Decarbonization Can’t Wait
By: Ryan Lynch, National Practice Director, Sustainability
Up until recently, future sustainability planning has either been ignored or distorted to postpone changing current business practices. The lack of definition surrounding the word “sustainable” is a crushing burden so many don’t want to face, or companies present themselves as being sustainable but offer little to no evidence to support their claim. The bottom line is, if you aren’t already thinking about the climate impact of your business, you are putting your organization at a competitive disadvantage.
2030 is just eight very short years away. That’s less than a decade to meet the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2030 goal of at least a 45% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and achieve net zero GHG emissions by 2050. Global sustainability reporting standards and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure regulations are coming, and the consequences associated with non-compliance could be detrimental to a company’s bottom line.
As investors are shifting focus from just the profitability of a business, the expectation, and in some cases the requirement, is that companies disclose their GHG emissions, understand climate-related risks to their business, and have an effective carbon reduction plan. Financial institutions are taking a much closer look at the ESG approach of potential investments. There is a cultural swing toward sustainable finance to leverage their lending resources to positively impact the climate crisis. A company’s risk associated with climate change is now becoming a determining factor in whether it is a viable investment.
In other words, the proverbial jig is up. The harsh reality in our almost post-pandemic world is that carbon-reduction practices can no-longer be an afterthought. Everything about the way business is done has changed. Employees are slowing returning to an in-person work environment, there are concerns surrounding staffing shortages, and supply disruptions continue to be an issue. Companies are being pulled in so many different directions, it’s challenging to know where their priorities belong.
Creating and executing a carbon reduction plan while navigating through all these obstacles, and to do so for the foreseeable future, is undoubtably daunting. We’re at the onset of a significant transition in best practices that will impact every individual, community, and organization around the world. We’re rebuilding our focus, recalibrating efforts, and in some ways, starting from scratch. Sustainability may or may not be at the forefront of your business objectives, but the time to adopt a decarbonization strategy is now.
The question becomes, how?
- How to finance
- How to design
- How to build
- How to assign value
- How to upskill and upscale
- How to work across points of the value chain
- How to prevent unintended consequences
- How to prepare for ESG regulations
With a little help and some planning, we can remove the scary out of the equation. Our upcoming Tackling Decarbonization series will frame the thinking and actions needed in the wake of these challenges.
