By Shalmalee Nath
Corporate learning expert Shalmalee Nath sees hopeful levers picking pace against a worrying future of climate change.
Last year’s COP27 conference surely represented a slowly solidifying sustainability commitment by the majority of the world’s nations. And with its global role as the 5th largest economy in the world, with more that 7,000 publicly listed organizations, India’s role in the journey to Net-Zero is a pivotal one.
This means what Indian CEOs do about really doing the work to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees really, really matters—yet top Indian Companies are only around 50% climate ready. Leading organizations across sectors realize this and have made public commitments to massive carbon behavior change. From Vedanta to Aditya Birla Group, JSW Group to Adani Transmission, Mahindra & Mahindra to Dalmia Cement, a throng of Indian multinationals have announced they are striving to become carbon neutral by 2050. Reliance Industries, the most valuable company in India by market capitalisation, has set a target of even earlier, 2035. Other Indian-headquartered innovators like Infosys, Bharat Petroleum and Godrej have all announced practical examples of what they’re doing here.
All this is a great sign on commitment—as is, of course, Prime Minister Modi’s commitment to national Net Zero by 2070. But there is no room for complacency on action and time here. You don’t have to be an environmentalist of any kind to look at the danger man-made climate change presents to the Global South and not itch for practical remediation.
ESG and the Green transformation
From a compliance perspective, Indian CEOs are already taking emissions reduction targets very seriously in the context of their ESG (environmental, social, and governance) performance. Forward-looking Indian business leaders understand that ESG performance will impact access to capital, and increasingly be a factor in determining access to global business opportunities.
They also recognise that non-compliance with ESG can quickly take them down the unhappy path to running afoul of regulation and even the danger of legal tangles. Examples here are new local laws around curbing “Greenwashing,” with regulators planning to collect historical data on emissions. And Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting is now mandatory for the biggest 1,000 corporations.
But this change is hardly a simple switch. Organizations are realizing fast that it is not just their operations, but also their people, that will be at the heart of this transformation.
Capability and culture building
In order to mitigate the risks and leverage new opportunities posed by the global Net Zero goal, companies will need grounds-up action. Two critical people transformation pillars will play a major role in success—what skills their people have (capability) and how they behave/engage within the organization (culture). Needless to add, Heads of HR, L&D (learning and development) and Culture are thus rapidly becoming mission-critical business partners for this transition.
HR and L&D heads need to understand that at the scale of transformation needed, the skills deficit cannot be fixed by talent acquisition. Rather the endeavor will have to be in upskilling every function of the organization in the incremental green skills required. Additionally, organizations will need to cultivate awareness and empathy for the need and criticality of the Net-Zero agenda, as well as imbibe the necessary behavior changes in the organizational culture through learning, reflection and role-modelling.
Global Brand leaders are putting their people at the centre
This crucial agenda is now being championed by influential Indian and other global brand customers.
HCLTech, one of the country’s global technology stalwarts, has announced it has launched the HCLTech Sustainability School and its first-ever comprehensive climate literacy learning series. The series has been designed to raise awareness of the impact of climate change across all of this major corporate’s 220,000+ employees.
Europe’s Schneider Electric has said that to truly succeed in its planned transition, all stakeholders must be fully engaged and dedicated to making a difference. In practical terms, says its Sustainability Transformation Director, Daniele Bufano, that’s happening through targeted L&D to help the global team “first understand, then act.”
In construction leader Saint-Gobain, Green awareness is being spread through a dedicated “Climate Academy,” which inspired learners with a pledge that 1,000 trees would be planted for every 1,000 employees who completed at least one module in one week at the facility. In just one year, more than 20,000 modules have been completed within the Group and 10% of the brand’s managers have taken part in the training.
Finally, Accor Group has publicly said that Green training is an essential component in helping everyone drive the transformation the global hospitality leader needs to see (which involve a 46% reduction in total Accor carbon footprint by 2030, zero disposable plastic in the customer experience by the end of 2022, campaigns to preserve regional biodiversity at all its hotels).
Sustainability transformation in the hands of people leaders
In conclusion, whatever happens or not at a COP, climate change is a defining existential problem that impacts us all. And dealing with change can be a frustrating process, for at the heart of it lies deep rooted psychological inertia. And the peculiar nature of the climate problem is that we do not have much time. Leaders must take the front seat today.
It is my hope and belief, that like the global leaders we have seen step up so far, many more Heads of HR, L&D and Culture in Indian leadership positions will begin to take a seat at that executive table, and partner their Sustainability Leaders in leading this change through capability and culture transformation.
The author is APAC Head of The Climate School, the learning arm of insurer AXA Climate.
