Getting going on climate strategy
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:
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
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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.
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Over the Cleantech horizon_
[Meet DEEC-Tec: new patented wave energy technology]
Harnessing the power of waves movement has proven to be a challenge as current systems delivers when waves are in an ideal configuration of direction & swell strength.
Sea-based wind turbines require a minimum threshold of wind speed to be efficient… waves, however, come with a great spectrum of strength but with aa almost constant, rhythm. So how might we harness that rhythm to create clean energy?
The idea of finding a highly-configurable flexible technology isn’t new… and many have tried different approaches. Recently, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) patented a radically new design called DEEC-Tec (for distributed embedded energy converter technologies.
A newly patented technology domain could build large, flexible structures from individual energy converters to create more cost-effective, highly efficient tools for generating clean energy from the ocean (and beyond). Illustration by Besiki Kazaishvili, NREL
A very interesting aspect of this design is that DEEC-Tec generators don’t require to be massive to be efficient energy produced.
With as minimal as possible solid structure to and almost entirely flexible to make the best of all kinetic energy produced by the different directions of waves, they wouldn’t amper neither sea lives nor birds like sea-based wind turbines.
Additional detail on DEEC-Tec can be found here.
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In the news_
[Thailand will enforce a total ban on plastic scrap imports by 2025]
“Thailand must not be a dump site for plastic waste. By the end of the next three years, we will not allow any import of plastic scraps from around the world,” said to Varawut Silpa-archa, Thailand’s natural resources and environment minister.
The full ban will unravel in 3 phases:
One has to admire the boldness of such a decision has it will force plastic scrap exporter to rethink how to operate.
First obvious option would be just to reduce amount of plastic generated; 2nd option would be to switch to biodegradable plastic and 3rd would be to build more plastic recycling facilities in their own country.
Additional information can be found here.
[Nike setup a new in-store cleans and repairs sneakers robot in London |
Following up on last week announcement about Uniqlo, Nike, the sneaker giant is launching cleans and repairs sneakers in-store service delivered by a robot called Bot Initiated Longevity Lab (BILL).
Process includes creating a 3D scan that pinpoints areas that need deep cleaning or show wear and tear followed by a consumer selection of material to patch existing holes.
Though currently just a test until end of September, it’s interesting to see more and more fast-fashion industry leaders adapting to the new consumer expectation of repairability.
Bolder alternative options could be rethinking the design of the products to make them more solid & environmentally friendly or even offering product-as-a-service with a circular-based design to ensure full recyclability. If you’ve seen any company doing this, we would love to hear about it.
[ EasyJet strays away from carbon offsetting ]
Yet another bold moves from company in one of the most controversial sectors: the aviation industry. Easyjet announced its intention to stop offsetting CO2 emissions from December
Instead, to reach its environmental target, EasyJet applied to Science-Based Targets Initiative’s (SBTi) net-zero pledge and confirmed a new long-term partnership with Rolls-Royce to develop hydrogen aircraft.
The new EasyJet’s plan includes more efficient aircraft and processes, the adoption of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) and the use of hydrogen aircraft.
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The fastest way to net zero is to scale existing solutions. The hardest part is knowing where to start.
Our AI-enhanced digital portal enables organisations to successfully design HOW they achieve their sustainability ambitions by leveraging WHAT already works.
Clients thinks of us as the Waze for Sustainability.We can help define the roadmap, identify shortcuts and mobilize the collective intelligence of employees.
For more details – click here – and if you’d like to book a demo – click here
CSO Yellow Sub AI | Co-founder The Sustainable Investor | Director Point Rider Group UK |
2yInsightful as always Bernard Lebelle I particularly liked “This vision must be embedded in the reality of the organization’s operation.” Biogen ‘s Healthy Climate, Healthy Lives initiative is a good example of this.