Over the last two years we’ve seen huge, worldwide changes, and we’re not just talking about COVID-19, war and other political unrest, we’re talking about climate too. At GDS Group’s recent Energy Summit, Tom Raftery, Global VP, Futurist and Innovation Evangelist explains “The European Union adopted a climate law in June 2021 stating that all 27 nations of the EU have to reduce their emissions 55% against the 1990 baseline by 2030.” And it’s not just the EU. He explains “the Biden administration has said that they want to reduce their emissions 52% by 2030, and China have said that they want to become net zero by 2060 or before, they’ve also said that they want their emissions to peak by 2030.” These are huge ambitions for the next eight years and beyond in the three largest global economic blocks. 

And even large oil and gas enterprises are taking action. Corporation, Shell has set its own target to become a Net-Zero energy emissions business by 2050, and digitalization is set to have a significant impact here. Joanne Howard, VP of Sustainability & Corporate Communications at Crestwood Midstream Partners LP explains “as you’ve probably seen in the news, ESG has gone from niche to mainstream. From 2020 through to 2022, we’ve seen a huge acceleration in the energy transition and all things ESG.” But why such the acceleration in such a short period of time? Why should your organization also commit to becoming carbon neutral, and how can it realistically do it? Let’s explore. 

Sustainability sells and is the affordable option 

The global economy is about to become the climate economy, and if you have a good sustainability story to tell, you’ll find it far easier to recruit and keep good employees. And if you’re trying to sell something, a good sustainability record and story to tell will lead to far easier sales. 

Further to this, in the last 10 years, the cost of solar has dropped about 90%, and the cost of wind has dropped about 70%, according to Fast Company. It is now cheaper to build net new from greenfield renewables than it is to fund or keep going with fuel existing fossil fuel plants. Just buying the fuel for fossil fuel plants is more expensive than building out net new renewable plants. 

Even Next Era, who are one of the largest energy retailers in the US, have now said that the combination of renewables plus battery storage beats coal, gas and nuclear in terms of energy production costs. 

The local economic benefits 

As we’re accelerating our pace towards the clean energy transformation, we must also ask are we bringing other companies to our states to really look at economic development opportunities? You cannot just look at optimizing just one area, you must look at social impacts, economic impacts, and you really must take a holistic and integrated view if you are to move forward. As Katherine Neebe, Chief Sustainability Officer and President at Duke Energy Foundation explains at a GDS Group Energy Summit, “I don’t see a world where we cannot build an energy system for that next decade for that next century that doesn’t plus up and bring our communities along.” 

More than a financial cost 

But it’s not all about the financial and economic benefits. According to a study in the journal Environmental Research,  the number of people who die every year from fossil fuel pollution is 8.7 million. If you put that in context beside Covid, Covid has killed about 6-7 million people total. We really need to transition, if not for climate, just for our own public health. Morally, enterprises must take actions to make it easier for their employees, customers and all stakeholders easier to reduce their individual footprints too. 

Sustainable energy actions your organization can take 

1. Set emissions reduction targets, measure your emissions and report transparently against those targets.
2. Convert everything to electric. Convert your transport, your heating, your air con, everything that you can, convert it electric and then…
3. Source from renewables, switch to 100% renewable energy.
4. Become more circular, use circular economy technologies that will get your emissions down and reduce your waste.
5. Require emissions in all your RFPs and RFQs. Require your suppliers to report the emissions associated with getting their products.
6. Set an internal carbon price for any project that you’re doing in your organization.
7. This is the one that usually causes the most discomfort, but it is the one that I think has the greatest potential to move the needle, it’s tie executive remuneration to emissions reduction KPIs.

To cite Professor Kevin Anderson “We face an unavoidably radical future. We either continue with rising emissions and reap the radical repercussions of severe climate change, or we acknowledge that we have a choice and pursue radical emissions reductions. No longer is there a non-radical option.” 

To learn more, listen to our recent podcast, The Future of Energy, where we talk with experts Rebecca Williams and Michael Short on how the gas & oil and renewables sectors can work together to solve our climate crisis. 

You can also join us at one of our GDS Summits. They are tailored 3-day virtual event conferences that bring together business leaders and solution providers to accelerate sales cycles, industry conversations and outcomes. Regarding the Energy Digital Summit 100% of Solution Providers said the overall experience of the Digital Summit they attended was ​Above Average or Excellent and 100% of Solution Providers agree that in this ‘new normal’, GDS Digital Summits work well and met or exceeded their expectations.  

For more, click here to hear from attendees on how GDS has helped them to achieve their business outcomes.  

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