The Chapter Zero organization has the vocation of an agora and its members have the task of bringing effective measures to the boards of directors of large companies to tackle climate change. It is explained by its president, the British Julie Baddeley, on the occasion of the recent arrival in Spain of this initiative through the University of Navarra. “We need to act quickly, and for companies to act we need managers to bring the sustainability debate into the boardroom,” she explains.
The objective of this institution created in 2019 – and linked to the University of Cambridge and the World Economic Forum – is to train managers and non-executive directors who want to participate in it on issues of sustainability and emissions reduction, so that they then carry out that knowledge to their respective companies. That of its president is to carry out this work in the most pragmatic way possible: “We cannot send to all these managers to two-year college courses, but we can create events, discussions and reports that help them overcome that learning curve,” he says.
In Spain it is the University of Navarra who is going to lead this networking climate and convey Chapter Zero proposals through meetings, dissemination days or a training plan focused on helping to comply with the climate governance principles. Among the members of the boards of directors participating in the proposal are find company advisors such as PwC, Atrevia, Ingenostrum, UniCredit or Arquia Banca.
Baddeley, who has been involved in the world of management for 50 years and has served as a director for two decades, explains that environmental issues, despite being on the governments’ agenda, did not usually appear on the board’s agenda and were difficult to see them translated into concrete measures. But for this zoologist by training and manager by vocation, things have changed. In her opinion, the turning point was reached at COP26, the international climate change summit held in 2021 in Glasgow. “Here it was perceived as a business problem. “That’s when many companies set concrete net-zero emissions targets.” From being a side issue it has become a key space, also thanks to projects such as the Task Force on Climate Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which advises on how to address the financial impact of climate change. “Now I think there are very few meetings where this topic is not on the agenda,” she concludes.
Helping the planet and keeping growth and profits safe is the great puzzle that councils try to put together and which does not always have a solution. “Some of the investments required will affect balance sheets in the short term—something that happens with any investment—but companies that are really looking at How can you take advantage of this opportunity? and lead the transition, I think they will be remarkably successful.” Because there will come a time when “superficial tweaks” will not be enough: “It is not about changing some things […] but to review each aspect of the business model: design, products, production processes, investments, etc.
For Baddeley this will be the only way to comply with the Paris Agreement, signed at the 2016 climate summit and where measures were set to reduce emissions of harmful gases until reaching zero in 2050. But although the discourse has changed, it has not He is optimistic about the results: “We are very far away. “We are supposed to have halved emissions by 2030 to reach net zero by 2050, but right now they are still going up.”
In the talks and debates given by Chapter Zero, it also tries to identify the difficulties that managers encounter in putting the major climate evidence into concrete measures. And here, he explains, we must look at politics because when it comes to charting the path that leads to zero emissions, not only large companies are navigating in an uncertain sea. “Few countries have a complete roadmap to zero emissions,” he explains. Something that, according to his experience, makes it more difficult for companies to design short and medium-term plans. “For example, there are companies that have invested in electric vehicles for the delivery of goods and then have seen that the policies to create charging infrastructure were modified in the middle of the transition. This is really difficult to handle,” he maintains.
No greenwashing
For the president of Chapter Zero, it is important to distinguish between companies that practice greenwashing —that abuse ecological marketing or present themselves as sustainable when their activity really does not benefit the environment at all—, those that simply set ambitious objectives that they later fail to achieve. “We held many sessions with managers on how to avoid practices of greenwashing, but it is important that companies set ambitious objectives, even if they do not achieve them 100% later,” he points out. “That’s when they have to be honest, say they haven’t achieved it, and set a new set of goals.”
Baddeley, who speaks the language of the board of directors, responds to the shortcomings he detects with projects: “There are things that will be very difficult to achieve, such as eliminating aviation fuels on a large scale, but there are also research projects underway incredible to replace them.” Of course, he emphasizes that there are only 2,000 days left until 2030 and there is a lot to do: “Even in Europe, which is a true leader in terms of green policy and dissemination, we are far behind.” To conclude, he takes stock of his own initiative: “We are a small but very energetic team and we are already obtaining reports on how our members’ proposals have helped some companies,” he concludes. Since last May, directors and directors from Spain have joined the more than 100,000 members of 70 nationalities that form Chapter Zero.
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