Professor Ross Garnaut refers to climate change as a “diabolical problem” and indeed it is. For every benefit to be delivered there is going to be a cost somewhere. Businesses must now take steps to reduce their carbon footprint, but don’t know where to start. It’s all about coming up with a strategic plan of action, and sticking to it.
With all of the noise around climate change and the lack of clarity we are getting from the top, it’s little wonder that those in small and medium business are left floundering. But, like any complex problem, the best way to attack it is to break it down…it’s like eating an elephant, you need to do it one bite at a time. If you don’t have a planning framework to deal with this kind of problem, you could try this. It’s based on a framework I learn whilst in the military and dealing with strategic planning and has broad application to this kind of issue.
Step 1 – Sit down and work out your situation with team that will solve it with you. Remember this is where you start to show a commitment to this by assigning resources. Perhaps you might be compelled to do something through legislation. Or a partner in your supply chain has a need for you to take some action to help to reduce their carbon footprint. If you don’t do something your competitors will. Putting some discipline into this upfront, will pay off in the long run, because it will help you to understand the actions you need to take.
Step 2 – Develop options that allow you to complete the actions you have identified in Phase 1. How many options you look at will depend on the time and resources you have available, but be careful not to race into the first thing you think of, or what suits you best. The “Do Nothing” option may be worth considering, but remember that in a carbon-constrained world if you do nothing it is by choice and no-one will thank you if things don’t get any better.
Step-3 – Once you have some viable options look at them in a bit of detail. Reworking you production line might seem like a good option, but when you look at cost, risk and the need for change it may well become unworkable very, very quickly. As with anything, your best option is going to be about compromise…there’s no point hitting all your sustainability targets if doing so puts you out of business.
Step 4 – Start building your plan. There might be some iteration about this plan, but you need to think about time, resources and costs with a clear objective in mind.
It all looks pretty simple when you see it like this, but there is time and effort required at every stage whether it is researching your requirements in Step 1 or acquiring and assigning resources in Step 4. The framework is pretty straightforward but you need to make sure you have the governance and resources to make it work for you. We’ll have a look at governance next time around, because without governance any success you have in dealing with climate change is likely to be accidental, and dare I say it, unsustainable.
