Building a sustainable business means more than getting everyone to recycle.
It’s about establishing new business strategies and team mindset.
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Business owners should go beyond giving and green investing. Make your business a sustainable one by exploring these practical ways to reduce your company’s carbon footprint.
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1. Recycle more than just paper
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2. Partner with green vendors
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3. Innovate
Think of ways your brand can innovate its services and products to be more environmentally conscious but still build a competitive advantage.
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4. Reduce waste
For instance, you can rely on digital marketing and product advertising as opposed to print catalogs and brochures to reduce paper and ink waste.
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5. Stay current
Keep on top of trends, both specifically for your industry and for sustainable practices in general.
Race To Zero is a global campaign to rally leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions, investors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery that prevents future threats, creates decent jobs, and unlocks inclusive, sustainable growth.
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It mobilizes a coalition of leading net zero initiatives, representing 1,049 cities, 67 regions, 5,235 businesses, 441 of the biggest investors, and 1,039 Higher Education Institutions. These ‘real economy’ actors join 120 countries in the largest ever alliance committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest. Collectively these actors now cover nearly 25% global CO2 emissions and over 50% GDP.
The objective is to build momentum around the shift to a decarbonized economy ahead of COP26, where governments must strengthen their contributions to the Paris Agreement. This will send governments a resounding signal that business, cities, regions and investors are united in meeting the Paris goals and creating a more inclusive and resilient economy.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has launched the Crypto Sustainability Coalition, an initiative dedicated to assessing the role of Web3 technologies in the fight against climate change. The organization, which is composed of 30 companies, educative groups, and other institutions, will research the impact of the energy consumption of these technologies, and how they can be used to aid the current decarbonization efforts.
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WEF to Use Web3 to Fight Climate Change
Web3, a term that groups cryptocurrency and blockchain-based technologies, is currently in the spotlight of energy groups that seek to determine if the use of these technologies is pernicious for the environment. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has decided to take these technologies into account, launching an initiative to investigate if they can be useful to the current fight against climate change.
The initiative, which was announced on September 21, is called the Crypto Sustainability Coalition, and it is composed of 30 different companies, educative organizations, and other institutions interested in this issue. Among these are known cryptocurrency-linked projects, like Solana, Avalanche, Circle, NEAR Foundation, Ripple, and the Stellar Development Foundation, among others.
This coalition, as part of the Crypto Impact and Sustainability Accelerator, another bigger initiative launched this same year, will inquire about the different ways in which these companies can organize to help in this endeavor. Brynly Llyr, head of blockchain and digital assets of the World Economic Forum stated:
An important and unique aspect of Web3 is that it uses technology to support and reward direct community engagement and action. This means we can coordinate the work of many individuals directly with one another, enabling collective action without centralized control.
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Different Study Areas and Criticism
This new initiative has already created different workgroups to investigate three key subjects related to crypto, blockchain, and their usage. One of these points has to do with the energy usage of these technologies, and how these can impact the climate and nature in the future.
Another of the key points has to do with how these Web3 technologies can change and be leveraged in order to decarbonize current activities. These applications might include mining and other decentralized activities.
The third subject has to do with standardizing and putting carbon credits in the blockchain, making the issuance and management of these instruments more transparent and trustable, and opening the doors for more people to participate in these markets.
For businesses who claim to care about climate change: the planet’s issues won’t be solved by “sustaining” anything.
Provenance Capital Group (PCG), co-founded by Adrian Rodrigues, has a mission to drive investment into what it calls “regenerative”, rather than sustainable, businesses. Most of its work to date has been in the agricultural industry, with companies like World Tree, a renewable timber and agroforestry company, and White Leaf Provisions, a family-run organic food brand.
When asked how quickly he thinks regenerative approaches will become mainstream, Rodrigues is hopeful. He highlights that the millennial generation is projected to inherit an estimated $41 trillion, and nearly 100 million acres of land, from the baby boomer generation over the next four decades. This is the most cumulative wealth and land that has ever changed hands in history.
Rodrigues has faith that the millennial generation will be less focused on return optimization, and that there will be a greater emphasis on what their investments are doing from a social and environmental standpoint.
Public awareness is growing for regenerative agriculture, yet it remains tough to get funding into the space due to a persistent and heavy emphasis on conventional agriculture. Giving farmers access to financing has been a crucial aim for Rodrigues and Provenance Capital Group.
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“We’re on the cusp of some pretty large trends that give us a ripe opportunity to change the way that we interact with our food system (…) So I am hopeful. But we can’t rest on inertia and just expect it to happen. We should all be working with a sense of urgency”, said Adrian Rodrigues.
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