Green is trendy, but not only as a color. With the need to become a sustainable business continuing to increase, it is becoming more important to act and demonstrate green actions. As we have previously explored, sustainability in business has real profitable benefits aside from helping the planet.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that human influence has warmed the climate at a rate that is unprecedented in at least the last 2000 years. The report showed that CO2 concentration is now the highest in 2 million years, sea levels are rising at the fastest rates in 3000 years, arctic sea ice levels are the lowest in 1000 years, and glaciers are retreating at an unprecedented rate in at least 2000 years. In consequence, extreme heat, heavy rainfalls, droughts, and fire weather are more frequent and intense.
“There’s no going back from some changes in the climate system. However, some changes could be slowed and others could be stopped by limiting warming”, says the IPCC. The question is, is it too late, or can sustainability goals and targets be achieved now?
Business Sustainability: Sustainable Development Goals
In 2018, the IPCC reported that emissions of carbon dioxide would need to be cut by 45% by 2030 to keep the rise in global temperatures below 1.5C this century. This pushed many world leaders to act now, with the European Union setting key sustainability targets by 2030. These include at least 40% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and at least 32% share for renewable energy by 2030.
Additionally, the COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference, hosted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), set some ambitious 2030 emissions reductions targets.
What now? Sustainability in Business
Optimizing a business to achieve the 45% savings that the planet needs by 2030 is more achievable than you may think.
The key to achieving such ambitious and necessary goals is to have workforces on board working together and creating peer accountability. By having all teams united with one common goal, workforces can easily connect decision-making with sustainability and make the changes needed.
Experiential learning: the key to mindset changes
Experiential learning and behavioral techniques have been proven to be the most successful method of driving organizational change, as they improve thinking skills and create lasting connections through player engagement and emotional involvement.
Sustainability-focused business simulations and serious games such as GoGreen.Inc use such techniques to train workforces. These training tools and team building activities are designed to change mindsets, as they educate users by showing them the environmental impact that their actions can have.
Using our ESG training game GoGreen.Inc as an example, it improves business skills by allowing participants to deliver the ‘Triple P’ bottom-line: People, Profit & Planet. In the game, teams need to optimize a simulated business that is wasteful and has a negative CO2 impact to become a sustainable organization; all by staying in business and improving profit too.
If you want to know more about learning games and the transformative power of serious games, we invite you to book a demo and learn more during our free insight sessions.