as options in its buildings, nor funding or serving it at events. This influences those using wework spaces to choose the meat free option and normalising plant based alternatives.
This not only reduces the carbon footprint of wework, but takes steps to reduce the overall meat consumption of its users and encourages lifestyle changes anyone can make to counteract the impacts of the meat industry.
3 - Assess and Disclose
We can't be accountable for our impact until we've properly assessed it.
Start at home. Examine, calculate, and disclose your carbon footprint. When we all share our figures, though it may feel like airing dirty laundry, then effective comparisons can be made, helping us pinpoint room for improvement, and replicate successful strategies.
There are a number of tools in the market designed to create a user-friendly process of estimating the environmental impacts associated with your business as a whole.
Publishing your findings and strategy under a sustainability report online can set a precedent of frankness, which needs to become the norm in our industries.
4 - Go Carbon Positive
Once you've nailed down that data, find solutions.
Initiatives such as Earthly, Greenfeet and more offer tools to work out your impact and find solutions to counteract it, then go further to becoming carbon positive.
Climate change has already put natural carbon sinks like the rainforest and ocean beds at risk. We humans can counterbalance somewhat by coming up with ways to absorb as much carbon as we're producing.
5 - Streamline your energy consumption
We need computers. That's a non-negotiable for most industries. With increased remote working, devices are essential for communication.
We don't have to throw our tech out the window to temper its impacts, though.
Firstly, remember a laptop is better than an airplane! A remote call can now replace flying across the world to a meeting.
Recognise where waste is happening. Seemingly negligible actions like decreasing aircon or lighting use do add up.
Greener options for tech, transport and other equipment are multiplying by the day, so factor this into your choices. Take a look at the manufacturers and providers you use. The more we show an expectation of sustainability, the more the market and investors will respond.
6 - Optimise the commute
This is the big one.
In Urban settings, public transport is usually your greenest option. For drivers, consider carpools. Keep in mind that flexible working schedules allow employees the opportunity to walk, run or cycle to work.
Ensuring that necessities like showers and bike stores are available, and so is the time to use them, can encourage less common green methods of commuting. Eventually we think 'why would I take the car route when I know the cost, and I just don't need to'.
Head to our next blog for Five More Ways your company can fight climate change.