VS Story commits to net zero by 2030

and what we’re doing in 2020 to get there

At the UNFCC COP this year, over 500 Certified B Corporations announced that they are reducing their greenhouse gas emissions to reach a 1.5 degree trajectory leading to NET ZERO BY 2030, 20 years ahead of the 2050 date set in the Paris Agreement.

500+ B Corps Commit to Net Zero by 2030

VS Story has been supporting the #B Corp movement since our inception, sharing stories and supporting the community in Asia — and to tell the story of more B Corps far and wide. We are also working to redo our impact assessment to continuously improving our score.

For the past quarter, we’ve been thinking deeply about what collective storytelling means, for us — for you. 2020 will be the year things begin to converge: we feel that foundations are starting to set, and that next year, the right people will come together to push the momentum and truly harness business as a force for good.

So what are we working on to hit net zero?

1. We have declared a climate emergency and will be taking climate action — using the Climate Emergency Playbook to understand what we can do, and create a roadmap to make a difference in our region.
2. We are mapping out the most inspiring players working on Climate Solutions in Southeast Asia; so we can start curating a “collective story” that is already emerging. We believe the work we do with our partners reflects a larger shift that is happening, and the big picture is as important as what happens with each partner’s work. Collective storytelling is part of this: it empowers each and every one of us to step forward, to share best practices, and demonstrate how business leaders especially, have a vital role to play — as the B Lab UK says, to spreading positive stories, and also taking the opportunities to “call system flaws into question… starting first with embedding broader stakeholders interests into their own corporate operating system.”
3. We are accelerating carbon reduction: changing our collective cultures one business at a time — starting with ours! — by questioning our food practices and habits — and ideating how we can feed the world to have less of an impact on the climate. Some of the team at VS Story are already vegetarian, while others have committed to cut down dramatically on meats and high-C02 food. Change is ABOUT changing culture, and a key part of that, for us, is non-dogmatism, open-mindedness and space to change. As the Intergovernmental Panel of Experts (IPES-Food) notes in this video, the question of food is often misdirected simply towards increasing food production capacity. Instead, we need to ask HOW and WHO funds the current industrial food system, and put our energy into shifting this and showing a new inspirational vision for the alternative. “We should be asking, how can we get the right food to the people who need it? How can we protect the livelihoods of farmers?” If we started asking the right questions on ‘how we can feed the world’, we might begin to find the solutions we need to feed the world sustainably.
4. We will continue to nurture and grow our business — for good. Through Vision Strategy and Storytelling, we will continue to support our clients, partners, and friends working in climate mitigation, renewable energy, and sustainable finance to achieve their Vision and get their story heard!

“Any legitimate response to the climate emergency cannot be limited to bold climate action within individual companies, but must also be focused on bold advocacy to upend the system failure of shareholder primacy.” — B Lab UK, Climate Emergency Playbook

Tell me more about the 2030 Commitment??

On December 11, at COP25, the UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid, Spain:
Over 500 companies announced their commitment to accelerate the reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions to reach a 1.5 degree trajectory leading to net zero by the year 2030. This commitment is 20 years ahead of the 2050 targets set in the Paris Agreement. The Net Zero by 2030 commitment applies to their Scope 1, Scope 2, and most relevant Scope 3 emissions and is achieved by reducing emissions wherever possible and using verified offsets, with a focus on carbon removal projects, to balance emissions that cannot be eliminated.

This is essentially the most aggressive climate action effort by as large a constituency of businesses in the world to date.

• 533 companies committed to Net Zero by 2030 — all B Corporations
• Over 30 countries from all five continents
• 86 industries
• Over 40,000 employees, over $14B in revs (five $1B+ companies)
• 17% of the total global B Corp community (533 out of 3,132 B Corps)
• From venture-backed “unicorns” to sole proprietors; from multi-generational family businesses to multi-billion dollar public companies (and everything in between), representing the broad diversity of the economy
• Well-known brands/companies include: Aguas Danone Spain, All Good, Allbirds, Alter Eco, ChicoBag, Danone Waters of America, Davines, Dr. Bronner’s, Ecoalf, Ella’s Kitchen, Guayaki Yerba Mate, Intrepid Travel, MaCher, Natura Cosméticos, Northwest Permanente, Patagonia, Preserve, Pukka Herbs, Sympatex, The Body Shop, The Guardian, TriCiclos, WS Badger Company, and many many others
• The full spectrum of businesses in the world, the core engine of growth in our economy
• B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and legal accountability.

So where do we go from here?

To hit net zero by 2030, we need to transform our systems — food, energy, and water.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Sustainable-planning-of-the-energy-water-food-nexus-Bieber-Ker/5e0544b6f41f7b82e77ffe491aac57e1aec8c192

To keep up to date with progress on this global systems change, VS Story will continue to expand our network, cross-pollinate ideas, collaborate and unite a community around these challenges — and to do this, we will be publishing more regularly to share resources and information.

Most importantly, we will continue to grow our business for good; seeking out collaborators that we feel are becoming to the solutions to the world's problems—and not the cause.

The world we have is precious. And we all have a role to care and nurture it.

What’s yours?

For more info about what B Corps around the world are doing for Climate and to join this movement, go to https://www.bcorpclimatecollective.org/

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