Goal 13 Impact Platform: How businesses can accelerate climate action

Over the past year, the Goal 13 platform has grown into a 420 strong repository of corporate climate stories from across the globe. The project aims to stimulate learning and collaboration and this latest report brings to life the reality of integrating climate change into strategy, operations, culture, and communications, to achieve the necessary change for business. The project is a partnership between Deloitte, the CBI, Chapter Zero, A4S, Dell and the Met Office.

Last year, the first impact report shed early insight into the challenges and opportunities facing businesses setting out climate targets. The new report reveals that in just a year, there have been significant shift in both attitude and action from businesses.

Key findings:

• 89% of respondents shared at least one climate-related target
• Looking at drivers of change, 79% of respondents referred to leadership motivation, pressure from employees, and the influence of corporate culture, whilst 53% cited direct commercial opportunity
• 64% of respondents stress the vital role of company executives in driving climate action, demonstrated by the fact that 86% of respondents with the most mature climate programmes most mature also have significant executive support
• 56% of the initiatives described as most impactful by businesses are aimed at directly reducing the emissions of the business
• The most common internal barriers raised by respondents were: company prioritisation and investment (52%), employee buy-in (21%), and company capabilities (16%)
• The most common external barriers raised by respondents were: policy and regulation (43%), customer education and engagement (32%), and supplier education and engagement (24%)

To accelerate their climate action businesses should seek to:

1. Reframe climate action within the organisation
2. Integrate climate into all key decisions across the organisation
3. Enshrine climate thinking in the ethos and culture of the organisation
4. Reveal the challenges your organisation is facing on the road to net zero
5. Combine forces to realise change at greater scale
6. Adapt to a rapidly-changing environment

The report concluded that to achieve meaningful change, climate needs to be embedded as part of the broader purpose agenda and integrated into business model design and strategy. Climate is also an opportunity for business, as a long-term driver of value creation.