IPCC report - what you can do
Today’s IPCC report is hard-hitting and it’s clear we need to change in a big way. Everyone has a role to play, from governments and massive multi-nationals to sole-traders and consumers.
Thinking about it can be terrifying and overwhelming – and we need to resist the urge to bury our head in the sand. This is the biggest elephant that we will ever need to eat and we all need to get started (sorry – probably not the best analogy to use in the circumstances).
So what can you as a business leader do?
1. UNDERSTAND YOUR STARTING POINT
Do you know how you’re doing at the moment? Do you understand the impact your business has on people and the environment?
At this stage, you might want to engage an expert (like The Carbon Trust) who can measure and analyse your carbon footprint, resource efficiency and environmental impact.
2. AGREE WHERE YOU WANT TO GET TO
What does being a ‘responsible business’ mean to you? Does everyone on your leadership team agree? Your investors? Your employees?
Are you just going to do what’s required by law? Or are you going to go further or faster than required?
It’s important to create a shared understanding of where you want to get to, what your priorities are and what trade-offs you’re willing to make.
It can also be helpful to have some open and honest conversations as a leadership team, exploring questions like:
How does this change make you feel right now?
How will you feel once you’ve been successful and realised your vision?
Which 3-5 values and emotions do you believe we need demonstrate as a team to enable the vision?
What might you/we have to unlearn?
How can we support each other on the journey?
What external support might we need to be successful?
3. CREATE A STRATEGY AND ROADMAP
Once you’re clear on your starting point and your destination, you can see the gap and create a roadmap.
There will be some quick wins – delivering these can help build momentum and start to have an impact right away.
There will be some areas which call for much bigger change – you might know what that change is or you might need to innovate and create solutions. Whilst it might be counterintuitive, this can be a great opportunity to collaborate with competitors. You will likely face similar problems in becoming more environmentally responsible – by sharing your learnings and developing solutions together, you will accelerate the pace at which you’re all able to reduce your negative impacts.
You will also need to change internal processes to support and enable sustainability. For example:
Procurement processes – e.g. how you evaluate and monitor suppliers
Investment policy – e.g. which organisations or industries you will never invest in
HR processes – e.g. what skills and values you recruit, develop and reward.
Decision-making approach – e.g. how you take into account a broader set of metrics when making decisions
4. IMPLEMENTATION
You will need to allocate time and money to deliver your roadmap:
Time for people to implement the different areas of the roadmap
Budget to pay for delivery and for bringing in external support where required
Leadership time to champion the change, clear blockers and make decisions
As you deliver on the roadmap, you will learn both from what you’re doing and from what other organisations are doing in parallel. We’re all on this journey together and our understanding of what’s needed and what works is constantly evolving. Stay alert to those changes and keep evolving your roadmap.
BE TRANSPARENT AND SHARE
And please be transparent about what you’re learning – share, share, share. A great example of this is innocent’s carbon-neutral factory – innocent are sharing everything they’ve learnt with anyone who wants to hear about it, helping other companies (including competitors) go carbon neutral too.
For more practical advice on how to get clarity on what steps to take to scale up your impact, check out my FREE Scale Up Your Impact Guide: