Guest Blog: The Common-sense Business Solutions to our Climate Crisis

Guest Blog: The Common-sense Business Solutions to our Climate Crisis

 This article was written by Neil Kitching, author of “Carbon Choices: Common-sense Solutions to our Climate and Nature.” Learn more here.

A sustainable business model is one where business can successfully align the profit motive with environmental benefit. The opposite is where they compete. In the same way that it is difficult for a tobacco company to promote health, it is inherently difficult for an oil company to be truly sustainable as their profits are fundamentally dependent on locating, extracting and selling ever more oil.

The best companies will undertake a wide range of sustainable initiatives and activities encompassing everything that they do. They engage with their employees, invest in staff training and integrate environmental considerations into their strategy, purchasing, production, marketing and finance. They measure their environmental impact and set ambitious targets. They consider the implications on the environment of all their investments, and specifically invest in energy and resource efficiency, on-site renewable energy and to develop more environmentally friendly products to sell. They collaborate with suppliers, and partner with community and social groups. They build brand loyalty with customers by maintaining an ongoing relationship with them. They invest in innovation, working with universities or other research institutions, with sustainable design, and circular economy principles at the heart of all new product development. They might re-focus to provide a service, rather than sell a one-off product. For example, Interface, the carpet tile manufacturer, offers to rent carpets and tiles to its business customers. This provides the financial incentive to optimise the durability of the carpets that they sell and to ensure that they are easy to refurbish or recycle at the end of their useful life.

What is interesting is that when you visit a company that really believes in sustainability, you find that they are never finished. They always have several sustainability projects on the go, with more ideas and further plans. The end goal is not to cut their environmental harm by ‘x’ percent. The goal is to actively benefit and improve the environment which is a never-ending mission.

We need to direct and unleash the creative power of capitalism. Sensible government policy, aligned with innovation directed at sustainable solutions enables business to ramp up production, decrease costs and roll out solutions at scale - as evidenced by the dramatic fall in the cost of wind and solar power, and the rapidly falling cost of electric vehicles.

To support a sustainable economy we need much stronger, and sensible, government regulations. Business then needs to apply the regulations and only then can retailers offer consumers clearer and better carbon choices.

My book, Carbon Choices, describes the common-sense solutions to our climate and nature crises. It is available on Amazon or you can read more at www.carbonchoices.uk. This book will interest all those who work in business and have an interest in climate change and sustainability. I will donate one third of profits to rewilding projects.