121 www.gogreen-project.eu Role Cards Role [1]: The Business Owners The current scenarios’ business and particularly its owners are interested in protecting the environment and addressing the climate change issue, but they are also concerned about the feasibility of switching from fossil fuels to alternative forms of cleaner energy and the potentially high cost of doing so. Furthermore, they are worried about how their business must act in order to adapt to the new legislation framework for SMEs recently established in the agricultural sector, with more strict boundaries now set, regarding businesses’ GHG emissions and waste. At the same time, the business is trying to avoid receiving a penalty-fine due to the high level of GHG emissions produced by its activity, which may have already impacted to some extent on the ecosystem of the nearby area. The corporate green image is thus included in their concerns, since its activity is now under close scrutiny by stakeholders with regard to its environmental footprint. While local pressure is rising for greening their business operations, owners have decided to invest in GHG management and energy savings to mitigate the climate change impacts, improve the business environmental footprint, guard its corporate green image, rectify any negative effects, retain a decent level of collaboration with its stakeholders, provide adequate information to the most important of them, and generally stay on course towards sustainability and growth. Getting the business carbon-ready requires real commitment and a cultural transformation that should start with their decision. Leadership must communicate the firm’s emissions targets and strategies to its employees and important stakeholders, considering monetary incentives for delivering on the targets. The business must also share its greening objectives, relative intentions and/or plans with its partners and suppliers, so as to jointly work with the supply chain and customers to reduce the carbon risk. This will help optimize its resources and enhance its collaboration with stakeholders - including customers, supply chain partners, local community - where green implications are directed, and, crucially, its future investors. Last but not least, the owners are aware of the opportunity arising from greening their business to improve its competitive advantage, both by reducing operational costs and by adopting a more discernible corporate green image. Role [2]: The Local Community Representatives The regional association representing the interests of the local community consists of people who are passionately concerned with the protection of their natural area. Well aware of the negative consequences of the abrupt expansion of industry into their region during the last decades, they suggest that the scenario’s business activity further decreases the quality of the local environment and contributes to its deterioration and the air pollution. Many of the nearby residents feel that their environment and natural world should be protected at any cost. Therefore, they keep putting pressure on local authorities to take action by scrutinizing operations, GHGs production and waste management across local agricultural businesses, imposing penalties/fines to those that do not invest in new technologies and/or abstain from using cleaner energy.
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