Today, on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are at an all-time high. But as people around the world stay at home to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, levels of toxic emissions have dropped by as much as 60% in some areas, giving many a taste of how the future could look with less pollution.

Private sector enterprises have become increasingly active in promoting sustainability and fighting climate change. This is a reflection of the growing importance of strong, authentic corporate values, but it’s also good business. Companies are realizing that getting on board for the low-carbon future helps increase innovation, reduce regulatory uncertainty, strengthen investor confidence, and improve profitability and competitiveness. These new polices are leading to the development and adoption of emerging technologies that help organizations implement new environmental sustainability goals and adapt to climate change. According to Science Based Targets, 859 companies are taking science-based climate action and 355 companies have approved science-based targets.

Environmental Sustainability And Climate Adaptation Solutions Empower Your Climate Action Plan

To help enterprises inform their climate tech investment strategy and support their climate action plan, we are conducting extensive research to determine the maturity and business value of technologies that support sustainability and climate adaptation. Our final reports will place nearly 30 technologies in one of four buckets: invest, maintain, experiment, or divest. As we celebrate clear skies on Earth Day, we wanted to give you a sneak peek of a few of the most exciting technology categories.

  • Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology captures carbon dioxide at its sources and utilizes or stores it to prevent its release in the atmosphere. CCS is most effective for industrial firms because it’s designed to capture CO2 at its source, while direct air capture is an emerging CCS technology that allows companies to remove CO2 directly from ambient air.
  • Natural ecosystem restoration technology focuses on conserving and enhancing natural CCS processes such as forestation. Millions have been invested in natural ecosystem restoration projects through coalitions and emerging technologies, like drones that can plant 400K trees in a day. Savvy companies are determined to slow climate change, offset their carbon footprint, and protect natural resources they depend on from drought, floods, and extinction.
  • Climate risk analytics solutions combine advanced analysis methods such as predictive analytics with scientific modeling to help organizations assess and anticipate climate-related risks and opportunities. There’s no one-size-fits-all climate adaptation strategy to the complex and interconnected threat of climate change; these solutions will support your strategy development process.
  • Carbon footprint and energy management solutions and services are designed to help organizations monitor, analyze, and manage enterprise carbon emissions and energy consumption and create strategies to transition to a low-carbon organization. Tracking your carbon footprint and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is one of the first steps to climate action because it serves as the basis for your enterprise carbon reduction plan. In order to manage the three scopes of GHG emissions and determine an internal price on carbon, you will need to measure everything from your direct emissions to those of your supply chain.

Follow Best Practices From The World’s Largest Companies

Microsoft announced a detailed plan to become carbon negative by 2030 for its direct emissions and its entire supply and value chain. Its strategy to remove more carbon than it emits by 2030 is based on an internal carbon fee, investments in carbon reduction and removal technology, and working with its customers, employees, and the public to reduce global emissions. By 2050, it will remove from the environment all the carbon it has emitted directly or by electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975. Climate action at this scale will have a massive impact on Microsoft’s ecosystem of partners and suppliers, forcing many businesses to calculate and reduce their own carbon footprint.

If you’d like to participate in our research, or have a great story to tell about your organization’s sustainability and climate action efforts, we’d love to hear from you. Please email us: sbalaouras@forrester.com and sschiano@forrester.com.