The Global Ostrich
Why is it that so many live in denial?
FACT: Oil prices are yo-yoing in concert with the diminishing supply and ceaseless demand for it.
FACT: The polar ice cap has already visibly diminished and oceanic water levels have measurably risen.
FACT: Up to 150 species of natural life are disappearing, PER DAY.
FACT: Californian data centres are facing energy rationing within the next 5 years…
I could go on, but these are facts in the public domain and readable/watchable by any semi-literate individual with access to a newspaper, radio, internet-enabled computer or television.
So whilst the global economy is being persistently challenged by diminishing carbon, pulp and water resource, a global study conducted by Carbon Disclosure Project received 634 responses of which a full third said they did not believe they faced any threat at all and only 58% considered climate change posed a risk to their operations.
And despite the governmental posturing and regular publication of ‘good news’ reports and statistics here in the western world, guess who is most aware of, and taking the greatest accountability for, proactive action to reduce our impact on the environment? Asia. Makes you wonder if we are the first world or the third. We possess the greatest knowledge and skills pool on the planet and, as if to show that we are embarrassed by this, we show the greatest ignorance or, as is more likely the case, the greatest greed.
Realistically, the only reason we choose (or at least some us choose) to bury our head in the sand and pretend that nothing is wrong, is that we refuse to accept that we might not be able to grab that extra dollar (and I choose my currency deliberately!). In this country, however, we are also not blameless. Of every 10 companies that I meet with and discuss carbon reducing measures that will knock upwards of 10-15% off their bottom line operating costs, only 1 actually ever does anything; the rest prevaricate, blame ‘special relationships’ with preferred suppliers (despite their ‘brownness’), blame the fact that some of their staff might not like any change – in fact, come up with endless excuses not to do anything.
If you could, for instance, change all your office printers and MFPs, reduce the costs per page from +/- 1.5p down to +/- 0.9p, save 60% on your energy costs for all printers in all offices, reduce consumables costs by 33% - why wouldn’t you? And yet, you don’t (or at least, most of you don’t). There is an old corporate expression that goes “the lunatics are running the asylum” – as a leader in your organisation, be you a CEO or CFO, if your employees are dictating the terms of business within your organisation, just exactly why are you employed since, as CEO, your raison d’etre has just been negated and, as CFO, you are not controlling anything that affects the financial standing of your company… and your client base is getting rather peeved at the fact that neither of you have a handle on the ethical or sustainable basis of your organisation.
In the end, when there is no juice to power your computers or activate your mobile phones or light up your grand office on the top floor, how much good did it really do you to stick your head in the sand for all this time? With all due respect, get with the programme or get gone; we need businesspeople who understand what business needs to do… to stay in business.
