“Why do you not consider your organization to have climate-related opportunities? Because of the nature of our business we don’t recognize any opportunity for financial gain as a result of climate change, we want to do what is in our power to protect our planet because it is the only one with coffee.” This is a direct quote from the Starbucks 2018 CDP report. In 2017, CDP specified not reporting on the financial value of environmental performance as a huge missed opportunity for businesses (42% failed to report opportunities). Earlier this year, it calculated the volume of climate business opportunities at US$2.1 trillion. If climate change is such a significant business opportunity, how come businesses are so revenue and profit-shy in this arena? Why don’t we see a race to reap the benefits and stiff competition to be first in making the sustainability transformation?
CDP is a partner in We Mean Business. According the coalition’s ‘Taking action’ section “Taking action on climate change represents one of this century’s most significant business opportunities.” However, the actions associated with this section start out with “low”, “reduce”, “remove”, “commit” and “improve”. Of course, there are opportunities in reducing operating risks and costs, but potential revenues usually get management and investors more excited than necessities.
What if we reframed the business conversation around climate change related opportunities as opposed to threats/scare/loss/cost/risk narratives? What if we shifted attention to the “O” in the widely used SWOT analysis diagram when assessing climate related opportunities? If we can’t seem to change the growth mechanism of capitalism for the foreseeable future, why not place sustainability in the middle of that paradigm and unleash the power of competition? I’d recommend balancing the proliferation of much needed ‘collaborative’ efforts with a new ‘sustainability race’ making the trillion dollar prize much more visible and speed to get there measurable. We need a platform that shifts from threats, risks and demands to identifying opportunities, boosting competition and jump-starting a race. We need to develop a new tool to measure and reward the velocity of transformation before it’s too late. We need pre-competitive PR to evolve into true sustainability competition to save the planet.