The Climate Crisis
Written by Benet Northcote Photography by Li-an Lim
Australia’s ‘fire season’ has so far seen 10.7m hectares burned across the country since the end of 2019. The January headlines about the issue are impossible to ignore and serve as relentless reminders of the climate crisis. With COP26 to be hosted in Glasgow at the end of the year and The Royal Foundation’s Earthshot Prize, a “decade of action to repair the Earth”, recently announced, the UK has positioned itself as a key player in this global issue. Benet Northcote, Director of Corporate Responsibility at John Lewis and a key figure in the green movement, outlines the role business can play in this crucial year ahead.
As we start the New Year, it is clear that sustainability can’t be just a bolton to business-as-usual. Around the world, countries are responding to the climate challenge, new technologies are emerging to disrupt traditional business models and customers’ expectations are increasing ever upwards.
We are at the start of a sustainability revolution which will transform how we live. Companies need to understand how the world is changing and how they can succeed in the new landscape.
Much is changing for the better. In the UK last year 48.5% of the country’s electricity came from clean sources, more than came from burning fossil fuels. This is a level of clean energy that was simply unthinkable even a decade ago. And the costs of renewables are predicted to keep falling, to a point where burning fossil fuels will simply be economically irrational.
Cleaner, greener products are more desirable than their carbon-intensive alternatives. Electric cars are better than their petrol-based equivalents and new breakthroughs – on everything from the packaging we create to the way we grow food – are emerging every day.
However, we are only at the start of this sustainability revolution. The scientific community might well have been warning us for decades, but Australia’s bush fires are perhaps a more vivid warning to the world that we have more to do.
Environmentalists no longer talk about climate change, they talk about a climate crisis. On any objective view of the evidence, they are right. Customers’ expectations are already high, but they will increase further as the full scale of the challenge becomes clear. If you are not responding with suitable urgency, then expect to be called out. If not by your customers, then by your staff, family and friends.
So, how do you know if you are doing enough?
The first thing is to really understand your impact and to be honest about the scale of the problem. There aren’t instant solutions for everything, yet, so there is no point in pretending to be sustainable. That’s just greenwash. Instead, engage with the policy community in your area to share the problem. Chances are you have unique data and insight that will help solutions emerge.
Be prepared to be vulnerable. In return, you will build your understanding of what needs to happen and where the market opportunities are in a sustainable future. Then you will be both helping avert the climate crisis and ensuring your business’s commercial future.
Benet Northcote
Benet Northcote is Director of Corporate Responsibility for the John Lewis Partnership. He is a Trustee Director of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, a Trustee of Green Alliance and on the board of the Conservative Environment Network. He was previously Deputy Private Secretary to HRH The Prince of Wales and Chief Policy Adviser to Greenpeace UK.