We no longer talk about global warming but climate change due to extreme climate events becoming more frequent and more intense. We see its effects every day: heat waves, fires, droughts, and floods which affect crops and the survival of species. Greek wildfires caused the same CO2 emissions in July 2023 as over 222,000 cars in a year. Or said in other terms, an area bigger than London was burned by the wildfires (source: Euronewgreen).

How did we get here?

According to the sixth assessment report (AR6) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a report by the United Nations climate scientists, the current climate change events are caused by human activities that emit greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. In addition to these natural compounds, man-made gases, such as fluorinated gases, also function as greenhouse gases. To raise awareness, the United Nations established that the International Day against Climate Change would be celebrated every October 24th.

We now talk about human-made climate change, therefore it is on humans to stop this process. From where to start? For decades, climate change responsibility has been targeting individuals who have been told to turn off lights, eat less meat, or stop taking the airplane. But did you know that 100 fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell, and Chevron, have been responsible for 71% of industrial greenhouse gas emissions worldwide since 1988? (source: Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), 2017).

Therefore, considering the impact of private organizations and the amount of time that we spend at our workplaces, wouldn't it make more sense to focus our efforts on having active participation across our organization to identify priorities and set goals to mitigate climate change?

Here are some areas of focus on Corporate Climate Leadership:

Reduce greenhouse gas emissions and move on an accelerated climate mitigation roadmap with interim targets and reduced reliance on carbon offsets;
Public greenhouse gas emissions and disclose climate-related risks on a regular basis because transparency gives accountability;
Fully divest from fossil fuels and invest in climate solutions, for example, corporate investments and employee retirement plans are aligned with climate goals;
Align products, partnerships & procurement with climate commitments, for example, develop a sustainable suppliers guidebook, replace single-use office products with reusable ones, or green your code and find data servers that are low-energy use (or even better, powered by renewable energy);
Promote climate advocacy by lobbying and supporting bold climate policies, including alignment from trade associations;
Transform the business model in a way that Sustainability Management is a strategic add-on to the organization that understands all the hidden impacts that occur as a result of business activities and then redesigns the systems, products, processes, and supply chains. The goal is to change negative impacts and create net positive outcomes;
Use business influence to promote an economic paradigm where businesses flourish by respecting the needs of all within the means of a living planet be it through circular economy practices, regenerative agriculture, or ending exploitation in the supply chain;
Launch Stakeholder Engagement Programs and Sustainability Training that involves all stakeholder groups (employees, board members, suppliers, communities). Climate work is not limited to the Sustainability Department and engagement is not focused solely on shareholders.

When we get inspiration from global climate solutions and explore ways to include climate into our own job responsibility, we discover that from products to policy, every aspect of our organization (and jobs along with it) can shift to align with sustainability. This is necessary because private-sector climate targets need to meet the global climate crisis at scale. If you want to explore more in-depth climate solutions at work, we highly recommend “Climate Solutions at Work”, presented by Drawdown Labs, a how-to guide for employees looking to make every job a climate job.

“Deep engagement on climate mitigation and adaptation is a way companies can play a direct role in fighting myriad social injustices, many of which are caused or made worse by the climate crisis”. (source: Project Drawdown).

A pathway of restoration toward regeneration

Remember that climate change is just one out of nine planetary boundaries that have been surpassed suggesting that Earth is now well outside of the safe operating space for humanity. Of these nine limits, humans have overshooted six: climate change, biodiversity loss, freshwater availability, land use, nutrient pollution, and human-made pollution (such as microplastics and radioactive waste).

Everything we do has an impact on the planet. By learning from past actions that have had unintended consequences, we can develop new ways of meeting human needs by creating value and fueling the economy with sustainable, and then with restorative and regenerative solutions. It’s no longer enough to simply do no harm - we need to focus our end goal on actively restoring and regenerating the system from which we’ve been taking so much.