The business case for climate action

A revolution in our way of thinking and doing is long overdue and the limits of the current system are increasingly clear on a planet with scarce resources. An efficient use of resources is at the essence of a circular economy and offers tremendous economic opportunities. An excellent example is the retrofit of the most iconic building in the world: the Empire State Building (ESB). The efficiency gains from an integrated, combination of measures to improve insulation, lighting and the re-manufacture of 6,500 windows on-site into super-windows, helped reduce energy use, costs and emissions by close to 50 per cent with a payback of three years. Well-planned, timed and integrated energy efficiency in buildings can be highly profitable. In contrast, the Palace of Culture retrofit in Warsaw is a missed opportunity to emulate the ESB experience. While the stand-alone measure of the Palace of Culture window-retrofit is expected to save 20 per cent of its energy once all the windows are changed, the adventure launched in 2017 will cost of 13 million Polish zlotys (over three million euro) and requires moving 900 windows 300 kilometres to Suwałki to be refurbished. A stark contrast with the ESB strategy and a process that should only be completed in 2021. Buildings represent some 40 per cent of global energy use and emissions and the Polish building stock offers tremendous opportunities for energy, cost and emission improvements. Given the Polish expertise in the production of energy-efficient windows (Poland is Europe’s leading exporter of windows) and the innovativeness and dynamism of Polish entrepreneurs, this is a missed opportunity for Poland to show the world that it can play a major role in helping Europe achieve energy independence and security at a profit through an integrated and efficient use of resources.

How would a circular economy work?

Nature has 4.6 billion years of experience and provides ample inspiration for how a circular economy should work. This concept is called biomimicry: copying nature. A first step is to eliminate waste and pollution from business and consumption models. My wife and Bridge Foundation President Margo Koniuszewski always talks of ending our culture of waste. “Stop the Culture of Waste” has become the motto of our campaign. In the circular economy products and services are recycled and reused to minimise losses of materials and resources – squeezing out waste and pollution that also represent costs and a drain on profitability. This is not only good for the environment but for the bottom line and the economy. More efficient businesses are also more profitable.

Industrial ecology provides excellent examples of how organisations can work together to turn waste into profit. Denmark has been a pioneer in this field with industries developing industrial ecology partnerships since the 1970s. Pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk has been buying excess heat from a local power plant and selling some of its own nutrient rich waste as fertiliser to local farmers. American carpet-tile manufacturer Interface has revolutionised the industry with innovations that include organic toxin-free carpets that are fully recyclable. Interface is on its way to achieving zero environmental impact by 2020 with zero-waste business practices and innovations that have driven its market share and stock performance for decades. First and foremost, eliminating waste and pollution must be recognised as an economic opportunity. The starting point is therefore awareness raising and education, and a priority for the Bridge Foundation in our activities with youth and leaders in business, government and beyond.

Last December Katowice, Poland hosted the COP24 – the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. How important was it that Poland hosted this year’s edition? And how symbolic is it that it was in Katowice – once a major hub of the Polish coal industry?

In December, Poland hosted its third climate conference in ten years. This is unprecedented and significant for several reasons. Firstly, because Poland has long been in climate denial. In 2008, during the COP14 in Poznań, one may remember that the Polish authorities had mixed feelings about climate change. After arriving in Brussels, former Prime Minister Donald Tusk had a change of mind and expressed regrets over his climate scepticism, emphasising the importance of climate action in a video where he observed collapsing glaciers in Greenland. In 2014, the hosting of COP19 in Warsaw was largely financed by the fossil fuel industry, attracting international criticism.

The 2018 COP edition took place in Katowice – the heart of what was once Poland’s coal country. The city is in a transition from being a major coal and industrial centre to what should become an urban hub with modern conference halls, theatres and museums, good public transport and a green city centre providing quality of life for residents and visitors. This makeover, albeit still at its early stage, is symbolic of what the climate conference is meant to accomplish: a transformation to a low-carbon future. And Poland, home to 33 of the 50 dirtiest cities in Europe, should be at the forefront of this battle for a clean energy future.

Project participants of your “Global Reading on Global Challenges” recently translated the book Fairytales for a Fairer World into Polish – a storybook initiative of the United Nations Director-General to promote the Sustainable Development Goals. This was launched in November at the Warsaw Stock Exchange. How was the project received in Warsaw? And what are the next steps for the project?

The “stars” of the November 5th launch at the Warsaw Stock Exchange were the young people and the many VIP guests, including members of the world of diplomacy with ambassadors from Italy, Switzerland and the Philippines and representatives from China, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom as well as Polish stars Małgorzata Kożuchowska and Tomasz Karolak. The event, hosted by the Warsaw Stock Exchange and its President Marek Dietl, brought together representatives from the international community in Poland including the regional head of the World Bank, Carlos Piñerúa, and EY Managing Partner for the region, Jacek Kędzior. Video messages from Patricia Espinosa, Executive-Secretary of the UNFCCC organising the COP24 conference in Katowice and Paul Polman, global CEO of Unilever, were showed. Messages were also presented from Michael Bloomberg, owner of the Empire State Building, Anthony Malkin, President of the Global Chartered Financial Analyst Institute, Paul Smith, and many others.

From Warsaw, we took the project to Switzerland with a high-profile event at the United Nations Library with Swiss students from Institut Florimont and representatives from the Swiss Youth Parliament Session. Experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007 Nobel Prize) and from the International Trade Center (ITC) took part in a lively discussion with the students. We also organised three conferences in Montreal the following week and in Polish libraries in Lublin and Katowice, and universities in Kraków, Wrocław and Gdańsk around the COP24. More events are planned in several Canadian, Swiss and French cities this year. Once again, we will visit exceptional libraries and institutions. We are also working on some innovative partnerships and programmes that will be launched soon.

Do you see opportunities for young people in Central and Eastern Europe to get more engaged in environmental-related issues like sustainable development? And how would you advise young people to get more involved?  

There are close to two billion youth around the world and our collective future depends on our joint actions. The opportunity for young people in CEE is extraordinary and extends beyond what we consider to be questions of environment or sustainability. These are first and foremost economic decisions that have environmental and human consequences. Business is the salt of the earth but there is no business without nature. We must therefore restore, protect and enhance the natural capital that will determine our future prosperity and well-being. For too long we have depleted soils and oceans while wasting and polluting land, air and water on a planetary scale. The time has come to reverse course and it will largely be up to the young generation to fix the problems they inherited. Their ability to do so depends on the quality of their education and it begins at home with their every-day decisions and actions. It also demands that we all work together and mobilise the resources necessary for the transition to a sustainable economic model.  This is why The Bridge Foundation is focused on education and practical action and the reason we mobilise the business and finance sectors. Capital markets will play a central role in financing this economic transformation. Launching our #GlobalReadingOnGlobalChallenges at the Warsaw Stock Exchange was no coincidence. 

Adam Koniuszewski is a Fellow Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Financial Analyst, Associate Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science, executive in residence at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and founder of the Bridge Foundation, together with Margo Koniuszewski, who is also its President. He is the author of a report on carbon pricing for the World Bank that was published in a book on tax policy in early 2018 by Wolters Kluwer.

Adam Reichardt is the editor in chief of New Eastern Europe.

Adam Koniuszewski, climate change, COP24