Continents are still struggling with the ongoing pandemic, but Europe is out there setting examples of what a green economy can and should look like. The country produced more electricity using renewable sources than fossil fuels for the very first time in 2020. And consumers are showing their consciousness by choosing products that have less impact on the environment.  This shows how businesses have a huge role to play in creating a type of society that we want to have and be proud of.

“Already this year we have our two global water brands, Volvic and Evian, certified as carbon neutral.”, says Gabriele Hernandez Galindo, global sustainability director for Danone, a brand best known for its yoghurts and beverages. The company envisages and claims that its water bottles in Europe will be made up of 100% recycled plastic from 2025 onwards, all part of Danon’s plan to fight climate change. The brand is also up for spending about 2 billion euros over the next 2-3 years to combat the climate crisis. For a company running a 13 billion euro dairy business, indeed a significant pledge.

“So in 2015, we committed a company to be carbon neutral end to end by 2050. This is a big, big effort that requires first reducing our emissions through investing in renewable energy. We are investing in regenerative agricultural practices everywhere.”, adds Gabriele.

About 900 million tons of animal milk is produced every year, all across the world, and the impact left behind on the environment is huge. Regenerative agriculture is an innovative technique and set of principles, which aims at reducing that impact, but eco-conscious consumers nowadays are exploring a wider selection of options and going for a variety of plant-based alternatives on the shelves.

“Oat milk isn’t that interesting, and if you’re going to explain why people should try oat milk, you have to do it in a pretty interesting way.”, says John Schoolcraft, global chief creative officer of Oatly, since 2012, when Oatly was just a small, local producer of oat milk in Sweden. Today, it’s a $2 billion business, found in almost every milk section of supermarkets around the globe.

Some say the company’s unique way of marketing and risking it by running advertising campaigns that present the idea of sustainability in a kind of peculiar way, definitely played a part in its massive success today. “Michael Lee, one of our creative directors, reads the entire 2018 sustainability report as a bedtime story because he reads in a very monotone voice. When we introduced oat milk, there wasn’t any oat milk. Now there are probably five or six or seven or eight oat milk producers. Most of them are dairies who refused to make oat milk before because they wanted to sell their dairy products but now are making oat milk. That’s a good thing, I think. I think that the competition is great. ,” adds John.

And the dairy industry is indeed noticing the shift, not just the one in Europe, but all around the world. The company has pushed its competitors to reform and reconstruct their business models and adapt the ones that are sustainably more appealing.

“How do you finance the transition? How do you finance the shift into a more sustainable set of business models going forward?”, says Francois Austin, from Oliver Wyman, who has been consulting for clients that need the most change: the oil and gas industry. And as Europe moves ahead with building carbon-free sources of energy, Austin sees his clients aligning their values with the bottom line.

Climate change and sustainability is an arena wherein everyone needs to take part and collaborate. That’s the name of the game, and that’s what should technically happen. And these European businesses are no doubt both setting examples and themselves apart, by welcoming sustainability into the commercial world.

Tazeen Fatma