47% of the world’s top management believes that after the pandemic, businesses will face climate problems. This is stated in the Deloitte Global Resilience Report 2021, based on a survey of 2,260 top managers from Europe, America and the Asia-Pacific region.
According to the respondents of the Deloitte company, in the current decade the business will face the following socio-economic problems:
· Climate change (47%);
· Health and disease prevention (42%);
· Education and training gaps (39%);
· Income inequality and wealth distribution (37%);
· Systematic bias and inequality – sexism, racism (31%);
· Supply chain problems (30%);
· Deficiency of resources – oil, gas, water (26%);
· Food shortage, hunger (19%);
· Immigration and refugees (18%);
· Sexual harassment (8%).
Three quarters of respondents believe the climate crisis has the same or greater impact than the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leaders are already preparing for climate change, their biggest fear, according to the study. A third of those surveyed noted that their companies already have experience in developing goods and services in a more sustainable way – another third plan to develop them no later than the end of 2021. 28% of executives encourage and require suppliers and partners to adhere to specific sustainability criteria.
At the same time, the study provides the TOP-5 of the most common environmental measures used by business:
· Train employees to be greener;
· Developing products and services in a more sustainable way;
· Consideration of the topic of environmental sustainability in at least one or more boards of directors during the year;
· Encouraging and requiring partners and suppliers to comply with certain environmental sustainability criteria;
· Creating a plan to reduce employee air travel even after a pandemic (to reduce carbon emissions – ed.)
In addition, top managers emphasize that investments in the environment can also be beneficial in terms of meeting their business goals.
“We strive to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 not only because it’s right, but because we are confident that a sustainable society will create additional business opportunities,” Mazaru Shiomi, executive director of the Sumitomo Corporation group, told Deloitte.
Overall, more than 60% of those surveyed said their companies are fulfilling their obligations to protect the environment.
The survey was conducted in the fall of 2020. All major industries are represented in the sample. The company’s experts conducted selective one-on-one interviews with global industry leaders and scientists. All respondents from the private sector represented organizations with annual revenues of more than $500 million, almost a third – organizations with revenues of more than $5 billion.
