In Short

• WBCSD introduces the Business Action Guide to Climate Transition.
• The guide has been developed in association with the Carbon Trust and insights from several global companies.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), in collaboration with the Carbon Trust and 27 global businesses, has introduced the Business Action Guide to Climate Transition, a structured approach for companies to transition from climate ambition to delivery.

The object of the guide is to provide businesses with practical tools and evidence, so that they can turn climate targets into real results.

Companies often set climate goals, but they have to walk a tightrope when it comes to successfully meeting those targets. Also, sustainability teams scramble to get leadership guidance, justify investments financially, or align different departments around the same priorities.

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In addition to this, they lack solid financial evidence and have misaligned incentives as well as set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are not consistent across business units or departments.

The guide comes to the fore to address these problems and has two important themes: building the business case and implementing the transition.

In order to build a strong business case, companies require financial evidence, including quantified risks and opportunities, the cost of inaction, as well as analysis tools like marginal abatement cost curves.

They are also required to detail climate action in business-focused terms so that evaluation done by Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and board members becomes easier.

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Once these are in place, the next step is to put them into action. Companies progress faster, explains the guide, when they have strong governance, KPIs understood across teams, aligned incentives, and sustainability roles integrated into finance, procurement, operations, product design, and marketing.

It also calls for cross-functional collaboration because climate action hinges on coordinated decisions across a company.

To download the guide, please click here or visit WBCSD’s website.

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