Two lessons about sustainability I’ve learned from the pandemic.

If someone had said to me in January that, by May there would be blue skies over smog-bound cities, clear water in Venice, a 30% drop in nitrogen dioxide in China and an exploding bear population in Yosemite, I simply wouldn’t have believed them.

But one day, when the world economies start rolling again, many of the behavioral changes forced on us by the virus won’t stick and the smog may return.

Yet I’ve still learned two big lessons from the past few months.

Firstly, that we can have a radical effect on the environment by changing our behavior. And those effects, those rewards, can happen in weeks rather than years or decades.

Secondly, I’ve learned that organizations and governments can achieve quite remarkable things, remarkably quickly.

But what’s made some of those recent achievements possible? And how can we infuse those qualities into our sustainability initiatives?

The power of measurement 

When we’re talking about sustainability, measurement is critical. It shows the size of the task we’re facing and how best to tackle it.

 For instance, through the use of testing and measurement, countries are tackling the threat of the COVID-19 and using data when discussing lifting lockdowns. 

Coronavirus testing and contact tracing have allowed us to use data to assess the impacts on people. To see where they’ve been, to see who they’ve been near and then, if necessary, recommend isolation for the greater good.

I’m not the first person to comment on the importance of measurement (Peter Drucker wrote ‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it’ many years ago), but this is a particularly potent example of measurement in action. And while in the past it might have been incredibly difficult for businesses to measure their sustainability efforts, tools like Salesforce’s Sustainability Cloud are now making that possible.

The power of cooperation

Obviously, sustainability can't be solved by a single organization. The public and private sector need to work together, and supply chain ecosystems need to work in concert across national boundaries.

Recently, we’ve seen that power of cooperation in action. Universities, governments and pharma companies working together have cut vaccine development times from years, decades even, down to months. If we can apply the same forces towards the environment, we'll start to see some real changes.

The development of tracking apps too has brought together governments, telecoms companies, CX experts and many others under a common cause. And it’s led to faster development and rollout times for apps than we’ve ever seen before.

It shows the impact of cooperation, of sharing data, and how that might help us hit shared sustainability targets. Not only that, but it could also help us create organizations with standards that more people sign up to, organizations like 1t who offer a platform for leading governments, businesses, civil society and ecopreneurs to work together and plant a trillion trees globally.

The power of focusing on people 

Sometimes, we just need to remind ourselves that the purpose of sustainability efforts is to improve the lives of people. After all, people are most motivated to make change when they can see the difference it makes to other people.

And people come together at a time of crisis. Look, at how the speed of ventilator production was escalated – in France, for example, respirator maker Air Liquid teamed up with car parts maker Valeo, car maker PSA and electrical equipment company Schneider Electric to make around 10,000 ventilators.

We do have the resources to help the environment. We just need to pull together and use them.

It’s already working in banking... 

These three qualities of measurement, cooperation and focusing on people have already shown how effective they can be in a different business area – banking.

Open Banking has encouraged a mindset of transparency, openness and cooperation. Where fintechs are partnering with banks and playing a greater and greater role in helping them achieve better CX and digital transformation. And this spirit of collaboration is growing fast.

It’s now up to all of us to see how we can make these attitudes and approaches work for sustainability...as I see for myself every day the value sustainability initiatives can bring.

In my native Finland, the fruits of successful environmental policies are clear. Many polluted lakes and rivers have been cleaned up. Air quality has improved greatly around industrial locations. An extensive network of protected areas has been built up to safeguard biodiversity. Forests – Finland’s most valuable natural resources – are managed more sensitively and the overall annual growth rate clearly exceeds the total timber harvest.

If we can focus on measurement, cooperation and most of all people, I’m certain we can all achieve great things and make a big difference. Maybe we’ll even claim the prize we’re glimpsing now.