We believe that there’s no other option rather than taking action to solve or address any problem. Today, even if employees try to find an unhappy situation, their work and workplace will help resolve it. Being in the business, we believe that change doesn’t happen overnight, and a lot goes into the making.
Going by the Unily 2020 Census, we felt the need to critically address the situation as 83% of employees believe that their organisations aren’t doing enough for sustainable development. 63% of respondents have expressed their impulse to learn green skills to contribute more at work. Sustainability can be addressed in various forms and ways and covers dimensions such as employee health, business ethics, product safety, efficient energy, and many others.
Organisations, especially the non-service sectors such as manufacturing or mining enterprises, have real estate portfolio emissions that are almost zero as compared to their factory emissions. But when you compare to office-based businesses where desk work is paramount, the scope of harmful releases becomes predominant over other factors such as the carbon footprint. The harmful gases released through ACs, computers, and other electrical appliances count upon the total carbon footprint of a business house. If we talk about a commercial building, roughly 50% of the emissions come from the base build, and the remaining 50% comes from the businesses or tenants that use the building. And go ahead on a larger scale; it is estimated that circa 6% of global emissions are released from office buildings.
Living in a world where people are getting more conscious about environmental impacts, the focus has driven enormously toward Scope 3 emissions. Scope 3 emissions generally include- capital goods, transportation & distribution, business travel, employee commuting, and many others. Corporations are already asking for the levels of carbon reduction targets. Government bodies are aiming for zero carbon emissions in the near future. Therefore, this is a piece of sincere advice to all businesses to devise plans and strategies for carbon reduction.
Many areas under the ESG bucket can be a task to focus on! Some critical classifications may include:
To achieve harmony and equilibrium towards sustainable development, the Value Reporting Foundation- a global non-profit organisation, has helped us by setting some standards. The foundation says- “The Standards identify the subset of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues most relevant to financial performance in each industry.”
You, as a business enterprise, must begin with data collection.
Here’s how!
After determining the locale of your business, the next step is to ponder upon the data that’ll help measure your success.
The concept of industry benchmarking involves proximity between organisations belonging to the same niche or industry. For instance, a business made in the logistics sector will tend to have higher emissions of harmful gases rather than that of a much greener industry. Although the logistics business will do everything in its capacity to reduce its emission levels, it still ranks higher in terms of emission levels. Therefore, it is sensible to audit logistics with logistics and greener business with yet another greener business.
This way, it becomes easier to benchmark your business in the industry, analyse how it is performing towards sustainable growth, and understand your ESG position compared to your peers.
Workplace partners, like Studio DB, can do wonders for you to reduce your carbon footprint and analyse how your workplace decisions are affecting ESG sustainability. We can:
If this excites you to better understand environment-friendly and ESG-supportive workplace practices, get in touch with us and discover our Office Carbon Calculator.
Tell us what’s on your mind. Give us a call or send an email. Whatever works best.
