Big business still ‘not ready’ for climate transformation

Big business still ‘not ready’ for climate transformation, says ex-head of ESG at Deloitte in conversation with Chris Caldwell of United Renewables

DOUGLAS, Isle of Man, Nov. 08, 2022. Despite years of work on measuring impact and ESG, the world’s biggest firms remain unwilling and unready to change themselves to meet the climate challenge, declared Sam Baker, climate activist and ex-Partner at Deloitte, this week. As head of ESG and Climate Change at the ‘big four’ consultancy group until 2021, Baker worked closely with a number of the world’s biggest firms on their ESG and sustainability strategy and reporting.

Speaking to host Chris Caldwell on an episode of ESG-focused podcast Conversations on Climate, Baker announced that truly sustainable transformation remained ‘elusive and underinvested in,’ within the major multinationals he worked with over his 23-year career at the consultancy firm. With the exception of a few smaller businesses, most fail to ‘own [their impact] and bring it into the heart of the business model.’

COP 27 business links under scrutiny

Baker – who left Deloitte to found the direct-action group Walk2COP – made the comments with just days remaining until the opening of the global COP 27 climate conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, on November 8^th, 2022.

The climate conference’s relationship with major multinationals has already come under fire in recent months. The announcement that the conference would be sponsored by Coca-Cola has been condemned as an example of ‘greenwashing’ by Greenpeace and other advocacy groups. Despite its ‘ambition’ to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, Coca-Cola has been repeatedly declared the world’s worst polluter in audits by monitoring Break Free From Plastic.

Green business leadership speaks out

Baker’s comments were echoed in the conversation with Chris Caldwell, CEO of United Renewables, a full-cycle developer of clean energy infrastructure with over 40 projects operating globally across wind, solar, tidal, and anaerobic digestion. Caldwell himself has been a vocal advocate for big business to do more to combat climate change, drawing on his decades of experience running a sustainability-focused company and as host of the sustainable business podcast Conversations on Climate.

Conversations on Climate brings world-leading thinkers from business and academia together to share their expertise on the subject of climate change. Previous guests include Sir Andrew Likierman, Julio Dal Poz, Professor Jean-Pierre Benoît, and Professor Ioannou.

All previous episodes can be found here. Related articles can be found here.

CONTACT Isabella Hawke – Sales and Marketing Consultant
COMPANY United Renewables
PHONE +447624457139
EMAIL IIhawke@unitedrenewables.co.uk
WEB unitedrenewables.co.uk/resources

The original press release was published by Global Newswire on 8th November 2022.

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