Saving the planet – we can do it

The COVID-19 pandemic has plunged us into a deep crisis, pushing our healthcare system, our economy and even our very existence to the brink. We have seen doubt cast over our survival and been exposed to a terrifying reality. It has triggered an absolute and unavoidable change – one that has caught us off guard and left us shocked and defenseless.

It has taken a whole lot of strength for us to keep going. And we’ll need plenty more to bounce back from the lost months, organize the recovery and kick on again. We’re all asking ourselves whether it will all be enough – whether we’ll ever get back to our old lives.

Yet while we mourn our lost ways, we’ve subconsciously slipped into a totally new routine, leading us to discover unexpected joys and possibilities every day.

Without noticing, we’re already living what might just become the new normal: our future.

The new normal certainly doesn’t have to become synonymous with limiting our social lives by staying at home and only seeing our friends and relatives through the filter of a mask. Instead, we can look at the positives of these changes: drastic reductions in travel, the resurgence of local shopping, support for small businesses, a drop in consumption, increased collaboration between companies and greater innovation and dynamism in general.

Curiously, all the measures we’ve taken both personally and at the company level to stop the spread of the pandemic might just end up providing the way to help our long-suffering planet recover.

Over the past few months, we’ve seen plenty of testimonies, scientific articles, measurements and data showing the dramatic drop in pollution that has followed the lockdown, proving that the aim of stopping climate change before it’s too late is more than just wishful thinking.

The European Union has set itself the objective of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 – another indication that things really can change and that we can all live in a more sustainable manner. We can cease to be predatory parasites and become respectful guests on this marvelous planet.

Of course, this is a hugely optimistic vision. It is difficult to believe and even more difficult to turn into reality. Yet in the world of benefit corporations, it’s this kind of vision and pugnacious courage that we feed on day in, day out.

That’s why we’ve tried to turn the crisis – and the lockdown that has followed – into an opportunity.

There are just 15 people on the Way2Global team. Some live near the office, while others travel in from outside Milan every day. Over the past two months of smart working, our team – which usually works out of our offices in Via Reginaldo Giuliani every day – has been analyzing and recording the quantity of CO₂ they’ve saved the planet.

If our small team has achieved this much, think what we could all achieve together!

We wouldn’t go as far as to envisage a world without offices or travel, because that would be as implausible as it would be boring. Yet there is a less drastic, more responsible alternative. We know that there is another option – COVID-19 has at least proven to us that it works. Now, it’s our job to adopt it moving forward.

We have technology – that most powerful of allies – and everything else we need to promote a sustainable recovery in economic, social and environmental terms. We only needed a pandemic to prove it to us.

So let’s turn this crisis into an opportunity for growth. And let’s begin again with an ambitious objective – for a better world.

“We can do it! It really is possible for us to live and work differently. All we need is greater awareness and – most important of all – the vision and willingness to work with like-minded people to achieve it.”
Laura Gori, Founder and CEO of Way2Global – Traduzioni