- October 14, 2022
- By Joshua Reid
- Advice , Politics
- carbon , carbon neutrality , climate awareness , climate change , productivity
How Does Carbon Neutrality Impact a Business’ Productivity?
In an article by the European Parliament titled “What is carbon neutrality and how can it be achieved by 2050?” the article mentions how carbon neutrality is having a balance between emitting carbon and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. Carbon neutrality can also be removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it (something known as carbon sequestration).
Due to the impact of carbon neutrality, the business CEO, managers, and supervisors would have to sit down and possibly rework not just their marketing strategy but also the strategy of their entire business. According to an article by World Economic Forum titled “Achieving carbon neutrality: One company’s lessons learned,” the success of emissions depends on it being a top priority in the business’ strategy. For Eric Rondolat, the impact of carbon neutrality means that businesses would have to “draft business goals that align with and can be accomplished through efforts to reduce emissions.”
Several steps that Rondolat mentions that business could take when discussing carbon neutrality include:
- Establishing science-based targets.
- Dissecting every aspect of your operations to save energy and emissions.
- Investing in measurables (how a business determines the efficacy of a certain approach.)
- Worthy projects that offset unavoidable carbon emissions.
Even though carbon neutrality may not be at the forefront of a CEO’s business strategy, it impacts how a business conducts its services and interacts with its clients. Whether that be face-to-face, which could burn more harmful gases into the atmosphere or through video-messaging platforms like Google Meet or Zoom, a business should consider how their business strategy hinders or advances the need for carbon neutrality. By dissecting every aspect of their operations, a business’ productivity might be put on hold for a short time. Still, the benefits that come from seeing where a business could save energy and emissions could outweigh the short-term productivity costs.
However, that doesn’t mean that a business’ productivity should decrease. Instead, the leadership could have business continue as normal but realize that they might need to change how they approach certain services or products in the future.
Outside of the several steps Rondolat mentioned above, he also makes several points that could help businesses recognize their need to check the emissions.
- Understand your energy use.
- Embrace renewables and plan, plan, plan.
- Partner to offset with a purpose. (Choosing the right partners.)
- Team up with other like-minded advocates.
Each of the points listed could impact a business’ productivity whether that be through research and coordinating with a partner or possibly planning on how to replace the company’s existing energy of the company with renewable energy. In addition, working with like-minded advocates could provide a business with accountability and opportunities to collaborate with others on methods to implement carbon neutrality into their business strategies.
“Carbon neutrality is not an excuse for complacency. You must never take your foot off the accelerator on emission reduction.”
Eric Rondolat
Rondolat notes that when teaming up with like-minded advocates, the strategies employed by the businesses will vary. For example a business’ productivity can be affected by the business strategy the company, or CEO, manager or supervisor employs. When it comes to carbon neutrality, as I mentioned earlier in the article, the leadership of a company could come together and figure out a strategy that moves with carbon neutrality. While it might impact productivity, if a business wants to venture into the future, they might have to consider doing something about its use of energy and emissions and how they handle that situation.
Sources
Rondolat, Eric. “Achieving carbon neutrality: One company’s lessons learned.” World Economic Forum. Accessed 29 June 2021.“
What is carbon neutrality and how can it be achieved by 2050?” European Parliament. 29 Jun 2021.
Photo by Chris LeBoutillier on Unsplash
