World Environment Day: Tips From Six Business Leaders

In honour of World Environment Day on 5th June, six innovative tech business leaders have shared their thoughts on what’s next in the fight against climate change and how technology can advance global efforts…

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Jamie Milroy, CEO and Founder of Dash Rides

“Despite seeing signs of positive climate change during the height of lockdowns, CO2 emissions have already returned to pre COVID levels.”

“Air pollution is one of the biggest health and environmental challenges the world is facing, with transportation being one of the biggest global contributors to CO2 emissions. This is a climate and health crisis engineered by us; and there is growing ambition to engineer the solution.”

“Governments have imposed future bans on the sale of petrol and diesel-powered cars, incentivising more electric-powered vehicles, whilst taxing the most polluting vehicles. This should empower people to actively question the transportation they use – do we really need buses, taxis and tubes, or could we walk, cycle or e-bike instead? Businesses too are uplevelling their sustainability goals to play their part in a green recovery. Beyond setting ambitious carbon reduction strategies, this means tackling one of air pollution’s biggest contributors and finding alternative ways to navigate our growing cities.”

“Another answer to re-shaping urban mobility and providing healthier travel is the e-bike.”

“E-bikes are forging a path towards a new, urban future and showing us that sustainable change is more than possible. At DASH Rides, we’re an e-bike subscription service that can help supercharge a business’ sustainability offering. Each ride is carbon offset by 400%. We’re proud to be powering businesses to achieve net zero.”

“Whilst the fight for a better climate is an ongoing one, it is clear that appetite from business leaders continues to grow in a bid to practices to combat and future proof against a potential climate disaster.”

Sachin Kapila, Chief Climate Risk Officer at Cervest

“We celebrate World Environment Day as a reminder of the highly localised impacts of climate change. Recent attention on climate has largely focused on an accelerated transition towards decarbonisation. What’s missing is the recognition that even in a low-carbon world we would all continue to face the very real impacts from physical climate risks.”

“Understanding how these risks could impact individual assets – whether forests, wetlands, or offices – can help galvanise action. We can quantify physical climate risks right down to the level of individual assets, across a variety of scenarios and decades into the future. We call this Climate Intelligence.”

“Climate Intelligence means the right actions are taken without delay. Armed with personalised insights into climate risks, communities, governments, and businesses can come together to help safeguard threatened ecosystems, which are after all natural or ecological assets. The restoration and preservation of the world’s ecosystems and ensuring they remain climate resilient is critical. World Environment Day provides a clear reminder of these ecosystems as well as the highly localised, yet widespread, impacts of climate change.”

Peggy de Lange, VP of International Expansion, Fiverr

“Pre-pandemic, business travel was compulsory for many professionals. As workforces were forced to operate remotely, collaboration and innovation continued across industries despite the enforced lockdown.”

“We’ve seen the creative and film industries abandon the ‘global shoot’ in place of animation and virtual ad spots, and events have adapted by bringing people together fully online. Revised global recruitment (including the onboarding of freelancers) can be seen as the root cause of this sustained success. Using digital services to bring on talent on a temporary basis emerged as a solution to travel restrictions in place, and there’s no reason that this practice should be discontinued as the world opens up.”

“Enterprises can opt for a cheaper, more practical option which, most importantly, cuts carbon emissions. Inevitably, hiring remotely may not always work, and global travel at times will be necessary and useful. But making use of digital services through platforms like Fiverr is both a smart and sustainable solution that could have a positive long-term impact on the health of our planet.”

Matthias Taft, CEO at BayWa r.e.

“World Environment Day serves as a potent reminder of how far we have come, but also how far we need to go to achieve the most pressing sustainability goals of our time.”

“Renewable energy technologies, like solar PV and wind, are key to decarbonisation, and the costs of these have come down tremendously in recent years. Furthermore, innovative applications such as Agri-PV and Floating-PV are helping to reduce pressure on land use, while we are also seeing digitalisation becoming increasingly key for facilitating integrated concepts such as e-mobility charging with self-generated renewable power.”

“However, technology alone won’t fix the climate crisis. We need to engage corporations, communities, and citizens with the objective of investing in these technologies, and ultimately driving their ramp-up to a larger scale. We all have a vital role to play in the energy transition, only then will we see renewable energy reach its full potential. At BayWa r.e., 2800 employees work every day on making this transition happen. But we all need to do even more to accelerate decarbonisation, as this is the decade that matters and our last best chance to prevent catastrophic climate change for our planet.”

Sébastien Pellion, Head of Social Impact & Sustainability, Glovo

“The theme for this year’s World Environment Day is #GenerationRestoration — to revive and protect our ecosystems. As a company we are committed to being part of the solution, through impact-driven on-demand delivery we believe we have the opportunity to drive real change, and highlight the incredible value of our world’s natural resources and the benefits of safeguarding nature.”

“At the Social Impact team at Glovo, we have two core missions: integrate the highest social and environmental standards into our daily business operations by fostering a culture of responsibility across all teams, and leverage our core business to generate as much positive social impact as possible. We now promote and facilitate the reduction of single-use cutlery, the use of sustainable packaging and the donation of food leftovers to third sector entities — avoiding almost 1,000 tonnes of CO2 to be emitted in the atmosphere. All this in the last year. We really are just scratching the surface of what we can achieve, and that’s incredibly exciting!”

“Delivery players and small businesses need to drive virtuous behaviours towards a more sustainable and circular economy, by being carbon neutral and resource efficient. By working together we can help restore our ecosystems and ensure we build a better world for future generations to come.”

Bee Hayes-Thakore, Senior Director for Marketing and Partnerships at Kigen

“The global COVID-19 pandemic has served us with an important reminder of how fragile our society and business models are. However, we’ve also seen many examples of how technology can help create more sustainable businesses to build a better future.”

“The World Economic Forum IoT for Sustainable Development project encourages the use of IoT to accelerate progress on the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Encompassing efficient water use, fighting climate change, and ending hunger and food insecurity, these goals are all areas where IoT can be a force for good by providing insights to aid in more sustainable decisions.”

“This World Environment Day, at Kigen, we reflect on our work to enable seamless cellular connectivity through eSIM/iSIM technology. Whether it is using near-real-time data to better understand resource usage, or to help ensure the global food supply chain through cellular-connected, low-power tracking solutions, IoT is an enabler and we are excited to see how smart businesses use it to meet their future sustainability goals.”

“Whilst the fight for a better climate is an ongoing one, it is clear that appetite from business leaders continues to grow in a bid to practices to combat and future proof against a potential climate disaster.”

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