“Our Land. Our Future.”
June 5 is annually celebrated as World Environment Day since 1972. It is a platform led by the United Nations Environment Program to raise awareness and address urgent environmental issues.
Each year, World Environment Day focuses on a theme highlighting pressing environmental challenges that require immediate attention and action to prevent serious and potentially irreversible damage to the environment and human health. In 2023, the theme was “beating plastic pollution,” aiming to raise awareness and promote actions to reduce plastic waste and its environmental impact through sustainable practices and innovations.
In 2024, the focus is on land restoration, combating desertification, and building resilience against drought under the motto “Our Land. Our Future. We are #GenerationRestoration,” hosted in Saudi Arabia.
Although we dedicate a special day each year to the environment, the fight against climate change must be a constant priority in our lives. It is one of the most significant challenges we face, as it will affect every aspect of our existence. In addition to the direct impacts on our lives, addressing climate change will require significant regulatory and social changes.
Here corporate sustainability is no longer just a marketing advantage for companies or a nice-to-have initiative as it used to be, we have moved to the next step of the transition: climate strategy as regulatory compliance.
In the European Union, laws have regulated climate reporting for years, and large companies have been reporting on sustainability metrics for a decade. In the United States, major investors and global companies demand that their portfolio companies and suppliers report on carbon emissions. In March 2024, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission adopted rules to improve and standardize climate-related disclosures by public companies and in public offerings.
Soon, as Lubarsky states in his book “Attainable Sustainability”: “just as a company cannot operate without knowing its revenues and expenses, no company will be able to operate without a clear understanding of its impact on the climate and a strategy to mitigate it.” This applies not only to the European Union and the United States but also to the rest of the world, including the Dominican Republic. For this reason, planning and adapting to these changes will be crucial for companies to thrive or face difficulties as governments implement the necessary policies.
Companies that do not consider the environmental impact of their activities risk facing regulatory penalties, legal actions, and damage to their reputation. All of this can negatively affect their balance sheets and, consequently, reduce the company’s value to shareholders and potential investors
