There is No Plan B: Celebrating Earth Day

Jenna Trott

5 min read | April 22nd

The emissions released by global fossil fuel and industrial processes have seen an exponential increase since the birth of the industrial revolution. Over the last ten years alone, CO2 emissions have continued to soar. Despite the pandemic, 2020 saw the amount of emissions output total 34.81 billion metric tons. Climate change is showing no signs of slowing in the near future with the Arctic sea ice decreasing at a rate of almost 13 percent per decade since 1979 and while the world has taken strides to reduce fossil fuel combustion, the effects are irreversible. This begs the questions, what can we do to help?

Many companies are beginning to take the necessary steps to go net zero, but Salesforce has proven to make leaps and bounds toward their mission of achieving 100% renewable energy. Following the release of their Super Bowl 2022 ad, which urges viewers to look away from the metaverse and mars to instead restore our original home – Salesforce released “Sustainability” as a new core value. In 2021, Salesforce became one of few companies to become completely net zero – how did they do it? Salesforce released a six part climate action plan to reduce emission output, aid in carbon removal, plant trees and help restore Earth’s ecosystem, educate others, execute innovative ways to reduce the carbon footprint and implement regulations and policies that reflect their sustainable values.

Salesforce has been transparent in their green efforts, voluntarily reporting their carbon emissions in 2012. By 2017, Salesforce hit net zero emissions for their operations and began delivering their customers a carbon neutral cloud. By 2019, Salesforce expanded their mission to include eliminating emissions from business travel and employee commuting. In 2021, they took the leap to become fully net zero by reducing emissions throughout their entire value chain, utilized 100% renewable energy for operations, and invested in high-quality carbon credits to help offset any remaining emissions.

Salesforce co-founder and CEO, Marc Benioff has established a reputation for being a fierce advocate for climate change, stating that “every country, company, community, and person has a responsibility to act now—the cost of failing to address this global threat will be catastrophic. Our generation will be judged by the actions we take on climate change today.” The Salesforce Ohana plans to give $100 million funding in grants over the next 10 years to help ecosystem restoration and climate justice, donate technology through the Power of Us program, and enable volunteers to deliver 2.5 million volunteer hours to organizations focused on climate action (Salesforce.com).

“ Every country, company, community, and person has a responsibility to act now—the cost of failing to address this global threat will be catastrophic. Our generation will be judged by the actions we take on climate change today.”

– MARC BENIOFF, CHAIR AND CEO, SALESFORCE

In seeing that bold action is effective, Salesforce is helping to actively combat climate change by powering One Tree, an organization that has helped to grow over 40 million trees in 43 countries since 2014 (Salesforce.com). Additionally, Salesforce recently announced their newest and most sustainable product: Net Zero Cloud. This product is available to companies all across the world to assist them in their efforts to achieve net-zero emissions. It acts as a single source of truth for environmental data with a climate action dashboard powered by CRM analytics. Users can track emission data by source, scope, and much more, offering critical insight to their org’s environmental impact. It includes exciting new features such as “What If” analytics, an easy and simple way to play with data to understand how your company can reduce their carbon footprint.

Creating a more sustainable working and living environment is no small task, which is why we need more business leaders like Marc Benioff and the entire Salesforce family. In order to drastically shift our world carbon footprint, we all need to commit ourselves to climate restoration and accessing renewable energy. By helping our earth, you’ll be helping your business as well – on average, more than a one third of the population is willing to pay more for sustainable products or services. What are you waiting for? Start going green today, after all there is no plan B, let’s invest in #TeamEarth.