The Intersection of Environmental Justice & Business - Nick Liang
Hey there! My name is Nick Liang and I’m a Carbon Consultant with RyeStrategy helping software companies reach carbon neutrality. Right now, I’m a rising junior at the University of Washington studying Informatics and Business and am interning with Boeing’s commercial supply chain practice. Outside of work, I’m usually busy helping run DubHacks, a collegiate hackathon hosted at UW, or working on an engagement with Montlake Consulting Group like many other RyeStrategy folks. I love travel, learning about different cultures, and have a mild-to-severe social media addiction, but most importantly, I really care about the individual impact I make through my words and actions. This week, I’ll be sharing some insight on the topic of environmental justice and how it relates to the management decisions that businesses make everyday.
The modern environmental movement largely began in the 1960’s as people started to understand the true extent of the damage caused by environmental disasters and air and water pollution. Around the same time, people of color began to speak out against the inequitable environmental protection that poor, marginalized communities faced amidst the fight for climate-saving policies, thus resulting in the creation of the environmental justice movement. Defined simply, environmental justice advocates for policy and regulation that provides equal protection from environmental hazards for all individuals, regardless of geography, race, or economic status. The original ideologies, objectives, and tactics backing this movement have transformed over the last few decades, but in recent years, the subject of environmental justice has returned at a crucial peak as discourse pushing for socioeconomic progress has met at the intersection of desperately-needed environmental sustainability.
To understand environmental justice is to recognize the unequal impact that the looming climate crisis has on various individuals. For impoverished coastal communities scattered across our globe, they are the first to face the realities of climate change. Rising water levels jeopardize the integrity of the land that these communities live on, and a pure lack of economic and social resources leave them defenseless in the wake of environmental disaster. Poor communities of color across the U.S. certainly face similar problems as well, and the real-life impact of environmental issues have demonstrated a clear connection between socioeconomic politics and environmental protection. Although the individual impact may feel miniscule, our actions as consumers and employees with regards to our carbon footprints directly result in the harm that these communities face, and many individuals are finding themselves wondering what their favorite stores, restaurants, firms, and employers are doing to mitigate their environmental impact.
Today, young people across the globe are paying attention to both environmental sustainability and social justice, and businesses of all sizes must learn to adapt. With more and more research uncovering the reality of the climate crisis (we have around a decade left to make substantial change), a shift in policy priorities and consumer interests have left businesses scrambling to understand the social landscape and to fit changing markets. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced their goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030, a target that has been echoed by firms such as Apple and Salesforce. In the meantime, Microsoft, Apple, and Salesforce have also launched plans to advance racial-justice efforts internally and externally, pledging funding and careful people management as a means to address global uproar following George Floyd’s senseless killing. As the clock starts ticking for many businesses’ carbon neutrality goals, a cohesive movement towards social progress will slowly but surely form around hotly debated socioeconomic topics intertwined with the inevitable climate crisis our planet must face.
My hope is that through an interdisciplinary approach to negating carbon emissions, individuals and businesses alike can find their own potential in reducing their overall environmental impact while understanding the broader range of socioeconomic issues at hand. Near or far, closing the resource gap that exists among so many communities is a crucial step in reaching a fair and sustainable environment.
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About RyeStrategy
Based in Seattle, RyeStrategy is a CDP-accredited, mission-oriented company specialized in carbon accounting, mitigation coaching, and climate disclosure solutions for organizations at any point in their sustainability journey. Learn how RyeStrategy helped Salesforce, Ideascale, and Wazoku achieve their sustainability goals.
From exhaustive carbon footprinting and mitigation coaching, to setting science-based targets and reporting climate data to CDP, SBTi or custom reporting platforms, RyeStrategy acts as a hands-on extension of the team, custom-tailoring services to fulfill climate disclosure requirements easily and accurately.
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