Last week a small but important story was nestled under the headlines du jour about the economy, the president’s vacation plans, Syria, etc. The article was easy to miss – buried within the Washington Post on a page dominated by a Macy’s advertisement featuring svelte young men brandishing their best late summer clearance items.
According to a study recently published by England’s University of York, plants and animals are fleeing - either to higher altitudes or latitudes - regions affected by increased average temperatures. It’s affecting species around the globe, and the rates of migration correlate with the areas experiencing the greatest warming.
We can talk until our voices give out about the reality of global warming, but at the end of the day, we can’t force anyone’s head out of the sand. In fact, the more we try, the more you’ll resist the truth.
But every now and then our friendly scientists come out with a piece of seemingly irrefutable evidence that our planet is warming. “This more or less puts to bed the issue of whether these shifts are related to climate change,” says Chris D. Thomas, who led the study at the University of York. “There isn’t any obvious alternative explanation for why species should be moving pole-ward in studies around the world.”
Yeah. This is scary stuff.
Look, there are lots of reasons for your business to pursue a sustainability agenda. Sometimes even we grow tired of trying to convince people of this fact. But the reality is simple: sustainability drives profits and respect. After all, no matter where we work, we’re all in the moneymaking industry. At SSC, profits keep us in business, but our passion for the green movement is what gets us up in the morning.
This isn’t just about the bottom line. This is about doing your part to stop the irreparable harm being exacted on our planet. It’s easy to make fun of tree huggers, hippies, biodynamic farmers, and extremists. And it doesn’t make good business sense for us at SSC to involve ourselves directly with certain environmental activists. Rather we think that we can do the most good by approaching sustainability realistically and from a business perspective.
But sometimes being a global citizen, whether you are a stay-at-home parent or a major corporate CEO, means taking a stand against the status quo and doing your part to save the world. It means expanding your gaze. Sustainability doesn’t just make good business sense – it is an expression of love for planet that allows you to be in business in the first place. Stand up and do your part.
By the way…it’s innovations month here at the blog, and although we’re not presenting anything specific today, we felt this is a timely news item that warrants discussion. The brief Washington Post article about this study can be found here. If you want to talk about how you can make your business more sustainable, give us a call at 202.470.3248 or email us.