As we mark the hottest month of June in recorded history and disturbingly large Arctic areas are literally burning, last week climate activist and keeping-it-unflinchingly-real teenager Greta Thunberg delivered one of her signature, short-but-overwhelmingly-clear speeches in front of the French parliament.
In her characteristically simple and sober style, she referred politicians and
business leaders alike to the contents of page 108, chapter 2 of the latest
IPCC report — a section containing guidance on the
planet’s remaining carbon budget, or the amount of CO2e we are allowed to emit
if we are to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees
Celsius (here is
a quick summary of why we wouldn’t want to go beyond 1.5 degrees, in case you
missed the memo). She then proceeded to remind everyone that at current emission
levels, the remaining carbon budget will be gone in less than a decade.
(Heavy gulp.)
I hope that by now we — the Sustainable Brands community and the broader
business community — are more than clear on what we can and need to do about
this. If you are not thinking ‘science-based
targets’
right about now, you really need to catch up — keep reading. And if you are
thinking it, but you don’t feel your organization is quite there
yet,
for whatever reason, then this blog post is for you, too — keep reading.
We are here to train any and all sustainability leaders and professionals on
mastering science-based targets not only in theory, but very much in practice,
too — from …
-
understanding what it means in the context of your industry and company
-
to finding and analyzing the right data in preparation for doing it
-
to figuring out how to sketch out an initial plan of action
-
to iterating said plan until it aligns and clicks well with strategic
business priorities and the rest of the value chain
-
to getting everything checked, verified and supported by the right partners
-
to unveiling it proudly, and,
-
last but not least, executing it in due course.
For a good bit of inspiration and motivation, consider
this news,
also from this past week: The United Nations Global Compact, the
Science-Based Targets initiative and the We Mean Business Coalition just
announced that 28 companies, with a combined market capitalization of $1.3
trillion, are stepping up their climate ambition through a new campaign called
‘Business Ambition for 1.5°C — Our Only Future.’ First movers
include Acciona, AstraZeneca, Banka BioLoo, BT, Dalmia Cement
Ltd., Eco-Steel Africa Ltd., Enel, Hewlett Packard
Enterprise, Iberdrola, KLP, Levi Strauss & Co., Mahindra
Group, Natura &Co, Novozymes, Royal DSM, SAP, Signify, Singtel, Telefonica, Telia, Unilever, Vodafone
Group PLC and Zurich Insurance, amongst others, collectively representing
over one million employees from 17 industries.
(Regular gulp.)
Get the latest insights, trends, and innovations to help position yourself at the forefront of sustainable business leadership—delivered straight to your inbox.
Advisor and Co-Lead, Global Content Strategy & Thought Leadership, Sustainable Brands
Dimitar is a senior sustainability and regeneration strategist, educator, executive advisor and mentor. He currently holds the following active roles: Advisor and Co-Lead, Global Content Strategy & Thought Leadership at Sustainable Brands; Senior Strategist, Content Development & Product Innovation at Sustainability Hub Norway; Executive Advisor at rePurpose Global; and Senior Content Advisor at Integrate2033. He co-led the creation of the SB Brand Transformation Roadmap, a comprehensive navigation tool mapping the whole journey from business-as-usual to a sustainable brand, and co-designed an accompanying assessment process that measures progress in five dimensions: purpose, brand influence, operations and supply chain, products and services, and governance.
Published Jul 30, 2019 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST