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Feature: Sustainability What is the Urgency for Global Mobility?
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 first 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 benefit 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 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 exemplified 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.
Many companies have a sustainability officer and department with wide ranging authority who report directly to the board, you may be aware of their role and objectives. If not, I urge you to seek them out and start proactive dialogue. Procurement are being tasked with sourcing sustainable products and services, but there is a problem, what is the benchmark of sustainable Global Mobility practices and services? On the provider side they can look for ISO14001 or the UN Global compact, but what companies are doing behind these titles is vastly different and careful due diligence and asking the right questions is needed. Let’s start by looking at your Global Mobility policy, which is full of high carbon travel and services such as household goods! Perhaps switching to a monetary allowance in lieu of shipping household affects is the answer? But what have we potentially just done? Encouraged employees to discard items in the home location and buy new in the host location, which is not environmentally friendly and goes against the principals of the circular economy? So, if this action is taken, we need to build in ways to educate and influence the relocating employee to dispose of effects they won’t move in an environmentally friendly way. Also, how to buy from sustainable sources in the host location. Some employees may even consider buying used or recycled items if they have options provided and morally feel good about such choices. Sustainability is a fascinating area that deserves our attention and considerations now as history shows us that if we are not careful to consider our actions within the wider ecosystem and understand the interdependences in our world, we will cause unintended consequences elsewhere, sometimes with catastrophic consequences. But we must be encouraged and remember there are also huge opportunities to save our global environment and develop sustainable and profitable global businesses. McKinsey Global Institute (2) advised that “By addressing risks and seizing new commercial opportunities, conducting business sustainably has the potential to benefit a business’s bottom line and to build in long-term resilience.” A mindset change, new approaches are needed from all sides of the Global Mobility world to collaborate, embrace the circular economy, move away from only recycling to reuse! A great responsibility lies with corporations to communicate with providers on their intentions. For example, that they will only buy services from companies that can demonstrate meaningful actions to drive sustainability in all areas including their supply chain. The providers, particularly the mid to large sized companies with resources and people to influence change also have a greater responsibility to make change. Though we must understand the complexities of delivering mobility services on a global basis, with different local markets appetite for environmental change, availability of materials and different government legislation in play. For providers meaningful changes, even small ones should be welcomed and applauded by Global Mobility. Starting this journey ASAP is so important, if providers feel they must only make big changes, then their journey risks getting stalled with a level of complexity they had not anticipated. Morality is a powerful factor and very complex when we apply it to an area such as sustainability. We all want to do the right thing but the actions we take to get the same level of satisfaction of doing the right thing is very different. This depends on factors such as education, the country we were born and raised in and our personal interests in life, which will all influence how we view sustainability and thus how far we will go to morally to feel we are environmentally friendly. Now is the time to act. There is a wealth of information to help you learn more from internal resources, networking, external consultants through to groups such as the Sustainability & ESG In Global Mobility LinkedIn group. The groups primary goals are to share knowledge of the actions Global Mobility Professionals, Service Providers and experts in wider Industries are taking to reduce their carbon footprint, use of plastic and drive sustainability. I would like to leave you with the words of US Climate envoy John Kerry who said in July 2021 ‘The struggle tackling global climate change is about protecting and preserving the fragile world we inherited for future generations’ he also said ‘There are 100 days to save the next 100 years’.
Author Paul Barnes, Owner of Inspire Global Mobility Consulting, Creator of the Sustainability & ESG In Global Mobility group. References: 1. Bonini & Swartz, 2014; McKinsey Global Institute, 2020 2. Polman, quoted in Ogleby, 2016
