Actions Not Words - The five goals Rio+20 should have announced

CloudApps helps businesses take charge where Governments have failed

LONDON, UK : The failure of the Earth summit, littered with jet-setting leaders from over 100 nations, to come up with ten actionable goals highlights the end of a multilateral effort to protect the world in which we live. The United States, whose leader was not present, asked for the text to be rewritten. Political and business leaders must not lose any more time and take remedial action to put sustainability back on track. Today, CloudApps announces a practical five-point guide, which can help to address the environmental issues highlighted in the summit.

The Rio text, has been described by George Monbiot, Guardian Environment Blogger, as best accompanied by drawings of “rainbows and psychedelic unicorns”. The Main Committee and Credentials Committee came up with a document without data, dates and goals in the final proposal. Some argued the Rio summit caused more damage than good to the environment due to the flights to Rio from participants.

In the UK, the government announcement of plans for UK businesses to carry out mandatory carbon reporting was taken lightly. CloudApps, the provider of sustainability performance management solutions, believes it is time for the private sector to take lead of sustainability. Companies globally have to address environmental issues independent of government legislation.

The CloudApps executive team has come up with five actionable suggestions that political leaders can use as a simple blueprint for success; practical suggestions that will help to create a more sustainable world:
1. Political Leaders – Don’t fly to Rio leaving a huge carbon footprint, use video conference facilities instead. Lead by example, the technology has been available for a long time.
2. Invite Business Leaders - Currently, business leaders are disengaged from the summit, they know there will be little-to-no actionable end result. Use practical examples from leading businesses that are already seeing the positive results of investment in sustainability projects. Allow them to showcase what works and equally as important what does not.
3. Publish Environmental Data Annually – Encourage businesses to look into combining environmental reporting with financial reporting. Today, progressive businesses report on their economic, environmental and social impact. Having a transparent report is the first step towards setting reduction targets. Investors appreciate companies who recognise the financial impact of energy consumption and the effect of their environmental impact on their brand.
4. Invest to Fuel Private Sector Sustainability - Marks & Spencer announcing it will be carbon neutral proves government intervention is simply not needed. Create tax breaks that enable proactive investment to support private sector efforts, rather than imposing yet more stifling carbon taxes.
5. Encourage employee engagement within business - Employees want to engage with sustainability issues at the workplace, invest in this enthusiasm. Costs calculated from national databases show the UK workforce spends £150 billion on energy use and business travel. An engaged workforce working with the right tools can cut the above cost by 10% (£15 billion) a low-cost and rapid way to fuel further growth.
These five simple suggestions will help encourage businesses to do the right thing and as a result drive down carbon emissions, deliver financial growth and a healthy brand image.

About CloudApps
CloudApps is an award-winning provider of sustainability and energy management software, enabling visionary organisations to make exceptional cost savings and meet sustainability targets by aligning the entire enterprise behind corporate sustainability goals.

No other software suite solves the sustainability challenge by connecting the sustainability efforts of employees on the front-line, or “bottom-up”, with the “top-down” commitments made by management.

By giving each employee visibility to their team and their own impact and suggesting actions through an innovative desktop application, CloudApps drives the behavioural change required to accelerate a reduction in the consumption of natural resources at the workplace, resulting in significant cost savings CloudApps is a Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) 2012 accredited and recommended solution and is delivered on the worlds most energy efficient cloud-computing platform (Force.com) delivered by market-leader salesforce.com

For more information, please visit http://www.cloudapps.com.

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