Reposted from ISSP Trusted Resources Articles

ISSP Offers Mitigate: Food Loss & Waste Reduction

Reducing Food Waste Is a Huge Opportunity to Reverse Climate Change while Capturing Significant Cost Savings for Your Organization

We throw away a lot of food. Perfectly edible food. Food that takes land, labor, water and energy to produce, package, ship, sell, store, prepare and put on your plate. (Phew, what a sentence!)

Globally, nearly 40% of the food we grow never gets eaten. That loss carries a heavy toll—not just on our economies, but on the planet too. If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, after China and the United States.

The good news? The scale of the problem is matched by the size of the opportunity. Reducing food waste is one of the biggest and most achievable climate solutions there is. In fact, Project Drawdown ranks it at the top . It’s also one of the best ways to help alleviate global hunger.

Few issues intersect so clearly with climate, equity and economics. Fewer still are this solvable.

Systemic change is already underway

National and regional food waste strategies have gained momentum in recent years—many inspired by the UK’s pioneering WRAP initiative. WRAP set the standard for cross-sector collaboration, data sharing and practical tools to reduce food waste at scale.

Other countries have followed suit. The U.S. Food Waste Pact, New Zealand’s Kai Commitment and End Food Waste Australia all build on this model, aligning industry actors around shared goals and proven practices.

Across borders, these efforts reflect a universal truth: systemic change requires collective action.

Systems don’t change on their own. They shift when people shift. And that means each of us—no matter where we work or live—has a meaningful role to play in fighting food waste.

Effective strategies to cut food waste at work

There are proven strategies to minimize and prevent food waste no matter where you work, whether it’s in a field, factory, kitchen or office. Here are five actions every workplace can take:

1. Track what gets tossed—and why. Waste audits or simple tally sheets can uncover patterns, from meal overproduction to poor storage practices.

2. Follow the FIFO method. “First in, first out” systems help ensure older food items are used before newer inventory to avoid unnecessary spoilage. 

3. Right-size portions. Serving smaller portions (with the option for more) dramatically cuts plate waste in restaurant and cafeteria settings.

4. Use or donate what you can. Slightly damaged produce, day-old bread, or excess inventory can often be donated or upcycled instead of thrown in the trash.

5. Educate and engage your team. Employees are in the best position to notice where and why waste happens. Give them the tools to get inspired, share ideas, track improvements, and lead simple challenges to reduce or even eliminate food waste.

Small habits add up at home

Even small shifts at home can make a meaningful difference. Here are a few easy ways to cut food waste in daily life. Many of these climate-friendly hacks are easy on your grocery bill, too:

• Plan meals and shop your fridge first. Know and use what you already have before buying more.

• Understand labels. “Best by” doesn’t mean “bad after.” Trust your judgement.

• Proper food storage is crucial. Knowing how to store food and whether items need to be in the refrigerator, a pantry, or on the counter can make a big difference in its longevity. 

• Get creative with leftovers. Smoothies, soups and stir-fries are great ways to use what’s on hand, including fruits and vegetables that are overripe but still edible.

Want to go deeper? Check out the Mitigate course

If you work in or support the food industry and want to take meaningful action on food waste, there’s a course designed just for you.

Mitigate: A Food Loss & Waste Reduction Course is a practical, self-paced training now available through ISSP. It helps professionals identify where food waste happens—and what to do about it—through expert interviews, real-world case studies and actionable strategies delivered in short videos, fun quizzes, and accessible modules.

The full course includes nine modules covering the entire food system—from farms to households. But if you’re looking for something more tailored, you can also enroll in a short course focused on the sector most relevant to your work—like manufacturing, food service or hospitality.

Developed by TripleWin Advisory based on pioneering interventions for the Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment and the U.S. Food Waste Pact, Mitigate equips individuals and teams to make a measurable impact—cutting costs, improving operations and helping organizations meet their sustainability goals, including Scope 3 emissions, food waste reduction and landfill diversion targets.

You can find the course in the ISSP on-demand course directory.

A future without food waste is possible

We already know what works. We have everything we need to create a future without climate-destabilizing food waste.

This is one of those rare sustainability challenges where the path forward is clear, the benefits are shared and the power to change it is in our hands. Not someday in the future—today. And tomorrow. And the next day, and the day after that. Let’s waste less food, feed more people and create a future we can all feel proud of.

The post Reducing Food Waste Is a Huge Opportunity to Reverse Climate Change while Capturing Significant Cost Savings for Your Organization appeared first on Triple Win Advisory.

ISSP Offers the Cultivate Course

While the focus is personal, the benefits of this course also extend to your professional life. This course builds systems thinking, global awareness, and practical climate literacy—skills that can deepen your impact at work and in your community.

We’re living in a time that calls us to act—not with grand gestures, but with thoughtful, effective steps.

People care. About their families, their communities, the health of the natural world around them. They want to make good choices that leave this painfully gorgeous Earth better than they found it.

But even with the best intentions, navigating sustainability in everyday life can feel overwhelming. What actions actually matter? Am I doing enough?

Confusion and self-doubt can lead to inaction. When our choices feel small or uncertain, it’s easy to wonder whether personal change is even worth it.

The hard part isn’t finding the will; it’s figuring out how to act in ways that make a real difference. And doing this across all the systems that shape our lives: food, energy, transportation, waste, water, and more. And then sustaining that kind of change, even as the world keeps shifting around us.

That’s a lot to ask of anyone. But only when you lack the knowledge and support to guide you on your path.

Here’s a hopeful reminder: The climate crisis is real, but we are not powerless.

As Project Drawdown notes, individual actions—when multiplied across communities—can reduce global emissions by up to 30%. That’s not a side note. That’s a climate solution.

Thus, Al Gore urges us: “Help drive action on the climate crisis, in your workplace, in your community, in your network of contacts and friends, and most importantly in the public policy of the nation, in which you live.”

To be clear: this isn’t about putting the responsibility for climate change on the individual. Regulatory bodies around the world are stepping up to require increased action from industry too. In the U.S., California is driving industry-wide emissions reductions and disclosures. In the EU, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will require some 6,000 businesses across 28 member states to comply starting this year. And these are just two examples. Rather, it’s about empowerment: If you care, then you can do something about it, and find enjoyment in the process.  

Even global frameworks like the Paris Climate Accord depend on individual choices. While the agreement is international, it’s meant to be strengthened from the bottom up—by people who lead by example and call for change. That means each of us plays a role—not in isolation, but as part of a growing, grassroots-driven movement.

We know that real change sticks when it’s tied to what we care about.

If you already know you care about sustainability, then the solution to living your best sustainable life lies in three steps:

Step 1.  Identify the specific values that drive your daily decisions
Step 2.  Discover the most impactful sustainability actions that align with those values
Step 3.  Take those actions using methods that are proven to support sustained behavior change

When we anchor our choices in what already matters to us, we create a sense of purpose that makes change easier to start and more fulfilling to maintain. Our actions become expressions of our identity, not obligations on a to-do list.

Until now, there hasn’t been a single resource that helps you do all three. You can find tools to clarify your values, content that lists high-impact climate actions, or tips for living more sustainably. But do any of them connect the dots—linking your values to meaningful actions and supporting you in making those changes stick?

A new resource to guide you—now available through ISSP.

That’s where Cultivate: Personal Sustainability for Professional Growth comes in. This self-paced, 10-module course is designed to support you through all three steps of sustainable behavior change:

Step 1. The course begins by helping you reflect on what motivates you most—whether that’s saving money, improving your health, supporting your community, or caring for nature. These “sustainability value drivers” help you clarify which types of sustainability actions will feel most rewarding and personally meaningful.

Step 2. Each module focuses on a different area of personal impact—travel, food, energy, waste, water, and more—and highlights science-backed actions that drive real environmental benefits. You’ll learn which behaviors matter most, and how they intersect with your values and lifestyle.

Step 3. You won’t just learn what to do—you’ll do it. Cultivate guides you in building a personalized sustainability action plan, then supports you in putting that plan into motion mid-course. Pre- and post-course assessments help track your progress and keep you motivated. In one company-led cohort, participants reported an estimated 43% reduction in carbon emissions and a 69% drop in water use.

How to get started.

Cultivate: Personal Sustainability for Professional Growth is now live in the ISSP on-demand course directory. It’s flexible, accessible, and designed for a global audience. You can complete the full 10-module journey or start with a topic that resonates—like energy, food, or water. Each module includes multimedia lessons, expert insights, and self-reflection activities that make the learning process engaging and meaningful.

And while the focus is personal, the benefits of this course also extend to your professional life. This course builds systems thinking, global awareness, and practical climate literacy—skills that can deepen your impact at work and in your community.

So whether you’re new to sustainability or an experienced sustainability professional, this course offers a clear, inspiring path forward. Check out Cultivate on the ISSP website today!

The post ISSP Offers the Cultivate Course appeared first on Triple Win Advisory.

Carbon accounting is the process by which a company quantifies the carbon emissions from its business in order to understand its environmental impact. It is a look back at a company’s emissions footprint from the previous fiscal year.

Terminology

It’s important to clarify terms, since technical details can get confusing fast.

Carbon accounting is also known as a carbon inventory or greenhouse inventory.

The word “carbon” is an umbrella term for atmospheric gasses that are driving the climate crisis, also known as “greenhouse gasses.” These two terms are used interchangeably. But  carbon is just easier to say.

In a carbon inventory, seven greenhouse gasses are quantified:

• CO2: Carbon Dioxide
• CH4: Methane
• N2O: Nitrous Oxide
• HFCs: Hydrofluorocarbons
• PFCs: Perfluorocarbons
• SF6: Sulfur hexafluoride
• NF3: Nitrogen trifluoride

Organizational boundaries and emissions scopes

Most carbon inventories follow the accounting framework of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, which separates sources of emissions into three categories: Scopes 1, 2, and 3.

Scope 1: are emissions from owned (or controlled) assets such as company-owned vehicles, trucking fleets, private jets, offices and buildings. These are called “direct” emissions because they are produced from owned assets that combust fossil fuels. 

Scope 2: are emissions from energy purchased from, say, a utility to be consumed by your company in the course of doing business. Think: electricity, heat and cooling systems.  These are “indirect” emissions because the company does not generate the energy itself, but uses it.

Scope 3: are emissions that occur in your company’s value chain, both upstream and downstream. Think: business travel and employee commuting, purchased goods (manufacturing and non-manufacturing) and services (legal, marketing, consulting), delivery of raw materials to be manufactured, as well as distribution of goods to markets to be sold. Every type of activity that occurs in the course of doing business, except for those defined in Scope 1 and 2, falls into this very large bucket. In fact, Scope 3 breaks down further into fifteen of its own categories, as shown in the graphic below.

Motivations, goals and outcomes of conducting a carbon inventory

Completing a carbon inventory is not uniform across all industries or sectors. No two carbon inventories look exactly the same. For example, no company will calculate all 15 categories of Scope 3 emissions; each company will calculate only the Scope 3 categories that are relevant to their business and operations.

The motivations, goals and outcomes of completing a carbon inventory also vary widely.

Common motivations and goals:

• Comply with climate disclosure regulations, including California bills SB 253 and SB 261 in the U.S. and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in the EU
• Set and pursue net-zero emissions targets (“what get measured gets managed”)
• Identify opportunities to streamline operations, create new revenue streams, and differentiate the company’s brand
• Meet stakeholder expectations and manage reputational risk

Common outputs or outcomes:

• Including emissions data in a company ESG or impact report
• Declaring metrics to reporting agencies such as CDP
• Disclosing data in SEC filings
• Identifying, executing, and monitoring the most impactful emissions reduction initiatives
• Scenario plan pathways for decarbonizing (moving away from fossil fuel use) operations
• Guide the purchase of carbon offset and/or removal credits

Start your carbon inventory with TripleWin

As a Silver Accredited Service Provider for CDP, TripleWin helps companies improve their environmental disclosures and guide their sustainability strategy from start to finish. We perform carbon inventories for companies of all sizes, public and private, across a host of industries, with a focus on U.S. based companies and multinational affiliates. 

Ready to start a conversation about conducting your company’s carbon inventory? Contact us.

The post A Brief Carbon Inventory Primer appeared first on Triple Win Advisory.

Food waste is a major contributor to carbon emissions globally.

In fact, it is ranked by Project Drawdown as the fourth most important solution for tackling the climate crisis. 

Shockingly, nearly 40% of all food produced each year is lost or spoiled before it’s able to be consumed. Solving the 1.3 billion tons of food wasted globally could end world hunger and feed up to 3 billion people!

Cutting global food waste in half by 2030 is a key goal of the United Nations and is reflected in its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the world through Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. This Goal is focused on combating waste across all points in the food system value chain, including at the retail and consumer levels; along production, transportation, and distribution channels; and at crop harvesting time.

No matter where food is wasted, the resources used to produce that food are squandered as well.

Such resources include land and freshwater to grow the crops, as well as energy, labor, and financial resources to harvest, process, and transport the food to market. To make matters worse, wasted food goes into a landfill—where it rots, emitting 3 billion tons of powerful greenhouse gases each and every year!

It is hard to fathom just how much food is wasted annually. Imagine that all the food that’s wasted in the United States were grown in one place, say on a “mega-farm.” That mega-farm would cover roughly 80 million acres, or over 75% of the entire state of California!

In your business:

• Educate your employees on how and why food waste is important so they can take action at every level. Have them watch this Food Waste Education video to learn more about how the minimization of food waste supports climate change mitigation.

• Conduct a Food Waste Audit in your organization to see where waste is happening, what actions you can take to reduce waste, and what resources you can leverage to support your goals. Look at every food activity from catering, to your break room leftovers, to waste generated from your procurement practices. Catalog food waste reduction ideas on a spreadsheet and rate them by how easy they are to implement and how meaningful they are in reducing total tons of food waste at your company.

• Launch a food waste challenge that leverages the passion and ideas of all your employees. What would that look like? Take a look at this food waste reduction challenge that TripleWin Advisory conducted with Bob’s Red Mill in their manufacturing facility. How can you create something similar and appropriate for your business? Making sure your employees understand why food waste reduction is important is critical to a successful outcome and a continuous improvement mindset. Set a goal for generating ideas and try offering small incentives to keep people engaged and motivated.

• Do you have a plan for dealing with leftover usable food? Retailers can look into partnerships such as Too Good To Go. If you are not a retailer, research local shelters to partner with that would gladly take your perfectly edible, leftover food.

• Take one more step before the landfill. If you have large-scale food scraps, find a farm that would be happy to use them to support its productive soils or feed livestock. Make composting available and label it clearly. Depending on where you are located in Oregon and what type of business you have, there are these composting services you can use. 

In your home:

Everyone can do something to eliminate food waste, no matter who they are or where they live. Use the guide below to incorporate smart food waste reduction strategies at home and with your family.

1. Purchasing: Have a plan when you go to the store so you only buy what you need and what you’ll use.

2. Storing: Learn how and where to store your food to keep it fresh longer. You can extend the life of your most perishable products (fresh produce) by following this guide.

3. Best By Dates: No, you do not have to toss out items on the exact date printed on the label. Learn how to distinguish a food safety’s guidelines. More than 80% of Americans discard perfectly good food because they misunderstand expiration dates. Also, keep your refrigerator and pantry organized so you can see and rotate these items so they don’t get lost.

4. Get Creative: This is the fun part. Play Top Chef and see what you can create before heading out to the store. Have just a few vegetables rolling around the produce drawer? Make a healthy soup or stir fry before they go bad. You’ll cook more creatively and save money along the way!

5. Embrace Composting:  Cut greenhouse gas emissions by saving those scraps from landfill. If you don’t have curbside composting, see what other options are available to use those scraps to enrich your garden or your community’s soils.

The post Taking on Food Waste climate action at work and home appeared first on Triple Win Advisory.

The reason I founded TripleWin Advisory was to effect transformational change within businesses in order to stop and reverse climate change and industry’s contribution to it. The work I do at TripleWin and for our clients is meaningful and impactful. I’m deeply passionate about what we do and the reasons for doing it. A significant part of my efforts is dedicated to educating others on the value and importance of deep sustainability adoption. I live stakeholder capitalism. I give primacy to stakeholder inclusion. My role in speaking to companies and working with the individuals that bring businesses ‘alive’, is to build agency and to empower action that is self-directed, purposeful and profound. My forthcoming book, Planting a Seed, 3 simple steps to sustainable living, is an homage to stakeholders everywhere — in life and in work. They are our sustainable future; our much needed agents of change. Read more about my thoughts for writing Planting a Seed…

Plant Seeds to feed your future.

Planting a Seed, 3 simple steps to sustainable living. That’s the title of my forthcoming book. I wrote the book to be a living, breathing thing. Well, not ‘breathing’ in the exact sense we typically think of as drawing in and expelling air. And not ‘living’ in the sense that it is something that possesses sentience. These are the aspects of human experience; of animal experience. Planting a Seed is a compilation of living (“alive”) ideas that are intended to breathe greater understanding and inspiration in you to see the worth, value and enrichment sustainability can bring to your life today and all the days to come.

The Climate crisis weighs heavily upon us.

Planting a Seed is timely. It asks you to gather up all your fear, concern and knowledge of climate change and the impacts of extreme weather that are roiling our world and changing our planet in ways that are unprecedented, chaotic, and disruptive; and invites you to channel that big bundle of uncertainty into sustainable action. Not just action for action’s-sake but meaningful, directed, purpose-filled initiatives. I’m asking you in Planting a Seed to change: the decisions you make, the behaviors you’ve shaped, the life you enjoy in ways that align with your values and sustain the Earth.

Sustainability Is a personal choice: self-directed and individualized.

Here is where the accessibility of my book comes into play. Becoming sustainable feels like a big task but there are a lot of little steps you can take to get there.  This roadtrip, journey, adventure, experiment, even, is a trip we all will need to take. Know you are among a like-minded community. By employing a mindset filled with curiosity, openness, and receiving, Planting a Seed guides you in mapping out the best sustainable path for your life and your family.

Be Open to seeing the world with new eyes.

The book is alive because it really is both a reference and guide for sparking a sense of empowerment deep inside each of us that if it could speak, would say, “I matter.  I am a force for good. I can move mountains with my intentions and actions.” This book is my humble house-warming gift to you. You’ve invited me into your home, into your life to convene together. The gift of “we matter”. In appreciation, I bring for you an heirloom seed, potted in soil and water, on the cusp of germination and growth. That seed is an idea; a tightly bound bundle of potential energy just waiting to be watered, cared for and coaxed into fruition. All it needs is a little tending to by you. With anything new in our life, we must get used to its presence; understand its place, spatially, in the context of our living. This seed that is meant to grow into a plant needs your attention, consideration and action. From the care we provide, it rewards us with its natural beauty. Other benefits accrue in ways we scarcely register like breathing cleaner air, feeling more productive, and exhibiting less stress.

Sustainability Is the idea of flourishing in a world that sustains you and you it.

So it is with sustainability. Living sustainably—in harmony with Earth and all its multitude of amazing species—bestows both obvious and a deep reservoir of hidden benefits to each of us. Sustainability is an idea to be internalized and cultivated; a way of living that is enriching; a new perspective that is holistic and inclusive; and our path to a world that is mutually up lifting. As we learn to respect nature for the gifts it provides both known and unknown; the growth of that recognition enriches us personally.

Hope, Vision and action is a winning sustainability strategy.

I wrote Planting a Seed, 3 steps to sustainable living because the world is getting scarier and feels more chaotic and out of control than anytime in the last half century. There is so much negativity out there; doom-and-gloom. It’s depressing. We need inspiration to be truly resilient. When we feel depressed, we lack the personal reserves to lift ourselves up, let alone others: family, friends, neighbors, communities, and nations. I choose to live with hope and marry it with clear-eyed vision, a well-developed strategy, aspirational but absolutely attainable goals, a good dose of persistence, and above all, action. I wrote this book to entice as many others with me along this lifelong journey called sustainability. Because sustainability is both a journey, a destination and a way of living. There is hope! Be hopeful. Then, bundle all that hopefulness deep inside yourself and use it as your energy reserves for the days, months and years ahead. Now, get going on your sustainability journey to a life and world that is flourishing!

The post Why I wrote “Planting A Seed” appeared first on Triple Win Advisory.

Companies cannot realize business circularity without systems change.

A Circular Manufacturing Supply Chain

Systems change requires a multitude of transformations that include (but is not exhaustive) reverse logistics capabilities, service models for manufacturers, carbon pricing, producer regulations, new commodity markets for materials as well as the more integral aspects of how organizations operate and supply chains flow. Material is at the heart of most sustainable changes. In order to begin the process of thinking like a sustainable company, organizations have to begin asking the questions that are material to their stakeholders – employees, customers, suppliers, investors; uncover their key areas of concern; build a sustainability plan that incorporates those concerns and works towards mitigating them; and be transparent about impacts to their business models and supply chains both perceived, real and probable – even if transparency requires to state both good and ‘need for better’ progress. Material in corporate sustainability asks organizations to ask questions such as:

Material Ideas in Corporate Sustainability

• What is material to disclose?
• What is of material concern to stakeholders?
• What material is used?
• Where is material sourced?
• How much material is flowing through the system?
• In what way is material in products viewed?
• How is material consumed?
• What kinds of material can be revalorized?
  
  

Below you’ll find the eight ‘Material’ terms listed above mapped to their appropriate definitions.  Do they all make sense? Has your company pursued these corporate sustainability initiatives yet?

Work TripleWin Advisory Performs

TripleWin supports organizational work in several Material areas.  Learn more about what we do and how it applies to your sustainable business needs.  Our work is innovative, compelling and data-driven; just like our corporate clients.

TripleWin Advisory develops sustainable business cases and supports strategic decision-making through value-chain mapping and Scope 3 inventories of companies’ greenhouse gas emissions. In so doing, it unlocks opportunities for greater profitability, relevancy, and longevity for businesses. Learn more.

The post What’s the Deal with Material? appeared first on Triple Win Advisory.

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Employees and customers are your most ardent brand ambassadors. Stay relevant by providing your stakeholders with opportunities to fight climate change.

We’re in a climate bind. Global warming is causing major havoc around the world. Almost every day we face news of floods, droughts, water shortages, and wildfires. These events cause real economic disruption, job productivity loss, health concerns, and threats to human life.

People are not just concerned; they are in despair at the pace of the impacts of climate change on their communities. A majority of Americans see climate change as a huge problem in need of solutions. Simultaneously, most believe “there is little they can do on a personal level to mitigate climate change” themselves. Yet, Millennials are the swelling outliers. A recent Yale report showed that 20- to 30-year-olds prioritize action around global warming. They feel empowered to take action but need the tools to be effective in their sustainability efforts.

And guess what: those millennials are your employees and customers. In sustainability speak, they are your key stakeholders; in marketing speak, they are your most valuable and ardent brand ambassadors. It would serve every organization well to acknowledge their concerns, prioritize them and enable action through educational tool-building. If dismissed, their climate concerns fester, eroding trust and confidence in the companies they work for and purchase from, leading to both short- and long-term reputational repercussions.

Everyone can Mitigate Climate Change

Here’s the good news. Everyone has the power to make changes that support climate change mitigation in meaningful, measurable, and actionable ways. Sustainably committed companies and consciously aware individuals both know that sustainability is not merely about making better consumer choices; it’s about fundamentally reducing our carbon footprint across the breadth of our “span of control.”

What individuals need—and what companies can provide through educational workshops—is a framework for laying out an approach to enacting sustainable measures in their personal and professional lives. From that framework, individuals can build a custom checklist of sustainable strategies. This becomes a daily “to-do” list, whether it is tracked mentally or physically stuck to a refrigerator to chart the progress made and goals completed. Individuals start by understanding the “levers” they can pull and the scale and level of change they are willing to support and acknowledging the drivers that commit them to action.

Calling all sustainably-minded companies! Follow the decision framework below to support your stakeholders—your brand ambassadors—in building their personal sustainability muscle.

Know the Impacts

First, KNOW the impact areas where individuals have significant control over sustainable decision-making.

• Home dwelling: Size of structure; heating and cooling systems; roofing and insulation choices; and renovation and deconstruction considerations.
• Private property: Use of land, lawn, and permeable surfaces.
• Food consumption: Purchase of local and organic non-GMO produce free of antibiotics and steroids; reduction of animal protein.
• Material consumption: Sustainable and recycled material in clothing, footwear, furniture, and houseware; hard durables and shopping frequency.
• Energy use: Efficiency and utilization of appliances and personal devices, alternative lighting, and renewable energy sources.
• Water use: Efficiency and reuse, water-wise planting, and xeriscaping.
• Trash/waste: Repair, reuse, recycle, and compost.
• Travel: Mode of transportation and/or vehicle type.
• Local biodiversity: Native plantings, chemical use avoidance, and supporting community supported agriculture (CSA).

Understand Motivating Drivers

Second, UNDERSTAND what motivates individuals to build sustainability measures in their lives to:

• Save money.
• Live a healthier lifestyle.
• Better care for the environment.
• Support a vibrant community/local economy.

Once individuals identify their primary driver(s), sustainability measures can be aggregated and pursued. For example, if saving money is a primary driver of sustainable action, the subset of measures to pursue could include:

• Replacing all light bulbs in their home with LED lighting.
• Installing high-efficiency appliances to manage water and energy reductions.
• Utilizing a heat pump to heat and cool their home.
• Leasing or purchasing an electric vehicle (EV).

A similar set of sustainability measures can be compiled if individuals find that their primary driver is supporting a healthy environment. Consider the following:

• Composting all food waste.
• Using only natural pesticides and fertilizers for lawn and houseplants.
• Purchasing only man-made and/or recycled textiles.
• Growing a garden to cut grocery bill expenses; selling excess produce at farmers market.

Decide Commitment Level

Third, help individuals DECIDE the level of commitment they are ready to make that supports climate change mitigation. Commitments can be small, medium or large or anything within that range. Small measures have less of an impact on reducing carbon emissions than large ones, but both have beneficial effects. Driving a hybrid (small commitment) versus an EV (medium commitment) has less of an impact on carbon emission reductions, but both are more beneficial than blind loyalty to driving a combustion-engine vehicle. The same goes for skipping meat in a meal once a week (small) versus eating no meat (large); both are beneficial, but the latter is has a greater impact on reducing carbon emissions throughout the entire food chain.

Each scale of action requires a change in how individuals approach their daily activities as well as a financial investment in how they source and use resources.

Commit to Change

Fourth, reinforce the message that individuals must COMMIT to necessary changes in how they operate their lives. Measures that support personal resiliency to climate change require individuals to rethink and re-prioritize:

• Habits: How one unconsciously gets tasks done (e.g., 3-minute vs. 15-minute shower).
• Processes: The approach for completing necessary life tasks on a daily, weekly and monthly basis (e.g., commuting by public transportation or by bike).
• Financial commitments: Investment in technological innovations (e.g., LED bulbs, EV batteries, photovoltaic (PV) solar panels) that afford individuals the ability to do more with less, use alternative non-polluting energies, or reduce resource waste.

Sustainable Muscle Built to Last

Climate change mitigation requires individuals to understand all their options, determine personal incentives, identify resources, and map a plan that is clear, actionable and measurable. The framework above helps individuals codify a new system of operating that supports a sustainable way of living that is both unconscious and natural.

Companies that prioritize their stakeholders’ concerns see the results of those efforts. For organizations, this translates into a more committed, engaged, productive, and satisfied workforce that seeks to promote a company brand and its products. Today’s economic environment increasingly emphasizes a social and environmental imperative for brands, no matter what industry they serve. For individuals, sustainable knowledge builds confidence in their ability to take action and get results from the sustainability tools employed across the spectrum of their lives. Investing in your employees’ sustainability journey sends a strong signal to stakeholders that committing to a purpose and living purposefully are one and the same.

Kate Gaertner

Kate Gaertner is the founder & CEO of TripleWin Advisory, a corporate consultancy dedicated to helping companies pursue circular operations and net-neutral carbon goals across their business value chain. She marries her 20 years of experience working in and consulting to Fortune 500 companies with her entrepreneurial acumen running an apparel manufacturing company, to her corporate sustainability work supporting stakeholder engagement, strategic business case development and business transformation initiatives.

The post Stay Relevant: Building Sustainability into Your Brand appeared first on Triple Win Advisory.

The goal of carbon accounting is for businesses to adopt target reduction goals for their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  We can only track what we measure.  To get to the point of setting carbon reduction goals, companies need to establish an emissions trend line. Makes sense.  A company needs to know whether its GHG emissions are increasing or declining over time. To develop a trend line, at least two points of data need to be available to plot the progression of corporate emissions.

SETTING A BASELINE

Before any GHG reduction targets can be set, a company must set a carbon baseline.  Specifically, a baseline year represents the initial level of greenhouse gas emissions for a company against which all future carbon inventories are compared.  Think of a company’s baseline as business stasis by which future efforts to pursue energy efficiencies, technology upgrades, process changes, and product design innovations are measured.  Ideally, efforts made by a company to decarbonize and resource optimize will reflect declining carbon totals from a baseline year equating to “progress made”. 

Setting a baseline year is arbitrary.  Some public companies and many nations and trading blocs such as the EU-15, use the year 1990, a baseline emissions year established by the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. Most companies set their baselines to a year when either their first carbon inventory was conducted or when the confidence level in the available data was high and the carbon accounting data, complete. 

“STRUCTURAL CHANGE” RECALCULATIONS

Just as baseline years from company to company are non-standard, they can be also relative. Guidance from the GHG Protocol requires baseline recalculations when “structural changes” occur for a company.  Some of the more typical structural changes include a new company acquisition or business unit divestment.  Years in which companies register unusual drops in carbon inventory totals due to an acute economic contraction, such as during the 2007-2009 Great Recession, can arguably be considered exogenous structural changes that warrant baseline recalculations as well.

With Covid-19 we are experiencing a virtual halt in economic activity worldwide.  This crisis will register as a period of significant reductions in GHG emissions worldwide. Business baseline year recalculations are in order.

THE RELEVANCE OF COVID-19

We should acknowledge that the novel coronavirus poses an incredible health threat to human populations.  And, it will inflict lasting damage on national economies.  The number of small business deaths will be shocking.  Individuals will remain fearful of infection until a vaccine is identified and rolled-out en masse.  Understandably, this apprehension will tamp down consumer demand for non-essential goods for several years to come.  A more relaxed version of social distancing will be the de facto norm over the medium-term as individuals pursue activities such as shopping, recreation, and travel in their everyday lives while seeking to avoid contracting the virus.

SERENDIPITY & THE CORONAVIRUS

By most accounts, the “time of Covid-19” is terrible:  uncertain, scary, prolonged, disruptive and isolating.  And we remain squarely in the middle of it with little ability to maneuver forward or wiggle free of the economic malaise.  As Ram Dass might say, we are living this moment, right here, right now.  Without discounting our concentric circles of pain:  job losses, disappearing cash flows, halted economies, and lack of clarity or uniformity for how to re-open communities, there remain spots of good news and useful learnings to be applied. This author’s ask is for businesses to acknowledge the data and synthesize it into their strategic business planning. 

CLEARER SKIES, CLEANER AIR

One major environmental outcome from the novel coronavirus is clearer skies and better air quality from reduced carbon emissions into the atmosphere.  In Los Angeles where 80% of its air pollution is caused by transportation-related emissions, the air is so clear and smog-free that people are enjoying views of the coastline, long obscured by pollution, anew.  Aclima, a California-based company that studies local air quality, studied greenhouse gas emissions levels in San Francisco for a two week period in March (9^th– 20^th, exempting weekends) as compared to three prior years and noted that total CO₂ levels were down 10% and nitrous oxide (N₂O),emitted from combusting vehicle engines, was down a whopping 56%.  On the other side of the world, NASA reported China’s N₂O levels for March were down 30% from prior years.  More stunningly, a CarbonBrief study concluded that China’s CO₂ levels were cut 25% because of the impact from coronavirus.  The near complete halt on daily commutes and reliance on telecommuting for work has had a dramatic effect on local air particulates that contribute to climate change. 

MAJOR CARBON REDUCTIONS

There is an opportunity to be seized here.  Before the current administration decided to announce the United States’ withdrawal from The Paris Climate Accord (COP21), America had set itself a target to cut emissions at least 26 percent by 2025 and to target 80 percent emissions reductions by 2050.  For China, the largest GHG emitting country in the world contributing 27% of the world’s carbon emissions, having it meet a leveling in its national CO₂ emissions before 2030 would be a welcome achievement.   Significantly, Covid-19 has been a catalyst for measurably impactful climate change mitigation.  Without discounting the individual and economic toll the virus is exacting on thousands of communities nationwide, can we consider adjusting our business sites to a middle-view and incorporate this opportunity to recalibrate our carbon inventory baselines?

As a business community, we can take a proactive stance to set new carbon baselines using early 2020 GHG emissions numbers.  During this economic pause, all kind and manner of scenario planning, business pivots, new product innovations, work process digitalization, and supply chain agility work is occurring.  Businesses are developing strategic plans for how to navigate this quiet time and push the start button when national and state policymakers decide to wave the checkered flag signaling an economic reboot.  None of these plans are a continuation of existing ones, pre-March 2020.  These planning iterations are not to get business back to “normal”, but to set a course forward in consideration of a new normal.

GETTING BACK TO NORMAL

Are we craving for business to “get back to normal”? Yes, we are.  It’s an understandable desire: to fall back on the known, the expected, and to rely on the processes and systems that were in place to guide business decision-making, set strategy, and meet the demands of the marketplace.  There is comfort in talking about ‘business as usual’.  It connotes that the business of business is important, life is productive, and the world as we know it has a relative sense of certainty and order. 

The problem though is that our way of operating, up to this point, has become anachronistic, if not entirely unrealistic. The existence of climate change began the (invisible) march of death for industry’s linear, neo-classical, negative externality-dependent, extractive material throughput, economic production model.  The growing threat of climate change to global supply chains; human-dependent natural resources; and economic and human productivity levels has revealed the mirage we view as success and well-being.   It feels more comfortable to fall back to a known way of operating, than to embrace change, which requires a new way of doing, being, measuring and goal-setting.  And yet, here we are in a moment when the time before now is gone, irrevocably altered. 

A NEW NORMAL

We are operating in unchartered territory.  The acute economic crisis we continue to face with Covid-19 is going to wane in the coming months but not entirely disappear until a vaccine is readily available for human populations.  This is not a “V” curve recovery.  It’s not even a long “U” shaped one, like that of a bathtub where we could expect a drawn-out period of economic silence with a medium-term recovery that is quick and back to pre-coronavirus levels.  No, what the financial analysts at JP Morgan are predicting is more of a “W” shaped curve of recovery.  We should expect iterations of economic productivity alongside retractions that could last a half-decade or more.  The world economies are not going to snap back into action.  The system of global value chains and corporate interdependencies has gone dark.  Similar to a manufacturing facility, rebooting the economy will be a process, often slow, requiring re-calibrations, and process dependent. 

These are not normal times.  In fact, they are extraordinary.  Unprecedented.  For the foreseeable future, the landscape ahead will be new and unchartered. 

This author is asking businesses, in consideration of that reality, to recalibrate their expectations of:

• how they should operate,
• what products and services will be offered,
• how employees will engage, and
• in what ways will consumers be serviced?

A NEW BUSINESS BASELINE

In this new normal can, nay, will businesses set a new baseline for what it means to be market-driven, carbon neutral, purpose-driven, multi-stakeholder serving entities?  Can companies embrace the silver-lining of this acute economic crisis?  That from disruption can rise business transformations that are economically-viable, environmentally-stabilizing, and socially, equity-enhancing?

Here is the opportunity:  to take the “progress” of steep carbon reductions seen across the globe, in Italy, China, the U.S. and other nations, place them in context (that it was simultaneously driven by economic shut-downs (not good) and telecommuting workforces (good)), and map a strategic business plan that uses those GHG totals as a baseline for future carbon emissions reductions for businesses across all industries and sectors.  What business transformations would that new carbon inventory downward trend line require as economies re-open and businesses start producing goods and services for the market?   Applying a rubric to our decision-making may aid our thought-process.

CARBON EMISSIONS REDUCTION RUBRIC

First, identify the carbon benefits (economic, societal, environmental) that have materialized from the continued Covid-19 crisis.  Determine what to keep and to develop further, as business assets or standard processes.  Examples of benefits could be product innovations like digitalized product and service offerings, as well as a predominate telecommuting workforce.

Second, look back to the time before the coronavirus and aggregate the sustainability initiatives that had merit but were deemed hard to implement or for which it was difficult to identify a short-or-medium-run path forward.  One example of this could be sourcing a majority of one’s energy from renewable energy sources.  Think outside the box.  Consider the installation of a solar microgrid or the implementation of a community solar array, where both the investment expense and energy savings are shared across a community.  Another example is to take the leap and conduct a full carbon inventory for your business, to suss out areas of quick energy efficiencies, new technology deployments, and operational process changes that fundamentally make a company smarter and more attractive to investors and consumers alike.       

Third, chart a sustainable path forward, not in parallel to your business goals, but embedded within them.  The embrace of business sustainability imparts competitive advantage.  There are cost savings to be realized, increased access to capital driven by socially- and environmentally-conscious investors, swelling brand ambassadorship by employees, sustained consumer loyalty, and long-lasting product differentiation. 

A TREND LINE OF BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION

Climate change impacts to your business and value chain are material.  Just as 100-year floods are occurring yearly in some parts of the U.S., and wildfires have become year-long “phenomena” in dryer, windier climates; acute economic crises brought on by Covid-19 and extreme weather events driven by global warming, are not one-and-done occurrences.  There lies opportunity in this moment. As we rejigger our businesses to come-out from under coronavirus, simultaneously, we can transform how we operate in support of significant corporate carbon reductions and a sustainable future by:

• driving deep energy efficiencies within our operations,
• sourcing near-100% renewable energy,
• developing processes and standards that reinforce carbon minimization within the value chain,
• dematerializing and revalorizing materials within the supply chain, and
• embracing a circular business model that for product companies means, developing a service-model to manufacturing.

This is a key moment for companies to double-down on their carbon mitigation goals and set a new baseline for business ‘normal’.  This author hopes that’s a trend every business can get behind. 

TripleWin Advisory develops sustainable business cases and supports strategic decision-making through value-chain mapping and Scope 3 inventories of companies’ greenhouse gas emissions. In so doing, it unlocks opportunities for greater profitability, relevancy, and longevity for businesses. Learn more.        

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