Just like there is no one way to solve the climate crisis, becoming a sustainability-driven company requires a multi-pronged approach to carbon mitigation and emissions reduction. Here are six essential truths every business should remember as they walk their sustainability journey. 

Hard data is decision-making gold

A phrase that is spoken often in data-driven sustainability circles is “what gets measured, gets managed.” In the world of corporate carbon accounting, this truism should not be underestimated. Carbon inventories can be daunting tasks, as companies work internally to collect the data necessary from various departments and regional offices around the world to convert data—total spend, fuel miles, number of hotel days, volumes of liquid, and kilowatt hours—into a universal measurement (metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent) to quantify an entity’s contributions to climate change. 

But the very act of finding the data, categorizing it into “business activities,” and analyzing the calculated results allows a company to understand where in its operations carbon emissions are the most intensive. A carbon inventory allows companies to target key operational activities and prioritize the most effective sustainability initiatives to implement. 

Typically, companies take a 1-2-3 punch approach to their decarbonization efforts. First they pursue quick-win energy efficiency measures such as installing LED bulbs and smart lighting systems in areas where usage is sporadic. This is what Bob’s Red Mill, the whole grain manufacturer and a client of mine, tackled first at their Milwaukie, Oregon manufacturing plant. Guided by energy experts at the Energy Trust of Oregon, Bob’s was able to realize a 54% reduction in energy use in one of its top-running manufacturing lines while simultaneously increasing product output by 12% through an energy-efficient conveyance upgrade in 2023. 

Second, businesses pursue operational initiatives that have measurable carbon reduction impacts without impacting a company’s top-line growth goals such as reducing office size, consolidating warehouses, and converting vehicle fleets to electric—all strategies AVI-SPL, the audio video technology solutions company that has worked with my sustainability consultancy, TripleWin, is currently pursuing across its global footprint in order to report a downward trajectory in its greenhouse gas emissions. And third, eliminating waste streams to landfill through opportunities to divert, donate, and upcycle. Danone North America, the food and beverage company, is actively working to achieve an internal zero-waste goal by 2025 by redistributing non-sellable but still edible products to food banks; sending organic waste to farms for animal feed or to be used as compost; and converting waste streams to biogas through anaerobic digestion.

Don’t ignore proven solutions

For organizations, the path to sustainability is a well-paved one. Proven climate solutions abound. Renewable and non-carbon energy sources generate more than 40% of the world’s electricity needs today. New solar and wind power capacity is expected to more than double in 2028 from 2022 levels, helping the world achieve the Paris Climate Accord’s path to net-zero emissions by 2050. 

More than ever, we are seeing meaningful decarbonization solutions at scale. Meta, the social media and technology conglomerate, announced it had achieved net-zero carbon status across its global operations in 2020 mainly through equipping its data centers and offices with 100% renewable energy systems: solar panels, microgrids, and back-up battery energy storage.

Electric vehicle (EV) adoption, meanwhile, is on a rampant tear with forecasts of 17 million new EVs to be sold in 2024 or one in every five cars manufactured. Amazon, the e-commerce and cloud computing giant, just disclosed in its 2023 sustainability report that it deployed over 11,000 Rivian-made electric delivery vans (now grown to 1,000) to make its last-mile deliveries across North America and Europe, with plans to expand its EV fleet to 100,000 by 2030.  

Collaboration is essential

Just as better decisions are made with multiple heads in a room, sustainability efforts are stronger and outcomes more successful if organizations take a collaborative approach to achieving goals. Within industry we call this catalyzing your value chain. In 2020, Microsoft, a global technology company, set some pretty ambitious sustainability goals for itself: to be carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030. It knows it cannot meet those goals without progressing its suppliers’ efforts towards those ambitions as well. Through its Supplier Code of Conduct, the company asks its suppliers to measure their carbon footprints and to report that data annually both to the company itself and to CDP, a global not-for-profit organization that manages environmental impact disclosures for companies and countries. In 2020, 12% of suppliers reported their environmental impacts. Just one year later, 87% did. Today, those environmental disclosures are a mandatory initiative to remain in Microsoft’s ‘circle of trust’. To further catalyze progress toward Paris-aligned sustainability goals, Microsoft developed the free Emissions Impact Dashboard, giving its customers sustainability insights into how Microsoft’s Cloud is being used.  

Accountability makes for meaningful action

Business sustainability requires persistence, consistency, and deepening of effort as interim goals are met, new processes are codified, and a level of competency and skill is achieved. This enables sustainability to be embedded into a company’s products, operations, and organizational culture. 

Holding businesses accountable for their sustainability statements and actions has allowed real, measurable progress to be made in this arena. If a company becomes a supplier to Walmart, a multinational retail corporation, it is required to sign onto Project Gigaton where emissions data is disclosed, shared, and where suppliers start their carbon reduction journeys. Walmart also mandates that all its suppliers disclose to CDP, where reporting companies are graded on what progress they’ve made in their sustainability journeys, with grades shared back to Walmart on every one of its suppliers. Walmart launched Project Gigaton in 2017 with the goal of reducing or avoiding one billion metric tons (or a gigaton) of greenhouse gas emissions from its global value chain by 2030. Earlier this year, Doug McMillon, Walmart’s CEO, announced that the company had achieved its “moonshot Project Gigaton goal” six years earlier than expected, equivalent to eliminating Japan’s annual carbon emissions.

Engagement wins hearts and minds, and helps realize goals

Millennials and Gen Z have natural value-alignment with sustainability. They, along with Gen Alpha, are the generations that will be most affected by global warming in this century. According to a 2024 Deloitte survey, 79% of millennials and 77% of Gen Zs want governments to play a role in pushing businesses to address climate change. These young professionals want a seat at the table to help businesses take sustainable action, whether or not they have “sustainability” or “environment” in their job titles. Fresh Del Monte, the world’s leading vertically integrated producer, distributor and marketer of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, is one company making an effort, having won the 2024 SEAL Business Sustainability Award winner, and becoming a signatory to the newly-created  U.S. Food Waste Pact. The company also understands the urgency in providing foundational sustainability education to its workforce. It leverages employee excitement to progress company efforts to reduce unnecessary food waste and associated carbon emissions through incentive-based staff engagement competitions at its manufacturing plants. 

The work is hard but rewarding

Corporate sustainability can be a messy business. Sandboxes are messy. So is cooking. But both are fun and rewarding. Sustainability can be too. At the start of a company’s sustainability journey, collecting data is challenging. Datasets are often missing or frustratingly incomplete. Additionally, client expectations and new legislation are moving targets, leaving companies feeling as if they are perpetually gasping for air.  On the brighter side, the act of going through the data collection and measurement process uncovers information gaps to be better understood and brings a deeper awareness of carbon reduction initiatives to be implemented. 

Sustainability is about progress, not perfection. It is about committing to the effort and communicating the journey honestly. Channel a state of stubborn optimism. The climate crisis is ours to solve and it is very well solvable. Stay motivated, focused, and optimistic.

Gaertner is the founder and CEO of the sustainability consultancy, TripleWin Advisory, technical advisor to the Loopt Foundation, and contributing author to Proven Climate Solutions: Leading Voices on How to Accelerate Change.

Good morning and welcome to US Election Countdown.

Today let’s talk about:

• Harris convincing voters on the economy

• Trump’s fundraising sweep through oil country

• What will it take to win Wisconsin?

Donald Trump has painted an extremely bleak picture of the US economy for voters, and one of Kamala Harris’s biggest tasks in the last stretch of the election is to show it in a different light.

With voters fixated on inflation, accomplishing that will be hard, conceded Edward Montgomery, a Democrat and ex-chief economist at the US labour department.

“Here’s the problem: inflation is the rate of increase, and [that] has slowed, but the public’s focus is on the absolute price,” he told the Financial Times’ Colby Smith. “It takes a lot for the price level to come down. That would be a recession and deflation, and it’s not quite clear you really want that.”

Without the excess savings amassed during the Covid-19 pandemic, “people don’t feel as secure now” and “they know that they are consuming past their means”, said Paul Isley, an economics professor at Grand Valley State University.

But despite these hurdles, she seems to be breaking through to some voters as they start to feel better about the economy.

She’s winning over people who feel less pessimistic about inflation and some of those who think it’s neither improving nor worsening, said Amy Walter, the top political analyst at the non-partisan Cook Political Report. More importantly, she’s pulling in 42 per cent of those who think inflation “is getting a little worse”, though she’s still 13 points behind Trump. The only group of voters significantly supportive of Trump are those who think inflation will get a lot worse.

CPR’s findings yesterday came after last month’s FT-Michigan Ross poll found that Harris had a narrow lead over Trump on economic stewardship among voters nationally.

However, about 5 per cent of battleground state voters say they’re undecided or considering a third-party candidate. Those voters “are more economically stressed than the overall electorate” and trust Trump more on the issue, said Walter.

But zooming out, Walter highlighted that for the first time ever, a plurality of voters think Harris will win the election — 46 per cent to Trump’s 39 per cent. That’s “the vibe that’s out there”, said Walter. “That doesn’t mean that she is going to win” but that “she has passed the bar . . . about whether she could win the job”.

Campaign clips: the latest election headlines

• Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the justice department’s cases against Trump, said the Republican candidate engaged in a “private criminal effort” to overthrow the 2020 general election in a newly unsealed court filing. [Free to read]

• Trump’s campaign said it raised $160mn in September and had $283mn in cash on hand as it tries to narrow the fundraising gap with Harris’s campaign. (Politico)

• As the Middle East becomes an unavoidable topic for Harris on the campaign trail, the US and its allies are trying to limit Israel’s response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack — but their influence on the Jewish state may be limited.

• Trump megadonor and US shale magnate Harold Hamm has accused the Biden-Harris administration of leaving the country “unusually vulnerable” to a Middle East price shock.

• In Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate, JD Vance mounted a slick defence of Trump, while Tim Walz attacked his opponent for refusing to accept the result of the 2020 election. 

Behind the scenes

Trump swept through Texas oil country yesterday to tap some of the industry’s deep-pocketed moguls as he raced to get more cash to propel the final month of his campaign [free to read].

He started in Midland — the heart of the Permian basin — for a donor lunch at a posh golf club with the town’s most prominent figures. VIP tickets went for almost $1mn. Then he jetted to Houston — home of the US’s biggest oil companies — for a reception hosted by Hilcorp boss Jeff Hildebrand.

The oil and gas industry has been one of Trump’s biggest fundraising sources. The Republican candidate has gotten executives onside by vowing to get rid of the Biden administration’s environmental regulations and promising to let them “drill, baby, drill”.

In his remarks at the Midland Country Club lunch, Trump accused President Joe Biden of undermining the US’s energy security amid geopolitical tensions. Oil prices jumped after Iran launched almost 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday.

The lunch was hosted by Javaid Anwar, chief executive of Midland Energy and one of Trump’s biggest industry supporters, and his wife, Vicky, alongside Bubba Saulsbury of construction group Saulsbury Industries, and Doug Scharbauer, another prominent local oilman. 

Kirk Edwards, an oil executive who attended the event, told the FT’s Myles McCormick it was “a spectacular day” for the local industry to have Trump visit. 

But not everybody is as enthusiastic. One executive said he doesn’t want to see prices at the pump come down: “Don’t come here and tell us you want $2 gasoline. We don’t want fucking $2 gasoline . . . shut up about ‘drill, baby, drill’,” he said.

Datapoint

Today, Harris and Republican Liz Cheney, daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney, will campaign in Ripon — the Wisconsin city considered the birthplace of the modern Republican party — where they’ll try to lure Republicans who have become disaffected by the direction of their party under Trump.

In the 2020 election, Wisconsin had the highest turnout rate of any of this year’s seven battleground states.

Both the Trump and Harris campaigns want the votes of Waukesha County in the traditionally Republican suburbs of Milwaukee. In 2020, Biden improved over Hillary Clinton’s 2016 tally in the county, but Trump still took it with almost 60 per cent of the vote to the president’s 30 per cent. More specifically, Democrats hope to peel away suburban women voters from the Republican party.

Democrats also want to hold on to voters in the cities in the western part of the state such as LaCrosse and Eau Claire that lean Democratic. Additionally, Harris needs high turnout in Madison, the state capital, from state employees and students from the flagship University of Wisconsin.

Though voters in the state are disproportionately white compared with other swing states, a history of union organising could help the vice-president.

Trump’s messaging attracted many voters in rural farmlands, but some of them were hit hard by his trade policies while he was in office, and their widespread support is not guaranteed this time around.

Harris is leading Trump by 0.9 percentage points in Wisconsin, according to the FT’s poll tracker.

Viewpoints

Clients look forward to the time they can get their hands on the money they’ve saved for years in their pension.

Most can obtain 25% of this tax free. But this is not always used for retirement.

In fact, it can be freed up for all matter of things – and its use will determine the next tax-efficient steps to take.

The following case illustrates how business owners can borrow money from their pension in the most tax-efficient way.

The case

Amrit is aged 57 and owns his own limited company. He’s taking a combination of low salary with dividends just up to the higher-rate threshold for income tax. He’s looking to purchase a commercial property for this company to be based out of and is looking to spend about £100,000 on the purchase.

He and the company both have the money for the extra charges, such as conveyancing and stamp duty. In his area, commercial properties are sold very quickly, so speed is of the essence.

Amrit is aware of a property that has just come onto the market within his price range and he’s keen to put an offer in. He’s arranged to see a financial adviser to discuss the options for purchase.

During the fact find, it turns out Amrit has £400,000 in a Sipp. His adviser may think about this as a tax-efficient way to purchase commercial property, but it’s not the quickest.

Commercial borrowing could also be considered but, again, time constraints could be an issue, and there is also the fact that, due to interest being added, it may not be the most cost-efficient.

The Sipp almost seems ideal, as it is £100,000 that is needed and, as Amrit has never taken benefits from his pension before, it’s within the new lump sum allowance and lump sum and death benefits allowance, so can be easily accessed.

But what do we do with this £100,000 once it’s withdrawn?

Amrit could just take the pension commencement lump sum from his Sipp to cover the cost of the purchase in his own name. This will meet the criteria for speed, but will it be very tax-efficient?

The company will have to pay rent on this, which is then taxed as earned income on Amrit personally. This will then have the knock-on effect on the tax efficiency of taking a low salary and dividends to meet the rest of Amrit’s needs. This may even push some of his dividends into the higher-rate band (33.75% dividend tax in the higher rate as opposed to 8.75% in the basic rate band).

There is a way this could be done more tax-efficiently. He could take the £100,000 tax-free from his pension and make a director’s loan of the same amount to his company. This gives the company the money required to make the purchase and will save the company having to pay rent, building up more profit in his business.

The best part is that, when there is enough money in the business, it can be paid back to Amrit free of tax, as the business is simply repaying the loan.

However, he does lose tax-free cash from his pension, but it’s just shifted where this is being held to his company. As the business doesn’t have this spare money, though, it may take a while to build this up.

The adviser’s strategy is twofold, as the director’s loan ensures the process moves at speed. But, what if, behind the scenes, the Sipp was also preparing to purchase the property from Amrit’s company?

This would limit the growth on any property gain being charged to corporation tax from Amrit’s company and ensures any future gains are tax efficient (there is no tax on the gain inside the Sipp).

The rental money (which would be corporation tax deductible) could then be paid to the Sipp and build up more pension commencement lump sum for Amrit to have in the future. The downside would be there is two times the ancillary costs (conveyancing, stamp duty, etc.), but, over time, the tax-efficiency should pay off. That’s the cost for having to move at speed.

And the cherry on top is the business then has the £100,000 back and can repay the loan to Amrit at any time he finds this to be convenient.

Mark Devlin is senior technical manager at M&G Wealth

SWANAGE has been named one of the best caravanning spots in the country thanks to its Blue Flag beach, colourful beach huts and steam railway.

Known as The Caravanning Mummy, travel expert, and mum-of-two, Rachel shares travel tips and destination guides on Instagram, including the best places to go on a caravan holiday in the UK.

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Rachel purchased her caravan back in 2019, with her family spending the school holidays and weekends exploring the UK in their Bailey Of Bristol Phoenix 650 caravan.

The mum-of-two started holidaying in Dorset in the 1990s with her parents and has spent the last few years returning to her childhood haunts with her own kids.

And she recently named Swanage as her favourite caravanning destination in the southwest.

She told Sun Online Travel: “Swanage is the quintessential British seaside town. It’s got Punch and Judy shows, colourful beach huts, Blue Flag Beaches and Corfe Castle. It’s absolutely gorgeous.

“Swanage is such a brilliant staycation location because it takes adults back to their childhood visits with old-timey beach attractions.

“I just think it’s a brilliant little place. While it’s not necessarily unknown, it is just a very special place.”

One of the top attractions in the coastal town is the Swanage Railway – a full-size steam train that ferries passengers from Norden to Swanage, passing sites like Corfe Castle.

Swanage Railway runs themed experiences throughout the year, including a Polar Express service and a Spooky service.

Adult return tickets start from £18, with children’s tickets coming in at £9 for a return.

There are several beaches in and around Swanage for holidaymakers to visit like the Blue Flag Swanage Beach, which is known for its fine sand, cleanliness and amenities.

Other nearby beaches include Studland Beach.

Back by a wildlife reserve, Studland Beach is regarded as one of the finest beaches in the country.

There’s also Chapman’s Pool, a small cove that’s similar to Lulworth Cove, and Sandbanks Beach.

Located in Poole, Sandbanks Beach has held its Blue Flag status for the last 35 years and is known for its golden sand and crystal-clear waters.

Facilities at the beach include toilets, showers, a beach cafe, a mini golf course and a beach volleyball net.

Swanage Pier is another popular attraction in the seaside town.

The pier is popular with divers because it’s one of the few sheltered sea diving sites on the south coast.

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Entry onto the pier costs £2 for an adult, with a £5 charge for any adult who wants to dive under the wooden structure.

Holidaymakers can hire equipment from Divers Down – the oldest diving school in the UK.

Other attractions include Swanage Museum, Prince Albert Gardens and the chalk hills on Purbeck Heritage Coast.

Even though it’s a village in its own right, Corfe Castle is another must for holidaymakers visiting Swanage, with Rachel adding: “Corfe Castle is brilliant for my boys – and kids in general – because they can run around the ruins of a castle and pretend to be knights.”

Located halfway between Wareham and Swanage, the skyline of the Dorset village is dominated by the remains of Corfe Castle.

Built by William the Conqueror and partially demolished in 1646 during the English Civil War, Corfe Castle attracts visitors from all over the world.

Managed by the National Trust, entry costs £12 for an adult and £6 for a child.

There are loads of places to grab fish and chips in Swanage, including the Village Inn, the Fish Plaice, which has been running since the 1970s, Harlees Fish and Chips Swanage and the Hungry Shark, to name a few.

Swanage has plenty of pubs too like the Black Swan Inn, the White Horse Inn Swanage and the Ship Inn.

Later this month, Rachel will be sharing more Dorset caravanning tips at the Motorhome & Caravan Show at the NEC in Birmingham.

Meanwhile, these are the top-rated holiday parks with on-site waterparks and pools.

And this holiday park has been named as one of the best in the country.

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When Press Gazette suggested we take FT Weekend editor Janine Gibson to our local Wetherspoons for a “Lunch with the FT”-style interview – emphasising she could have free range on the menu – we were met with a polite counterproposal from the press office.

There are two rules for Lunch with the FT: the guest chooses the restaurant and the FT pays the bill. Perhaps, in the spirit of the now 30-year-old format, we might allow Gibson to choose the venue?

Her choice was The Quality Chop House, a charming, wood-panelled Victorian restaurant in Clerkenwell, north London.

“It used to be such a dump around here,” she says, recalling her days working at the old Guardian offices around the corner, but says the Chop House was always a bright spot. “It’s one of the few restaurants that, when it changes hands, it’s still a really nice thing.”

Lunch with the FT is published on the weekend, which makes it Gibson’s responsibility, and during her tenure the paper has carried lunch interviews with the likes of Elon Musk, Liz Truss and Anna Wintour.