Copenhagen, and what it means for you

The world's politicians will meet in Copenhagen today in an effort to create a binding agreement based on fixed carbon emissions targets. Even the Canadian government, which until recently defended flexible, intensity-based reductions targets(a weak position that would allow the western tar sands to grow by emitting less CO2 per barrel but more overall), now says it will argue in favour of binding emissions targets

So what does this mean for owners of small and medium organizations? ...
It means that if you haven't yet thought about your carbon footprint, it's time to start. Whether or not Copenhagen succeeds, the world is moving toward a low carbon economy, and the first step is finding out how much your organization and/or your product emits.

Part of my job is to convince small and medium organizations to measure their environmental and social impacts, however slight. Some are more aware of their impacts than others, so I like to ask business owners WHY they care. The answers allow me to help them better. Last week I met with the director of a fair-trade, organic-cotton-apparel distributor in Montreal, and asked him flat out: why do you care? Here are his answers.

"First, I just want to know. I lived in India for six months and studied fair-trade organic cotton, so I know that it's better for the environment and the producers physical and economic health. But I don't know how much carbon is emitted and what impacts occur once the cotton leaves India.

Secondly, once we know what those impacts are, we can develop a business charter saying what we stand for. So anytime someone on the team needs to make a sensitive decision, they will be able to refer to that chart for guidance.

And of course knowing our impacts allows us to let people know about the good things we're doing."

I would add to this last point that's it's also crucial to talk about organization's sustainability challenges. This helps build trust among stakeholders, as opposed to simply hitting your audience with more faceless PR. But I digress.

This business owner had the right idea. By acting now and understanding his organization's impacts, he is demonstrating leadership that may earn goodwill among employees, partners and clients, not to mention positive publicity. He is also acting ahead, anticipating that international agreements may in the near future force Canadian businesses to measure and reduce CO2 and other social and environmental impacts.

And by the way his business is tiny, five employees only. No massive supply chain, no franchises or divisions, nor widespread distribution network, proving that we all have important impacts at scale.

Organizations have everything to gain by understanding their impacts. If you wait for your competitors to act you'll miss the opportunity to lead the field, manage risks and develop that crucial trust relationship with the people who are important to your organization.

Consulting firms such as sustainable.Agency help businesses, NGO's, not-for-profits and institutions develop strategies that work for them. To find out how, send me an email at ian@sustainableagency.ca or go to sustainableagency.ca