By now nearly everyone has read, re-read and shared at least one key finding of the 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released last week. The report’s conclusions, while not unexpected, are stated starkly and for the first time, leave absolutely no doubt that we are unequivocally headed into a decade of now or never efforts. I won’t summarize those here — there are plenty of good analyses out there to pick from — but I did want to use this column to recognize the moment we are in.

I know for many fellow business leaders this report will provoke introspective conversations — partly philosophical but also, hopefully, pragmatic ones. What changes? What stays? What does it mean to truly align your business with a changing climate? So, here are a few thoughts as you do begin that conversation:

  • Set your alarm for 2030. The next 10 years will define the future for generations to come. For many businesses who have done the hard work to set science-based targets to reduce and eliminate their carbon emissions, the IPCC report’s new temperature rise scenarios means we must continue to move fast and stay the course.
  • Choose measurable signals. With clear guideposts available to inform your strategy alongside increasing sophistication in risk modeling, it behooves the business community to do the work to set science-based goals and provide measurable signals to the market.
  • Develop programs with intent. Every institution today indulges in storytelling and programming meant to encourage employee well-being, especially given the ongoing pandemic.
  • Connect the professional dots. Regardless of our function, our everyday role or our capacity for change, we must muster every bit of courage we have to better connect the dots between our professional decisions, our actions and our choices with the reality at hand. Use your skills and your resume purposefully.
  • Opt for optimism. This is key as research after research continues to tell us that hope propels more action than fear — and nothing could be truer for an existential issue such as climate change.

Read the full article about businesses addressing climate change by Aman Singh at GreenBiz.