The climate emergency challenges us at all levels. As we seek to become responsible and conscientious consumers, we look forward to what the great powers decide, at a global level, at each of the Climate Change Summits that take place (COP27 this year). According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to stop the emergency, we must limit warming to 1.5 degrees in the next 10 years, which requires reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to 45% by 2030.
Between our personal world and the decisions of world leaders are the work of companies that embrace environmental commitment as Globant does. The Be Kind to the Planet initiative is an initiative to transform our company into an agent of change. It expresses our commitment to sustainable development and helping organizations transition to a low-carbon economy. To achieve this, we work with our clients and investors to inspire visionary and impactful solutions.
At the Green Software Foundation, we work alongside other leading IT companies in a commitment to the planet’s future. The goal is to promote the development of “green software”, with more efficient code to reduce the carbon footprint.
As Santiago Fontanarrosa, Globant’s VP of Technology and a member of the Board of The Green Software Foundation, says, the sustainability agenda is an opportunity to rethink who we are and where we are going as a company and as human beings. “In addition to the commitment to developing a greener and more efficient code, at The Green Software Foundation, we encourage the creation of reliable open source and data projects to support academic research,” he explains. They are, in short, initiatives that help us comply with the carbon reductions stated in the Paris Climate Agreement.
The path to becoming a carbon-neutral company leads us to work in each country where we operate to reduce emissions by purchasing electricity from renewable sources. In 2019 we committed to using 100% renewable energy, and we delivered. We also committed to be carbon neutral by 2021 and fulfilled it.
Of all the initiatives we develop, MyFootprint is one of the most inspiring. In 2020 and through Globant Labs, a group of 12 people from Globant (Globers) created MyFootprint, an app that allows us to calculate the carbon footprint from more than 20,000 globers and their work.
We were thus able to carry out an exhaustive analysis of our indirect emissions, and we realized that in 2019 we had emitted more than 8,000 tons of CO2 through globers trips to the offices. Due to the new scenario imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, our displacement emissions were reduced to around 6,000 tons of CO2.
Last year we focused on adding more features to the app, so that we can measure – for example – the impact of working from home, while planning innovative initiatives to reduce our current emissions and be kinder to the planet.
MyFootprint is the result of an idea with a purpose and the work of a group of globers who want to change the world. “There is no Planet B” is not just a slogan heard at conferences on climate change, it is a call to action for all.
Under the leadership of Elena Morettini (a geologist with a PhD in isotope geochemistry and an extensive track record in research, design, and development in the energy industry) we created the Globant Sustainable Business Studio which offers organizations guidance, knowledge, and experience, so they can be ready for the green economy through sustainability services with a focus on Green IT, carbon management techniques and technologies, climate finance, and comprehensive legitimate businesses.
Elena explains the urgency of this challenge: “This is the decade in which action must be taken to reverse climate change, and companies have painfully understood that the linear economic models of the past are done: limited business models create limited businesses. And visionary models create visionary businesses.”
We are aware that digital technologies and models can have a huge impact on the acquisition speed and the scale of new solutions. If we develop and apply them wisely, these technologies can help us reverse climate change and go beyond carbon neutrality even faster than we ever imagined.
The digitization of organizations and their businesses can accelerate the pace of the energy transition.
