COVID-19 and the Climate Crisis: A Deathly yet Life-changing Cocktail

Written in collaboration with @EmilyWei

Let’s set the scene.

It's a hot, summer day. You, let’s call you Homo Sapiens, head to your favorite cocktail bar down the street - an elegant yet chic bar perfect for people watching - with the most unique concoctions. The drink of the week is a fruity take on the classic gin and tonic, but today you get your favorite: a pure old-fashioned. You watch as Joe, the bartender, plops in a perfectly square ice cube, pours the bourbon like a waterfall, dashes a handful of Angostura bitters, and adds an orange twist on top.

But there's a problem. You don't just drink one - you buy another and another, and before you know it, it's your 10th drink and you blackout…like every night before. You know binge drinking isn't good for you, you have a slight notion that you might be addicted, but you still do it. This summer evening is different though. This time, you’re hospitalized. 

You're frozen in a coma for 2 months. All your family and friends are worried, but gradually, with IVs pumping vitamins and glucose into your bloodstream, oxygen therapy… you get better. When you wake up, the doctor warns vehemently to cut down on the drinking - as he has many times before. He discharges you with supplements (with warnings attached left and right that you have to wean yourself from your addiction and change your habits now). You leave the hospital feeling like you’re able to carry on with ‘normal life’ again, unscathed. You scoff at all the warning labels and think the doctor is overreacting. Before the week is over, you’re face-to-face with another drink. You pause for a moment. But the drink is calling you. Instead of turning away you just add more mixer to dilute the problem. You rationalize to yourself, “It's less alcohol, right?” 

Wrong.

The true solution comes from greater, systematic changes: investing time and effort into resources by participating in peer support groups, reaching out to family and friends for support, making dietary changes, removing potential triggers in your life, adopting better habits…and, if you want the most impact, doing this all at the same time.

Today, we are facing our own ‘coma’, albeit much deadlier and economically frightening. The COVID-19 pandemic has put a pause on society, and for good reason. COVID-19 is not to be taken lightly - as of today’s date, there are a reported 912,000 cases and 45,000 deaths worldwide, millions unemployed, and those in Level 1 and 2 economies without a home or way to survive. Yet, despite global fear and anxiety, this pandemic is also a time to reset and renew - a beacon of light to remind us of what truly matters, including family, friends, and time spent cherishing the natural world. As we work to get through and move past this ‘coma’ that is COVID-19, we also need to factor in and solve for our society’s underlying addiction, one that scientists have been warning us about, incessantly, for a century: our addiction to fossil fuels, and the resulting climate crisis. Pouring just a tinge of eco-friendly mixer into the drink isn’t a solution. There needs to be drastic changes by all players in order to truly tackle the biggest issue at hand for today and future generations.

Let’s take a step back. 

COVID-19 is not the only phenomenon capable of keeping us isolated in our homes. If we continue business as usual, the IPCC forecasts that soaring temperatures, coupled with high humidity will prevent us from being able to work or even just spend time outdoors. Warmer global temperatures will also spread a number of diseases, like malaria. With malaria seen to reproduce 10x faster for every degree increase in temperature, being outside to conduct our day-to-day activities may quickly become another hazard, even in places that have no prior record of malaria. 

This is not to mention other calamities - increased water stress, more extreme and frequent natural disasters, sea level rise. These will all slowly erode and upend business as usual. There is no doubt such stressors will cause a breakdown in the economy, another precipitous drop in the markets, just like what we’re only beginning to glimpse due to COVID-19. Except, imagine, unlike for COVID-19, there is no vaccine for the climate crisis. No silver bullet or singular fix that can cure a nation or a global society, hanging tantalizingly on the horizon. With the climate crisis, the only solution is to make many structural, large-scale changes, quickly and simultaneously so that we never have to get to a point where we see society as we know it collapse.

Before we get to solutions, what are some of the main reasons governments, businesses, and consumers have not taken more drastic climate action? 

The effects feel too distant and abstract, leading to a lack of motivation to change. As construal theory indicates, “people conceptualize things that are psychologically distant from them (in time, space, or social distance) more abstractly than things that are psychologically close.” As the dire effects of the climate crisis are seemingly further out in the future, the problem presents itself as an abstract concept to most players in the world today. Immediate problems draw their attention, minimizing any initiation to change.

• Most governments and businesses are reluctant to act outside of the status quo in any dramatic fashion - there are more pressing issues to address such as strengthening the economy, ushering short-term profits for shareholders, and fighting competitors for market share and rivals for political power. 
• Consumers in Level 3 and 4 economies are driven to live comfortable lives, and the thought that the alternative will only take away from these lives prevents change. Those in Level 1 and 2 economies are merely trying to survive and provide food on the table for their families day-to-day.
• Because of muddled consumer sentiment, government and businesses have so far not provided an overwhelmingly clear indicator, across a majority of the population or consumer segment, that the people they serve even want or care for them to pursue sustainable practices.

There are disincentives and short term costs involved in making that switch and a resounding inability to understand long-term cost benefit analysis.

• The current business model, in which companies and executives are rewarded for delivering revenue targets to shareholders, incentive corporations to look to short term gains. There is a preconceived notion that the cost involved with switching to a more sustainable and eco-friendly set-up would counter any chance of winning here and now. Financial reporting is done on a quarterly basis, executive bonuses are tied to revenues and stock prices, etc.
• As the WEF points out from one-on-one interviews, “CEOs say the pressure to deliver short-term returns by far exceeds any demands for long-term decarbonization. Unless this trend changes, CEOs will have little incentive to take decisive action." 
• Cost of switching is seen to be high - investments required to change the set-up of supply chains and sourcing of materials, to reduce or offset one’s carbon footprint. All of these costs may seem prohibitive, but what about the long-term cost of business as usual to the planet and to future business? This latter cost is unfortunately often not taken into account.

Even for players who want to make change, it can be unclear what plan should be created and what actions should be taken to get there.

• The climate crisis is such a multifaceted problem, composed of so many intertwined issues, that many consumers and businesses can feel overwhelmed and unsure of how to even begin taking action. As a consumer, should I buy organic or locally-sourced foods? As a business, should I focus on supply chain sustainability or resource consumption? Without having comparable, relevant information, or access to sustainability expertise, it can be difficult for consumers and businesses to decide what to prioritize, focus on, and make changes around. 

It is important to note that many players have committed to changes - Denmark has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2030; CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink has called for businesses to confront the climate crisis and report on their strategies and progress towards addressing climate risk in his 2020 Letter to CEOs; many businesses have interdisciplinary sustainability teams committed to developing strategies addressing the climate crisis. But, these promising strides haven’t been easy for these players. There are many obstacles still at hand preventing further, bolder action.

 These obstacles have long been in place, for decades. Over the past few years, increased urgency has led to pledges and goals for greater action, specifically to reduce global emissions. But what is it about our COVID-19 world that makes action today such a distinct opportunity?

For the first time in decades, we are in a moment where business as we know it has been forcibly disrupted. Not just in one region or country, but across the entire world. Where governments and businesses had previously been loath to take needed action to shift their business models to sustainable ones (in a bull market no less), today businesses have been shuttered within days, government stimuluses, one after another, passed within weeks. Disruption from the status quo and a reckoning with change are now necessities. They are necessary to preserve the lives of millions. The world has been forced to think, change, and operate in ways that veer from the norm - we could say for the first time in over a generation. 

The activation energy and disruption needed to snap us out of our automatic routines has been released. Now is the opportune time to explore and push the boundaries of what can be changed, not just for the public health sector, but for how we want to deal with the greatest pressing issue of our time - maintaining a livable climate.

So what can businesses, the government, institutions & universities, and consumers do? Here are some thoughts to begin: 

Businesses

Across industries: 

• Invest in the expansion of renewable energy through developing in-house renewable sources, contracting with renewable energy developers, and/or switching to renewable energy suppliers. Many companies across industries, like the maker of Budweiser, Saint-Gobain, Estee Lauder, and Equinix, have signed power purchasing agreements that support the growth of the entire renewable energy industry, as well as offset their businesses’ carbon footprints. 
• Electrify everything - from heating equipment to cooktop stoves, to industrial machinery - that currently runs on fossil fuels. More tangibly, consider building out an electric vehicle fleet and support the electric vehicle infrastructure by installing charging stations on your properties.
• Increase efficiencies to reduce overall resource consumption - whether it be increasing the efficiency of lighting or HVAC, proper maintenance of refrigerant, or installing grey-water systems. Many buildings, like hotels, have switched to 75% more efficient LED lighting, added energy management systems that float temperatures when rooms are unoccupied, or installed laundry water reuse systems that cleans and filters 70% of used laundry water for reuse in future washes. 
• In the world of efficiency, lower energy and water consumption corresponds with lower utility bills; every dollar of savings is able to flow directly to the bottom line. Where are the opportunities to reap these environmental benefits and financial savings?
• Reassess and rewire supply chains with sustainability as a key focus - achieve procurement and logistic goals more locally, source sustainable inputs, adapt product offerings to be more purpose and value-driven, leverage sustainable packaging materials, re-use scraps or waste materials where possible, etc. For example, Nike recently launched the Space Hippie, a shoe made from scrap pieces that otherwise would have gone to landfill - a big stepping stone for the industry
• At the end of the day, what steps of the process are most wasteful and unnecessary? Can new suppliers be sourced that provide the same value but at a better cost for the planet? Are there redundancies in place to ensure supply of key materials are not disrupted?
• Consider how our business models can be overhauled to become carbon neutral, or even better, climate-positive. For example, Microsoft has committed to becoming carbon negative by 2030, and by 2050, plans to remove from the environment all the carbon the company has emitted either directly or by electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975.
• Institute a self-imposed Earth ‘tax’ to provide support to environmental nonprofits working to defend air, land and water around the globe, something that Patagonia has done through its activism platform

Financial industry specifically:

• Pressure businesses to develop long-term resiliency plans focused on the issues most material to them that will reduce their susceptibility to climate risks, and to transparently report on these plans according to global frameworks like the Task-Force for Climate Disclosure (TCFD)
• Promote the use of sustainability-focused financial instruments, for instance, green bonds and property assessed clean energy programs, and provide favorable borrowing terms for businesses who use these instruments. The momentum is building. In 2019 alone, global green bond and loan issuances totaled nearly $255B USD, a year-over-year increase of nearly 50%. 
• Shift the financial mindset from short-term gains to long-term growth. For example, having annual financial reporting vs. quarterly (as Unilever has adopted), executive compensation tied to longer term sustainability goals and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) targets vs. pure financial P&L (as Intel and Alcoa have done), etc.
• Attach, and encourage portfolio investments to include, an impact-weight cost to everything. For example, see the Impact-Weighted Accounts Project at Harvard that aims to develop a streamlined way to measure, report, compare, and improve the positive and negative externalities products and companies have on the planet. 

In corporate offices, re-examine work-life:

• Adopt a norm of teleconferencing and set targets for employees: what can we gain from a live meeting vs. a virtual one - what is the threshold for travel?
• Assess how we can source goods locally - to minimize our carbon footprint as well as to support our local businesses, communities, and small-scale economies
• Investigate how we can use our purchasing power to support sustainable businesses - e.g. ordering plant-based foods, switching away from single-use plastic

Governments

• Continue to incentivize and support the rapid widespread commercialization and growth of renewable energy, distributed energy solutions, battery storage, and efficiency retrofits (through initiatives like solar and wind investment tax credits and local rebates for business investment in solutions increasing efficiency), while at the same time, eliminating subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.
• Require stipulations for businesses receiving government relief to develop resiliency plans, which would include strategies and specific targets to reduce emissions. Similar propositions have been enacted before. For instance, in 2009, bailout stipulations for the auto industry required automakers to fast-track development and production of energy-efficient vehicles. 
• Compel businesses to track, report, and reduce their emissions. Many major cities across the US require building-level reporting of energy usage. New York City has pushed this even further through its Climate Mobilization Act, requiring large and medium-sized buildings to reduce their emissions by 40% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. 
• On urban development specifically, invest in public transport (walkways, bicycle lanes, electric buses, etc.) that systematically incentive sustainable modes of movement. For example, Nordic countries have prioritised ‘liveability, sustainability, mobility and citizens’ empowerment’ as part of their efforts to make the cities truly sustainable models for the future
• Rigorously train and retrain workers to enter renewable energy industries. As more of the market adopts renewables, the market demand for workers in renewable energy industries will also continue to grow. In the US, the wind turbine technician is the fastest growing occupation, with projected growth of 108% between 2014 and 2024. Governments can play a role in connecting transitioning workers to programs able to retrain them for quickly growing, more sustainable, industries. 

Institutions and Universities 

• Create a sustainability department, if non-existent today, focused on educating students on sustainability topics, developing sustainability-centered curriculum, promoting the plethora of sustainability-related careers available, and developing an institution-wide climate action plan. As an example, over 250 Harvard students have signed an open letter to the Dean Search Committee insisting that the incoming Dean of Harvard Business School commit to examining capitalism’s blindspots: the climate crisis, inequality and the erosion of democratic institutions.
• Include sustainability in required curriculum, and for post-secondary students to to enroll in a minimum number of credits centered around sustainability. For instance, public schools in Italy will soon require all students, at all grades, to study climate change and sustainability. 
• Partner with local businesses and nonprofits to provide students with opportunities to get involved early on in creating a more sustainable future. In one example, the University of Pennsylvania partners with the Philadelphia Orchard Project to harvest underutilized trees and educate students on urban orchards, local fruits, and food justice.

 Consumers

• Use purchasing decisions as a voice to select and demand sustainable goods, services, and operations. Studies by First Insight and NYU Stern’s Center for Sustainable Business found that already, a majority of consumers across generations expect retailers and brands to become more sustainable, with products marketed as “sustainable” growing 5.6x faster in 2018 than those that were not. With a rising tide of voices demanding more sustainable offerings, businesses, corporate managers, and investors will be forced to take notice and make changes. 
• Consume less but consume better, higher quality goods - and when these products do eventually wear down, consider repairing them rather than replacing them. Many companies, including Eddie Bauer, Jansport, Le Creuset, and Hydroflask, offer lifetime warranties and have services to help repair your worn purchases. 
• Demand that leadership at the businesses you work for incorporate a sustainability mindset into their everyday strategic thinking, and hold them accountable to their commitments to do their part in addressing the climate crisis. For instance, Amazon workers have increasingly spoken out for bolder action on the climate crisis from executives, through signed petitions and a walk-out. Soon after, CEO Jeff Bezos announced Amazon’s plans to be carbon neutral by 2040. 
• Donate to those in need and do not have the luxury of prioritizing sustainability choices at this time. Redistributing of goods not only benefits our communities, but also can reduce our overall waste to landfills. For instance, donate untouched, prepared foods, and surplus pantry items to organizations like FoodConnect that connect donors with hungry recipients. Participate in or promote drives for hygiene kits by Clean the World, school supplies by Cradles to Crayons, weather-appropriate clothing from Operation Warm, furniture from Habitat for Humanity’s ReStores, and many, many others doing great things in your local community. If you have spare change on hand or don’t need that $1,200 US stimulus check, you can donate it to many charities and nonprofits in need to create a more circular system.

These are just some of the potential actions for players to consider - not by any means a cure-all. We invite strangers, friends, and our communities to add to this list! This journey, like all other ones in life, won’t be easy, but it will be rewarding. We recognize that prosperity and growth remain critical - possibly more so than ever. We need and should rebuild our economies and livelihoods in this dire time of need. However, implementing sustainability-oriented, forward-thinking should not - it does not - come at the cost of economic stability. The strong, resilient economy of our future will only come if we have a sustainable, habitable planet on which to live. A trade-off between our economy and our planet does not exist. 

We can’t continue sipping our cocktails without putting our health - ours, our community’s, our world's - at risk. The only way forward towards a brighter future for generations to come is for all of us to embrace change, now. 

Let’s give a cheers to that.