11 November, 2021

HILVERSUM – This morning a group of leading CEOs announced that their companies have joined the UN Race to Zero, which is the UN-backed global campaign rallying non-state actors across the global economy to take rigorous and immediate action to halve global emissions by 2030 and deliver a healthier and fairer zero carbon world in time.

The pledge was made during the CEO breakfast session chaired by business leader and changemaker, Mr. Paul Polman. The companies FrieslandCampina, Eneco, Port of Rotterdam, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Compass Group Netherlands, Randstad, Vebego, and Rabobank attended the event and signed the statement. The companies are committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (‘SBTi’) Business Ambition for 1.5⁰C pledge, or the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. Both are official partners of the Race to Zero campaign. The companies committed to having ambitious interim science-based targets aligned with limiting global warming to 1.5°C and/or to reach net-zero global emissions by 2050 at the latest. They realize that more ambition is needed to combat the ever more visible and concrete danger of climate change, and with this commitment they promise to accelerate their decarbonization efforts.

The CEO breakfast was organized on the morning of the Dutch National Sustainability Congress 2021 and on day eleven of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26). The objective of this CEO breakfast was to build momentum around the shift to a decarbonized economy at COP26, sending national governments a resounding signal that business, cities, regions and investors are united in meeting the Paris goals.

Business Ambition for 1.5°C

Business Ambition for 1.5°C is led by the SBTi in partnership with the UN Global Compact and the We Mean Business Coalition. It is an urgent call to action from a global coalition of UN agencies, business and industry leaders, in partnership with the Race to Zero. So far, over 950 companies have signed the Business Ambition for 1.5°C commitment. The targets of these businesses have been or will be independently validated by the technical experts of SBTi.

CEO Breakfast

The CEO breakfast was organized the morning of the special 20^th anniversary edition of the Nationaal Sustainability Congres (NSC), the longest existing sustainability congress in the world. The breakfast was organized by Global Compact Network Netherlands, and the NSC organizers Van der Molen E.I.S., CKC Seminars and Sustainalize (ERM Group). The catering was sponsored by Famous Flavours.

On 31 October, the COP26 in Glasgow started. This is considered as the Climate Summit after the Paris Agreement in 2015. Many people who are having huge concerns about climate change, will appreciate the fact that business leaders, sustainability experts, and governments come together to talk about climate change. But the question is: what will these companies and governments change after the COP26 to implement a more rigorous climate policy and to take more ambitious actions? It is exactly this last question that motivates Global Compact Network Netherlands to increase their call on their members to stand for a more ambitious commitment, to define concrete targets and implement these in their business. During the COP26, UN Global Compact organizes a big virtual event ‘Business Ambition for Climate Change’ and Global Compact Network Netherlands organizes a CEO breakfast with companies that joined the UN Race to Zero.

Business Ambition for Climate Change – 10 November

During the virtual event ‘Business Ambition for Climate Action’, corporate sustainability experts and business leaders, plus heads of UN agencies and civil society organizations will come together to showcase concrete actions for a net-zero economy, to increase society’s resilience and highlight strategies to unlock climate finance. Register here for the event.

CEOs commit to the UN Race to Zero

On the morning of 11 November 2021, a group of leading CEOs comes together just before the National Sustainability Congress. Their companies have joined the UN Race to Zero,. which is an UN-backed global campaign rallying non-state actors across the global economy to take rigorous and immediate action to halve global emissions by 2030 and deliver a healthier and fairer zero carbon world in time. The UN Race to Zero consists of various initiatives. Such as the Business Ambition for 1.5⁰C and the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.

The Business Ambition for 1.5⁰C is initiated by the Science Based Targets Initiative in partnership with the UN Global Compact.

The Net-Zero Banking Alliance brings together banks worldwide. This initiative is UN-convened and Industry-led.

And now?

Are we sure this call for urgency, these commitments and statements, will be enough to save the climate and our world? No, it is for sure not enough. But they will help to point the noses in the same direction of a sustainable and inclusive world. To take the SDGs as a compass for our strategy, policy, and business. And bold leadership from individual companies will certainly deliver a snowball effect.

The YPP is a challenging SDG leadership program for ambitious and inquisitive young professionals between the age of 25 and 35. In this program, you will develop essential leadership skills and deliver an impactful SDG project with a multidisciplinary team of like-minded young professionals. Every year different teams do start. In December 2020, Shirley’s YPP team, called Green Gurus, started.

What is your role within the YPP team?

“In the first six months of the YPP, I was Team Captain together with Doruk Sirtioglu. This meant that we were responsible for setting up deliverables, monitoring progress, moderationing the meetings and setting up a structure in which everyone could contribute. Subsequently, two other team members took over this role, so that I am now ‘just’ part of a workstream. Our project is divided into two workflows and the team members are divided into one of these two streams, based on their own preferences.”

What has the YPP brought you?

“The YPP helps me in several ways:

1. I’m learning more about sustainability. This is because master classes are organized from the program, on different topics. Topics such as on how sustainability can be integrated within the organization strategy, how sustainability can be reported or how sustainability can be integrated into business processes. In addition, our own YPP team has chosen to organize ‘lunch & learns’ ourselves, where we have been in conversation with the Mayor of Leeuwarden, Sybrand van Haersma Buma, among others.
2. The program supports my personal development. During this program you can – through the different roles offered in the program – develop yourself personally. I chose to become a Team Captain because I wanted to further develop my skills as project manager and moderator. In addition, you can also choose tasks within a workflow where you can develop specific skills, so that this benefits your personal development.
3. The program offers me the tools to take action in the field of sustainability together with other, enthusiastic young professionals from different companies. It is nice to both expand my network and to actually make an impact with each other. In addition, you get the freedom to decide for yourself what exactly you want to work on, and how exactly you want to do this.”

Would you recommend the Young Professionals Program to others?

“I would definitely recommend the YPP to others. You will come into contact with many professionals who work on sustainability. You can learn a lot from this. It is also very fun and educational to start and complete a project yourself, in collaboration with other young talents from different organizations. It helps you in expanding your network and there is also a lot to learn from each other. However, it is important to realize that you participate in a program, in which you as a team are self-managing. The team’s own input also determines the output. The team is guided and supervised by a senior team coach.”

How did you come to this topic?

“At the beginning of the program, everyone was asked to pitch an idea for an SDG project. Together we opted for the idea that to let everyone become the most sustainable version of themselves. We all agreed that many people want to be sustainable, but do not always know how or do not always implement this in practice. We therefore wanted to make an effort to minimize the difference between the intention / action gap. Once decided, we found AWorld, in which this is central. We then contacted the Italian founders of the app and entered into a partnership with them. We believed that we could make more of an impact in this way than if we were going to develop something ourselves.”

What is the goal and when did the project succeed?

“The ultimate goal is to make consumers live as sustainably as possible, where this is fully integrated into their lifestyle and has become a habit. The AWorld app is a means to guide consumers during the integration through tips, tricks and knowledge sharing. This app also helps to make the impact that we have realized measurable. Our goal is to achieve 100,000 actions with all participants of our community in the AWorld app, during the period 1 November to 15 December 2021.”

When the challenge is over, what happens to the app?

“The app will continue to exist after the challenge and we hope that everyone will continue to use it. New insights are constantly being shared, and in the field of sustainability and integration into your own lifestyle, there is always something new to learn. AWorld will help you with this!”

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned from the Young Professionals Program?

“What has been the most important lesson for me is that through collaboration you can achieve more than alone. That may seem obvious, but as a team we initially got the most energy from developing something new, namely a kind of ‘guide’ with which consumers could learn more about sustainability and develop a sustainable lifestyle. However, we can achieve more impact by promoting the AWorld app. This is so well put together and a lot of work has already been done in this, more than we could have ever realized ourselves. By making use of this, we strengthen AWorld, and they strengthen us. What helped us enormously in this collaboration is that the Italian founders of AWorld made an employee available from Italy to be part of our project team, so that we could quickly switch with each other. “

Can you apply these lessons in your career at Rabobank?

“At Rabobank, too, cooperation with external parties is very important, especially when it comes to a subject such as sustainability, in which there is a collective interest. You want to make an impact, and that goes faster together than alone. In addition, you can learn a lot from other parties, I am certainly in favor of doing this more often.”