Sustainability in challenging times
At a time when sobering events are taking place across the world and the long-term economic effects of the pandemic are yet to be fully understood, manufacturers are increasingly questioning whether maintaining a sharp focus on sustainability is a priority. Can the momentum of investment in environmental sustainability – the subject of this paper – be maintained?
Major economies across the globe have made substantial commitments to improving environmental
sustainability in the face of climate change. The US presidential statement of April 2021 committed to
reducing manufacturing emissions by 50-52% by 2030. 1 In a speech that same year, the Chinese president pledged a lowering of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 65% from 2005 levels. 2 And in Europe, EU law set an intermediate target of reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
At the same time, global events (and their inevitable aftermath) are presenting new challenges to achieving these commitments, 4 driven by geopolitical conflict, fossil fuel supply, supply chain disruptions, and inflationary pressures. This paper sets out a rationale for why sustainability initiatives in the manufacturing sector should, and will, continue to matter. It then goes on to explore how manufacturers can realize the benefits without putting a strain on their finances.
Geopolitical disruptions5 are causing additional issues for manufacturing supply chains across the world. New supply sources and routes will have to be found, especially for certain raw materials or products. On the demand side, the World Bank predicts 6 that geopolitical uncertainties further threaten the uneven recovery of developing East Asia and Pacific (EAP) countries from the COVID-19 shock. These uncertainties come on top of the economic distress caused by the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, the financial tightening in the United States, and threats of pandemic resurgence amid zero-COVID policies in China. 7 Similar disruptive effects are emerging in Europe 8 and the US.
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