Under a new initiative launched by UNEP/GRID Warsaw Centre, the Climate Leadership programme, powered by the UN Environment Programme, is to support business transition to a climate neutrality path.
The programme was launched at the Annual Meeting of the SDGs Partnership “Together for the environment” organised at the Copernicus Science Center this week in Poland, presented by one of its originators, the senior of the Polish School of Corporate Social Responsibility, Professor Bolesław Rok.
The Climate Leadership programme will involve biggest Polish companies. Target sectors of the programme include finance, textiles, food and beverages and the retail sector. Companies from the energy, pharmacy and car sector will be excluded due to their role in climate change.
After a positive assessment of commitment implementation by the monitoring experts, the company will be able to use and display the certificate symbol in relation to the implemented product/service, for customers to easily identify their participation in the programme.
The first edition of the programme, which begins in Autumn 2019 and will last until June 5, 2020 (World Environment Day), will bring together stakeholders aware of their role in the process of achieving climate neutrality and able to change.
Announcing the launch of the programme at the UN Science–Policy–Business Forum Second Scoping Meeting of the Governing Consortium in Canberra, Australia, Maria Andrejewska, Director, UNEP/GRID Warsaw, said,
“The latest IPCC report leaves no doubt, we are witnessing a climate crisis. Serious and radical steps must be taken to address the threats, particularly by business. That’s why we launched the Climate Leadership Programme this week, created for business leaders aware of their role in achieving climate neutrality. Climate Leadership is a community building programme where commitments from business will see shared responsibility to work together on solutions for the environment and for moving towards a better future.”
Shereen Zorba, Head of the Forum, spoke about the importance of cooperation between scientific communities and business during a conversation with Ms Andrzejewska.
The participants in Climate Leadership programme will also recruit from the range of of the SDGs Partnership “Together for the Environment” Members.
Over the past 12 months, the Partnership has grown by 18 new organisations to 58, whose representatives accepted dedicated Certificates during the event. Diplomas for the involvement in the Partnership’s ventures in 2019 were handed over to current Members by Elżbieta Wołoszyńska-Wiśniewska, who heads the Education Department at the UNEP/GRID-Warsaw Centre.
Among the projects were: “Heat for cities” (Ciepło dla Miast) – a project run together with the Veolia Polska Foundation, which uses the Ecocraft game environment (green Minecraft) to design people-friendly city environment, as well, as the Samsung Incubator in Bialystok, which focuses on supporting innovative business ideas implementing the Sustainable Development Goals.
Samsung also awarded its prize for an innovative venture to Skansa Propert. The company was praised for implementing an innovative JiTiv startup solution in the field of sustainable energy management and savings, developed at the Samsung Incubator in Rzeszów.
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