Sustainability, a term we see passed several times a day in media, but has a different meaning for many people. What does sustainability mean to you?
The energy transition has been going on for several years. It is now quite normal to put solar panels on our roofs and, with rising energy prices, it also provides a now profitable business case. For many people, sustainability means making energy more sustainable and thus avoiding the use of fossil fuels that emit CO2 emissions and thus cause climate change. Not that CO2 emissions in themselves are harmful, but the amount of emissions our society emits while reducing nature’s capacity to convert this into oxygen creates an imbalance. As a result, we need to reduce emissions on the one hand and allow nature to recover. At Eneco, I found the position of frontrunner very inspiring, but as manager of Corporate Control, I also saw the financial challenges in doing so at company level. How long do you continue investing in a new technology, where you don’t know if it will ever become profitable? How do you build a balanced portfolio, where you know that when the sun shines (solar energy) it usually doesn’t blow so hard (wind energy). You want to do both to provide continuity. Not every technology is as mature, out of teething stages and affordable. Quite apart from the fact that, as an organisation, you cannot deploy this alone, such a transition. You need customers, market partners and investors, banks and insurers to colour the financial picture. All parties you need to bring along.
Next step after energy transition
Energy transition alone is not enough to reduce our CO2 emissions and restore nature. We also use a lot of raw materials. Having studied the circular economy in recent years, I see it as the next step after energy transition. The circular economy is all about the conscious use of raw materials, design of products modular, repairable and focused on a long lifespan, using the use phase as intensively as possible and for as long as possible. When a product is no longer needed, it goes to another user, when a product is broken, we will repair it first. If it is really no longer possible, we will recycle, to make similar products again. If this is fully successful, we will have a closed system, where new raw materials are no longer needed. To achieve this, we ask organisations to redefine their position in the value chain. Today’s value chains are very complex and then if you have recyclable raw materials, are we going to take them to China because that’s where our production facilities are? That doesn’t make sense, so with this development comes more local thinking and regional solutions for raw material reuse and production. As a country, the Netherlands is too small for much production, but on a European scale, a lot could change here. We need this step in sustainability to eventually meet our zero emission goals in 2050 as Europe and the Netherlands.
How do you begin such a journey towards sustainable impact? By working from a strategy, by learning in practice with partners from your value chain or beyond. Want to know more about this approach? Feel free to get in touch, Road2Impact can help you with this.
Diane Zandee
