Today, Monday 5th June, marks World Environment Day 2023. This day was designed by the UN to highlight the serious challenges that our environment currently faces, and it repeatedly draws a massive gathering from people across the planet to get involved in ways to help look after our environment.
Each year, World Environment Day chooses a theme related to the different environmental challenges that we still face. These themes have ranged from ‘Ecosystem Restoration’ to ‘Living Sustainably with Nature’. But this year the chosen theme is ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’.
According to the official World Environment Day website, ‘more than 400 million tonnes of plastic is produced every year, half of which is designed to be used only once’. Not only this, but around ‘11 million tonnes of plastic waste flow annually into oceans’ with this being estimated to triple by 2040. Plastic is filling our planet with disastrous consequences. Plastic waste damages wildlife and has even been known to find its way into our food in the form of microplastics, which can be harmful to our health. Something needs to be done to stem the tide of plastic that is ever rising.
That’s where World Environment Day comes into play. There are already solutions being formed to tackle the issue of plastic pollution. What is needed, however, ‘is a surge of public and political pressure to scale up and speed actions from governments, companies, and other stakeholders to solve this crisis.’ Today is a day of action. But it is also a day to celebrate those who are already working to help our environment and spread hope that change is happening.
In the spirit of this, we at World Wide Generation would like to use today to spotlight some of our partners who are working hard to ensure that their business practices are positively impacting the environment. We believe in the power of collaboration to achieve sustainability, and part of this comes when we lift those up who are already doing great work in sustainability.
One of our most recent partners, Kyndryl, is helping to make our environment a cleaner and more sustainable place. Recently, Kyndryl took part in The Great British Beach Clean to pick up plastic washed up on the shores of Hove beach, taking an active part in the movement against plastic pollution. You can read all about their activity here.
Not only this, but Kyndryl recognises that they ‘have the opportunity and intention to infuse sustainability into all our operations’. Kyndryl is on a mission to ensure that their business practices are sustainable and positively impact the environment. To achieve this, Kyndryl has set various targets for the next few years. They have set out the challenge to use ‘more than 50% renewable energy in 2022’ and ‘have committed to achieving 100% renewable energy by 2030’. Kyndryl are also developing their ‘water, waste, and biodiversity goals aligned with SASB and GRI’. On the path to being net zero by 2040, Kyndryl are also going to reduce their carbon emissions by 50%, as well as help their customers to reduce their carbon emissions. All of this will ensure that their actions will have a positive impact on the environment.
Another of our partners, Savannah, has been working hard to integrate a positive environmental impact into the operations of their business. One of the pillars of Savannah’s vision concerns respecting the environment. Savannah themselves have declared that ‘our ambition in the fourth pillar of our sustainability strategy is to minimise our greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions and manage our impacts on biodiversity and water’. As energy producers, Savannah is conscious of their business impacts on the environment and are ensuring that they make changes to the way that they do business so that they can have a positive impact on the environment. Peter Spalding, Savannah’s ESG Manager, has said that "we are focused on ensuring that we manage our operations as efficiently as possible to respect the environment”.
It is this kind of focus to put the environment as a priority which will help make a difference and reach true sustainability. Both Kyndryl and Savannah are doing some fantastic work to ensure that their business practices are impacting the environment in a sustainably-conscious way. We are so pleased to be collaborating with them and want to congratulate them for their transparency in how they are setting goals to help the environment.
This is how we can work together to help to look after our environment. Today on World Environment Day, let us be looking for ways to help beat plastic pollution and help to positively impact the environment to bring about a more sustainable future.