While official policy-makers and intergovernmental bodies struggle to establish the agreements and frameworks that could, in a few bold strokes, free us from our carbon dependency, a revolution by 10,000 cuts is already taking effect in the private sector.

It is happening in the supply-chains of some of the world's largest corporations. Companies that in the past regarded sustainability and the green agenda as anti-business are beginning to embrace these concepts as a necessity for survival and an opportunity to build competitive advantage.

According to calculations by the CDP, the scope 1 and 2 emissions of G500 companies equates to roughly 10% of global emissions. For most companies, scope 3 emissions, including their supply-chains, are far bigger still. So maximising efficiencies across these supply-chains, re-engineering them as closed energy and resource loops, would make a huge difference. Fortunately, this is already happening, not by implementing a few big, silver bullet reforms, but by making thousands of small changes.

Adapted social media technology is enabling what we at 2degrees call "fully-linked collaboration". This is where anybody in a company with a problem or challenge can quickly and easily find someone else from another company with relevant experience, or even the very solution that they need.

This new, super-connectivity allows best practices to be identified, shared and disseminated very rapidly. In food manufacturing, in Europe alone, it is estimated that €22.5bn could be savedin this way by implementing best practices in energy management across the supply chain. (See 'Joining Forces – the case for collaboration').

However, this is not easy. It requires large-scale sharing of experience, know-how and insights, often between competitors. It requires an online platform, facilitation and processes to enable fully-linked collaboration.

Here are eight non-technology lessons we have learnt from doing this with our clients (including Asda-Walmart, Bord Bia, GlaxoSmithKline, Kingfisher, Royal Bank of Scotland, Tesco) that we believe are critical to making fully-linked collaboration work within a supply chain. They are written from the perspective of the business customer at the top of the value chain.

1. Fully-linked collaboration programmes need to be built from the perspective of maximising value for your suppliers. Get that right, and communicate it effectively, and you will drive engagement by the suppliers. Focus primarily on your needs and you make it hard for yourself. Ever wondered why asking for data from suppliers is so difficult?

2. The most important stakeholders to get involved are the operational managers (those practical folks with responsibility for energy, factory sites, production lines, packaging, waste, etc.). These are generally the out-of-sight individuals with the responsibility, challenges and collective know-how to unlock the hidden savings and reduce impacts. Make your programmes solve their problems and unlock their wisdom.

3. To be really effective, programmes have to be focused on a common measurable objective that all suppliers can get behind. This is where you, the customer, must lead. As an example, in our work with Asda-Walmart's Sustain and Save Exchange, the focus is on making its food supply chain the best-invested, most resilient and sustainable one out there with a clear target of $1bn cost reduction.

4. Benchmarking peers and competitors, as a group, is a very powerful way to get skeptics engaged. Suppliers tend to pay attention and join in if you can show them they are less energy efficient than their direct competitors and promise to share the best practices they are missing.

5. To be in a position where companies are prepared to share their best practices with competitors you need to have commercial teams leading (not CSR), providing a compelling incentive for suppliers to share. The incentive could be a reward in the form of: better terms, longer contracts, more time spent on joint promotions, etc.

6. Only so much happens without active facilitation. This is best done by a third party (we would say that, but see below). You need someone who understands the suppliers as companies and individuals, is trusted and can constantly connect the dots, link people up and encourage participation.

7. Use collaborative purchasing to solve common problems within the supply-chain and take advantage of the potential scale to drive down the cost of solutions. This also creates an important focal point of action for all the knowledge-sharing. As an example, Tesco's Buying Club saves its suppliers on average 25% off the cost of installing LED lights retrofitted into distribution centers. (LED lights cut the cost of electricity and carbon for lighting about 60%.)

8. The big breakthroughs (like Tesco's Buying Club, above) won't happen openly in front of the customer. Suppliers are too nervous that any savings they might make will be stripped away in negotiation if their customers know about them.

This is a further reason why you need third-party, trusted facilitation, that can enable, what some call, blind collaboration where data is collected anonymously so that suppliers feel they can keep most, if not all, of the savings they make.

When all eight of these principles are applied, fully-linked collaboration takes place and something remarkable happens: Firstly, engagement and collaboration levels amongst suppliers soar, with often more than 70% of the key operational management participating, at least once a month. Secondly, suppliers make investments in energy, waste and water reduction initiatives that they would not otherwise make.

In fact, we now have evidence that for every $1 the customer invests in managing fully-linked collaboration programmes, suppliers can invest up to $20, and make savings of $40 (over five years).

If we do this on a large scale, we will soon be removing billions of dollars in costs and related impacts from our supply chains. These cost reductions, as well as the energy and resource efficiencies put in place, will go at least part of the way to make up for the lack of attention to environmental care-taking from our public policy-makers.

Article was originally posted on the Guardian

In Africa, land is our source of wealth, a source of life. But two-thirds of the continent is desert or drylands and nearly three-fourths of the land is degraded and exposed to a changing climate. This means hunger and poverty for 700 million people.  Where will we find the land to feed the world? We need solutions, and we need them now.

TerrAfrica, an African driven initiative, is part of the solutions. This partnership addresses land degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa by supporting innovative solutions that sustain landscapes and increase countries resilience to a changing climate.

Burkina Faso, North. Yacouba Sawadogo, a 60 year-old Burkinabe farmer who has led an economic and environmental transformation in his community’s corner of the Sahel by replanting his own forest. He is known as “The Man Who Stopped the Desert”, as in the title of a 2011 documentary on his 38 years of recreating the forest. Photo: Andrea Borgarello/TerrAfrica

"The World Bank has supported the use of sustainable land and water management practices in Africa as they help deliver more secure livelihoods, economic growth, less hunger, adaptation and mitigation to climate change," said Magda Lovei, Sector manager in the World Bank Sustainable Development Network for the Africa region. "Our new President, Doctor Kim, has asked us 'What will it take to end poverty?' Well, ending land degradation would take as a big step toward that goal. We need to find and scale up solutions, and strengthen our partnerships like TerrAfrica to advance our shared goals of combating land degradation in Africa."

TerrAfrica has partnered with Connect4Climate on building a community, leading a campaign, and fostering a coalition that cares about climate change. Through this partnership, TerrAfrica leverages Connect4Climate's online community which provides a participatory, open knowledge platform to engage youth community in a climate change discussion. Together, TerrAfrica and Connect4Climate launched the Voices4Climate competition to invite young people to submit photos, videos, music videos, and podcasts that tell powerful climate change and sustainable land and water management stories. The Snap it. Sing it. Shoot it. Say it. Competition kick starts an interactive dialogue amongst African youth and gives them a voice in the global climate change conversation.

The two winners of the TerrAfrica Podcast category were invited by TerrAfrica to COP 18 in Doha where 190 nations met to find solutions to climate change issues. "The interaction we had with fellow journalists, the interviews conducted, and the plenary sessions attended broadened our horizons in covering climate change and environment issues within our countries and across the world," said Pilirani Tambala, one of the winners working for Zodiak Broadcasting System in Malawi. Look for more information on their winning entries and their trip to Doha in Wednesday’s blog post.

COP18 was also an opportunity to present the World Bank Drylands and Adaptation to Climate Change Agenda. The new the World Bank/GEF Sahel and West Africa Program in Support of the Great Green Wall is an example of initiative supported by TerrAfrica as it strengthens a country-driven vision for sustainable and climate-resilient development in 12 African countries.

Ethiopia, Tigray region: Women on a break after working at the tree nursery part of the World Bank funded Sustainable Land Management Program. Photo: Andrea Borgarello/TerrAfrica

In Africa, the integrated challenge of land degradation and climate risk requires an integrated solution. Sustainable land and water management practices have been proven at small scale, but are often neglected in national strategies due to the highly fragmented nature of land related institutions, lack of knowledge sharing, and minimal investments. Single sector approaches, isolated projects, and individual institutions cannot sufficiently address the multidisciplinary challenges posed by land degradation and climate change.

TerrAfrica partners like the World Bank have helped make durable progress by promoting country-led, multi-stakeholder coalitions that identify and promote good practices, harmonize policies, share knowledge, make domestic and international financing more efficient, and ultimately, strengthen the ability of land users, farmers and herders to individually and collectively reduce land degradation and climate risks.

Climate change is a serious issue that will affect the youngest generation most. It’s happening now, and it affects every single thing on Earth. In April 2011, tornados devastated Raleigh, destroying homes, cars, and roads. Luckily, my house didn’t get hit.  But if you drove a few blocks down the street, almost every house had a blue tarp over the roof. Then, a year and a half later, Hurricane Sandy swept along the East coast, wreaking havoc in countless coastal towns and cities, even more violent than the 2012 tornadoes.

Increasingly violent storms are just one side effect of climate change.  They hurt people and affect tourism and the economy. A 2010 report by the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission said that the sea level along the coast will likely rise by about one meter by the end of this century, threatening up to 2,000 square miles of land.  That’s a lot of North Carolina.

I have been concerned about climate change ever since I read the kids’ version of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth when I was in third grade.  I am only 10 years old, but this issue is really important to me.  It will change the world I and my children will grow up in. 

I joined the iMatter Youth Council of Kids vs Global Warming to make a difference. We are committed to raising the voices of the youngest generation to stand up for our futures and for our planet. KvGW and the iMYC are part of a group of organizations that are meeting with the White House to ask President Obama to take leadership on climate change by hosting a Presidential Summit on Climate Change, with linked-in community satellite meetings to focus on solutions.

We are also working to get local leaders involved.  I recently met with Mayor Nancy McFarlane in Raleigh, NC, to ask her to support the proposed Presidential Summit.  During my meeting, I told Mayor McFarlane about what the Climate Summit would be, how iMYC and I were involved in it, and the two things I wanted her to do. I showed her the list of other governors, mayors, and civic and business leaders who had already signed a letter of support. She was impressed by the length of the list! She thought it was cool that youth are involved, and she immediately agreed to sign her own version of a letter supporting the Summit.

I am really happy that my Mayor cares about my future and this issue.  I hope that more mayors join the list and that other kids like me will make their voices heard. The youth of this nation need our leaders to stand up for us and to take action to protect our future from climate change!

The artwork and captions reflect Oshwal Academy Junior High students' feelings about climate change in their region.

In response to the pressing issues of climate change and sustainability the South East African Climate Consortium Student Forum (SEACC SF) was formed in February 2010. SEACC SF is a non-profit, non-political (i.e. not attached to any political organizations) student forum that aims to lead a student crusade to tackle issues of sustainability and climate change. We recognize that students, as potential leaders and key players in society, have a responsibility to respond to what has become one of the strongest moral callings of our time by exerting our influence to creating more sustainable societies in order that we can protect our natural environment, and the rights of current and future generations to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being, as enshrined in Section 24 (a) of the South African Constitution.

SEACC SF espouses a commitment to the principles of the Green Generation:

• An evolution of energy production, based on sustainable carbon-usage and renewable energy, thereby reducing our dependency on fossil fuels;
• Collective individual commitment to responsible, sustainable consumption;
• Establishing a green economy, to lift people out of poverty and create sustainable green jobs;
• Creating a green global education system

Although we are a young organization in just under two years we are developing into one of the biggest and more progressive student organisations in South Africa. The South East African Climate Consortium Student Forum (SEACC SF) has moved from strength to strength in 2011, and is emerging as one of the biggest and most progressive student organisations in South Africa. SEACC SF has official nodes at four universities in the Eastern Cape, namely Rhodes University, the University of Fort Hare and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, with Walter Sisulu University quite recently establishing a newly-fledged committee. At each university there is a committee of students who are working in a professional and responsible manner to further the goal of SEACC SF, which is, as the SEACC slogan suggests, sustainability through knowledge and action. Not only that, but SEACC SF has managed to secure a number of dedicated partners, such as the Sustainable Seas Trust and the Environmental Learning and Research Centre, and together we are working on creating a more sustainable future for all. SEACC SF has access to a pool of hundreds of different students in varying academic disciplines, year of study, culture, and backgrounds, which is a truly valuable resource, which has allowed us to push forward with some great projects in the 14 months that we have been running for, and here are just some of the awesome projects we are running (for more info on us visit our temporary site  or stay tuned for our new site.

WildREACH – Since its conception in late 2010, WildREACH (Wildlife Outreach) has grown to become an exciting, progressive and active project fostering a valuable relationship between student volunteers and local communities in which knowledge is shared and applied in an effort to promote social and environmental sustainability through wildlife conservation.
The WildREACH vision realises that knowledge is a prerequisite to shifting attitudes and perceptions and it is these attitudes and perceptions that will determine the success of any conservation effort.  WildREACH focuses on developing an interest in wildlife in a fun and exciting way and lets those who have been empowered with knowledge discover for themselves why wild areas are worth conserving. With the recent and substantial financial support provided by the Wildlands Conservation Trust, WildREACH looks forward to moving from strength to strength and reaching more and more children with this powerful vision. In 8 months WildREACH reached over 200 children in the Grahamstown area.

SEA Pledges and SEAS Centres (http://sst.org.za/pages/14?project_id=3) – SEACC SF in partnership with the Sustainable Seas Trust has put together a team of passionate individuals who are developing and pioneering the way forward on an exciting community development, environmental conservation and charity initiative. We have developed a strong strategic plan for the roll out of SEA Pledges, which is a project aimed at getting members of the public to make moral and monetary pledges to protect our oceans and natural environment. The monetary pledges will in turn go towards the development of Sustainable Education and Skills (SEAS) Centres in rural and underprivileged communities in the Eastern Cape. SEAS Centres aim to impart skills and education to the communities so that they may end their dependence on unsustainable usage of natural resources through developing sustainable livelihoods. We aim to develop SEAS Centres through bringing together the strengths of all of the partners within SEACC, while also taking into account the importance of indigenous knowledge and its contribution to this endeavor. SEA Pledge also acts as a vehicle to raise environmental standards by getting individuals and organizations across South Africa to pledge to raise their environmental standards. Much of the project has been made possible due to the generous support of Artists Project Earth.

In its first edition in January 1985, in transition from dictatorship to democracy, Rock in Rio invited Brazil to celebrate freedom. Presenting the biggest names in international show business, the event attracted more than a million people and reached 100 million Brazilians through television and radio, brought visitors from every continent and was covered by media from 30 countries.

The 16 previous editions in the four cities has totalled 8,218.600 viewers present at the City of Rock and 1,498 artists from all genres. A success of such magnitude imposes responsibilities and demands from the organizers to help improve the community's quality of life somehow. Thus, in 14 editions over the last 14 years of the Social Project, Rock in Rio has invested USD 31,687, 918.38 in various parts of the world with the support of sponsors.

The organization's vision has also evolved and since 2001, the year that the Social Project was created, the focus evolved from social issues to the integration of these with environmental issues. In 2006 the sustainability of the event became a reality within the organization, reaffirming what already had been assumed as an effective commitment of the organization towards social, environmental and economic issues related with event. Therefore in every edition Rock in Rio develops an extensive campaign on sustainable mobility, alongside a public mobility plan (including spaces and differentiated access for people with reduced mobility), and a sustainability plan for the organization, sponsors and suppliers, having assumed a commitment in 2013 tomaintain the ISO 20121 certification - sustainable events, develops awareness campaigns on good sustainability practices targeting group artists, sponsors, suppliers, public and community, delivers to artists Carbon free certificates ensuring that Rock in Rio offsets its carbon footprint, implements a demanding waste management plan aiming to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible, donating materials after the event as well as the food, that remains in good condition, to institutions and families in need, also created an award for sponsors and suppliers with the best sustainability practices in the City of Rock.

These measures and decisions allowed Rock in Rio to build 14 sensory stimulation rooms used by more than 1,000 young people a year; 3,200 young people finished their basic studies in Rio de Janeiro through financial support; 760 photovoltaic panels have been installed in 38 Portuguese schools that will produce energy for 15 years and the profit made by the sale of energy will be applied in social and environmental projects,  winning the Energy Global Award 2009; 10 music rooms were installed in public schools; 2,200 musical instruments were donated to 150 NGO; 40 young people trained in luthier assistants; 80 scholarships were created, for the teaching of music; more than 10,000 meals were donated to institutions providing aid to families in need; 60,000 trees were planted in California in a forest area that burned, 126,435 in Rio de Janeiro to help preserve the water of Guandu river that supplies Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area and other 118,000 trees will be planted until 2016 in burnt areas in Portugal.

And that was just the beginning!

We believe that our attitudes can help to transform society into a more harmonious and balanced place.

For a better world (Por Um Mundo Melhor) is Rock in Rio's motto. Photo credits: Agência Zero