Tipping Points
The Wheels Are Turning, Heatwaves to Floods, and Biodiversity in Action
This is the seventh edition of Honey Drops, a curated view of what’s been happening around the Corporate Sustainability world each week.
As The Ocelli Group takes its name from the bee's ocelli, those remarkable eyes that guide its flight via the sun, I felt it a natural extension for this Corporate Sustainability newsletter to incorporate their nectar’s alchemy: Honey.
Feel free to forward on to anyone you think would benefit from a drop on their toast or a stir in their tea.
3 Thoughts From Me
Mandatory Climate Reporting Is Doing What It's Meant To
I have been speaking to many Sustainability leaders over the past month who have shared a uniform refrain:
People are starting to get it.
Whether it’s their CFO, MD or CEO coming back to them about a Sustainability business case from earlier in the year, or the Board becoming very interested in what the company has been doing to date with ‘Climate’, the wheel is turning faster and faster.
While it may be in response to the UN Climate Chief’s warning of a looming ‘trainwreck’ due to global temperatures being on track for an increase of 2.8℃, or in response to publications like the release of the State of the Climate report by CSIRO and BOM stating Australia has already hit a national increase of 1.5℃, I doubt this is where the motivation is coming from.
I’d say it has more to do with the realisation that this mandatory reporting thing isn’t just a tick-the-box exercise, but disclosures to the market being analysed by investors, government tenders and Group 1 companies to determine how they de-risk their investment portfolios and supply chains away from climate-exposed businesses.
Which LaSalle and Urban Land Institute have compiled nicely for us:
If you’re seeing this shift happen in your org, send me a message so we can ensure you are speaking to the Sustainability suppliers you need to be.
If you’re not, share the above flowchart with your Executives and let me know what they say.
Valencia is Spain’s third largest city by population, with 800,000 residents in the city and a further 800,000 in the surrounding towns. The country has been in such severe drought that last year the Spanish government approved a €2.2bn plan “to help farmers and consumers cope with an enduring drought that has been exacerbated by the hottest and driest April on record.”
On Tuesday, the region of Valencia received a year’s worth of rainfall in eight hours, generating significant flash flooding. So far 73 people have been confirmed dead. “We were trapped like rats” is how one resident described the event.
Pedestrians look at piled-up cars in Sedavi, south of Valencia city, after deadly floods. Photograph: José Jordan/AFP/Getty Images
Convincing Executive teams to act on Sustainability for altruistic reasons is often ineffective. However, there are clear, quantifiable financial risks decision makers need to be considering for the long-term benefit of the organisation and its stakeholders by minimising the impact of climate change. And the best way to do this is through the climate scenario analysis mandated within the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards to understand the future risks the business is facing.
World Resource Institute: Climate Scenario Analysis
Business of Biodiversity: Practical Nature-Focused Solutions For Your Business
Marnie Hawson and the Odonata Foundation are back for the second cohort of their Business on Biodiversity (BoB), equipping professionals with the tools needed to turn ideas into action and hitting all the topics that makes the Honey Drops community buzz:
Corporate responsibility and reputation
Improving operational efficiency and reducing costs
Gaining a competitive edge to future proof your business
Mitigating risks and ensuring long-term sustainability
Accessing new markets and opportunities
The course will be in Melbourne in February for businesses of all sizes (from sole traders to large corporations) and is ideal for managers, owners, and directors (especially key decision-makers).
Marnie and Sam are hosting an online information session is on the 2nd of December, so get along to find out more by clicking here.
Credit: Marnie Hawson
2 Quotes From Others
Firstly, the Sustainability role has undergone many permutations from the days of being handed to the most passionate person about recycling and Corporate Social Responsibility in the office. It has not evolved into a position requiring a commercial leader with unmatched insight into their organisation’s commercial strategy, operational inefficiencies and environmental externalities.
As such, this passage from Lubomila Jordanova really stood out to me earlier this week:
“Ultimately, as the role of the CSO expands, so too does the need for leadership that can not only respond to the challenges posed by climate change but also harness the power of data to drive corporate transformation. A successful CSO must possess a strategic vision that aligns sustainability objectives with overall business goals while also being adept in technological solutions that improve ESG management. The growing use of ESG-related performance metrics in executive remuneration plans is a clear indicator of the direction that corporate leadership is heading. A study has shown that 41% of businesses now integrate ESG criteria into variable remuneration, with CO2 emission reductions being the most prominent metric.”
And secondly, a friendly bit of advice/permission not to be ‘perfect’ from Holly Ransom, entrepreneur, Chair, Board Director, Fulbright Scholar and Obama-interviewer, and why it will be better for you in the long run:
“What we’re talking about is practising intellectual humility: the recognition that you don't have all the answers (here’s the world’s worst kept secret: no one does!); the openness to new evidence, information and ideas, even if/when they challenge your pre-existing views; and the willingness to approach every conversation as an opportunity to learn something new.”
1 Thing For You To Ponder
As the U.S. heads to the polls, this is the last edition of Honey Drops before Election Day on Wednesday, Australia time.
From a climate perspective, I’m hopeful the U.S. will still be a member of the Paris Agreement by the end of January, that the Inflation Reduction Act continues to provide its enormous economic boost via the green transition, and the U.S. continues to be a reliable climate partner on the world stage.
Until next week,
Dan