We’ve Created Braver Boards and Braver Leaders
Julie Baddeley founded Chapter Zero in 2019. She set out to convince board members and C-suiters they must embrace climate change dramatically. They had no other option. She started with 25 leaders in the UK. Now there are 100,000 plus in 73 countries. How did Chapter Zero do it? Listen to her exciting explanation.
“There is hardly a board that does not have climate change on the agenda.” The issue was nowhere when she started, Julie tells TTU’s Founder and Director Nik Gowing. “It is firmly a business topic now, and embedded”.
Leaders still need courage, plus “an open mindset and to be prepared to take risks”. Don’t worry about having a perfect plan, says Julie. “Just get started”, then adjust when needed. “You won’t get things right first time”.
Overall “we definitely have to raise the tempo”. To meet NetZero needs leaders and their executive colleagues must be brave enough to “change a whole product set” even if it is profitable.
She gives examples of companies which have taken big risks and won, like the giant shipping line Maersk. It ordered new, sustainable ships and beat its own expectations. But the biggest challenge to deliver NetZero is the shortage of skills.
There is a grim warning. “I need to dispel the myth that we have control over nature”. There are tipping points out there. “If we slip past the deadline and don’t get emissions down in time, then we will lose control”.
| Document | |
|---|---|
| Transcript | Download |