You’re wrong if you think business, climate change don’t mix. Net zero is a realistic goal

Businesses can urge employees to take sustainable actions for climate change. But you can’t reduce what you can’t measure.

As climate change impacts everyone and everything, we need to face challenges and devise solutions together. This emergency is only going to be solved by reshaping every aspect of our economy, from agriculture, transportation, financial services to consumer goods, and more. Reducing emissions — and ultimately reaching net zero — is the most critical action that businesses must take to tackle the climate crisis.

Every business leader must consider how their company can deepen its environmental and social impact and become net zero. To achieve this, it has to become transparent and consistent in its carbon emissions reports. With transformational solutions and trusted data, leaders can accelerate their efforts and prove that business can be the greatest platform for change.

Measure before you mend

While businesses can encourage employees and citizens to take more sustainable actions, you can’t reduce what you can’t measure. Carbon emissions are a prime example of how the lack of measurement hinders progress toward meaningful action. Integrating technology into sustainability processes, for instance, can help businesses efficiently understand and manage their carbon footprint.

Tracking a company’s full-value chain emissions is complex and time-consuming. This is why Salesforce, a California-based software company, developed the Sustainability Cloud to track its own carbon footprint and help companies—small and large— across every industry transparently report their progress in reducing emissions. With the Sustainability Cloud, Salesforce was able to reduce its carbon accounting process from more than six months to just six weeks, helping wrinkle out the company’s path to net zero emissions.

Just as the pandemic demonstrated the importance of transparency in building trust, to tackle the climate emergency, there is no success unless it is shared.

Collaborative tools have a pivotal role to play in educating workforces on sustainable practices, from recycling to green modes of transportation. Such platforms are also helping to scale businesses’ emission reduction efforts with suppliers and by working out industry-specific, data-driven climate action plans. By maintaining visibility over their own impact, companies can visualise their fastest path to net zero emissions with in-depth analysis and insights. Moreover, they can offer the highest levels of accountability to employees, customers, and stakeholders.

Also read: India’s path to net-zero emissions can’t be just about power sector, says top energy economist

No greater stakeholder than the planet

Businesses are now recognising that their actions, values, and ability to generate profits are becoming more intertwined. In the eyes of the stakeholders and the rising expectations of young people—future customers, employees, partners—if you aren’t serving the interests of the planet, then you aren’t serving their interests either.

Together, we can be part of the climate solution. With the power of technology and community, we can find more sustainable ways of living and doing business, achieve net zero emissions faster, and drive impact at a scale and speed that the planet will notice.

How can businesses become champions of sustainability?

First, businesses should ensure that their sustainability goals align with long-term growth strategies and financial and operational priorities. If a company makes decisions based on values, then it can explain sustainability’s value-alignment. If it makes decisions on sharp economic data, it can make a case for business. Of course, organisations vary in size and their carbon footprint, but all of us can prioritise sustainability like any other corporate goal and hold our efforts to account.

Commitment to measuring progress, reporting regularly and in a way that’s transparent will help build trust among stakeholders. And when you earn the trust, you can inspire others. This is why every year we release our Stakeholder Impact Report, so that key stakeholders can stay informed, track our progress, and support our work. Our corporate governance practices—operating with integrity, investing in our communities, and protecting the planet—provide a framework that aligns our actions with our stakeholders’ interests. By integrating social good into everything we do and leveraging people’s passion for sustainability, we believe that business can be the greatest platform for change.

This article is part of a series examining the relationship between the global and the local, in partnership with Carnegie India, leading up to its Global Technology Summit 2021 (14th-16th December 2021). Click here to register.

The author is SVP and Managing Director at Salesforce. Views are personal.

(Edited by Humra Laeeq)

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