The battle against climate change is now being fought in almost every sector. While it is certainly encouraging to see international organisations and governments recognise the urgency of enacting climate action, we must not lose sight of the big picture: that this battle cannot simply be fought in boardrooms, conference halls or on Twitter.
While these efforts certainly help to build awareness around the issue, the real action for climate change is being enacted at the frontlines by many entrepreneurs and successful startups who are working to pilot and scale climate-friendly initiatives. What can we do to encourage more young people to take up this cause and solve the problem of climate change through entrepreneurship?
For starters, we need to think about creating an environmentally conscious future workforce. We can see that for the younger generations, start-ups are proving to be desirable workspaces. The market has proven to be a fertile ground for impactful demonstrations of small-scale solutions — ranging from wooden straws to solar panels. It, therefore, becomes important to think about how we can channelise this entrepreneurial energy to save our planet.
Curriculum
Involving youth in this discussion is important, not just from an advocacy perspective but also by engaging through curriculum, projects and internships.
While changing education curricula to focus on sustainability is a must, we need to go beyond the classrooms. Big businesses should document and disseminate eco-friendly practices that they have innovated. This could serve as immense inspiration for smaller businesses and younger start-ups that do not have the resources to experiment while ensuring that they are able to adopt these practices.
Sustainability internships could be a great way to engage and develop a future-ready sustainability workforce. Real-life case studies need to be talked about and results shared so that other businesses and universities could learn and implement the best strategies.
We are often used to associating the realm of innovations with the images of scientists in white-coats hovering around covert laboratories. It’s time to expand our notion of where innovation takes place and recognise the many creative experiments being conducted by our young entrepreneurs. Youth of our country must be given an opportunity to leverage their entrepreneurial thinking and business acumen to change the way communities interact with the environment around them and earn a living. It is time to change the system from within.