Corporate Responsibility and Planet Earth
I’ve been writing a bit lately about technology’s negative impact on the planet, including such issues as bitcoin mining and drunk-on-water server farms. I haven’t yet even touched on all the mineral resources mined and processed to make our devices — from semiconductors all the way to finished tablets. These technical marvels delight at first but eventually find themselves in the junk heap due to planned obsolescence — another bad side-effect of our technology-driven society.
At some point, all of this is unsustainable, and as CEOs, that realization is sinking in as we plan for our businesses. Enter the era of ESG — not only a hot information and analytics category but one that is staring us in the face as we think about the firms we run and how we run them. We must have diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we must be good corporate citizens when it comes to the environment and sustainability. Suddenly, business can no longer do harm. Imagine that…
During the last couple of weeks, in my rounds of conversations with leaders, I’ve seen a whole host of new topics emerge related to being better corporate citizens. DE&I is at the top of the list. Retaining talent and preventing turnover is right up there, too. In fact, since the world has opened up a bit, particularly in the US, people are on the move, and CEOs I know are paying attention to how to bring people back to the office in a way that doesn’t send them fleeing right back out the door.
The other interesting thing that’s cropped up is travel budgets and what is happening to them. In various conversations, I’ve heard of travel plans for 2022 being about 50–60% of the 2019 run rate. CEOs are planning to cut back — many of them permanently so. The reason? Interestingly enough, it’s not just that Covid taught us all that travel was unnecessary, and our thresholds have risen because of it. Suddenly, travel budgets are also running up against sustainability goals, such as reductions in climate footprint and generally being better citizens. Our travel budget declines aren’t just about a pandemic and new habits forming. They are about making a visible difference in our contribution to global warming. Imagine that…
I have hope. When companies are traveling less to prevent wear and tear on their people, they are also preventing wear and tear on our planet. While the technocrats are blasting off to outer space, some of us are down on earth keeping it real by getting off planes for business purposes that were no longer sustainable anyway. In fact, much of this travel was always dumb, but it took a pandemic to force us to see the light. Now, if only the technologists would get off their rockets and be better global citizens when it comes to taking care of the planet we live on…