From Green Right Now Reports
As governments wrestle with the rules of the game for a greener future, businesses are putting their own playbooks on the table.
Alcoa, a longtime champion of environmental action, helped lead a team of 29 global companies, representing 14 industries, in developing a coordinated plan for how the world’s burgeoning population could live peaceably, comfortably and sustainably on the planet.
The plan, released today and called Vision 2050 lays out what human inhabitants – 9 billion human inhabitants – will need to do to live within their means on Mother Earth.
“The world already has the knowledge, science, technologies, skills and financial resources needed to achieve Vision 2050. However, concerted global action in the next decade will be required to bring these capabilities and resources together, putting the world on the path to sustainability,” said Alcoa Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Dr. Mohammad A. Zaidi co-chaired the 18-month project.
All the companies participating were part of The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a global association of about 200 companies. The CEO-led group studies the intersection of business and sustainable development. Through the council, the companies share knowledge and best practices.
Vision 2050 spells out the actions and changes that must happen over the coming decade “to make a sustainable planetary society possible,” according to a news release. These include:
- Meeting the development needs of billions of people and enabling their education and economic empowerment, particularly of women.
- Developing radically more eco-efficient solutions, lifestyles and behavior.
- Incorporating the costs of “externalities” — starting with carbon, ecosystem services and water — into the structure of the marketplace. (In other words, putting a price on natural resources, thereby equalizing the playing field for businesses that practice careful use of those resources.)
- Doubling agricultural output without increasing the amount of land or water used
- Halting deforestation and increasing yields from planted forests
- Halving carbon emissions worldwide (based on 2005 levels) by 2050, with greenhouse gas emissions peaking around 2020 through a shift to low-carbon energy systems (i.e., renewable energy like wind and solar power) and highly improved demand-side energy efficiency (energy efficient buildings).
- Providing universal access to low-carbon mobility
- Delivering a four- to ten-fold improvement in the use of resources and materials. (Think recycle, reuse and reduce.)
Vision 2050, an 80-page document, calls out businesses’ role as integral to transforming world markets, but cautions that companies must not harm natural resources or reduce biodiversity. It is a self-described “best-case scenario for sustainability” intended not as a “definitive blueprint” but a launching point for developing strategies and dialogue with governments, the news release explains.
Alcoa has shown its own commitment to sustainability by reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by a 43% over its 1990 base year; setting up community programs worldwide and winning recognition for its ethical practices, ranking 11 out of 581 companies on the Covalence Ethics Index.
About 73 percent of the aluminum produced in the world is still in use, Alcoa reports, making the company’s core recyclable product more sustainable than many raw materials.
The company employs nearly 60,000 people around the world.