Just like there is no one way to solve the climate crisis, becoming a sustainability-driven company requires a multi-pronged approach to carbon mitigation and emissions reduction. Here are six essential truths every business should remember as they walk their sustainability journey.
Hard data is decision-making gold
A phrase that is spoken often in data-driven sustainability circles is “what gets measured, gets managed.” In the world of corporate carbon accounting, this truism should not be underestimated. Carbon inventories can be daunting tasks, as companies work internally to collect the data necessary from various departments and regional offices around the world to convert data—total spend, fuel miles, number of hotel days, volumes of liquid, and kilowatt hours—into a universal measurement (metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent) to quantify an entity’s contributions to climate change.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]But the very act of finding the data, categorizing it into “business activities,” and analyzing the calculated results allows a company to understand where in its operations carbon emissions are the most intensive. A carbon inventory allows companies to target key operational activities and prioritize the most effective sustainability initiatives to implement.
Typically, companies take a 1-2-3 punch approach to their decarbonization efforts. First they pursue quick-win energy efficiency measures such as installing LED bulbs and smart lighting systems in areas where usage is sporadic. This is what Bob’s Red Mill, the whole grain manufacturer and a client of mine, tackled first at their Milwaukie, Oregon manufacturing plant. Guided by energy experts at the Energy Trust of Oregon, Bob’s was able to realize a 54% reduction in energy use in one of its top-running manufacturing lines while simultaneously increasing product output by 12% through an energy-efficient conveyance upgrade in 2023.
Second, businesses pursue operational initiatives that have measurable carbon reduction impacts without impacting a company’s top-line growth goals such as reducing office size, consolidating warehouses, and converting vehicle fleets to electric—all strategies AVI-SPL, the audio video technology solutions company that has worked with my sustainability consultancy, TripleWin, is currently pursuing across its global footprint in order to report a downward trajectory in its greenhouse gas emissions. And third, eliminating waste streams to landfill through opportunities to divert, donate, and upcycle. Danone North America, the food and beverage company, is actively working to achieve an internal zero-waste goal by 2025 by redistributing non-sellable but still edible products to food banks; sending organic waste to farms for animal feed or to be used as compost; and converting waste streams to biogas through anaerobic digestion.
Don’t ignore proven solutions
For organizations, the path to sustainability is a well-paved one. Proven climate solutions abound. Renewable and non-carbon energy sources generate more than 40% of the world’s electricity needs today. New solar and wind power capacity is expected to more than double in 2028 from 2022 levels, helping the world achieve the Paris Climate Accord’s path to net-zero emissions by 2050.
More than ever, we are seeing meaningful decarbonization solutions at scale. Meta, the social media and technology conglomerate, announced it had achieved net-zero carbon status across its global operations in 2020 mainly through equipping its data centers and offices with 100% renewable energy systems: solar panels, microgrids, and back-up battery energy storage.
Electric vehicle (EV) adoption, meanwhile, is on a rampant tear with forecasts of 17 million new EVs to be sold in 2024 or one in every five cars manufactured. Amazon, the e-commerce and cloud computing giant, just disclosed in its 2023 sustainability report that it deployed over 11,000 Rivian-made electric delivery vans (now grown to 1,000) to make its last-mile deliveries across North America and Europe, with plans to expand its EV fleet to 100,000 by 2030.
Collaboration is essential
Just as better decisions are made with multiple heads in a room, sustainability efforts are stronger and outcomes more successful if organizations take a collaborative approach to achieving goals. Within industry we call this catalyzing your value chain. In 2020, Microsoft, a global technology company, set some pretty ambitious sustainability goals for itself: to be carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030. It knows it cannot meet those goals without progressing its suppliers’ efforts towards those ambitions as well. Through its Supplier Code of Conduct, the company asks its suppliers to measure their carbon footprints and to report that data annually both to the company itself and to CDP, a global not-for-profit organization that manages environmental impact disclosures for companies and countries. In 2020, 12% of suppliers reported their environmental impacts. Just one year later, 87% did. Today, those environmental disclosures are a mandatory initiative to remain in Microsoft’s ‘circle of trust’. To further catalyze progress toward Paris-aligned sustainability goals, Microsoft developed the free Emissions Impact Dashboard, giving its customers sustainability insights into how Microsoft’s Cloud is being used.
Accountability makes for meaningful action
Business sustainability requires persistence, consistency, and deepening of effort as interim goals are met, new processes are codified, and a level of competency and skill is achieved. This enables sustainability to be embedded into a company’s products, operations, and organizational culture.
Holding businesses accountable for their sustainability statements and actions has allowed real, measurable progress to be made in this arena. If a company becomes a supplier to Walmart, a multinational retail corporation, it is required to sign onto Project Gigaton where emissions data is disclosed, shared, and where suppliers start their carbon reduction journeys. Walmart also mandates that all its suppliers disclose to CDP, where reporting companies are graded on what progress they’ve made in their sustainability journeys, with grades shared back to Walmart on every one of its suppliers. Walmart launched Project Gigaton in 2017 with the goal of reducing or avoiding one billion metric tons (or a gigaton) of greenhouse gas emissions from its global value chain by 2030. Earlier this year, Doug McMillon, Walmart’s CEO, announced that the company had achieved its “moonshot Project Gigaton goal” six years earlier than expected, equivalent to eliminating Japan’s annual carbon emissions.
Engagement wins hearts and minds, and helps realize goals
Millennials and Gen Z have natural value-alignment with sustainability. They, along with Gen Alpha, are the generations that will be most affected by global warming in this century. According to a 2024 Deloitte survey, 79% of millennials and 77% of Gen Zs want governments to play a role in pushing businesses to address climate change. These young professionals want a seat at the table to help businesses take sustainable action, whether or not they have “sustainability” or “environment” in their job titles. Fresh Del Monte, the world’s leading vertically integrated producer, distributor and marketer of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, is one company making an effort, having won the 2024 SEAL Business Sustainability Award winner, and becoming a signatory to the newly-created U.S. Food Waste Pact. The company also understands the urgency in providing foundational sustainability education to its workforce. It leverages employee excitement to progress company efforts to reduce unnecessary food waste and associated carbon emissions through incentive-based staff engagement competitions at its manufacturing plants.
The work is hard but rewarding
Corporate sustainability can be a messy business. Sandboxes are messy. So is cooking. But both are fun and rewarding. Sustainability can be too. At the start of a company’s sustainability journey, collecting data is challenging. Datasets are often missing or frustratingly incomplete. Additionally, client expectations and new legislation are moving targets, leaving companies feeling as if they are perpetually gasping for air. On the brighter side, the act of going through the data collection and measurement process uncovers information gaps to be better understood and brings a deeper awareness of carbon reduction initiatives to be implemented.
Sustainability is about progress, not perfection. It is about committing to the effort and communicating the journey honestly. Channel a state of stubborn optimism. The climate crisis is ours to solve and it is very well solvable. Stay motivated, focused, and optimistic.
Gaertner is the founder and CEO of the sustainability consultancy, TripleWin Advisory, technical advisor to the Loopt Foundation, and contributing author to Proven Climate Solutions: Leading Voices on How to Accelerate Change.
