What we learnt from 2014, What we will do in 2015 - Our CEO's message

For me, the year ends on the 6th of January of every year and so my 2015 begins today. Over the years I have inculcated a habit where I melt into a contemplative state from the 25th or so of December to my end of year. The 6th of January is also the day I was born, 43 years ago, so it all neatly stacks up. 

All that matters to me is to be able to build a sustainable future and so my reflections will remain in the corridor of Climate change and Sustainability. 

Some highlights from the year 2014:

2014 was the hottest year recorded in the past 150 years and the world is convinced that there is a steady increase in global temperatures.

Water crises was recorded in many countries and underlying social tensions were revealed the need for us to view water as a finite resource.

Food security is tightly linked to climate justice whose lever is climate change. If we have to produce food in ever increasing rate we need to view climate change in a different light.

A decisive report concludes that business need not be fearful of environmental regulations and that it works in their favor.

A climate accord was signed by 364 investor groups in a high profile event in New York hosted by Ban ki Moon who said ‘The more we delay, the more we will pay,’ (You can view our short study on the signatories here)

In the background of the various events that marked 2014, we here at ClimateMiles chipped into the discourse and moved a snail step forward. 

The year 2015 will witness:

Formulation of an approach to tackle the challenge of calculating Scope 3. We believe there, lies an opportunity in calculating vendor emissions. We will work closely with WRI/India and further develop our product “FutureProof”.

An Emission factor database will be built and released where scientists and other GHG experts will participate.

In order to build human capacity in India we will launch a tool called “Project Saraswati” to be used by professors and students that are looking to educate themselves with Sustainability.

Calculation of Climate Risk is a complex challenge that needs to be met immediately and we will be doing just the same. We will transform the BSE-GREENEX to embrace Climate Risk.

India is transforming itself under the leadership of Mr. Modi and the time to build a world class Sustainability research institute is NOW. We will assist ORF in the formulation, launch and operation of this institute. 

The world is stuck in the mud called climate change for a long time now. We as humans have taken our own time to establish wisdom in action. We will see an acceleration of human resolve in the coming years which might not avert the disasters to come but surely we will be ready to respond. Finally, I dismiss the idea of Climate change as a human-made event as it separates human from nature. Nature and human is one and thanks to climate change we will understand that concept intuitively.

by Mohan Polamar, CEO of Climate Miles