From net emission targets to protecting the rainforest, ESG is taking centre stage in Asia
Eight in 10 organisations in Singapore have expressed their support for the government's net zero target by 2050, according to a recent Salesforce survey. In addition, 83% of managers added that they support the government's initiative to grant subsidies and incentives to businesses for the development of renewable energy technologies. Managers were also three times more likely to believe that achieving net zero economy in 2050 will lead to more jobs.
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The report comes amid growing scrutiny from employees on their organisations' sustainability efforts. A recent report from Deloitte found that 47% of Gen Zs and 46% of millennials in Singapore's workforce are putting more pressure on their employers to do more to tackle climate change.
And it seems as if HR leaders are also feeling the pressure. Seventy-seven percent of employers in a NTUC LearningHub report said they’re considering hiring talent for sustainability-related initiatives. In terms of emissions across their value chain, six in 10 managers from the Salesforce report appear to be more conscious of ESG and said they’ll try to deal with other businesses with a net-zero target.
Despite these efforts, however, the respondents agree that the government (54%) and businesses (66%) could do more to tackle climate change.
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Role of technology in ESG
The report shed light on cloud migration's role in helping employers reduce their carbon emissions. According to the report, with Singapore's data centre capacity forecast to grow at a CAGR of eight percent between 2022 and 2030, business could opt to reduce their energy consumptions significantly by moving to the cloud.
Lim Boon Pin, co-chair of SGTech's Sustainability Committee, said they support the "shift to cloud" and are active in pushing for dialogue between local data centre players and the government for the decarbonisation of data centres.
"As we transit into a greener economy, we need our businesses to embrace the challenges, identify opportunities that come with them and create products and services that solve them," said Lim.
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Sujith Abraham, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Salesforce ASEAN, also stressed that technology can play a "transformative role in climate action."
"This includes digital platforms and dashboards to help businesses drive better accountability, cloud computing adoption to drive lower carbon emissions, use of environmental AI and other cutting-edge climate innovations," said the executive in a statement.
Salesforce said it has "achieved net zero emissions across its value chain and 100% renewable energy for its global operations."
"The addition of Sustainability to our core values at Salesforce this year signals our serious commitment to addressing the impact of climate change in our business, with suppliers and stakeholders," said Abraham.
