Continuing the Fight Against Climate Change Through Data – Qlik’s Support of Earth Day and Beyond to Drive Sustainability
The challenges of the human impact on the environment continues to grow: rising carbon emissions, the build-up of non-biodegradable materials, the warming of our oceans and increasing deviations from climatological norms, to name just a few. As a company, Qlik recognizes that we have a role in helping to combat these mounting ecological challenges to the viability and habitability of our planet, and we are committed to driving, with our partners, the sustainability efforts needed to face and overcome them. The annual observance of Earth Day is a time for us to reflect on both what we’ve done recently and how we will remain committed moving forward to advance these efforts.
This year’s Earth Day theme is Restore Our Earth™. The theme focuses on natural processes, emerging green technologies and innovative thinking that can restore the world’s ecosystems. Here’s how Qlik has been helping support a healthy natural world.
Qlik’s Green SWAT Team
A tiger team of Qlikkies from around the world have banded together to calculate and, more importantly, help reduce Qlik’s carbon footprint. How much does our corporate real estate space contribute to that footprint? Can we lessen our reliance on energy? Are there green initiatives we can explore at individual locations and replicate the most successful ones in all our offices? Are there easy-to-implement practices we can promote internally to best utilize resources? This team is asking and helping to answer these kinds of questions.
Race To Zero Campaign – Carbon Neutrality
Qlik has joined more than 1,110 enterprises worldwide in becoming the newest member of the Climate Ambition Alliance’s Race To Zero campaign, which is part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Race To Zero is a global campaign to rally leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions and investors for a healthy, resilient, zero-carbon recovery that prevents future threats and unlocks inclusive, sustainable growth. Race To Zero’s data-based program provides the foundation for companies to reach their carbon neutrality goals via a four-step principle of Pledge, Plan, Proceed, Publish. All of this work is leading to Qlik’s important presence at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in Glasgow, Scotland in November.
Read more about the work we are doing to combat climate change and achieve carbon neutrality.
Crossroads Foundation’s “Win-Win” Model
The three Rs of responsible waste management are “reduce, re-use, recycle,” which deeply inform the work of Crossroads Foundation, which has been a Qlik CR partner since 2014, leveraging data through Qlik to power its entire operations. For more than 25 years, Crossroads Foundation has helped people in need by redistributing donated goods, such as furniture, computers, clothes and medical goods, through their warehouse in Hong Kong. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Crossroads Foundation came to the forefront for local students under lockdown trying to complete lessons at home without a computer. Crossroads fully refurbished and gave out hundreds of computers to students to help them access online schooling.
The Nature Conservancy Brazil
Qlik, through a Qlik.org Benevity campaign, is supporting through donations global environmental leader The Nature Conservancy and its work across the world and in Brazil. The wife of one of our Qlikkies is an employee of The Nature Conservancy, and she currently manages one of the largest restoration projects in Brazil: the Mantiqueira Iconic Place. It is a region about the size of Portugal (10 million hectares, or almost 25 million acres), which encompasses 284 municipalities within the three most populous states in Brazil (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais), in the Atlantic Forest Biome – one that has lost more than 80 percent of its native vegetation from hundreds of years of development and deforestation. The region, a biodiversity hub, provides water for more than 20 million people who live there or in the metropolitan areas of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
You Can Take Action!
Wondering how you can contribute to reducing climate change and making our planet healthy? Here are some tips on how you become a more climate positive person in your everyday life. You can even advocate for these practices in your businesses and organizations.
- Travel less and consider alternatives to planes and cars, such as trains, bicycles and walking.
- Buy less and be conscious of what you’re buying and where you’re buying it from. Consider new options from sustainability-focused companies, eco-friendly technology vendors and renewable energy suppliers. Each week you make dozens of buying decisions; this week just pick one to be greener. Here are some ideas:
- Buy local.
- Choose eco-friendly cleaning products and personal care products.
- Use energy-efficient appliances and LED lights.
- Use less paper and choose less plastic.
- Recycle, compost, donate and re-use more to reduce your waste overall.
- Support conservation organizations doing climate positive work around the world.
Lastly, if you’re an avid social media user, post photos of your Earth Day activities. Take a photo and post to Qlik social channels on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram using #OnePlanetOneQlik to celebrate our beautiful planet and what you’re doing to keep it that way.
It’s incumbent on all of us to keep our planet vibrant and abundant. And not just because we should care about the natural world, but because it’s our home. A healthy Earth supports our jobs, livelihoods, health, survival and happiness, and keeping it healthy is our mandate as stewards of this great planet.
