Sustainability Seconds: Earth Day 2022
Today is Earth Day so, we decided to post our next sustainability seconds article a little early! In honor of Earth Day 2022, we wanted to make this sustainability seconds blog a little different than usual. This time, let us look at a few statistics regarding sustainability, goals that have been set, and progress made towards accomplishing those goals.
First, let’s take a look at public perception trends related to sustainability. Many reports have shown that people care now more than ever about the climate, environment, and sustainability. A recent study conducted by Healthy and Sustainability Living in 2020 showed that 63% of people polled said that climate change was “very serious”. In 2010, only 52% of people believed that climate change was “very serious”.
The study digs a little deeper to find out how strongly those people agreed with several questions related to the environment. 73% of people either agree or strongly agree that we need to consume less to preserve the environment for future generations. 73% also agreed that they want to reduce the impact that they have on the environment by a large amount.
Only 57% of people agreed or strongly agreed that they were willing to pay more for products and brands that work to improve the environment. And just over 50% of respondents agreed that they feel guilty when negatively impacting the environment.
When comparing these numbers to even just two years ago to a study conducted in 2019, each of these statements had a higher percentage of people who agreed in 2021 than in 2019.
So, more people are interested in improving the environment, but are they doing something about it? The study shows that few who claim they want to improve the environment actually make changes to accomplish this goal. 46% of people who responded said they had a desire to make lifestyle changes to positively affect the environment (Malmqvist, 2022). A separate study conducted by Deloitte shows how consumers are changing their behavior. Those who make changes are starting by limiting the use of single-use plastic. The second most common lifestyle change is a conscious effort to choose brands that actively practice environmental sustainability. Some of the more difficult changes to adopt have been switching to renewable energy sources and reducing air travel (Szegedi, 2021).
But only 22% of people who say they want to make changes actually do. Some of the most mentioned barriers to becoming more sustainable were (Malmqvist, 2022):
- Not enough government support
- Too expensive
- Not enough support from businesses
- Being unsure how to start
- Being too comfortable with current lifestyle
- If everyone isn’t doing it, my changes aren’t significant
- It is inconvenient
- It is time expensive
It is easy to see that we have made progress in the last decade, but we still have a long way to go if we want to reach our goals by 2030, 2040, and 2050. Understanding the challenges associated with getting everyone onboard can help shape our strategies and change the way we aim to accomplish these goals. For example, nearly one-third of Europe’s largest companies have set a goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, but only 9% of these companies are on-track to do so (Accenture.com, 2021).
Croda and Avanti are very serious when it comes to sustainability and leaving the planet better than we found it. Two of our most ambitious goals are:
- Committing to becoming a net-zero organization by 2050
- Reducing scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by the most ambitious Science Based Targets pathway (reducing our scope 1 and 2 emissions by 46.2% from 2018 baseline and scope 3 emissions by 13.5% by collaborating with our supply chain)
We are committed to this as a business, and we want you to join us on our journey to becoming climate, people, and land positive by 2030. Keep reading our monthly sustainability seconds blog to find out how you can make changes in your own life to better serve the planet!
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