Digitisation has been hailed as one of the most powerful accelerators to a net zero economy. But its full meaning is only becoming apparent. The Carbon Law requires us all to halve our emissions by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050 to stop planetary overheating. As Deloitte vividly puts it – we are undergoing something akin to an industrial revolution but in half the time.
Despite its own emissions, digitisation is an important instrument in this transition. Up to fifteen percent of the required cuts can be achieved by digitising some of our activities that are captured by Scope 1 emissions. More can be done by persuading our supply chain partners to do the same and impact our indirect emissions known as Scope 3, on which every business will have to report relatively soon.
Phasing down and out all carbon-intensive activities is now explicitly required and some of you, our members, have been quite vocal in expressing your expectations for the IPA to become more aggressive and transparent about reducing emissions. Digitisation is, of course, part of that process.
Over the past year, 97 per cent of you stated you were happy to receive information digitally, but less frequently. A significant number of readers have questioned our decision to keep publishing paper copies of Public Accountant. This has come as a bit of surprise – unexpected, but a positive one.
Of course, the largest component of publishing project’s carbon footprint is forest carbon loss, which we addressed over the past few years by moving to recycled paper. But as some of you have rightfully pointed out, there are the emissions from the manufacture of paper in mills, emissions from magazine printing and binding, emissions from various activities at publishers’ offices, the printing house and transportation emissions at different stages of the magazine’s journey.
The nagging realisation that all our sustainability projects need to be considered systemically, assessing our supply chains up and downstream, and looking at all the related inputs and impacts has finally come to a head. So it is with a great deal of enthusiasm and a bit of nostalgia that we are announcing the Board’s decision that Public Accountant should go digital as of next year.
Our collective effort to transition to a net zero economy requires active monitoring, discipline, and imagination – and we thank you for leading the way by doing your own bit to persuade us that the time has come to bid a hopeful goodbye to a 19th century model of information sharing.
As we usher in a new digital era, we are aware that a single search for Public Accountant on Google has an environmental impact. A hundred searches will still amount to producing twenty grams of CO2, an equivalent to ironing a shirt. A single email with a 400k attachment to 20 members, asking you to fill out a survey, will still equal burning 100w light bulb for 20 minutes. So going digital is not a panacea, but an important step forward.
For a while, we are going to have to do simple calculations and endure the frustration that whatever we do to reduce emissions at one end will create emissions in some other way. Eventually, it will become a second nature and we will assess the impact of wasteful, thoughtless, or unnecessary behaviour on the fly.
Ultimately, this is what we need to do. Become more conscious in our actions, more responsible in the way we conduct our business of human economy and more in tune with the nature to which we belong. Our own children are the very first generation that will be grateful to us for taking that step. So, as we usher in the new digital accountant, let me lead a chorus of three cheers to accelerating our race to net zero. Both nature and history will account for it on the right side of the ledger.
I look forward to the next chapter and wish you a restful and restorative holiday break with your family and friends.
