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As change becomes the new normal in our everyday lives, there’s no greater certainty that the direction lying ahead for UK business is the road to sustainability and carbon footprint reduction. That route means navigating the transition to net-zero or even zero carbon by tackling climate change measures – and is probably one of the most urgent priorities meeting us head-on over the next 20 or so years.
Government targets require companies to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and no doubt there’ll be new legislation, and maybe some incentives, to make sure they comply. It’s a massive challenge, particularly as nearly all businesses up and down the country are currently being overshadowed by the Covid-19 pandemic and struggling with issues of remote working, client retention or simply just balancing the books.
The will to reduce carbon emissions remains strong and, despite global economic and health concerns, continues to grow. New generations of young people are joining the nation’s workforce and their voices are calling for change.
At the heart of the matter is the fact that many businesses, whilst rightly focusing on their core operations, still don’t have the knowledge or expertise to, first of all, identify their carbon-reduction strategies and then put them into action. Understanding the challenges is a start, but then follows the vital question:
No area of the business can escape the impact of its efforts to become net-zero carbon. Unlike the usual planning timescales though, carbon reduction measures take much longer to come to fruition, making it hard to see any tangible achievements as the results may not be immediately apparent. Therefore, the most obvious risks are financial – getting access to capital, whether to secure the necessary energy-efficient equipment and up-to-date technology to put your plans into place or the long-term costs of becoming net-zero.
Not having a carbon reduction policy could also lose customers, those who choose only to do business with “green” organisations.
As for opportunities, there can be no greater asset to a business than to be promoting behavioural change to customers, partners and employees. Most workplaces are already adopting more environmentally-friendly practices, many of these changes being driving by staff themselves who want to play their part in protecting the planet. Taking positive action to embed sustainability into your day-to-day operations – from initiating health and wellbeing projects to embracing green travel policies – massively contributes to recruitment and retention in your cleaner, greener workplace.
Strong sustainability credentials also set a business apart from its competitors, demonstrating care and responsibility and a company ethos of putting people first, whether customers, stakeholders and partners or your own staff.
It’s evident from discussions with many of our customers that there is a huge desire to achieve net-zero carbon and tackle the climate change crisis. But where to begin?
A good starting point is to think first about the steps you want to take to achieve your goals and then how you would like to plan for change in your business.
Team spirit takes fundraising four to the finishing lines
Team spirit pulled off a lockdown challenge for four of our staff whose energy and enthusiasm brought them fundraising success at the weekend.
Operations director Tom Kelly, operations manager Les Edwards, senior account executive Terry Daly and account executive Luke Balmer all took part in the JLL Property Weekend Challenge, putting their running and cycling skills to test in support of two good causes.
Keen cyclist Terry finished a 20km bike ride in 45 minutes, a 5km run in 22 minutes and a 2.5km run in 12 minutes. He completed all three challenges on the same day.
Pounding a treadmill in his garage, Les did the 2.5km event in 28 minutes, Tom ran the 5km event on the lanes of Wirral in a time of 25 minutes while Luke finished the 20km cycle ride, on a route around the Wirral peninsula, in 1 hour 43 minutes.
The national event this year replaced the annual JLL Property Triathlon and focused instead on a virtual duathlon. However, the aim stayed the same – to raise as much money as possible for the charities LandAid and Crisis which both support the homeless.
LandAid is the property industry charity whose grants fund projects to renovate existing or create new safe, secure and affordable accommodation for young homeless people while national charity Crisis helps people directly out of homelessness and campaigns for change to solve the growing problem.
Tom, Les, Terry and Luke received amazing encouragement from their Inteb colleagues who, working remotely since the outbreak of the pandemic, have been backing them all the way.
The event wasn’t about completing the various challenges in the fastest times but about showing true team spirit, working together for a common good cause and having the support of their friends at work during these difficult times.
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