Future work skill: Carbon Literacy

Peter du ToitI'm the founder of FutureWork IQ where I spend my time assisting businesses to improve their climate literacy so as to understand the projected impacts from the expanding climate crisis and how to adapt their workplaces in the face of these impacts.

(Picture Credit: Degrowth of Aviation — reducing air travel in a just way)

We now know that if we are to stand a remote chance of keeping global temperatures below 1.5°C we have to globally reduce carbon emissions by 7.6% every year until 2030. (See the UN’s Emissions Gap Report 2019)

To do so is going to require that we up our Carbon Literacy.

Carbon Literacy will help leadership teams decide where to make changes. For example, you would be able to look at where transportation intersects with your revenue generation and then decide how those emissions can be reduced.

How does your staff get into the office? Do they use a car to commute? Could they switch to a combination of train/public-transit bus?

Could you end the office commute altogether by designing an “office in the cloud” which allows everyone to work from anywhere?

What about air travel? Can you meet online vs in-person? Can your training be delivered online? Can you speak at a conference via a video link?

A 7.6% p/a emissions reduction is going to require some radical adjustments to how we generate revenue. Smart leadership teams will take immediate steps to set their businesses down this path.