Like the majestic redwood forest, the human race must also find ways to partner, connect and collaborate. Photo / Getty Images
Like the majestic redwood forest, the human race must also find ways to partner, connect and collaborate. Photo / Getty Images
How can we radically collaborate to make the right choices — and the right investment decisions — to mobilise global markets and accelerate the establishment of a sustainable, low-carbon economy?
In many ways, the climate change challenge we face in the next 10 years is analogous with the pandemic we're emerging from. The rapid rollout of vaccines showed us that decision-makers and key stakeholders can collaborate quickly when we face a collective crisis. Governments, multilateral institutions, private firms and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) co-ordinated resources to develop and distribute vaccines at record pace. Covid-19 proved the basic tenant of behavioural economics: that immediate consequences drive action. We will need to apply this same sense of urgency to mobilising global efforts to rapidly reducing emissions, while helping our communities to adapt to the economic realities of climate change, if we are to be successful in the short and longer term.
Fortunately, we are already seeing a promising response to the imminent threat posed by climate change; the pivot towards more environmental, social and governance (ESG) driven investment in global markets, for example, is real and happening now. But no one slice of the economy is going to drive the wholesale change we need this decade. Government, industry, academia, community — all will need to come together to form new, perhaps unorthodox partnerships to drive change.
Michele Villa. Photo / Supplied
From competitive edge to 'collaborative advantage'
Complex problems require us to think differently, particularly in relation to emissions reduction goals.
While Scope 1 and 2 emissions are well understood, Scope 3 emissions represent the next big hurdle.
Individual organisations are trying to understand what to do in this space. Instead of working in isolation, businesses that would normally compete will need to come together to tackle emissions across the value chain — working collectively as a sector, to deliver lower-carbon solutions to the world. We hope to see collaborative advantage take precedence over competition as we approach 2030.
Tackling Scope 3 emissions through collaboration will be a gamechanger. Big emitters are struggling to define and deliver ambitious decarbonisation agendas. All are under intense public pressure to clean-up their operations and portfolios. Businesses in these hard-to-abate sectors have both the motivation and resources to solve the Scope 3 puzzle; the missing piece is partnership. By partnering with suppliers, new solutions spearheaded by heavy industry will benefit the many small- and medium-sized businesses downstream that don't have the research and development (R&D) budgets to drive innovation. Collaboration also helps manufacturers develop differentiated end products that support their customers' emissions reduction efforts.
This type of cross-industry collaboration is happening. For example, the Charge On Innovation Challenge has brought together some of the world's largest miners to find solutions to electrify their heavy transport fleets — to move away from diesel, while maintaining productivity. The 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders initiative is another demonstration of leading brands banding together and partnering with suppliers to make positive change. Meanwhile, companies in some of the world's highest-emitting industries are joining together with their suppliers and customers to decarbonise industry and transport through the Mission Possible Partnership. We will see more initiatives like these, delivering broad societal benefit by tackling the big problems, together. We also expect to see progressive businesses working more closely with the public sector and impacted communities to help accelerate solutions.
The knowledge-sharing opportunity
While not losing sight of the importance to progress mitigation measures, in the next five to 10 years, world leaders will zone-in on adaptation strategies, to help build resiliency in the face of increasingly severe and frequent weather events. This is where opportunities to pool data and intelligence in all its forms — from the ancient to high-tech — become all the more important.
Our ability to mine massive data sets to enable real-time digital intelligence continues to transform our society. Better data means better carbon accounting, and that means a clearer picture of the impact of our actions. Heightened awareness in turn drives more climate-conscious behaviours among corporates and consumers. To really "lift the veil" on our carbon footprint, we must freely share data and be equally generous with the IP we generate from it. The human mind alone is not able to connect all the myriad dots between the environment, people, and behaviour quickly enough to speed up the transition — only working as true partners to share data-driven insights will get us there.
Increasingly sophisticated technology will help us better measure and manage the phenomenon of climate change. But there are much more ancient sources of wisdom that we need to leverage, too. We need to prioritise deepening of our relationships with Indigenous peoples to gain valuable knowledge about traditional land management and other practices that have set the highest benchmark for environmental stewardship for centuries. Unconventional approaches to collaboration across cultures — blending time-honoured approaches with new technology — offer exciting potential for adaptive solutions.
A shared responsibility — a shared opportunity
We find ourselves at a critical turning point "just before midnight"; only in relatively recent history has mankind managed to disrupt our planet's natural balance to such a dangerous degree.
Greg Carli. Photo / Supplied
In addressing this current state of emergency, there is much to be said about learning from the natural order of things; like the majestic redwood forest that has thrived for centuries sharing nutrients and support structures as a connected network of trees, the human race must also find ways to partner, connect and collaborate to support and strengthen each other in the face of this shared existential crisis.
Climate change impacts us all, particularly our future generations — and it will take a united front to face the challenges ahead. Industries will need to work together as communities, competitors as peers and global governments as global partners.
No one expects the next decade to be easy, but with radical collaboration, we can make the leaps necessary to secure a cleaner, more resilient future, together.
In this thought leadership piece, GHD presents the advantages of radical collaboration to accelerate the low-carbon economy such as through shared knowledge opportunities. In New Zealand, we have kick-started the conversation with our clients and industry to help advance best practices and embed sustainable outcomes into the very core of infrastructure delivery.
Ultimately, it is only through true collaboration with our clients and industry that we will raise the bar, set higher expectations and build truly resilient infrastructure for generations to come.
— Stephen Douglas, Market Leader-Environment (New Zealand and the Pacific).
• This thought leadership article draws on contributions from the following GHD executives: James Viray — Global Enterprise Sustainability Leader, Greg Carli — Executive Advisor, Sustainability, Resilience & ESG, and Michele Villa — Environment Lead, Digital.
GHD is a sponsor of the Herald's Infrastructure report.
