Reset, Review, Renew!
I have spent the last few months taking a sabbatical from work. It had been a very long time since I took any time off during and after the pandemic, so this has been a welcome break for all sorts of reasons. It has allowed me to switch off and reflect on various aspects of life, connecting with friends and family, completing various projects at home and generally reflecting on macro issues affecting the world we live in.
Climate change and the impact on the environment is visible in so many facets of everyday life and the more I looked into it, the more I connected with the subject.
The early years:
I was exposed to hiking expeditions and camping early on in my life and as a teenager I spent time away from home and making my own decisions was very rewarding. Back in 1993 I participated in a formative initiative to clean up Mt Kenya’s popular Naro Moru climbing route. Pollution has always endangered wild animals and the surrounding natural forest of Mt Kenya. As a young adult, the thrills of making the ascent and descent a few times whilst clearing away rubbish left by visitors appealed highly as a worthwhile task to take on.
On average a climbing visitor can generate about 20kg of litter, which in most cases was often left scattered around at various points of the climbing trail. Met Station (altitude 3050m/10007 ft) was our starting point for the ascend where the road ended and the location of where we needed to bring back all rubbish. Locations between Mackinders Lodge (altitude 4200m/13780ft), which was our base camp and Top Hut (4790m/15750ft) were our focus areas and where we would spend the most time clearing up. Our group of 17 had to not only take our own provisions for our stay of 10 days but also cater for how we would bring back our waste as well as all collected rubbish back down the mountain.
With an average of 20k visitors annually back in the 90’s, the magnitude of the problem soon dawned upon us as we started discovering huge deposits everywhere – rubbish tips that on the surface appeared small but as we extracted the surface, the pits just got deeper and wider! Top Hut itself was meant to be a rest point as climbers attack and descend from the Lenana peak, but it was filled knee-high with rubbish – plastic, tin, glass, clothing and paper. There was even an oxygen tank amongst the mix!
It took us a day’s walk to get the litter down to Mackinders Lodge from Top Hut – and then another day to walk down to the Met Station to dump the rubbish and back up to Mackinders Lodge. The second leg is a trip that takes most people a whole day but we had to tackle it twice in one day due to the sheer volume of waste we had begun to accumulate at Mackinders versus the time and resources we had allocated for the trip. We had to do the Met-Mackinders run a few times and in total we brought down +500kg of rubbish.
Historically, pits for the disposal of waste were dug at each gate in the early 1980s and free rubbish bags were once handed out to the climbers. These options were rarely used and the warnings often ignored. In addition to the important business of cleaning up, our group of climbers stirred up interest among our own age group. Mount Kenya started receiving more climbers from schools than before with a lot of them participating in subsequent clean up initiatives – a positive impact on the local community and environment. Interventions were also put in place subsequently by the national park authorities where visitors were given empty rubbish bags at the gate and fined if they brought them back empty! It also highlighted how to we should approach consumption of materials with disposal in mind.
Reflecting on this today:
I am proud of this historical achievement. Whilst my career took a different turn back then towards technology, this reflection has allowed me to reconnect with environmental facets in different ways again.
Through my work and personal investments, I have been fortunate to learn about ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) frameworks and how this topic is affecting organisations in different sectors. Some organisations are embarking on ESG reporting as a PR exercise, others are implementing different aspects of their ESG strategies to capture meaningful KPIs that help measure their ESG posture and how they are either contributing to overall net zero goals and/or improving their social corporate responsibilities within the respective communities they serve. With environmental legislation under review at all levels of government, the imperative of mandatory ESG reporting is on the horizon. Governments cannot measure what they cannot manage. Europe appears to be ahead of other geographies in this regard where for instance the top 50000 organisations meeting 2 of the 3 criteria (over 250 employees, net turnover over €40m or total assets more than €20m) now have to report on their ESG posture and incorporate into or alongside their financial reporting within 2 fiscal years. I look forward to assisting my clients on the back of this in their ESG journeys in a similar manner – from carbon accounting and ESG reporting solutions, to understanding impact of renewable energy to their organisation and also identifying & improving social corporate responsibilities and their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) strategies.
At home, as a family, we recently made an active choice to install double glazing and additional insulation in our outdoor entertaining area. Whilst this was not a cheap exercise for non-mandatory building material compared to conventional alternatives, the choices still felt like a right thing to do in the overall scheme of things. Again, emerging industry standards appear to be on the horizon where builders/home owners will be required to demonstrate green credentials for new builds through such energy saving approaches.
In a similar vein, we now have an organic gardening bed growing fresh produce. With rising interest rates, energy and other costs impacting our finances, we are making such lifestyle changes that will hopefully lead to some cost savings, better health outcomes, and potentially teach our children the importance of sustainable living where possible.
We are now looking into solar panels as the next project for our home. Whilst the return on investment does not look as favourable as it once was when more generous rebates that were on offer historically, the impact of rising energy bills still means this is a worthwhile exercise for everyone to consider, personally as well as for their businesses. Adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) is on the rise but until our government & electricity providers are actively investing in infrastructure like EV charging infrastructure, grid modernisation and realisation of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capabilities, until subsidies are readily available to make EVs affordable for the masses, and until availability and adoption of renewable energy alternatives like green hydrogen are more economical than current fuel sources, etc., the uptake of EVs will be at a slower pace to start with. But this is a rapidly changing landscape and is likely to accelerate in a short period of time as more car manufactures and OEMs bring new models to market.
There are growing pressures for these changes to occur sooner rather than later from different stakeholders and various business have started exploring options that not only help their ESG credentials but also achieve costs savings against rising energy prices e.g. through initiatives like commercial solar. What was once considered uneconomical or having a longer payback, may need to be revisited due to inflationary cost pressures.
In my opinion, the jury is still out on battery storage for home use as emerging changes like vehicle-to-grid are still conceptual in Australian power grids. The adoption of V2G will vary by geography and in tandem with grid modernisation initiatives led by local energy distributors. Commercial grid storage makes sense in today’s world but this also has to occur in-step with grid modernisation. As grid storage technologies evolve from concept to pilots and into production deployments at scale, it certainly is a credible option against rising diesel/gas prices – every use case has to be reviewed on its own merits.
From green funding sources to ESG investment credentials, EVs to battery storage, from renewable energy options (wind power, hyrdo, solar, green hydrogen, etc.) to active investment by organisations in corporate social responsibilities, the world is very active in this space! At an individual level, a potential change in behaviour and active lifestyle choices are paramount if we are all to make a collective impact in improving net zero outcomes, for our benefit and the generations that follow.
I hope to continue investing my learnings and exposure in many such initiatives where and when I can going forward – and it will be added bonus to be able to help my customers along the way in a similar manner where appropriate.