CSR: Looming recession can hurt CSR spend

CSR is always in focus when COP comes around. In October, food giant Nestle promised to spend more than US$1 billion by 2030 on trying to source coffee sustainably, which is double its earlier promise. The promise is connected with the challenges that coffee beans face because of climate change.

However, the looming recession is causing corporate governance principles to shirk as funds adhering to environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) have started shrinking, as investors are prioritising capital preservation more than climate goals, according to Yahoo! Finance.

Read more: COP27: The cost of a greener planet

Companies that continue to support the environment in the face of a financial crunch, have to be commended. Several companies have received approval of their emissions reduction targets by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a coalition of the CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature, joining a growing number of companies taking urgent action on climate change.

Among them is Trimble, a global construction technology company, which has announced its commitment to reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions 50% by 2030, with 2019 as the base year. This is in line with the ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement and a net-zero future to keep global temperature increase to 1.5°C.

Trimble also said that it is committing to achieve 100% annual sourcing of renewable electricity by 2025.

“As the need for sustainability becomes more urgent in India and around the world, we are putting sustainability at the front and center of everything we do at Trimble. We remain committed to acting quickly to protect the environment and make society more resilient, productive, and connected,” says Paul Wallett, Regional Director, Trimble Solutions, India and Middle East.

The looming recession is causing corporate governance principles to shirk as funds adhering to environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) have started shrinking, as investors are prioritising capital preservation more than climate goals

Trimble’s recently released its 2021 Sustainability Report highlighting that the company’s technology solutions enable greater accuracy, less rework, and increased efficiency across industries, and therefore yield fuel savings that are estimated to prevent over seven million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

WIKA Instruments India Pvt Ltd, the global market leader in pressure and temperature measurement technology, have supported Kasturba Balika Vidyalaya of Delhi to overhaul the school infrastructure and equipment availability, thus boosting overall development and empowerment of girl child.

Read more: COP27: What the green consumer wants & how tech can help?

The company also went on to use the funds for installation of solar energy and investing in renewables. While solar panels have been installed in the school, all the four factories of WIKA in India are fitted with solar panels making them a positive supplier to the electricity board.

“Environment is one of our big goals. We not only device tooling for alternate energy solutions, we walk the talk by being 100% energy positive ourselves. Our facilities are fully covered by solar power and we provide energy back to the grid,” Gaurav Bawa, Sr Vice President, WIKA India said.