The Benefits of Coronavirus on the Environment and Sustainability
As the number of coronavirus infections grew exponentially in Europe and North America in March, restrictive public health measures to stall the pandemic were put in place. This included stay-at-home orders, which were first issued in Italy and then in rapid succession in most other countries around the world. With the majority of populations ordered to stay home, schools, factories, and offices limited their activities, while traffic on the road diminished to a minimum, and airlines reduced the number of scheduled flights from 60% to 95%. The decrease in human activity improved our living environments significantly.
Coronavirus brought significant decreases in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, air quality levels in the world’s major cities improved dramatically in March and April. Air quality improved largely due to the reduction of factory and road traffic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and related ozone (O3) formation, and particulate matter (PM). Additionally, global air traffic has also dropped by 60%. Furthermore, these reductions have decreases CO2 emissions significantly, encouraging some to hope that our society may indeed be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially over the long term to mitigate impending climate change that has significantly shifted our world. However, many environmentalists say that this short term accomplishment is not enough; when the health conditions improve, many greenhouse gases will increase as economic activity slowly goes back to normal as well. Many environmentalists are seeking bailout packages for transportation companies and industrial manufacturers to include provisions for large emissions reductions, helping mitigate the long term impending climate crisis in the future.
Coronavirus has also helped the society consider more their carbon footprint in this world. While the trend for remote working has been on the rise in recent years, it has largely been concentrated in a small number of sectors. The lockdown period has inadvertently forced many global workers to rethink the way they work while staying productive. The use of more teleconferencing and working online could help change the company’s belief in the travel policies of employees. Most companies will work on trying to save time and costs, which will, therefore, decrease the carbon footprint of their company as a whole as well as their specific employees and their daily carbon footprint. Businesses have also been looking into investing in supply chains. According to the Science-Based Targets Network (SBTN) in its call to action for companies, businesses must prioritize mapping “value chain and assess risk to freshwater, biodiversity, ecosystems and oceans in major impact locations.” Through efforts to set scope three targets under the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), businesses have been striving to understand supply chains, having comprehensive and accurate data, and engaging global suppliers is complex and challenging but essential for climate change mitigation. If ever there was a time to put thoughtfulness and resources into supply chains to ensure stronger and more resilient value chain ecosystems, it is now. Coronavirus has benefitted the environment as a whole as well as propel conversations in many companies to take a more sustainable approach in their workings and supply chains.
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