A new report from Deloitte suggests that failure to act on climate change could cost the global economy over $178 trillion over the next 50 years. How? Sea-level rise, damage to infrastructure from wildfires and extreme weather, health impacts, agricultural losses and more. On a personal level, we are already experiencing sea-level rise in real-time here in Charleston, and as a matter of fact, one of our biggest hospitals (Roper St. Francis) is relocating to North Charleston over flooding and sea-level rise. My point is that climate change is happening right now, not in 100 years, but right now.
So, what can we do, as business leaders, to act on climate?
- We can demand climate action from Congress, which you can do right now, by adding your company’s name to the list at Biz for Climate Action.
- We can measure our company’s carbon footprint so that we can begin to manage it as a major business key performance indicator.
- We can commit to cutting our greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
We are at a point in time in the life of the planet where we history will judge this moment in time as when we didn’t just measure our worth in GDP, but realizing that we are part of a much bigger system at work and that we are wholly dependent up nature, and we are part of nature, not separate. So, we will need to rethink the way we do business in the future, but right now, we can take three simple steps to begin the economy’s transformation into something that is regenerative, restorative and one that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Contact us today, if your business would like to measure and improve its sustainability performance, emit fewer greenhouse gas emissions and tell a compelling story to stakeholders through transparent reporting.