A healthy cause for optimism
By Roger Sharp, Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer, Asia Pacific.
Throughout my career one of the lessons I’ve learned is that you can’t solve big problems or drive meaningful change without working with others.
Last week, Bupa took an early, but significant, step forward in our ambition to become a Net Zero business by 2040, with the shift to renewable energy to power all of our large Australian sites, including our aged care homes and corporate offices.
Our renewable energy partnership with Pacific Hydro will save 25,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year; the equivalent of taking more than 5,500 cars off the road. It also enables us to take a huge step forward in delivering our initial Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions reduction targets for the Asia Pacific region.
Behind the scenes, our new renewable energy Power Purchasing Agreement (PPA) was delivered by genuine collaboration, over several months, from a group of talented people from across a range of disciplines. Through our dedicated in-house project team , we worked to challenge the status quo and remove barriers to making the switch to renewable energy - be they legal, financial, or operational.
At its heart I saw people working together to ensure Bupa was living up to our promise to care for our customers and residents and create a healthier planet for healthy people
No business is perfect, and no single project is going to solve the problems created by climate change, but the switch we have made to renewable energy is something important even if it’s just the start of Bupa’s Net Zero journey within the Asia Pacific region.
Seeing this project come to fruition, reinforced my sense of optimism that people, communities, and businesses can make decisions today that will help create a healthier planet and a better future for everyone.
The small steps we take on climate action today must aggregate into bigger steps, bigger ideas, and truly transformational change over the coming years. There is much to do; but I for one am up for the challenge.
