Feature:
“Sustainability - What is the Urgency for Global Mobility?” By Paul Barnes A growing number of people and businesses now believe that life on earth as we have known it is unsustainable, unless immediate and meaningful actions are taken. Our global environment is changing rapidly, for example climate change causing warming seas, melting of the Polar ice caps, with devastating Global extreme weather events putting pressure on life and social wellbeing, whilst also impacting the future of worldwide businesses. The awareness of negative global environmental changes has increased in recent years, so it is now a common topic of discussion. Everywhere you look from TV programs, international news, advertising of products and services, the global environment and sustainability is there! Why the sudden interest of sustainability with this speed of change and what is the effect on the Global Mobility world? Let us rst take a moment to learn from some key moments in history! The 18th century geographer naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt was ahead of his time and warned of the dangers of destroying or changing nature for the bene t of humans. His thoughts were based on the complexity of interactions in nature which he had a great appreciation of regarding how the natural world is linked together. Most importantly he saw that these links could not be disturbed without unintended consequences, which is
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important to remember when making any sustainability decisions. He even warned us about the damage to the earth of global emissions from the industrial revolution. industry. In 1972 the UN conference on Human Environment emphasised the connectedness of the world as exempli ed by the slogan of ‘Only One Earth’ The United Nations has taken many actions including introducing the 17 sustainable development goals adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, with a target date of 2030. The more recent United Nations Global Compact initiative with its 10 principals has seen many companies uniting to show commitment and openness to report their Environmental, Social, Governance actions. There are many recent examples of the urgency and actions responsible bodies are taking to drive sustainable practices including. In 2021 Exxon had 3 board members removed in action started by a small investment fund to change the direction of the company to a more sustainable future. Shell was taken to a court in the Netherlands, which ruled by 2030 Shell must cut its CO2 emissions by 45% compared to 2019 levels. The court also advised that the Shell group is responsible for its own CO2 emissions and those of its suppliers! Former Unilever CEO Paul Polman was quoted saying (1) “if you cannot explain as a company what you are
doing to make this a better world, you have no reason for being”. He explained that the cost to business of not acting to operate in a sustainable way, is much higher than that of doing so. All very powerful and it has C-Suite taking notice which has given a powerful urgency towards the drive for sustainability. Ultimately if the C-Suite does not take meaningful actions and deliver on them they know they may be removed from their positions, or the company could lose investors and the share price slides. So have no doubt senior management are serious about sustainability and as an employee you are a stakeholder in taking action to drive positive change! This is an amazing and exciting opportunity to be involved in a topic that your whole company is or will be focused on. Therefore, actions are needed and anyone in a position of responsibility for running a Global Mobility program or Service provider will be expected to drive change to reduce their companies carbon footprint and increase sustainability.
