The world is facing its greatest challenge: saving its future existence. Our earth and thus our livelihood has become sick due to the way we – governments, companies and people – treated it over the last decades. The impact is dramatic, all of us facing major climate crises, and the extinction of entire species. We are seeing the first populations already needing to be relocated – take the million-strong Jakarta as one of the most prominent examples.
There is a consensus that we all have no alternative but to take action, however there is still a great deal of discussion about how. Regulations are taking steps forward. In the Paris Agreement, the UN expressed its net-zero commitment to keep global warming to no more than 1.5°C by cutting greenhouse gas emissions: -45% by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050. Since then, initiatives have been introduced, joined by thousands of companies, such as the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a collaboration between the Carbon Disclosure Project, the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), to set science-based climate targets.
State governments follow suit and create legislative framework to achieve the goal. The European Supply Chain Act which obliges companies to observe climate protection in addition to human rights along the entire supply is just one example of this. Companies should and have to lead the way when it comes to sustainability. A general consumer sentiment is strongly evolving towards businesses that can provide more sustainable goods and services – be it vegan alternatives, low-packaging or recyclable products in consumer goods, e-mobility and renewable energy solutions or regionalization trends to name a few. Being sustainable is no longer an option, it is increasingly becoming a license to operate not only in the eyes of consumers but also of shareholders.
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