It’s time to ask the tough questions about businesses’ role, ambition, track record and plans for combating climate change. This year we surpassed the 1.5°C warming threshold—a red line we collectively aimed to avoid – and yet the pace of progress creeps along as it has for over a decade.

While significant strides have been made in the fight against climate change, the most formidable challenges still lie ahead. Where we have made significant progress, it’s been the low-hanging fruit, the ‘easy’ tasks, not the complex and fundamental scale changes required. The sobering reality of climate change demands not just incremental steps, but a complete transformation of our economic systems. In this pre-Climate Week NYC article, Meg Fisher (Managing Partner, Xynteo) asks – how do we do this?

For businesses, the transformation required can appear commercially terrifying, as the work, cost, and choices needed to just stay afloat – let alone become future-fit and grow – will test c-suites, teams, boards, and shareholders as never before. But to meet our ambitions for a better world, the fundamental economic systems of our society—heavy industry, energy, and agriculture—must undergo unprecedented change at a pace and scale never achieved before.

The good news is that we can do this, because we’ve done it before. The covid-19 pandemic showed the innovation we can bring to resolving crises, the 2008 financial crisis showed us how we can find the creative financial might we need to secure the future, while Suez Canal blockage in 2021 highlighted our ability to (if painfully) realign supply chains successfully. In short, we CAN do this – but it starts with asking the tough questions and being honest about the complexity of the challenge ahead.

Next week, Xynteo will be at Climate Week NYC (24-26 September). Over the last decade, Climate Week NYC has grown into a pivotal platform for global leaders to convene, collaborate, and chart a course toward a sustainable future. This year, the weeklong conference is being described as a critical response to the climate crisis – as it was last year, and before that, and before that. If every year is ‘critical’ or ‘pivotal’ – does that mean we aren’t making the progress, we need and want? And if so, what’s stopping us?

At Xynteo, we believe that now is the time to ask the really tough question – what is really stopping us from making progress?

We don’t have all the answers, and they will be different across sectors and businesses. This is why throughout the week, we will be running sessions asking how we intend to deliver transformation across four key sectors – food, industry, energy, and plastics. The level of transformation required needs deep thinking, collaborative partnerships, and concerted effort to reimagine operations, realign supply chains, and drastically reduce scope 3s. Now is the moment to identify and confront the true obstacles to progress, devise innovative solution pathways, and seize the opportunity to create a more resilient and sustainable business landscape. This is where we must all coming together leads the charge across four key areas:

1. Catalysing fundamental change: Tweaks and minor adjustments won’t suffice. Our collective focus must be on transforming the very foundations of key economic systems. For example, one key component is decarbonising the built environment and the materials we need to build the future.

2. Fostering collaborative partnerships: In today’s interconnected world, no single entity can solve these complex challenges alone. Bringing together diverse stakeholders – from multinational corporations to innovative startups to policymakers to community leaders – is critical to catalysing progress. But bringing them together isn’t enough, we need structure and plans on difficult areas that can address the challenges of regulatory rules across borders, the need to great standardisation and industry consultation, the sharing of technologies needed to enable agility in sectors, and how government policies and incentives can be used in a non-competitive way to accelerate holistic progress on a global scale.

3. Addressing complex challenges: We can’t continue to shy away from the difficult questions. Identifying and tackling the true obstacles to progress—be they technological, financial, or cultural is needed with urgency.

4. Seizing commercial opportunities: While the challenges are significant, so too are the opportunities. We shouldn’t ignore or playdown the fact that commercial returns are important for businesses.

Climate Week NYC provides the stage to ask the tough questions, to take stock of the wins and losses, and challenge ourselves to greater progress. At Xynteo our driving ambition is to help organisations, and their leaders, identify and create the blueprints needed for turning vision into. We look forward to meeting everyone at Climate Week and to being part of a conversation that leads to the better future waiting to be shaped—and the time to act is now..

Learn more about Xynteo at Climate Week

Stay up to date with our latest interviews by following us on social media (LinkedIn  I  Twitter), or Contact Us to find out how we can help your leaders and organisation create people and planet-positive impact.