Extreme weather, Energy, Repairs, Conflict & Beer
Giles Gibbons
Good Business - Sustainability | Strategy | Impact
July 21, 2023
1. Going to extremes
If you’re following the news, or have headed overseas for your holiday, you’ll know that much of the world is currently grappling with extreme weather events. From severe heat and wildfires to heavy rains and flash flooding, the effects of climate change are being felt keenly across the US, Europe, and Asia. (To our readers based in these locations: we hope you’re keeping safe.)
With temperature records being broken on a regular basis, this is the new reality. Climate change is making extreme weather events not only more likely, but also more severe. As Vox recently put it: “there’s no such thing as a disaster-resistant place anymore”. If you need further proof, just look to the insurance companies, who are increasingly pulling out of areas they deem high risk and divesting of reinsurance branches to reduce exposure to natural disaster.
Businesses should take heed. A world wracked by fire and floods, or even just extreme heat, presents innumerable challenges to business continuity, including supply chain disruptions, damage to physical infrastructure, and, of course, the costs of insurance (if you manage to obtain it). But there’s also scope for thinking further down the value chain. How can businesses extend care to customers and employees during extreme events?
Whether it’s protecting workers from heat or helping customers to be more resilient to floods, there is a lot that businesses can do to support stakeholders in this new world (perhaps, as public health officers have suggested, it's even encouraging them to embrace the siesta). And with government responses looking insufficient in the face of extreme weather, it's imperative that businesses step up to the plate.
It's getting hot in here (and wet, and dry, and stormy…) While we can’t control the weather, we can control how we react to it. For the sake of all our lives and livelihoods, we must.
2. Amping up the energy transition
The Financial Times’ outgoing US energy editor recently highlighted a concerning trend in the energy transition – capitalism’s inability to drive the shift fast enough to meet the immense scale of change required. The urgency to combat climate change demands rapid and widespread adoption of renewable energy sources, and while some progress has been made, the pace falls short of what is needed.
One of the most interesting – and perhaps surprising – aspects of this situation is that consumer demand is strong. Consumers exhibit considerable interest and excitement about new technologies, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps, recognising them as technologies of the future. So, you might think capitalist forces would come into play and supply would emerge to meet the demand – and the market. Instead, it is exposing the failings in this system. Established providers in these industries are often found to be pushing back, as Bloomberg Green’s Todd Woody related firsthand earlier this year. There is an inertia that stops them moving to adopt new technologies quickly, whether they’re popular with customers or not. This may be because contractors aren’t familiar with the latest options, because their existing sales-channel relationships limit their access to the latest and greatest and/ or because they fear bad reviews if they get it wrong.
The energy transition is undeniably a complex and multifaceted challenge that requires collaboration from all stakeholders. And it’s clear there is an important job to do to help providers capitalise on consumer eagerness for sustainable technologies. Building awareness, education and capacity among installers, contractors and dealers will play a key role in the process.
We – desperately – need everyone to work together through concerted efforts and a shared commitment to a sustainable future if we are to have any hope of overcoming the limitations of the current system and paving the way to a more resilient and environmentally conscious energy landscape.
3. Garder et réparer
We tend to think of the French as more fashionable than us Brits. But what we don’t realise is that style comes at a cost. The French throw away over 700,000 tonnes of clothes each year (nearly double that of the UK), two-thirds of which end up in landfill. Now France wants to change that.
In the UK, ‘Make do and mend’ was a mantra of WWII and we are seeing more of this, particularly as purse strings tighten. But sometimes we need a little extra incentive to make the change. This is exactly the thinking behind France’s new scheme where customers will be able to claim between €7 to €25 for repairing shoes and clothes from a €154m government fund.
The scheme aims to force brands to have more traceability and to financially support organisations specialising in reusing and recycling clothing. The hope is that half of the effort will be made by businesses, particularly large companies, a quarter by the state and local authorities, and the final quarter by households.
Critics say it doesn’t go far enough and is putting too much responsibility on the individual. However, the principles behind the idea are sound, encouraging more of us to buy clothes that last and incentivise us to repair those that don’t. The challenge will be to help businesses make this type of action the norm. Interestingly there are examples of brands taking the lead on this – just look at Berghaus Ltd or Nudie Jeans and their respective free repair service. Unfortunately, these examples are few and far between and are often hidden away.
Let’s hope that this scheme inspires us all to do more and for business to openly help us all mend our ways.
4. From conflict to conservation
Recent news on global conflicts may paint a bleak outlook for the future, but Colombia's experience shows how peace can bring significant benefits for not just people but also the environment.
Colombia's remarkable ecosystem, securing it a ranking as the second-most biodiverse country globally and the most biodiverse for bird life, has been facing significant threats due to domestic conflicts. The prolonged conflict with FARC, dating back to 1964, has had devastating effects on both human and ecological life. Deforestation intensified during the conflict, and the signing of peace accords in 2016 failed to halt this, as criminal organisations engaged in a land grab which meant that former FARC territory and conflict areas continued to experience heightened deforestation rates.
But now the new President Gustavo Petro is taking a new approach – which puts the environment front and centre – and it appears to be having striking results. Recent government figures show a decline in deforestation by 29% across the country and by 26% in the Amazon region. As the Norwegian environment minister, who was part of the peace negotiation, put it: “there is an enhanced understanding that you cannot build a new Colombia on the basis of the further deterioration of nature, so you have to find an economic, social, political, inclusive process that is more respectful towards nature than before.”
Issues of peace and sustainability are indelibly intertwined, and at a time where the news is often full of stories of global conflicts and challenges, it's useful to remember that the future can also hold the potential for positive change and progress. By addressing issues related to peace, justice, and the environment collectively, we can work towards a more sustainable future.
5. It can't be brew
It’s an exciting week for climate conscious beer lovers, as Gipsy Hill Brewing Company, a south London based brewery, has released what it is claiming are the first ever carbon negative beers.
At Good Business, we approach any carbon negative claim with a healthy degree of scepticism because there is no defined standard for a ‘carbon negative’ product. But in this case, Gipsy Hill have achieved their emissions removals without offsetting and performed their calculations in line with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Product Standard, the gold standard for emissions calculations. They’ve even published an emissions report detailing the calculations behind their work, and although we have some questions about some of the underlying life cycle assessments used, the calculations are, on the whole, broadly sensible and transparent.
How have they done it? The base barley for the beers is grown by farmers from our friends at Wildfarmed, an organisation that works to ensure crops are grown in a manner that protects both biodiversity and the land used to grow the crops (while also ensuring farmers are paid fairly). Through regenerative farming techniques, the way the barley is grown means it sequesters more carbon than it produces. Combine that with Gipsy Hill’s in-house process that allows them to recapture hops otherwise going to waste to max out their use, and you have yourself a sustainable beer. They even have a “perfectly imperfect” line – 10% off those cans that got a little dented along the way.
While the average pint of beer has a carbon footprint of 350g of CO2 equivalents, Gipsy Hill’s Swell Lager and Trail Ale have carbon footprints of -30gCO2e and -40g CO2e. The business is not yet calculating its own carbon footprint, as would be best practice, but they’ve committed to work on doing that too.
So, if you’re lurking about in South London and want a guilt free(ish) beer, then head on over to The Gipsy Hill Brewing Co, and if you’re further afield, check out their online shop.
When it comes to sustainability, where do we go next? Hear our CEO, Giles Gibbons, give his take on the progress that’s been made over the last 20 years and the challenges that lie ahead on Matthew Gwyther's podcast - Doing It On Purpose. Listen to the podcast here.
