On the twelfth day of the Festive Season, my sustainability advisor said to me:

1. Make sure you walk the talk
2. Don’t jump from zero to hero
3. Review your own business operations
4. Consider repairable and recyclable products
5. Benchmark your carbon emissions
6. This means scope one, two and three
7. Reconsider the carbon footprint of your supply chain
8. Look at your infrastructure
9. Make your buildings climate-ready
10. Deal with food waste as an effective climate mitigation strategy
11. Encourage your team to lead on sustainability and
12. Get them on the bike or walking more for health and happiness!

There is a lot to unpack in this little sustainability jingle, so let’s get started.

As the Chair of the Premier’s Climate Change Council, I am proud that South Australia continues to be a leader in climate action.

Many government-led measures are complemented by climate-smart business innovation, and it is with pride that I share some of South Australia’s successes, going back as far as the container deposit refund and ban on plastic bags.

The business community is the economic engine room of South Australia and the drivers of change. Business owners create new ideas and deliver new services. They ideate, innovate, commercialise and propel us forward.

For decades, we have known that inaction on emissions reduction will lead to greater extremes in our weather patterns, including heavier downpours, flooding and droughts that impact infrastructure, health, agriculture, transportation, air, water quality and much more.

Therefore, leaders and executives now consider sustainability to be a business imperative, not a mere corporate social responsibility initiative.

Business SA’s role is to consider today and tomorrow’s business conditions and be an active source of knowledge and advice for the business community. For that reason, we are encouraging all businesses to consider the opportunity rich environment of a net-zero future. A PROFITABLE net-zero future.

Now, back to unpacking that sustainability jingle…

1. Being part of this journey means practising what we preach. The hollow promises of greenwashing are all too familiar and customers are wise to it, so this doesn’t make good business sense.
2. But it also doesn’t mean that you need to jump straight into committing to eliminating every emission from your operations.
3. Instead, start by looking across your operations and understanding where the emissions are coming from.
4. Consider the lifecycle of your products; there is a global ‘right to repair’ movement with legislated consumer entitlements currently on the table in Australia. I highlight this specific opportunity because, if we look more broadly at the circularity of your operations, products that can be repaired have significantly lower lifetime emissions because of their extended lifetime.
5. This circularity and your broader value chain contribute toward what are known as Scope 3 emissions. This category includes your investments, transport, and even the emissions of franchisees. Scope 1 emissions look at the direct emissions from your infrastructure such as the burning of fuel and refrigerant leakage, and Scope 2 is the purchase of electricity from the grid for your operations.
6. Without going down the rabbit hole of technical emissions information, know that companies who achieve reductions in all three scopes gain a sustainable competitive advantage.
7. This is great motivation for you to find opportunities to reduce the carbon footprint within your supply chain.
8. I’d like to now turn your mind to the range of straightforward actions to make your building climate ready. These include upgrading the small appliances in your kitchen or automating your lighting system.
9. By planting trees around your building, you can reduce the reliance on your cooling system and provide a welcoming outdoor space for team meetings.
10. Are you aware of the considerable impact food waste has on the production of greenhouse gases? So, why not implement a food waste program? This is as simple as having a kitchen caddy and encouraging staff to redirect their food waste from landfill.
11. Encouraging staff to take the lead on sustainability projects is a motivating way to build leadership capacity within your organisation while also realising the benefits of this sustainability journey.
12. Finally, our partridge in a pear tree is getting people out of their cars. Let’s get onto bikes or out for a nice walk as much as possible. This active motion is great for your health and wellbeing, plus it reduces congestion on the roads and emissions into the atmosphere.

Taking the net-zero journey makes good business sense. So, think about your net-zero journey over the festive period and speak to us about it in the new year.

Stay well.