Key takeaways
- Climate crisis calls for response not just on national and personal levels, but also in our organizations
- It is more rewarding — financially as well as otherwise — to live and work sustainably than unsustainably
- Real energy sustainability gains could be made in the technology industry where many of us work
The Status Quo
Continuing from our Green Recovery entry. On September 8, 2023, the UN’s climate change secretariat reported that the countries of the world are largely failing to meet their commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions, leaving us on track for climate catastrophe. Evidently, governmental efforts globally are too slow and clunky for what is needed. Most countries have not hit the goals they committed to back in 2015 at the Paris Climate. Existing policies and laws are not fast enough and suffer from loopholes. We can’t wait for laws and policies that invite failure. We need to be more Agile.
At another level, looking at individual activists and consumers, things look different. We see small acts of inspiration making a big difference: Sir David Attenborough’s lifetime service has made our population aware of the irreversible impacts of our behaviors. Greta Thunberg, the then 15-year-old who skipped school, showed a mirror to the world, revealing devastating threats from climate change to our way of life. Many of us have adjusted our own behaviors, consumption, and choices.
Between these two levels—politics and population—lies the biggest target gap that needs to be addressed today: Organizations. From corporations to clubs, our organizations impact climate sustainability (for good or bad) much more than we do individually — and yet they don’t have to be as slow and ponderous as our governments tend to be when implementing changes. By focusing on organizations and their contributions towards sustainability, all of us can make a big positive difference— choice by choice, day by day. Our concerted efforts here can end the current (most often oblivious) spiral of self-destruction that organizations are in now.
A Better Way
The good news is that organizations / companies are composed of individuals and we can do both, do good and do well. In fact, it’s more rewarding, monetarily and otherwise, to be sustainable. That’s why “People, Planet & Products” is a trifecta —one that we need to guide our decisions day to day.
