“Don’t Waste Your Time on Net-Zero!” A provocative title, designed to reclaim the narrative, during this time of culture wars, yet also holding a second meaning; demonstrating how we can avoid costly mistakes and develop more transformational climate action strategies — making net-zero work technically, sustainably and commercially.
Most current net-zero strategies are doomed to fail: their underpinning methodologies are largely based on managerial mindsets and incremental change in business-as-usual baselines; focused on initial low-hanging fruit, leaving “innovation gaps” for some later date, they tend towards diminishing returns and the “net-zero crunch” – the point at which they run out of genuine carbon reduction opportunities, within the current framing of the business.
In taking the path-of-least-resistance, many organisations tend to avoid the fundamental challenges: missing the opportunity to redesign businesses and value chains for more transformative impacts; the foundational work in rethinking business models for net-zero; and the essential engagement on systems change to create the right enabling environment. Incrementalism provides a slow train towards stranded assets, as well as climate breakdown.
Don’t Waste Your Time on Net-Zero provides a strategic guide to help progressive businesses develop more transformational strategies – avoiding the common pitfalls and wasted effort – to accelerate the delivery of more radical reductions in emissions, bringing forward the ‘innovation gap’, and finding the new ‘sweet spot’, with net-zero solutions that work technically, sustainably and commercially. Following a more strategic approach, businesses can avoid years of wasted effort, costly mistakes and the risk of path dependencies.
So, don’t waste your time, here’s how to achieve the real impact we need to see!
1. Meeting the Net-Zero Challenge: What net-zero is, what it isn’t – we explode a number of myths – and explore how it works in practice, and what it really takes to achieve net-zero.
2. Net-Zero Progress: Are we getting there? We have a mountain to climb, yet real progress on reducing emissions is way too slow. We identify the barriers to progress, and the realisation that nothing short of transformation will do.
3. The Problem with Net-Zero: With reference to live case examples, we demonstrate the fundamental problem of incrementalism, and how this provides the illusion of progress towards net-zero, until we hit the inevitable net-zero crunch point – where net-zero becomes impossible within the current framing of business.
4. Getting Back on Track: Rethinking Net-Zero for Transformation. We share six key principles to help organisations avoid the net-zero crunch, and develop aligned strategic and operational net-zero strategies to deliver transformational impacts and long-term value.
5. The Strategic Net-Zero Framework: A new model for radical innovation and enterprise redesign; a pathway to deliver radical reductions in emissions, while harnessing commercial advantage.
6. A Glimpse into the Future: How will it be different? Authentic transformation is a road less travelled – we look into the future and synthesise what a complete transformational change might mean for businesses in three key sectors: Household goods, construction and global food production.
7. The Business of Change: Meaningful and lasting change does not come easy, and there are very few effective roadmaps – we explore the essential groundwork required for systems change, enabling transformational net-zero strategies and commercial success.
8. Key Insights and Recommendations.