Is a sustainable future possible by green steps taken by companies?

Global warming and climate change are some of the largest threats facing our planet. Greenhouse emissions arising from increasing human activity which expands with rising population and industrialisation emerge as the most important components of this threat.

Having a presence in almost every arena, including advertisements, especially in the last decade, the concepts of greenhouse gasses and carbon footprint have strong links. In fact, it could be said these two concepts are complementary with each other.

In order to understand these concepts first it is important to define each one on its own.

Greenhouse gasses like carbon monoxide, methane and nitrogen oxide accumulate in the atmosphere, capturing the heat reflected off the Earth's surface inside the atmosphere and leading to global warming.

Greenhouse gas emission means release of such gasses into the atmosphere in result of human activities like industrial processes, agriculture, deforestation and use of fossil fuels.

Carbon footprint is a measure of total greenhouse gas emissions directly or indirectly caused by a product made or activities performed by a person, a society, a country or a company.

Carbon footprint is generally determined by calculating it in kind of carbon dioxide equivalent. In other words, it is not a concept only related to carbon.

It can be said that greenhouse gas emission symbolises the environmental damage caused by an activity, while carbon footprint is the measure of said damages.

So, how and when did this environmental awareness came to be, and when did the concept of sustainability became part of the conversation?

The first solid step towards averting this situation was made in the Stockholm Conference of 1972. For the first time, the issue of environmental sustainability was discussed in an international arena in this conference.

The inter-governmental panel of climate change (IPCC) formed in 1988 brought scientific data to the table. These studies formed the basis for scientific works on greenhouse gas emissions.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was signed in a summit held in Rio in 1992. This convention formed a foundation for global actions to bring greenhouse gasses under control.

Later, the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 made history as the first international convention including binding targets to decrease greenhouse gasses.

At the beginning of 2000s renewable energy projects gained momentum, and many countries developed important and long-term plans to decrease their dependence on fossil fuels.

Reaching 2015, the world was aware now we were on a road with no return. Therefore, the Paris Agreement was signed to limit global temperature increase to 1.5-2 degrees Celsius at most.

Since 2015, in addition to and under influence of various regulations, like the 2050 targets declared by the EU and the 2060 targets declared by China as well as the Green Deal, many countries and companies have joined in declaring their net zero carbon emission goals.

Stakeholders	Contribution to Global Emissions (%)	Definition
Energy Generation	34	Emissions from combustion of fossil fuels for power and heat generation.
Agriculture and Forestry	22	Emissions from agricultural activities, livestock raising and deforestation.
Companies and Industry	21	Emissions from production processes, energy consumption and industrial activities.
Transport Sector	15	Emissions from land, air, sea and rail transportation.
Personal Consumption	8	Emissions from household energy use, private vehicle use and personal consumption habits.

As seen in the chart above, impact of companies and industrialisation on global emissions is at 21%. That places this group at 3rd place among stakeholders.

However, companies and industrialisation indirectly increase global emission rates of all other stakeholders like energy consumption, agriculture and forestry, transport sector and personal consumption.

Companies work with energy, and largest volume of forestry products consumption again happens in this sector. Every morning billions of people use means of transport to go to work and to return home in the evening. Products of companies affect consumption habits of individuals. In summary, companies and industrialisation group indirectly increases global emission rates of all these affected stakeholders.

Green conversion activities in companies and support for such activities by law, incentives, associations and chambers

Activities companies resort to decrease their carbon footprint in can be classified under a number of general groups.

These include energy management and use of renewable energy, supply chain management, policies for reforming personnel behaviour, sustainable product design, carbon offset and protection of natural areas, advanced technology investments, environmental standards and regulatory compliance processes.

Energy Management and Use of Renewable Energy

Companies gradually turn to use of renewable energy, at first attracted by governmental and regional incentives to decrease their long-term costs, and finally to decrease their carbon footprint by fulfilling their needs by clean energy. The number of Land Solar and Roof Solar activities owned by private companies are on the rise at almost every side of the world.

·       Technology companies completed 100% conversion to renewable energy systems. Carbon neutral policies are implemented in many places.

·       Data centres of global giants engaged in sales over internet work on electricity generated by wind power.

·       Social media companies run all their data centres on renewable energy. Some important brands in electric car industry run their factories solely on solar and wind power.

·       Food and drink giants supply most of their energy needs from biogas facilities.

·       Furniture giants including leading furniture stores prefer to use geothermal energy in some of their stores.

In regard of energy efficiency;

·       Important technology companies actively use smart building automation systems.

·       Shopping malls converted to LED systems for lighting, achieving savings of 10%.

·       A large automobile brand optimised their energy use and decreased energy use by 20% by waste heat reclamation systems on their hybrid production lines.

·       A global distribution and food company modernised energy-intensive processes in their factories to decrease their carbon emissions by 65%.

·       A well-known search engine decreased energy use in their data centres by 50% using cooling system optimisation and constant monitoring with artificial intelligence based systems.

·       A large, domestic white goods producer reclaimed the hot air used in the production facilities to reconvert it into energy, thus achieving important energy savings.

Supply Chain Management

Companies, particularly global giants leading in their field, puts great importance in this issue in order to decrease both their costs and their carbon footprint.

·       Some important companies prioritise local sources using just-in-time method in order to decrease carbon emissions arising from material supply as well as storage costs.

·       Globally well-known companies decrease their carbon emission rates by 15 to 20 % using carbon neutral fuels and energy-saving train and truck systems in container transportation operations.

·       Clothing companies encourage sustainable practices across their entire supply chain from raw materials to points of sale, ensuring transparency of supply chains in order to support traceability and sustainability.

·       A global drinks brand prefers biodegradable materials in their packaging in order to practice sustainable packaging methods.

·       A computer manufacturer reintroduces materials from recycled electronic products into their supply chain. A famous footwear brand implements cyclic economy models using raw materials made from recycled old sports shoes.

·       Online sales stores decrease their carbon emissions using smart energy management systems with automation decreasing energy consumption at their logistics centres and warehouses.

·       Some companies include their suppliers in their training programs on energy efficiency in line with the principle of working with low carbon suppliers.

·       Technology giants emerge as leaders in this field with their waste reclamation schemes.

Policies to reform personnel behaviour

Companies not only take part in management policies and in-situ practices, but also make social contributions to the process by raising awareness of their personnel.

Some companies provide their personnel with sustainability focused trainings. This approach helps impose this culture into their daily work processes.

Personnel are trained to develop small but effective habits like automatically switching their computers to sleep mode when not in use, using motion sensor activated lighting, shutting down unneeded devices, etc.

Policies followed by companies include providing personnel with mass transportation cards, offering incentives for personnel commuting by bicycle, creating bicycle parking areas and providing personnel with discount coupons for scooters.

Many companies already started using colour-coded recycling bins to separate waste materials particularly in office spaces.

Especially after the COVID days leading social media and system software companies implemented hybrid and remote work programs for their personnel and this led to a decrease in carbon emissions arising from work commute.

Some local companies organise contests for their personnel to create environmentally-friendly, sustainable and innovative ideas.

Many companies provided their personnel with thermos flasks to prevent overuse of cups and generation of waste at coffee stands. Activities like sustainability days and tree planting events also help raise personnel awareness.

An important Turkish power distribution company innovated on the long-standing convention of gifting promotional diaries by creating diaries which can be digitally recorded and reused after getting their pages wiped by getting heated in microwave.

Sustainable product design

In addition to internal policies, companies also acts as pioneers for their clients by adding sustainable features to their products.

In this regard, some textile giants plan to convert to use of polyester made from recycled plastic bottles. An important footwear company also launched a shoe series completely made of plastics collected from the ocean.

Global furniture manufacturers simplify their product designs to facilitate spare parts accessibility for the consumer, thus extending product life cycle by providing more durable and repairable products.

Technology and cosmetics companies now prefer biodegradable materials in their product packaging.

A jeans company allow second hand clothing to be traded in for reuse.

Research companies have developed a carbon based bioplastic made from air and seawater to provide carbon neutral solutions.

Many producers implement minimal packaging or non-packaged product solutions to limit resource use in this field and make significant contributions to minimise carbon footprint.

Carbon offset and protection of natural areas

Despite all precautions, companies end up having to generate some measure of a carbon footprint in order to sustain their financial cycles. In order to at least mitigate this footprint, companies engage in activities like carbon offset and protection natural areas in an effort to neutralise greenhouse gasses.

To this end many companies engage in various activities including purchase of carbon credits to invest in carbon offset project and balance emissions, invest in reforesting projects, and supporting protection of natural areas.

Advanced technology investments

Companies also conduct many studies to develop and optimise power consumption elements and classes in scope of production processes. They implement artificial intelligence and automation systems in order to ensure and monitor efficiency of such efforts, and increase their energy efficiency in factories and office spaces using IoT based systems.

Environmental standards and regulatory compliance

We have mentioned that there have been many regulations and environmental standards throughout the historic process detailed above. As a part of this, every company should determine goals to decrease their long-term carbon emissions in scope of a net zero carbon strategy, and be able to provide transparent ESG reporting on results of these goals and practices.

In conclusion, minimising carbon footprint does not only relate to environmental responsibility, but also enhances survivability and future activity of a company.

In addition to environmental responsibilities, companies must also think of their production, operation, process and energy costs in scope of these activities. They also must create an environmentally-aware brand image in the eyes of their clients, i.e. the consumer.

However, every person is equally responsible for the current condition of our world. Therefore these efforts must not be limited to companies. Chambers, associations, non-governmental organisations, individuals and governments must also engage in collaborative efforts in order to achieve effective decreases in carbon footprint and to create a more liveable world. Only this way the efforts made across the years can gain a more lasting and meaningful place.

Collaboration between all stakeholders having influence in the society will strengthen and solidify policy making and collaboration forming processes.

Environmentally-friendly government policies can be supported by awareness raising efforts of NGOs and changes in daily habits of individuals. This provides the chance to create a social movement. Acting with a common vision will allow a sustainable future not only for companies, but also for all segments of the society.

Adil Can KAVCAR

09.12.2024