Rally your Team Behind your Net Zero Ambition
Climate change is a globally pressing issue, but just as important - is our response to it - and how we will change, repurpose and transform our economy to become resource efficient and net zero over the next couple of decades.
As the impact of a changing climate becomes more palpable, and public concern grows, companies in every sector see a growing array of climate-related risks. As risks grow, a company's physical, human, and intangible assets can devalue - increasing the need for a more resilient and sustainable business model.
So, once considered a peripheral issue for business, climate change – and our response to it – is now centre-stage in strategic planning for business.
With over 70% of global GDP generated by businesses, countries need them involved in reducing carbon emissions from many different angles – from protecting rainforests and investing in renewable energy sources, through to making smart decisions with their assets.
As a result, businesses of all sizes are committing to cut emissions, with the overall goal of reaching net zero by 2030 (or at the very latest by 2050, ideally sooner).
The 4 motivating factors
Reputation - improving the reputation of their company and gaining trust from their customers and clients is a major motivating factor for companies to act.
Cutting costs - cutting emissions across a company involves improving efficiencies, but cutting energy use and things like business travel also reduce costs as well as carbon emissions.
Regulation - the need to comply with current and/or upcoming regulation is the third motivating factor, encouraging many companies to act on climate, and show an awareness of increasing regulation.
Relevance - the fourth major motivation is to adapt to the requests of their clients and customers. Increasingly aware of sustainability issues they are demanding more climate-friendly products and services, for example EVs.
The main motivations vary noticeably between industries. In business and professional services, for example, improving the company’s reputation drives climate action more than in other industries while companies in tourism and travel are motivated most by the cost-saving possibilities. For transport and logistics firms the need to comply with regulation is the main reason for becoming more sustainable.
It’s easy to put all this off, to fear the repercussions. For business leaders, yes there is a lot of work ahead - but change is an opportunity: and the business leaders tackling climate change head on are thriving, driving innovation and entrepreneurship with new sustainable products, services and business models.
Net zero
Net zero refers to a state in which the greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere are balanced by removal out of the atmosphere. So a net zero society does not contribute to greenhouse gases overall. This is the state at which global warming stops. The Paris Agreement underlines the need for net zero.
To get to net zero and only concede to a 1.5C temperature rise, we must halve carbon emissions every decade to 2050.
The window for being able to keep the world from warming by only 1.5ºC is closing and there is a finite amount of greenhouse gases/carbon emission we can release before we are locked in to irreversible rises in temperature.
So far, our climate policies are not doing enough to achieve this. So industry needs to take the lead and actively start reducing their carbon emissions now.
Many companies will be able to achieve net zero emissions, hence the choice of the term ‘Race to Zero’ in the global campaign focused on raising ambition.
Scope
Within the private sector there are differences, but generally emissions are bounded following the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s ‘scoped’ approach, and all companies should attempt to cover all three scopes. The three scopes cover:
Scope 1 – direct company owned or controlled emissions occurring at source
Scope 2 – emissions associated with the production of energy consumed by a company
Scope 3 – indirect emissions associated with company activities from sources not owned or controlled by a company.
Science Based Targets
Setting relevant emissions reductions targets is really important, to hold yourself and your company accountable to your targets. Science-based targets help companies set emission reduction targets aligned with science in order to limit global warming to 1.5ºC
Even if it isn't required by law (yet), every business should be proactively setting their own targets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and reach net zero as soon as possible.
The first step - rally your people
The biggest obstacle to success is education (what are the solutions, technologies and tools to cut emissions and how do we make them scalable?) and behaviour (can people change harmful preferences and habits?).
In all cases, the answers are found in people. Companies are just large communities of people.
In order to design new business solutions, people need to understand the challenge they are facing and what solutions are out there. To build lasting behavioural change, people need to understand why change is necessary and how they can make a difference.
This is why climate education is so important.
What is climate education
The solutions and technologies that can bring us to net zero already exist. It’s about learning to apply these solutions and frameworks to transfigure your business model, to meet your targets and deliver the opportunities from a transition to a net zero economy. From gathering data and calculating your company’s carbon footprint to coming up with targets and a plan of action - there is no clear one-size-fits-all path to net zero.
The climate agenda should be owned by the CEO, in practice however it is ideally driven by a task force from all core departments – sustainability, HR, marketing, finance, operations, legal, IT, procurement etc etc. For sustainable thinking to become business as usual, it requires behavioural change from every function and at every level of an organisation. And we know many of the best ideas come from the ground-up!
That’s why we’ve created Rewrite Climate for business - an on demand, content-rich, thoroughly enjoyable climate training programme specifically for business. It’s suitable for everyone in your organisation.
Rewrite Climate Training programmes will upskill and rally your people behind your net zero ambition
Explaining the impact and dependencies of climate change on society, the global economy, and your business.
Educate on the solutions and technology we have that can bring your company to net zero by 2030
Your people can re-imagine a more prosperous, net zero world and begin to see the milestones to bring your company there
Learn about many examples of business decarbonisation success stories
Gain clarity on how to help set your company’s sustainability objectives and targets
How to action a plan to facilitate the transition to net zero emissions for company
Discover the importance of policy and partnership in moving beyond business as usual
And understand the many ways they can make changes to their own lives to reduce their carbon footprint
Rewrite is a Cool Planet company. We believe that if we change how people feel about the issue of climate change, we can build responsibility and responsiveness at every level.