“It’s quite clear that the sense of urgency is increasing.”
According to UN climate experts, 2023 was the warmest year on record. This puts the heat squarely on companies to accelerate their sustainability efforts.
“It’s quite clear that the sense of urgency is increasing,” says Jonas Bohlin, Cheif product officer for sustainability platform provider Position Green.
That pressure is coming from all directions. New regulations, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in the EU, require that companies publicly report on their sustainability efforts. Investors want to channel their money into green opportunities. Customers want to do business with environmentally responsible companies. And organizations’ reputations for sustainability are playing a bigger role in attracting and retaining employees. On top of all these external pressures, there is also a significant business case for sustainability efforts. When companies conduct climate risk audits, for example, they are confronted with escalating threats to business continuity from extreme weather events such as floods, wildfires, and hurricanes, which are occurring with increasing frequency and severity.
Mitigating the risks associated with direct damage to facilities and assets, supply chain disruptions, and service outages very quickly becomes a high-priority issue of business resiliency and competitive advantage. A related concern is the impact of climate change on the availability of natural resources, such as water in drought-prone regions like the American Southwest
Much more than carbon
Companies looking to act will find a great deal of complexity surrounding corporate sustainability efforts. Based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol corporate standards, companies are responsible not only for their own emissions and fossil fuels usage (Scope 1), but also the sustainability efforts of their energy suppliers (Scope 2) and their supply chain partners (Scope 3). New regulations require organizations to look beyond just emissions. Companies must ask questions about a broad range of environmental and societal issues: Are supply chain partners sourcing raw materials in an environmentally conscious manner? Are they treating workers fairly?
