Bold leadership and
innovative decision making is required to deliver the sustainable future that
the world aspires to. Unfortunately such
leaders appear to be scarce and there is currently a big gap between stated
intention and action on sustainability issues.
While there are reports stating that sustainability is gaining more focus
from leaders in government and business, there is also a noted lag between
intent and demonstrable results.
At
the Doha UN Climate Change Conference in November 2012 new agreements under the
Kyoto Protocol were made. Christiana Figueres called on countries to “focus on
the concrete ways and means to accelerate action and ambition” to keep climate
change below the agreed 2 degree Celsius rise.
This message seems to have been heard, as a report due to be published
by Globe International, who support legislators working on sustainable
development policies, is to show that 32 of 33 major economies included in a
study have progressed or are progressing significant climate and/or
energy-related legislation1.
However
this news has to be balanced by the recent report by the World Resources
Institute which lists the huge number of coal fuelled power stations proposed
across the globe, particularly in developing countries2. This demonstrates that while climate related
legislation is starting to proliferate across the world it is often at odds
with energy policy and the commercial pressure for energy requirements to be
fulfilled quickly, with proven old technologies and with little thought for how
low carbon technologies may be a more resilient long term prospect.
To
bridge the gap between stated desire and real action will require a cooperative
and consensus led move to change how we measure and value our output and the
timeframe over which we view it. Most
leaders and decision makers now grasp that sustainability is good for their
organisation and the wider world. Many
senior executives across the globe are concerned about protecting security of
supply of food and energy, cutting waste and therefore costs and ensuring
organisations meet their social and corporate responsibilities. However the desire for a more sustainable outcome
is being thwarted by the short term political and financial outlook of many
policy makers and business leaders. It
can also be harder to find the required long term commitment, beyond the
potential short term cost savings, when there are varied or non-existent
legislative or regulatory drivers.
A 2011 KPMG progress
report on Corporate Sustainability3 stated that the number of
businesses with a sustainability strategy is increasing and there is a rising
acceptance that profitability increases following the implementation of
sustainability measures. The report also
notes the problems businesses face in implementing sustainability programs such
as lack of available expertise and poor data or auditing systems, particularly
for smaller privately owned businesses. Large,
publically listed, consumer goods firms are those most likely to have
sustainability measures in place. This
is mostly motivated by “being seen to do the right thing” alongside the
economic drivers of cutting waste and avoiding incidents which lead to
prosecution or bad publicity. However
the longer term, more strategic elements such as balancing risks from security
of supply and taking a more long term view on return on investment in
sustainability measures are often a harder sell.
Senior
executives need to grasp the opportunity to use sustainability programs to
limit their exposure to risk and increase their resilience to change. When asked to respond to such a challenge
many state they need a clearer and more stable regulatory framework or common
auditing processes. However, it will be
those who take the initiative first who benefit from the results. In a world where the concept and qualities of
leadership are excessively discussed there is a need for some key decision
makers to really step up and use their leadership skills and have some imagination
and drive to become sustainability pioneers.
The
people who take the initiative today will be discussed and quoted in the way
that the leaders of the world of technology are talked about now. The technology leaders who saw how a computer
led revolution would change the way we do business were the ground breakers of
twenty years ago. These people were once
young visionaries, from outside the conventional business world, who identified
and capitalised on a new way of working.
This would indicate that the key movers and shakers in a
sustainability-led change to business may well come from outside the
traditional corridors of power.
However,
if we are to find a way to continue improving the quality of life for every human
on the planet, while limiting our climate change to less than 2 degrees, these
new leaders of sustainable capitalism need to stand up and begin the
innovation-led drive for change now in order to prevent the grave risks from
potential climate related disasters listed in the World Bank Report on avoiding
a 4 degree rise in global temperatures4. This alarming call to action requires
immediate strong leadership to meet the challenge it issues. Where will those leaders come from? It is
very possible they will come from somewhere unexpected.
References
1 – “GLOBE Climate
Legislation Study”, 2013
2 – “Global Coal Risk Assessment: Data Analysis and
Market Research”, WRI Working Paper, World Resources Institute, Washington DC, Ailun
Yang, and Yiyun Cui. 2012
3 – “Corporate
Sustainability, a progress report”, KPMG International in cooperation with the
Economist Intelligence Unit, 2011
4 – “Turn Down the Heat. Why a 4 degree centigrade warmer
world must be avoided”, A Report for the World Bank by the Potsdam Institute
for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics, November 2012
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