Our thinking

If you have been following us for a while, you’ll know we love discussing sustainability communications and targets and the inevitable balancing act between setting bold commitments, and over-committing to targets that are hard to reach.

Is it better to set an ambitious target and only achieve 80% of it or to set a target at 40% and successfully meet it? In the words of our CEO Giles in a recent Reuters interview: “We must allow business to be aspirational, to risk committing to the unknown and rather than sitting at the edge asking if it is greenwash, [we must] spend time challenging what they are doing and where they could do more and faster.”

One example that comes to mind is Microsoft’s pledge to be carbon negative by 2030 in 2020. The target was ambitious, especially considering they did not have a clear roadmap to achieve that, knowing they would need to rely on suppliers and customers to help them. However, quickly, the business started taking action and set up the Climate Innovation Fund, pledging to invest $1bn into finding ways to meet that goal.

Of course, we don’t want businesses making wild claims without being able to credibly demonstrate their genuine commitment to reaching them. Any business that sets a target needs to move fast to set out a realistic plan of action, and transparently communicate its progress along the way. But we believe they should also be encouraged to push themselves to take a leap – and use the fact of having done so to help galvanise action.