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Biting the Sustainability Bullet
Biting the Sustainability Bullet

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Talking abouts bullets….any guesses on the number of headshots in the extremely well choreographed action flick John Wick ?

Driving business outcomes with sustainability

According to a report by Accenture, 34% of the world’s largest companies are now committed to net zero, but 93% of them will fail to achieve their goals if they don’t at least double the pace of emissions reduction by 2030. No wonder sustainability has moved on from being a buzzword to a serious boardroom topic, that is linked to business growth and profitability. Businesses of all sizes and shapes are suddenly looking to deploy ‘aware’ solutions that contribute in some way to sustainability. Fuelled by rapid technology changes and swiftly depleting natural resources, businesses are looking beyond compliance and have started to leverage sustainability goals as a means to drive meaningful business outcomes. But the pace of sustainability initiatives, solutions and projects need to move at turbo speed for the months to come.  Today, sustainability is mentioned at CXO meetings and is as common as headshots in John Wick (there were 49 headshots in the first edition of John Wick). The reason is simple. Sustainability is an essential business driver, for now and the foreseeable future.

Global standards for sustainability

IDC estimates suggest that by 2024, 30% of organisations will advance their ESG metrics and data management beyond reporting capabilities to generate sustainably driven cost and competitive advantages. IDC puts it rather bluntly -- ESG unlocks a huge opportunity for businesses to make sustainability profitable and profitability sustainable. Global organizations are providing the necessary impetus by way of frameworks and actionable points to kickstart their sustainability journey. For instance, standards created by GRI (Global Reporting Initiative - an independent, international organization that helps businesses and other organizations take responsibility for their impacts, by providing them with the global common language to communicate those impacts) enables any organization – large or small, private or public – to understand and report on their impacts on the economy, environment and people in a comparable and credible way, thereby increasing transparency on their contribution to sustainable development. Similarly, United nations has created a 17-point ready reckoner for organizations to follow and embark on the path of sustainability, touching upon every imaginable aspect of global awareness and sensitivity towards the environment.

Where does India stand ?

While India has made remarkable strides in the area of sustainability, the sheer volume of people and data it houses, might pose a challenge sooner than later. India remains one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Even though it supports almost 17% of the world’s population, the country has managed growth while tackling the climate crisis. India’s per capita emission of 2.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) is well below the global average of 6.3 tonnes of CO2e in 2020. In the 2022 Climate Change Performance Index, India has been ranked among the top five performing countries. India is also leading the world in transitioning to a low-carbon economy. The country has achieved its commitment to non-fossil fuel capacity addition (made in the Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs) ahead of the target year (2030). As per the new NDC, India is committed to reducing the emissions intensity of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 45% by 2030 from the 2005 level and achieving about 50% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030. The biggest success story of India towards achieving sustainability lies in the fact that 59% of Indian firms see positive connection between environmental action and profitability. Also, 45% of all LEED Zero certified buildings are based in India. Long story short, India needs to capitalize on its first mover advantage, to well become a global success story in sustainability.

Four critical pillars of sustainability

For a business (driven by IT), the four universal pillars of sustainability, provide a blueprint of sorts to align, advocate and engage in sustainability initiatives. These pillars are:

  • Climate change
  • Circular economy
  • Supply chain sustainability
  • Innovative solutions

Together, these four pillars can help any business achieve the goals of carbon neutrality, transition to renewable energy, optimize environmental impact of supply chains, and meeting the demand for sustainability centric solutions. In a way, each of these four is interlinked since innovative solutions deployed towards supply chain sustainability solutions act as a key driver to create a circular economy, which ultimately contributes towards climate change and alleviating the effects of global warming. Incrementally, if all or at least a majority of businesses realise the potential of sustainability as a key business driver, they might actually be contributing to a better tomorrow. Do you see how the sustainability conversation has turned on its head? It’s no longer solutions for a better tomorrow with an indirect effect on business. It’s business first now, and the incidental benefits are equally mind boggling.

The final word

Note: I have used the word ‘sustainability’ 24 times in the last 5 minutes you have spent reading this article (much lesser than the headshots which movie buffs lapped up). Clearly, it is important enough – for businesses, for the environment and the planet at large.

Natural resources are running out at a much faster pace than we expected. The proliferation of cloud computing, combined with hybrid, distributed work, has created more data that is indirectly contributing towards digital footprints that negatively impacts the environment. It’s time we took sustainability seriously. After all, it is going to be the biggest business driver for the years to come.

Do check-in here every month, for my series of blogs, one on every pillar of sustainability. There’s a lot to be spoken. We are just getting started…

 

 

About the author:

Vinod

Vinod Karumampoyil

Vinod Karumampoyil leads the Digital Transformation Office (DTO) for Cisco India & SAARC. He's also the Program Execution Leader for Cisco's flagship Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) program. Vinod's charter includes but is not limited to, accelerating the national digitization agenda by building long-term relationships with leaders at the national level as well as in the industry and academia, strengthening mindshare, and increasing our footprint in the market.

Vinod and his team have been pivotal in providing solutions and driving our success across several verticals, especially Smart Cities, Agriculture, Transportation, e-Gov, and Utilities.

 


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