Foto: onegreenplanet.org
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
Beatriz Corredor (Redeia) provided us with some very positive data:
“65% of today's energy comes from renewable sources, and its efficiency is almost complete (98%).”
She emphasized the responsibility of companies as agents of change in the paradigm shift that involves going beyond the bottom line, focusing on people, and applying a creative and sensitive approach in seeking positive solutions through strategic alliances, including with the public sector.
“Processes and structures can be standardized... but solutions cannot be standardized.”
This is a pending issue considering the public perception presented in the study: “The Sustainable Consumer of 2034 in Spain,” which looks to companies as the main culprits of climate change:
57% believe that companies are primarily responsible for climate change.
TECHNOLOGICAL DISRUPTION
Pedro Fresco (AVAESEN) brought up technological disruption as the engine of sustainability and firmly denied that energy cannot be safe, clean, and cheap simultaneously. “Yes, it is possible, and it already is.” The decarbonization of energy is now a feasible reality because the necessary technologies (heat pumps, thermal storage, etc.) already exist.
“Decarbonization will happen; the challenge is the speed.”
Socially rooted decisions, regulations, and political incentives are the triggers to accelerate the transition, and Europe must join the race already started and currently led by China (which will not have to wait until 2030 to reach its decarbonization goals) and the USA, which aims to compete directly to lead the transformation of the technological standard.
According to the report, the public sees the greatest responsibility for accelerating the ecological transition lying primarily with governments (57%), a responsibility they seem to be failing at today since “59% believe that governments are not taking the right steps in the fight against climate change.”
Decarbonization will be the new reality. “Change is unstoppable,” Pedro Fresco said, and although there are risks of political changes that threaten to slow progress, the trend is clear. The new and necessary technological disruptions on the horizon, once competitive, will become a reality. He concluded with two key, direct questions:
“Why aren't we going faster? How can we speed up?”
SOCIAL POLARIZATION
Here, I pause at the clear and striking polarization of ideas in favor of growth vs. degrowth:
33% support degrowth, those most concerned about sustainability and primarily older generations: Baby Boomers and Gen X. Meanwhile, 34% are growth supporters (mainly Millennials and Gen Z), with the remaining third declaring neutrality.
Interestingly, Millennials break the generational pattern and are the most aware of the direct impact of climate change on their lives (63.2% vs. 54% total) but give it the least priority, placing other problems with more direct influence on their lives, such as housing access, job quality, or political issues, ahead. In contrast, those born in the early 2000s (Gen Z) are the most concerned.
How will Generation Alpha respond?
(I hope their level of awareness and collective commitment will be even greater…)
How will the concern and involvement of the younger population evolve in the future?
TODAY FOR TOMORROW
David Pérez (Cabify) shared his mission to transform cities with zero emissions by 2025, leveraging technological disruptions like AI to significantly reduce kilometers traveled and thus their carbon footprint, highlighting the importance of institutional support to drive change and strategic alliances to enhance access for more people.
How will cities look in 10 years when today's children move around them?
Will we truly have changed our habits?
Will we see a decrease in private car ownership?
Will we use public transportation more as we declare today?
Will we move people and goods more efficiently and sustainably?
Will we fill our shopping baskets prioritizing minimal environmental impact?
80% state they will minimize single-use packaging, 77% will choose local products, and 72% will opt for more sustainable brands.
A TRANSVERSAL AND SYSTEMIC CHALLENGE
Okay, that's in cities, but what about rural areas?
Oscar Fernandez (Pascual) raised this issue. It's relevant, as we've seen the level of tension in the countryside, leading to less stringent pro-climate change measures to mitigate the crisis...
24% feel they are not well-informed about the current state of climate change.
Greenwashing, we discussed, hasn't helped either.
The focus should be on “true green,” with transversal and systemic measures, as Marta Grasa (Aldi) pointed out, helping citizens and customers make better, informed decisions, being responsible change agents, leading by example with honesty and transparency, but also listening to and solving, helping transform the industry collectively, breaking down barriers, and providing beneficial solutions for everyone.
Investing. Raising awareness. Communicating and Acting.
And for that, responsibility must be shared, transversal, including sustainability in its broadest sense - encompassing social and governance aspects - as a source of generating results, bringing transformation to all levels, to all employees, and innovating in alliances (Marta Aisa, Banco Santander).
Underlying this, for me, is a change in leadership style, a feminine leadership that breaks with previous schemes based on short-term profitability and seeks to positively impact people and the planet. Women show growing concern about the climate crisis:
Concern has increased in the last year, especially among women: 54% women vs. 44% men.
Can we reduce the 10% who deny the relevance of the environmental crisis?
12.6% disagree that the Earth's climate is rapidly changing, and 12.6% disagree that human activity is the cause.
And the 50% who deny the urgency of implementing solutions?
Because changing deeply ingrained aspects that worsen our experience is not the same as replacing one thing with another without missing anything or noticing a direct positive effect to promote more mature behaviors in terms of sustainability:
What role will brands play in their respective sectors?
What strategies and plans will organizations implement to design sustainable usage and consumption experiences, considering the level of direct impact on people?
Will the measures come in time? Will they be enough?
And how will citizens respond?
How much will the collective interest outweigh the individual?
Today it is clear that more than owners, we are all investors. Debt unites us, but it is a hijacked debt. Some live in it; others die because of it. It's not what we owe each other in our common life, in our finitude and continuity, but the debt each one has contracted with the whole, the global mortgage, the new universalism.
Marina Garcés. A Common World. Part One. The Problem of Us. The Social Contract. Calculated Fiction, 31
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
Post from the event: ImpactDay by Neture Impact. June 2024
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