Jayne Pilot, President of Pilot Performance Resources Management Inc. and Director with the Rotary Club of Brampton was the guest speaker on “United Nation’s Sustainability Development Goals” on Monday, November 13th. The presentation outlined the business challenges organizations have today with operational excellence, productivity, compliance, supply chain, data management and globalization.
During the 20th century, the population in the world has grown from 1.65 billion to now 7.5 billion. By 2050, Jayne said the world will have to feed 9 billion people, extend housing and services to 2 billion new urban residents and provide universal access to affordable energy, and do so while bringing down global greenhouse gas emissions to a level that makes a sustainable future.
At the same time, floods, droughts, sea-level rise, threats to water and food security and the frequency of natural disasters will intensify, threatening to push 100 million more people into poverty in the next 15 years. The impact of global warming will impact current crop models due to extreme temperatures and new invading pests and diseases. Canada, Russia and Scandinavia will be the ideal growing conditions for most of the world’s subsistence crops, Jayne showed in a map from British Journal “New Scientist”. What are we doing in Canada to develop Agriculture????
Now countries need to develop more sustainable energy and transport systems, strengthen the resilience of their cities and prepare people, public service and infrastructure for climate shocks to come.
The United Nations Global Sustainable Development Goals were presented and Jayne asked, “What is Missing?” “Waste”, she said and the management of it. We need to support the Circular economy and look at waste as a resource.
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She also spoke about the water vs. energy crises and that fixing energy is easier than water shortage.
It was surprising to note that 1/3 of all food produced is wasted. Marks & Spencer in the UK started a program to distribute thousands of tonnes of surplus food under a scheme that uses social networking “Neighbourly App” to link all its 500 stores to local charities, including food banks. Cutting food waste by a ¼ would mean enough for everyone says UN. Where there is food surplus, put it to the best possible use. What can we do in Brampton?
Improvements in sustainability have been made, in fact a report showed that over 180,000 consumer goods have been reformulated. The Green Building Programs have also made a positive change in energy use, water and waste.
What “Pilot Project” are you doing to drive sustainability? was the challenge given before by the speaker to all of us.