Welcome to this week's edition of WorkforClimate Weekly – a bite-sized wrap-up of what’s been going on in the world, plus some tips/hacks/actions you can take yourself.
It’s been another big week for climate. Mike Cannon-Brookes is backing EVs, the world’s biggest reinsurer just turned its back on fossil fuels, and Greta Thunberg put everyone on notice with a hard-hitting Guardian op-ed. Speaking of The Guardian, I was in there myself this week! More on that scoop down below…
Welcome to another dose of WorkforClimate Weekly.
News wrap 🗞️
An analysis of the world’s biggest companies found the benefits of corporate climate action are 15 times higher than the risks of doing nothing.
Climate-friendly billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes is backing a Tasmanian EV startup in an effort to get cheap secondhand EVs into the Australian market.
The world’s biggest reinsurer just announced it’s quitting the fossil fuels game. Munich Re says it will no longer insure projects exclusively covering oil and gas infrastructure.
Do you know who one of COP27’s biggest sponsors is? Coca-Cola. Yep, the world’s-worst-plastic-polluter Coca-Cola. Environmental groups are not impressed.
Greta Thunberg wrote a searing op-ed in The Guardian, which is well worth a read. In it, she – again – calls for “drastic, immediate, far-reaching emission cuts”.
Activist group Market Forces is stirring up shareholder anger against Australia’s big banks, lodging resolutions to stop the financing of fossil fuel projects. We love to see it.
British environment secretary (i.e. the person in charge of looking after the environment) Ranil Jayawardena is planning to ban solar panels being placed on agricultural land. Sigh.
The nations of the world have committed to drastically lower emissions from the aviation industry by 2050. How exactly? Yeah, that bit still needs to be worked out…
Global renewables have already saved 230 million tonnes of CO2 emissions this year, according to a London-based energy thinktank. Nice!
Take action 🎬
Every week, we suggest a simple action you can take to help shift the climate needle. This week, we’re looking at business travel. After two years of global pandemic, it’s pretty clear that it’s possible to run a business without physical meetings. Zoom isn’t a barrel of laughs, but it’s better than 460 million annual business trips (and that’s just in the US).
If you want to shrink your company’s climate impact, push for a policy that limits travel (particularly flights) wherever possible, and incentivise staff to shift to online meetings instead. Some companies are even offering extra time off for those who choose not to fly! Check out our Emissions Playbook for more info on reducing carbon emissions in your workplace.
Staff stories 😊
I was lucky enough to be featured in a little publication called The Guardian this week. Pretty chuffed, if I’m being honest. In the article, I sat down with the amazing Josephine Palermo, co-founder of Melbourne co-working spot Higher Spaces, to run through how they can make their business more sustainable. As Josephine says, it’s all about building a “community of practice”.
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