Driving Organizational Innovation To Solve the Climate Crisis

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Organizational Culture   Strategy  

I’m no expert on the science behind it, but I do know that climate change is something we can’t ignore. In its Megatrends 2021 report, PMI called it “perhaps the biggest existential threat humanity has ever faced.” Whether it’s greenhouse gases, the increase in extreme weather events, fresh water scarcity or any of the other symptoms of climate change, the impact is real and significant.

I don’t know whether the winter storm that hit Texas in February of this year was the result of climate change or not, but it was certainly an extreme event. Initial reports suggest the economic impact of that storm could reach almost $300 billion when all of the factors are considered. Now multiply that considering the numerous such extreme weather events across the globe every year. This is an immediate economic threat, and if not addressed (as the Megatrends report notes) “much of Earth could become uninhabitable.”

The Texas storm and the increase in the number and severity of hurricanes just represents extreme weather—only one of the symptoms of the climate crisis (potentially one of the less serious ones). A lot of the focus in addressing this is on government legislation and policy, and from a regulatory standpoint, that will help. Within 10 years, the plan is for some countries to have banned the sale of gasoline and diesel-…

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