The Businesses Solution to Combat Climate Change: Carbon Transformation

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and businesses have a significant role in mitigating its effects. Not only does it benefit the planet, but it also benefits businesses’ bottom lines through increased brand loyalty and profit. However, a significant shortcoming lies in the lackluster climate and sustainability targets, goals, and actions of the world’s largest brands. The solution, according to a climate-tech branding studio? Carbon transformation. 

Alisa Leonard, a co-founder of Origin House, emphasizes the crucial role that brands must play as catalysts for a climate-positive future. They should act as agents of change to cultivate a new climate culture, or what she calls “a new climate consciousness.” 

“No one’s really getting to the root of the problem,” she says. “Everyone is just pushing the problem a little bit further down the road.”

While certain brands may rely on carbon-offsetting marketplaces, they must address the issue’s root. If we want to combat the impact of climate change effectively, we must shift away from fossil fuels and instead transition to alternative energy sources and raw materials. For example, petrochemicals, carbon-based compounds derived from fossil fuels, are present in nearly all products we utilize daily. Yet, the only way to obtain these compounds has been through refining fossil fuels. This is precisely why Leonard emphasizes the significance of carbon transformation.

Carbon transformation involves partnering with climate tech companies to build real, scalable, and impactful solutions to transform supply chains from fossil fuel-based to CO2-based. These solutions can make almost anything—materials, fuels, chemicals, and products—from CO2. This means that brands can transform their supply chains from a portfolio made from oil and fossil fuels to one made from air. The carbon transformation strategy should be a part of every brand right now. CMOs should promise customers the true impact of eliminating product and supply chain emissions.

“By partnering with climate tech companies, brands can not only transform their products into carbon-negative, climate-positive ones,” says Leonard. “But they can tell new stories, create new heroes and influence new norms that rewrite the future and help our collective evolution towards the just, harmonious, more beautiful world we know is possible.”

Carbon transformation may sound challenging, but it is similar to the digital transformation that businesses have already gone through over the past 20-30 years. The digital transformation initially faced disbelief and pushback, but it is now the norm. Carbon transformation is the new big imperative for businesses to future-proof themselves and evolve for a resilient, climate-positive world.

Leading brands such as P&G and Lululemon are already implementing carbon transformation strategies. For example, P&G is exploring incorporating carbon capture technology into Tide’s ingredients, while Lululemon is collaborating with carbon transformation technology firms to create carbon-based polyester. These early adopters are paving the way for others to follow.

Carbon transformation is not just an opportunity for businesses to get ahead but also the key to unlocking one of the most transformational solutions to climate change. Moreover, it is the next big opportunity for startups and entrepreneurs to innovate and create new climate-positive products and solutions.