The Future of Sustainable Business

The Future of Sustainable Business

It's hard to predict what will happen in the future versus what should happen in the future. Will we see 100% sustainable sources of energy in 20 years? Or will we be unable to meet the demands of climate change? I will be discussing throughout this article the future of business regarding sustainability.

Supply Chain

In most companies, the supply chain is largely responsible for climate change. In order to combat this problem, businesses should slowly shift focus towards parts of the supply chain. Specifically the production, transportation, and energy consumption part of the business. By putting sustainability at the heart of rebuilding supply chains we will see real change in the world.

Creating infrastructure that allows for the change in the supply chain is important as the population increases every year calling for more demand. Currently, transportation accounts for 14% of global greenhouse emissions. We can shift efforts to use electric transportation, which will help reduce the CO2 emissions from gas-based vehicles. Technology must also be improved to handle increased demand and efficiently respond to changes.

Transport infrastructure needs to be designed with the aim to mitigate climate impact, protect biodiversity, and minimize pollution.

Land Use

We have slowly seen the shift towards the use of sustainable resources, such as using wind and solar instead of gas and coal. But not every industry has the infrastructure to use these materials. Therefore industries need to be reshaped to incorporate reusable, recyclable, and recoverable materials.

We can start by identifying the root cause of increased land use, which is our diets and overuse of land. By eliminating food waste, we can reduce farming inputs and land clearing that are not being eaten. Shifting agriculture practices to use the land sustainably increases oxygen being produced and reduces overusing fertilizers and the release of CO2.

Electricity

Society relies on electricity for everyday life which is created by fossil fuels. This accounts for 25% of heat-trapping emissions globally. Yet right now we have no alternative to electricity, what we can do instead is use systems to make our energy use more efficient.

• Enhance the efficiency of generated electricity and use of electricity.
• Shift from fossil fuels, to renewable sources.
• Improve energy infrastructure and the grid.

Society has already made improvements to energy use, but we still have a long time before we become carbon neutral. Building systems that can efficiently deal with these problems is a pressing issue in the 21st century.