By Marco Passoni
Invest in our planet. That was the main message that featured on the Earth Day website this weekend. For me, this is more than a slogan, it is an important message that we must all fully consider when we make our sustainability plans for our businesses.
To make a real difference on the topic of sustainability we must all look beyond ourselves and our business to see and ask what more we can do. Of course, it is true that, like charity and good will, sustainability begins in-house and there is plenty of evidence of companies around the world seeking to improve their sustainability and ESG offering, from offsetting carbon and cutting emissions to reducing packaging and deploying my sustainable processes. All of this is good, but it is no longer enough on its own. Let us be honest, making packaging 50% recyclable will not save the world.
We must all be taking proper, transparent action to bring our in-house processes up to speed. The importance of this issue was reinforced for me recently when I saw this petition calling for the Biden administration to take action and put in place laws which will govern the sustainability and ethics actions of fashion brands. If the industry needs outside regulation then it suggests not enough is being done in house.
Let us be honest, making packaging 50% recyclable will not save the world
At 2.0 & Partners, we believe that everyday small and simple actions must also be supported by bigger ones. We believe in investing in the planet and our future – not just in how our business looks.
In order to help take small steps towards big change, we are proud to support the work of companies making incredible efforts on a large scale to combat the impact of climate and change and, where possible, reverse it. This year, we have become Independent Supporters of The Ocean Cleanup. This amazing organisation seeks to clear 90% of floating plastic pollution – a large-scale goal which will make an important change for our world.
We are proud to support their work, which includes using cutting-edge technology to capture plastic waste floating in rivers, as well as removing it from the ocean. But, as I said, we believe in helping to take the small steps, as well as the big ones. That is why this summer we will hold the first ever 2.0 & Partners Beach Clean, to help remove first-hand some of the plastic which is destroying our oceans. I have talked before about wanting to lead a group of Plastic Hunters to battle against the plastic plague which blights our world and this is our first step. Our team of Plastic Hunters will take to Jubilee Beach in Southend-on-Sea on 4 June to do our bit and I welcome any of you who wish to join us.
The Ocean Cleanup is not the only cause we are proud to support at 2.0 & Partners. We have worked alongside Ecologi for many years to offset our carbon footprint by planting trees and helping with reforestation. But we are also proud to support the company is its larger-scale projects helping to battle climate change around the world. To-date, these projects include the creation of a hydropower station in Uganda, the development of on-shore windfarms in Taiwan and work to preserve the Amazon rainforest.
While these are not projects we as a company take any credit for, they are examples of the larger scale work which we should all be looking to support to ensure we are fully investing in sustainability and our world.
I urge all of you to look carefully at the work you do and the sustainability efforts you engage in. None of us can solve this problem alone, but are your efforts investing in the planet? Or merely investing in yourself? I believe the truth is that we can all do more.
