2Sustain

I’m truly inspired by the outpouring of support for this year’s Earth Hour, slated for tomorrow night, March 28, from 8:30pm-9:30pm.

Just in case you haven’t heard about it already, let me explain. Earth Hour is a global climate change initiative proposed by the World Wildlife Fund. It’s an effort that encourages individuals, businesses, and governments to turn our their lights for one hour in support of action on climate change.

Two years ago, the first Earth Hour event occurred in Sydney, Australia.  That year, over 2 million people and 2,000 businesses across the city turned off their lights and appliances for one hour. In 2008, 50 million people across 35 countries participated. This year, organizers are aiming for Earth Hour 2009 to include 1 billion people in 1,000 cities worldwide.

They may easily exceed that goal.

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Last week, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) released a ground-breaking report on global supply chain carbon emissions and climate change risks. I’m using the word “ground-breaking” because this was the first-ever large-scale survey of its kind, and it gives us a baseline data point specific to suppliers and their climate change strategies. While I’ll admit that the results are somewhat disheartening, I can’t help but feel more pragmatic than discouraged. After all, this is information we needed to know. Sure, lots of people in lots of businesses are talking about sustainability these days. But, this report serves to remind us that really, we are only at the very beginning stages. There’s no doubt that we need to transition to a new type of business model, one that incorporates sustainability into everyday supply chain management. However, we’re not there yet; there’s still a lot of work to be done.

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