Businesses Are Going Green - In New and Unexpected Ways

As the world works against the clock on a climate recovery plan, businesses are trying to make their mark, and new strategies are emerging.

Amid growing pressure to go green, it’s now common for businesses to have net zero goals. In fact, 40% of the global businesses we surveyed in our latest edition of (Y)OUR SPACE have a publicly stated net zero target, and 77% of those businesses hope to achieve it by 2030.

But it’s less common for employees to be a key piece of the puzzle. Until now.

Climate change training becomes mandatory

In attempt to “build a culture of climate action”, Deloitte recently decided to enrol its 330,000 employees in a mandatory climate change course. Devised in partnership with The World Wildlife Fund, it invited employees to reassess their lifestyle habits, commutes and even the advice they give to clients.

In parallel to that, Ireland’s RTÉ News announced that it “has a responsibility to lead the conversation about the climate crisis.” And in stepping up to that responsibility, all of its journalists will participate in a climate science workshop – and learn how to effectively report on the topic.

The logic adds up. By empowering the ‘boots on the ground’, employers naturally begin to adopt a more climate-conscious culture, one which filters through to their personal lives, their work lives and how they do business. The overall efforts of an individual company become multiplied by the number of people it employs.

By empowering the ‘boots on the ground’, employers naturally begin to adopt a more climate-conscious culture.

Helping clients go green

Google, on the other hand, is using its network of clients to make the world greener.

Through carbon offsets, Google has been carbon neutral since 2007. But by 2030, it plans to run all of its data centres on green energy, and eliminate the need for its offsets entirely. But Google is just one business – and despite its size – its efforts are only a step in the right direction.

That’s why the tech giant is helping its clients go green by “rolling out tools for measuring and reporting the carbon emissions relating to its customers’ use of its cloud services.” These help explain the carbon cost of using Google Cloud’s services, and even help you pick the greenest data centre “by adding icons that call out the options with the lowest carbon impact.”

The company hopes this will have a similar effect to its Google Maps ‘green route’ function, which helps users make more responsible travel choices.

Recognising easy wins – like offices

Considering the built environment accounts for 40% of global carbon emissions, the offices that businesses choose to base themselves in can have an enormous impact on their net zero targets.

David Goatman, Department Head of our Energy, Sustainability and Natural Resources, “Beyond being simply the ‘right thing to do’, there is now growing evidence that a strong emphasis on ESG fundamentals enables companies to differentiate themselves, gain a competitive advantage, and accrue financial benefits. The real estate choices a [business] makes will either facilitate their net zero carbon journey or impede it.”

Take, for example, offices that minimise energy demand through thermal storage; integrated renewables; smart lighting and sensor usage; mobile apps that help customise environments (such as lighting and temperature); built-in e-mobility solutions, internal green spaces and external ecological corridors.

And thanks to the world of coworking, businesses can take this one step further, and find entire ecosystems of other businesses working towards a greener future. A perfect example of this is Sustainable Workspaces, an office space dedicated to the next generation of sustainable startups.

Beyond connecting you to like-minded entrepreneurs, the sustainable ecosystem acts as an “economy of agglomeration”; it’s not uncommon for one of the many specialised investors visiting a member to be introduced to another member and buy into their business, too.

The offices that businesses choose to base themselves in can have an enormous impact on their net zero targets.

We want to do better – and businesses can help

Ocean Bottle, an eco-startup selling reusable water bottles (which each fund the collection of 1,000 ocean-bound plastic bottles in weight) recently launched a campaign called ‘econfessions’. It shines a light on those “small, not so eco-friendly habits that collectively create a big problem.” Examples include: “I swear coffee tastes better in a takeaway cup” and “I think I have more bags for life than Tesco.”

Ultimately, it highlighted the extent to which many of us are guilty environmentalists, and it alleviated the taboo around these habits, because the first step towards changing a habit is talking about it. It showed that we want to do better.

In a recent interview, Sarah Audsley, an Associate in our Strategic Consultancy team, echoed this sentiment: “The climate crisis presents many challenges to people in terms of how they live their lives and what changes they can make.

“We spend so much of our lives at work, that of course, if we want to feel like we are making a difference, then who we work for and what they do is of great importance. I think we all want to do better and are looking to our employers to lead the way. With economies of scale, businesses are able to complete large scale change, and people want to be a part of that."

“I swear coffee tastes better in a takeaway cup” and “I think I have more bags for life than Tesco" are two 'econfessions' featured in Ocean Bottle's campaign.

The pressure is mounting from both employees and investors

As businesses continue to battle in the war on talent, green agendas can be make-or-break. Recent data has shown that most millennials would take a pay cut to work for a more sustainable company, with over 70% of all respondents saying “they were more likely to choose to work at a company with a strong environmental agenda.”

Meanwhile, Craig Frost, a Partner in our Project & Building Consultancy team, says businesses are under increasing pressure to focus on sustainability within their real estate strategies: “We have noticed a gathering pace which has accelerated over the past six months. For example, we started a project a few months ago and when we first mentioned sustainability, it was viewed as an add-on cost to the project.

“When we discussed it again a few weeks ago, the client had been questioned about their ESG agenda by investors. Sustainability is now front and centre. Clients are asking about sustainability accreditations, carbon outputs and carbon savings."