Drawdown Labs

It’s time to elevate and expand corporate sustainability from the often siloed, underresourced work of small sustainability teams to the work of every team – harnessing the passion and expertise that every employee has to advance climate action.

Round after round of layoffs, deepest in the tech industry, have left over a quarter million workers wondering what’s next for their careers. I was one of them.

We are reaching an important juncture within the corporate climate landscape.

Today’s definition of business climate leadership centers on companies doing less harm, gradually reducing their emissions—and the damage they cause—over time. But this version of leadership neglects the many other levers companies have at their disposal to help or hinder our future on a livable planet.

One of the most confounding realities of the climate crisis is that two seemingly contradictory facts are simultaneously true: that humanity has at our fingertips the solutions to fix it at the very same time that global greenhouse gas emissions soar higher than ever. 

Governments and businesses are looking to lead on climate change, but too many of their commitments are built on flawed “net zero” frameworks and problematic “carbon offsets.” Authentic climate leadership requires more—a transparent and meaningful “Emissions 360” pledge that is focused on bringing real emissions to zero, helping others do the same, and equitably addressing historic climate pollution.

Two years ago Mark Carney, then-head of the central bank of England, called into question the very existence of corporations that don’t adhere to the steep emissions reductions required to limit warming to 1.5°C: “Those that fail to adapt will cease to exist.”