Fixing the solutions that dwell in the shallows

SUMI Dhanarajan is acutely aware about the dangers of sustainability solutions that replace one problem with others.

“Renewable energy (RE) sources such as solar and wind are key in a low-carbon future but, at present, the RE sector is not paying enough attention to the environmental and human rights impacts of production and deployment,” says the Asia-Pacific associate director of international sustainability non-profit Forum For The Future (FFTF).

“This puts the transition at risk of being a shallow one. Yes, we will have an energy system powered by renewables, but it may have the extractive, exploitative traits of our current fossil fuel energy system,” she says.

FFTF, which was set up in the mid-1990s to work with businesses, governments and civil society to catalyse change for a sustainable future, recently announced a new three-year plan that focuses on “deep transformation”. The hope is to ensure that the world, in its enthusiasm to transition to a more sustainable footing, does not rely on piecemeal solutions that can hinder systemic progress.

“Shallow transitions are well-intentioned actions that address specific problems and their symptoms, but do so in isolation and fail to tackle the root causes of challenges,” Dhanarajan says. “Deep transformations, on the other hand, fundamentally reset the goals of our systems and, in doing so, change the structures we adopt within them and, importantly, the mental models and paradigms that shape behaviours and practices which determine impact.”

Constructing conditions for change

Dhanarajan sees an urgent need for a systemic approach to transition in South-east Asia, where the sustainability gaps and the desire to close those gaps are both high.

“These transitions are palpable in South-east Asia, with governments and the private sector investing heavily in a range of interventions aimed mainly at decarbonising these systems, and civil society playing its role in calling for these transitions to be undertaken in a just and equitable way,” she says.

Dhanarajan identifies three critical transitions going on today: the transition to clean energy systems, the transition to food-secure systems, and, in some ways, the transition to new economic systems.

One of FFTF’s key programmes is the Responsible Energy Initiative, which works to ensure that renewable energy in Asia creates value that is ecologically safe, socially just and regenerative.

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The initiative brings together a few groups, which include developers, financiers and manufacturers, to achieve a few goals, including: 1) Diagnosing the environmental and social “hotspots” in the renewables value chain; 2) Understanding the barriers to preventing adverse impacts in these activities; 3) Establishing principles for the RE sector to operate responsibly; and 4) Designing new practices to meet these principles.

The initiative is underway in India, and FFTF plans to bring it to South-east Asia in 2023.

Another key initiative is Protein Challenge South-east Asia, which aims to achieve deep, systemic change to food systems in the region, so that countries can produce nutritious, affordable food for present and future generations while reducing the climate impacts of food production and consumption.

“For example, for those in the food tech space exploring plant-based and alternative proteins, how would you ensure that these new products have a net-positive impact in that, while they move us away from meat consumption, they don’t move us into monoculture crops that have an equally heavy carbon footprint?” Dhanarajan says.

Galvanising Asia’s corporates

Situating a number of its key initiatives in this region is no mere coincidence; FFTF has recognised the vast potential presented by businesses in Asia to effect the transition into a just and regenerative world.

“There are clear opportunities for Asian businesses to be leaders in shaping the future of sustainability. That leadership, though, will need to recognise the need to act urgently, and act to create deep change,” says Dhanarajan.

One challenge, she explains, is many Asian businesses tend to approach their environmental and social responsibilities as either a philanthropic need or a compliance need – both of which can be limiting.

“The former poses a risk that businesses fail to think of their environmental and social impacts in relation to their core business operations; the latter, while it does create accountability, risks a mental model of only doing what is needed to limit liability.”

She believes there is great potential for businesses in Asia to be environmentally and socially responsible by design instead – where their purpose, their operations, their financing and their governance all manifest these responsibilities.

“For businesses in Asia to feel confident in being purpose-led rather than simply compliance-led, they will require various other actors to create the enabling environment,” she adds. “Investors need to show support to businesses through their financing; and governments need to create incentives within industrial policies that drive this step-change.”

Uniquely Singapore

As for Singapore businesses, Dhanarajan notes that they do not always “operate at the coalface”, where there may be resistance or grievances to environmental transition, unless they are in particular sectors such as palm oil, or are responsible for migrant workers’ living and working conditions.

“The result is that some of them can be a bit more distanced from environmental and human rights issues, compared to those in the region. But Singaporean companies do turn up in the value-chain and therefore are accountable, as well as in a position to leverage change amongst their suppliers or other business partners.”

She also points out that the Republic has huge opportunities as a financial hub – especially with the latest developments on sustainable finance – to position itself to ensure that markets operate in ways that enable just and regenerative approaches through finance.

“In moving into this space, however, it will be important to identify how financial instruments can influence systems-level (change), rather than incremental changes that keep old problems entrenched,” she adds.

For the region as a whole, FFTF works with the companies that are demonstrating ambition and leading-edge thinking about how the role of business should change.

“The world is going through big, critical transitions at the moment – whether they go deep or stay shallow will shape the kind of future we will have. Depending on the pathways we take, our future food, energy and economic systems will either meet their full potential to bring us to a socially just, ecologically safe and regenerative future, or create fixes that ultimately fail,” Dhanarajan says.