Weekend Musings: Every step counts…..so let’s start walking!

As I was reading through the various news pieces this past week, the fiery speech by the young Greta Thunberg at the UN Climate Change Summit 2019 caught my eye. Reading about Thunberg from her first strike at the Swedish Parliament last year to hearing her speech now, I have to say – it is the grave reality of today that she is asking the world to act upon. Be it the raging fires through the Amazon rainforest or the devastating floods in India, it is clear that climate change is evident. Hence, it was no surprise that ‘Climate Action for Peace’ was chosen as the theme for this year’s ‘International Day of Peace’. I feel it is crucial for us all to understand the importance of combatting climate change as a way to protect and promote peace throughout the world.

As a human race, in our rapid march towards progress, we have been draining our planet’s resources at an unprecedented rate and are heading beyond Earth’s capacity to support us. With the human population only expected to increase over the years, the future looks grim unless we take serious steps towards becoming sustainable.

Sustainability is ensured when there is an alignment between the business goals and the environment. It is about considering the pursuit of our needs in a manner that leaves a manageable environmental impact so that future generations don’t face resource scarcity. In the words of Konosuke Matsushita, the philosopher and founder of Panasonic, “The fundamental social responsibility of a corporation, in any era, should be to improve society through its business activities.” I truly stand by what Matsushita had envisaged more than three decades ago, which still holds much relevance in today’s world. It is the organizations of today who must imbibe the practices of sustainability into their business functions without feeling that being environmentally conscious is a cost. Instead, a sustainable approach brings cost benefits to business – such as using less energy in the production process will help lower overheads and the product cost.

I firmly believe that being sustainable is a responsibility not just confined to organizations, but it trickles down to each one of us on an individual level as well. Ultimately, success in combating climate change will mean all of us working together, starting by making small behavioural and lifestyle changes now which will go a long way in the future. There’s much that we can do on a daily basis to have an impact, be it minimizing water and electricity wastage, adopting resource recycling practices or car-pooling to work with colleagues. Small contributions can have a lasting impact such as us being more conscious of our usage of single-use plastic and opting for energy-efficient LED bulbs which reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Personally being environmentally conscious, I recently took a step towards making a difference by installing solar panels on the rooftop of my home. I feel it’s a great way to harness the power of the sun to reduce one’s dependence on the grid for electricity.

I understand that the fight against climate change cannot be won overnight, but we all need to start somewhere and I am confident that we will be able to turn the tide with collective effort. Even though the task at hand may seem very big, but nothing is unachievable, as small steps by us all can make a big difference. And most of the time all we have to do to achieve our goal is to simply start walking.