Why Your Business Needs NOW
We live in a time when the concept of ‘sustainability’ is woven into every aspect of work, from insuring buildings to securing loans. The hospitality businesses that will have a license to operate and thrive are those that balance the needs of profit, people and planet today.
In 2024, the sustainability landscape is changing rapidly with the convergence of regulatory shifts and global environmental and political crises. Disclosure, accountability and transparency, and supporting nature and climate adaptation are all high on the business agenda.
Greenwash no longer cuts it and expanding regulations with severe penalties will enforce compliance. Accountable sustainability and decarbonisation to combat climate change are what stakeholders are expecting, investors and lenders are demanding and global governments legislating for.
Why Carbon?
The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) tells us that the next few years are critical. To limit global warming to around 1.5°C or even 2°C requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest and be reduced by 43% by 2030, and methane would also need to be reduced by about a third.
It is now “increasingly unlikely” that our world will peak its carbon emissions in 2024. Global temperatures and weather extremes will continue to increase faster than predicted.
Although there are many gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, carbon is the most prevalent because it is primarily released through the burning of fossil fuels. It also stays for a long time. After a pulse of CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere, 40% of it will remain for 100 years, 20% for 1000 years and the final 10% will take 10,000 years to disperse.
How NOW Helps ...
Although many businesses have started their sustainability journey, they struggle to translate good intentions into measurable impacts. That’s where we come in.
The NOW Force for Good Leaders Offer help business leaders to ...
- Be regulation compliant.
- Build up knowledge, skills and capacity.
- Choose and implement a science-based sustainability programme.
- Communicate transparently to stakeholders and avoid accusations of greenwashing.
- Deliver the shared values that quality customers and employees demand.
- Enhance a company’s overall culture.
- Improve financial health now and into the future.
- Prepare and pass an independent audit to obtain certification.
- Track impact year on year and demonstrate commitment to responsibility.
- Access a diverse portfolio of high-quality carbon credits to remove more human-made emissions than emitted, meaning they’re in with a fighting chance of achieving Net Negative Emissions by 2030.
The Bottom Line
The survival of our industry – and indeed species – depends on businesses treating the climate crisis as just that: a crisis.
Companies that succeed in becoming more sustainable and achieve Net Negative Emission will be worth more to investors, will gain the support of stakeholders,
will be more attractive for people to work for and with, and will be more commercially viable.
Take action NOW.