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From Fashion to Tech - How Data and Digital Innovation are Transforming Sustainability Action and Driving Climate Solutions: Thought Leadership by #SustXGlobal50 Awardee Alina Arnelle, Chief Sustainability Officer, BeCause, Sweden
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Summary
In this thought leadership article, "How We Can Use Data to Drive Real-World Sustainability Action," by Alina Arnelle, Chief Sustainability Officer, BeCause, Sweden, and a recipient of The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ 2024 , shares her transformative journey from haute couture to sustainability tech. Drawing on her firsthand experiences in fashion, she emphasizes the critical role of data in driving real-world sustainability action. The article explores the inefficiencies in current sustainability data practices, particularly in the hospitality sector, and highlights how digital innovations like AI are revolutionizing sustainability management. Alina advocates for more women in sustainability tech to foster inclusive, innovative solutions and underscores the importance of collaboration and evidence-based strategies for achieving global climate goals.
Once upon a time, I knew more about Dior than data. Though I now serve as an executive at a sustainability tech company in the travel and hospitality sector, my background is in high fashion. I studied fashion design in Florence and Paris, eventually working for a haute couture house in London. My transition into sustainability tech may not appear like an obvious career path, but the foundation of my current role is deeply rooted in my fashion industry experience.
It was in the couture studio that I witnessed first-hand the environmental and financial waste inherent in traditional business practices. Each day, multiple bags filled with fabric, paper, and haberdashery scraps were discarded, with what seemed like little thought given to efficiency or the broader impact. It became clear that there was a disconnect between business practices and efficient sustainability processes. This routine wastefulness left a lasting impression on me and sparked a profound shift in my perspective. This pushed me to reflect on the broader consequences of the industry’s practices and ultimately, led me to reimagine my career.
From Fashion Design to Data
After transitioning into a career focused on sustainability solutions – backed by an environmental science degree and a master’s degree in hydrology and water resources science – I rapidly became a champion of sustainability data. Through my personal journey, I realized that it’s the foundation of all effective initiatives to reduce company impacts on society and the environment. After all, you can’t manage what you don’t measure.
When key metrics – like carbon emissions, energy consumption, water use, and waste– are accurately collected, analyzed and communicated, business leaders can truly understand their current impacts, make informed decisions and accelerate their efforts. This principle resonates across all industries: from the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors to fashion, textiles and beyond.
Women in Sustainability Tech
While sustainability data may not have the glamour of haute couture, I take much greater fulfillment from my work, knowing that it contributes to transforming global socio-economic systems and mitigating the worst of the climate and nature crises. Yet, the sustainability tech field could greatly benefit from more women.
After all, women are the most impacted and concerned about global warming and environmental degradation, so it makes sense that we play a central role in driving solutions and action, particularly in the tech sector, where our representation has historically been limited. Unlike more traditional industries, it offers real scope for ingenuity, as it’s all about questioning norms, rethinking processes and upgrading to more efficient and less harmful practices. By ensuring the integration of diverse perspectives, including the unique insights, creative strategies, and visionary leadership that women bring, we can develop more effective solutions to the world’s biggest challenges—benefiting everyone and paving the way for a more sustainable future.
Sustainability tech is also an exciting area of commercial growth, driven by the rising demand for eco-friendly and ethical products and services. For example, sustainable travel alone presents a significant revenue opportunity of nearly US $12.8 trillion by 2034. Women must not be sidelined as this sustainability revolution unfolds. The greener future we’re building must be a fairer one too.
Inefficient Sustainability Data Management
When it comes to improving sustainability management, there is so much potential. The importance of fast, trustworthy and integrated data can’t be underestimated. However, too few are doing this efficiently and accurately.
The reality is that outdated practices are holding companies back. For example, in the hospitality sector, hotel brands often manually collate a wide range of datasets via spreadsheets, surveys and emails. Often lacking the resources for dedicated staff, this responsibility typically falls to teams in departments like HR, operations, and marketing, who must piece together information from various sources and attempt to consolidate it. This fragmented approach is inherently prone to errors.
HAVE YOU READ?
Across sectors and within organizations, numerous teams, groups, and entities are involved, but they often operate in silos, collecting and analyzing data relevant only to their specific areas. Although these datasets are inherently interconnected, the lack of integrated solutions makes it difficult for businesses to gain a holistic view of their strengths and weaknesses.
As well as limiting businesses' ability to provide reliable, accurate and timely data, these obsolete and cumbersome practices are expensive – with the hotel sector alone spending around $8 million annually on them. Despite this investment, they aren’t bringing results. When it comes to attracting green consumers, hotels are currently missing out on annual revenue worth $13 billion. Altogether, this means that ineffective sustainability management costs the hotel industry $21 billion each year. Opportunities like these are often overlooked across sectors, which slows the progress needed for meaningful climate action and green growth. Now is the time for companies to rethink their approach.
Digital Innovation for Real-World Transformation
Addressing data management inefficiencies is critical to accelerating sustainability efforts. As things stand, the world is falling behind on vital climate and social goals. To date, many companies have set ambitious sustainability targets, but their translation into real-world action is not happening fast enough to align with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5° C – or the 2030 deadline of both the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
To drive urgent progress at the scale required, digital technology and AI are crucial. Thanks to advances in data analytics, a new wave of technological innovators is emerging to drive real-world action by automating sustainability data collection, analysis and reporting. Technology now exists that can amalgamate, cross-reference and share all the requisite sustainability data from one place – facilitating effective collaboration, communication and real-time data transparency. AI is only accelerating this innovation.
This is what we do at BeCause. Our technology framework doesn’t just streamline sustainability data management. It also modernizes how travel and hospitality providers, distributors and certification entities collaborate by giving them a centralized means of calculating and communicating sustainability data – linking previously discrete stakeholders and enabling accurate and reliable data for over 50,000 hotels and OTAs (Online Travel Agencies).
Prioritizing Data and Collaboration
As much as I love a well-cut suit, I know it won’t be what changes the world. The climate emergency, nature crisis and rising social inequality are interconnected challenges that require a thoughtful, science-based approach. At the heart of this transformation is data.
Addressing these complex issues requires more than isolated efforts. It calls for active partnerships among a diverse range of stakeholders, including businesses, governments, NGOs, and local communities. Data plays a crucial role in facilitating these collaborations, providing a common language that enables stakeholders to align on goals and track progress.
Through sustainability data management, digitalization and process optimization, business leaders can rest assured that they have reliable numbers and proof of the best course of action for their company, society and the planet. This data-driven approach ensures that strategies are grounded in evidence, offering a clear path forward for sustainable growth and ensuring that solutions are both innovative and equitable.
By freeing teams from the complexities of antiquated processes, they can focus on using tech-accrued data to hone innovation in the form of real-world programs that cut emissions, eliminate pollution, benefit communities and improve workers’ rights. With accurate data at their disposal, companies are empowered to move beyond lofty ambitions, driving measurable progress and setting targets for the action that’s so urgently needed. By prioritizing data, businesses not only enhance their own credibility but also play a critical role in building a world that benefits everyone. This is how we turn our focus from well-crafted narratives to impactful solutions, forging a path toward meaningful change.
About The SustainabilityX® Magazine
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is an award-winning, digital, female-founded, and female-led non-profit initiative bringing the environment and economy together for a sustainable future through dialogue, and now transforming the environment and economy for a sustainable future through the power of women's leadership. Founded on May 8, 2016, and inspired by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals by Canada's Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability Leadership awardee, Supriya Verma, the digital media initiative focuses on approaching the world's most pressing challenges with a holistic, integrated, systems-based perspective as opposed to the traditional and ineffective siloed approach with a single lens on interdisciplinary topics like climate and energy. This initiative ultimately seeks to explore how to effectively bring the environment and economy together through intellectual, insightful dialogue and thought-provoking discussion amongst individuals across sectors taking an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to untangling the intricate web of sustainability while championing women's leadership in sustainability.
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is built upon the four foundational pillars of sustainability: Environmental Stewardship, which emphasizes the importance of improving environmental health; Economic Prosperity, which promotes sustainable economic growth that transcends traditional capitalist models; Social Inclusion, which focuses on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) for BIPOC, LGBTQ, and other marginalized or vulnerable communities; and Just Governance, which highlights responsible leadership, the equal application of the rule of law, and the creation of fair systems for all.
As we expand our mission to align with the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs), we continue to explore the diverse and interconnected factors that influence sustainability. By recognizing how these elements interact across local, national, and international levels, we aim to accelerate progress toward sustainability goals. In essence, this aligns with The SustainabilityX® Magazine's vision of integrating environmental and economic progress for a more just, inclusive, and sustainable future through thoughtful dialogue.
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