Business Green Goals: Act Now, Don’t Wait

From Prince Harry’s new initiative Travalyst to the ride-hailing app Bolt and most recently Gucci, offsetting carbon impacts has been the talk of the town for the past few months.

Earth Rewards is a platform that aims to inspire and support environmentally-positive lifestyle choices, be rewarded for your actions and give people the opportunity to offset some of the impacts that they cannot reduce. We strongly believe it’s a valid and impactful approach when accompanied with making choices that reduce our carbon footprint and clean up our planet, which is similar to the approach taken by Gucci.

Doing something is better than doing nothing

From the production to the shelves and the tanneries to the catwalks, Gucci have created a multi-level strategy to reduce their carbon footprint and their emissions by 50% by 2025 which they are on track to do. Although carbon neutrality is not completely attainable, making moves in that direction are in line with ensuring we do not overshoot the 1.5 degree warming line set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which when it comes to global warming is a great place to start.

Gucci’s approach is threefold and combines a mixture of reducing impacts where possible, eliminating unnecessary and harmful processes/ inputs and finally offsetting the impacts that they cannot reduce.

The results from their ongoing eco-audit show that around 90% of their greenhouse gas emissions come from the first few phases of their production such as the tanneries and other material producing steps. This is mostly due to the amount of water, dye and pollutants involved in the process.

Although we may desire to do good, as is the case with Gucci, we can sometimes be limited by current technology or resources. Lab-grown leather or vegan leather would be preferable and reduce their impact significantly, but the quality and scalability are limiting factors currently. This is why being environmentally friendly requires a constant iterative approach.

Marco Bizzarri, Gucci’s president and chief executive said “…if we wait to be perfect, in terms of the calculation of impact or methodology, to me it’s just an excuse for not doing it”. He went on to say, “More and more, we just need to act. We are not perfect [and] it’s not a matter of saying we are the best, it’s a matter of showing it can be done, and hopefully [others] will follow this path.” And here at Earth Rewards, we couldn’t agree more Marco!

We can all do something to help

Part of developing a better tomorrow is exploring and developing ways to move towards a more equitable future for people and the planet as a society, as businesses, and as individuals. Of course there will be some trial and error involved, but that’s true for all new approaches and practices.

To the naysayers and doubters, it would be naive to say that Gucci should shut up shop or not share their plans with the world- that would put 18,000 jobs at risk, and the human impact is a fundamental part of being equitable.

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, and we hope that many more companies set their own objectives and green goals to reduce their impacts and use offsetting for the impacts they can’t reduce. The more people taking strides in the right direction, the better we say!

If you’d like to read more about Gucci and their 10-year plan, you can read their environmental policy here.

Looking to measure, reduce and balance your personal impact? Then download the Earth Rewards app today!

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