Climate protests: disastrous for small business

Last week we saw large-scale protests across the world, calling for greater action on climate change. The protests were largely driven by school children, but there were plenty of adults involved as well.

This would have been disastrous for their employers, particularly if they were small businesses.

I reckon there’s a better way to go about getting real action on climate change that doesn’t involve taking the day off.

Of Australia’s top 100 businesses, less than 15% have a published policy on climate change and climate action. That’s a disgracefully low percentage, and I’d be willing to bet that the percentage of small businesses who have a climate policy would be even lower.

That’s why I think Friday afternoon would’ve been better spent by businesses encouraging their staff to sit down together and build a strategy to minimise their impact on climate change.

It could be as simple as reducing the amount of paper used in printing, or switching to recyclable toner cartridges, or exploring solar panel subsidies for the factory roof. Having these conversations could result in meaningful impact on climate change at a local level, would maintain business productivity for the afternoon, and might even save the business money in the long run.

Perhaps businesses should look at adopting this approach on the next day of mass action? It would also be a much better use of resources than clogging up the CBD on a Friday afternoon!