Climate change has posed to be an equalizer, from one perspective, sparing no human soul while it drags the rig spreading diseases, misery, degrading health services etc.
From another view in disguise, Climate change has hit hard the most vulnerable and marginalized of communities worldwide.
It has created cracks within our societies, pushing the downtrodden even more, restricting options of livelihoods for many people struggling to attain bare subsistence with the resources they can access.
But while the climate change takes away several conventional ways of living from us, will it open the doorway to other forms of sustenance?
Will the race that has dared to face the odds and evolve just to exist, finds another means of survival?
Well, that depends on what we choose from here. How we deal with our selfish desires to perform a greater good because there is no other crucial stakeholder to life than the planet’s health.
Reducing carbon emissions, imbibing cleaner energy into our supply chains, monetary mechanisms etc., can help a lot in this regard.
The government alone might be able to make changes, yet will not be able to yield important changes in livelihoods. This can only happen with greater insights from the people involved at the grassroots in handling Nature and the private sector involved therein.
Can our Businesses be ever aligned with greater Sustainability?
How can a company move towards everything together, creating value for itself, society and for Nature? One needs to dream of a destiny before moving on a path, data to see analyze what needs to be enhanced or lessened at first.
Every Business entity needs to be resolute on collecting even the minute information about the harms they cause to surroundings, the carbons one emits in doing certain amount of work, the people who remain affected by every decision one makes.
Integrating new cleaner forms of technology with the human efforts to draw in sustainability processes, can significantly help businesses in understanding and devising ways to perform better in a warming world.
For instance, keeping a track of company’s supply chain from the very source to the end users and calculation of emissions involved may become complex, capital and time intensive.
This is where Human-made innovations can drive in like Artificial Intelligence, Sustainability Cloud etc.
The transition depends on will of the leaders or investors of an entity, but it is made easier and achievable without jeopardizing efficiency and time, by the blatant use of technologies.
There are plenty of readily-available technological solutions that can help negate nearly 70 per cent of today’s emissions.
Companies are moving faster towards sustainability and tracking the dirt they produce while generating value, for example, Salesforce could lessen its carbon accounting process in mere six weeks from six months.
But transparency and reliability of data is a bigger quotient in this run.
By enhancing the visibility of its own data to the industry experts, Businesses can bloom and flourish, considering the very focus on ESG by Investors in the country and the world.
In addition to pouring in transparency, these can serve as a platform to invite in ideas of different stakeholders in the process, be it suppliers, employees, partners or the Climate Enthusiasts.
This even helps attract the end-users as the youth is quite vulnerable to the idea of a habitable sustainable planet.
The rising expectations of youth can here, be converted from a parameter in check to an opportunity.
Together the technology and community, can find the best of means to thrive and do business, at a pace and need that the planet may consider complementing.
Why Businesses as flagbearers of Sustainability?
A Business entity, may be of any size, with variable number of emissions made, but it acts as a vehicle to drive change.
It is composed of the very society built on ground, it employs the youth, it completes the flow of money and circle of economics.
The history is full of crumbled worlds, those paid lesser heed and regards to Businesses. India has its own story to reflect in this light.
The beauty as well as the most disturbing aspect of climate change is that no one can predict how it will alter the planet. No climate statistics has so far solved this paradox.
But there are certain things which are doomed to happen, like the direct impacts of climate crisis on business, society, and ecosystems.
90 per cent of weather- and climate-related disasters, are responsible for losses around 520 billion USD each year to the world economy, in addition to 26 million people being pushed into poverty deeper as a consequence.
Simply, by integrating social good into everything, especially after the realization of Climate change, including the people’s passion for sustainability, business can become the greatest platform for change.
As per the United Nations: “Scalable new technologies and nature-based solutions will enable us all to leapfrog to a cleaner, more resilient world.”
“If governments, businesses, civil society, youth, and academia work together, we can create a green future where suffering is diminished, justice is upheld, and harmony is restored between people and planet.”
This can begin by considering how a company can deepen its environmental and socio-economic impact to walk towards a respective net zero target, hence, providing a transformational solution to our existing problems.
It is to remind ourselves that we all are solutions to the climate crisis, we have crafted in long time.
It is to us that we exploit our own untapped potential to serve a bigger purpose, save the planet that kept us going for long!