Julian Meitanis, Class of 2000 (1995-2000), Director of Corporate Sustainability at KPMG

I’m proud to support ZIS’s solar panels – it means the school is taking steps in the right direction. I think about this a lot, because my job is guiding companies to do exactly what ZIS is doing – integrating renewable energy systems into their existing systems and decarbonising their operations. How can they do this? What might be the impacts, and how should they deal with those? 

That’s crucial, because everyone in society needs to understand that our impacts on the Earth are unsustainable. We are reaching a critical tipping point where climate change will not be reversible anymore. That’s why we need to think about how we can decarbonize our societies faster to ensure that we have a liveable planet for everybody.

But a low carbon economy will only come about if everybody takes part. Every company will have to deal with the consequences of either climate change or mitigation of its effects. It will touch us all at some point, and the effects will be felt long after us as well. If ZIS pioneers solar power and hits its goal of 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030, that will give momentum to those who follow.

That’s why we should do everything in our power to decarbonise our economies as fast as possible. We are here to help shape the future, and that future should be renewable. Solar power isn’t rocket science – these technologies have now been around for a long time and are widely available. 

And the role of ZIS is about more than just education of these bright young minds. It’s about applying sustainability in the classroom along with the operation itself. ZIS has the power to display leadership and have a pioneering role – not just as a school but also to educate the students about how to create a better future.