Sustainability
About Climate Change
The United Nations set up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 to draw attention to the need to halt rising Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and prevent serious global warming. In 1992 the Earth Summit took place in Rio de Janeiro at which 154 nations signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This set voluntary targets for reducing GHG emissions which was followed by the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. This was the first treaty to set legally binding emission reductions for industrialised nations. It was signed by 178 countries and came into force in 2005.
Why Sustainability
Our increased awareness of society’s impact on the planet is driving us all to improve our environmental efficiency, minimise our environmental footprint and develop processes and products related to climate change investment opportunities.
Simply put, all organisations whether public or private, can have a significant positive impact on the environment by reducing their carbon emissions while capitalising on climate change opportunities as a driver to increase the efficiency of their operations.
The United Nations “World Commission on Economic Development” defines sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
As the evidence for global warming mounts, scientists tell us more and more about the drastic climatic changes we can expect ………….. increasing the pressure for economic measures to rein in greenhouse emissions.
The implications for individuals, organisations and governments are profound involving challenges of achieving sustainable growth with a reduced carbon footprint.
“1.6% of GDP or £800bn a year expenditure will be required to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2050....the West needs to cut emissions by 33% by 2020 and 80% by 2050” UN Report Nov’07.
Understanding sustainability
The issue for Corporations is how to embed sustainability into corporate objectives which are embraced throughout the organisation.
Organisations need to integrate sustainable development principles into their decision making criteria to ensure that social, economic, and environmental considerations are factored into any business related initiative, project or activity.
Sustainable development requires people to be able to make connections between diverse sources of knowledge. Future Green Solutions seeks to develop programmes to encourage the development of generic cross disciplinary modules in sustainable development and associated market mechanisms through a trans-disciplinary approach to learning and training.
The whole experience offered to learners will contribute to the development of their sustainability literacy and citizenship skills, attitudes and behaviours.
Setting sustainability goals
It is more evident than ever before that being a responsible corporate citizen is in the best interests of the organisation. Corporate social responsibility contributes to the success of the organisation as a business, and is essential to its long term economic sustainability in the eyes of its shareholders, employees and the communities in which it operates.
Accordingly companies are becoming more transparent in measuring their progress with goal setting set at a corporate level; examples include the publication of natural capital reports by leading global companies.
Some goal setting challenges may include:
- Integrating sustainability more fully into operations
- Roll out of environmental management systems
- Using benchmarks to develop additional targets for environmental performance
- Developing employee involvement programmes on CSR and sustainability
- Engaging suppliers and customers in initiatives focused on environmental issues and climate change
Carbon abatement and long term capital strategies
Rising demand from asset intensive industries and energy intensive commodities will result in enormous investment in large capital projects to satisfy demand in a growing global economy.
Taking into account the investment required in existing infrastructure to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions, the demand for skills and knowledge becomes increasingly acute. These industrial projects are larger and more technically complex, more so when they have to be judged against increasing regulation.
Long term capital strategy and associated management of large capital projects such as for the Power Industry, will need investment in the talent and skills of their project teams to better address the range of complexities they face.
Future Green Solutions starts with the assumption that people need to have a more informed view about sustainability. We then demonstrate how to effectively manage and lead projects from an organisational perspective ensuring collaboration across functional boundaries with access to the best talent to help maximise the net present value of the project. We also bring to bear an understanding of the competitive advantage that can be realised from effective carbon abatement strategies. Finally we look at what was achieved and the level of compliance with the original objectives and whether for example, the added value from projects which have a CDM or JI dimension, are realised.
