Salesforce is set to launch three new initiatives at the COP27 next week in Egypt, deepening its climate commitment while boosting efforts to promote climate solutions.
Salesforce has been showing its commitment to climate action for more than a decade now.
In 2021, the global leader in CRM attained net zero residual emissions. And just over a month ago, it launched its own carbon credit marketplace called the Net Zero Marketplace. It’s a market platform connecting ecopreneurs and buyers of carbon credits and helping firms hasten climate action.
During critical climate moments like the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), Salesforce strengthens its sustainability agenda by committing more funds and resources to help achieve a 1.5°C future.
Here are the 3 environmental initiatives where Salesforce’s climate actions will focus on. The San Francisco-based CRM company also revealed its new Nature Policy Priorities that protect natural ecosystems.
Initiative #1: The Blue Carbon Framework
The global voluntary carbon market (VCM) is forecasted to grow to $50 billion USD by 2030 as firms strive to reach net zero emissions. Blue carbon is especially seeing a rapid demand growth.
- Blue carbon is the carbon captured and sequestered by coastal and marine ecosystems such as seagrass meadows and mangroves.
Along with a global coalition of ocean leaders, Salesforce will unveil its “High Quality Blue Carbon Principles and Guidance”. It’s a blue carbon framework drafted to ensure that blue carbon credits maximize results for the climate, the people, and biodiversity.
The framework’s principles will serve as safeguards in developing and managing blue carbon projects, making sure they’re equitable, fair, and credible.
The WEF Friends of Ocean Action, the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA), The Nature Conservancy, and Conservation International, and Salesforce laid out the groundwork for the framework. It also includes input from various public stakeholders.
The Director of Ocean Sustainability of Salesforce, Whitney Johnston, noted that:
“This [the framework] is only the beginning of a shared journey to ensure accountability, sustainability, and transparency in the rapidly evolving blue carbon marketplace.”
Initiative #2: The Nature Accelerator
Salesforce is launching another initiative called Nature Accelerator. It will give nonprofit organizations the capital they need to pursue innovative ideas and scale climate actions.
The initiative will pool resources from across the company to help empower those nonprofits. Through it, they will have access to various resources such as philanthropic investments, product donations, and pro bono support.
Through a dedicated Salesforce team, the pilot program will let nonprofits explore nature-based climate solutions. It will also enable them to develop organizational capacity and insights that the broader climate sector can learn from.
Putting it all together, Senior VP of Philanthropy in Salesforce captured the key purpose of this climate commitment:
“Salesforce’s Nature Accelerator provides nonprofits with funding, technology, and support to make big bets and explore the innovative new solutions our planet needs.”
Initiative #3: The Eco-Restoration Project in Zambia
Lastly, the CRM tech company will also announce at COP27 its ecosystem restoration project in Zambia. This is in support of the Global EverGreening Alliance (GEA) to restore and grow 30 million trees across the African nation.
- The restoration project is part of climate commitment of Salesforce to conserve, restore, and grow 100 million trees by 2030.
It’s also part of GEA’s Restore Africa Programme, seeking to scale regenerative farming practices across Africa and bring 100 million hectares of degraded land under restoration by 2030.
As Zambia faces land degradation and poor environmental governance, its natural resources and the rural communities depending on them are suffering.
Salesforce’s project resolves the issue by restoring ecosystems in the country. It will help reverse the effects of climate change, promote wildlife conservation, and support small farmers in Zambia.
This support from Salesforce will allow GEA to scale up “proven and effective approaches to improve the productivity, profitability, and resilience of food production systems to the impacts of climate change.”
The firm also has supported similar nature-based projects globally, in Australia, Latin America and Europe.
Salesforce Nature Policy Priorities
In addition to the above climate action, Salesforce recently revealed its new Nature Policy Priorities to guide its advocacy and policy engagement to protect natural ecosystems. The priorities nest under the firm’s corporate Climate Policy Principles.
Salesforce will perform three major actions under this climate commitment:
- Promote strong global, national, and regional policies to prevent, halt, and reverse nature loss and degradation.
- Advocate for increased fair and equitable investments into nature-based solutions.
- Support and recognize local communities and Indigenous peoples as leaders for conservation and restoration.
As part of these priorities, Salesforce participated in the Business for Nature and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) to call on organizations to assess and disclose their nature-related dependencies by 2030.
All these initiatives are part of broader leadership of Salesforce on global climate commitment. The company will also share the details of these new undertakings at the COP27.
