Everything is possible: how small victories can win the bigger battle

When it comes to building a cleaner, greener planet, the scale of the task can seem overwhelming - it's vast and it's beyond the capacity of any single organisation, government or nation.

But winning the bigger battle starts with small victories and I believe that our recent Possible campaign is a clear example of this in action. For this campaign we asked the fundamental question: "Is net zero possible?" For me, our Possible content gave a resounding answer of "Yes - but only by working together."

A couple of my favourite stories from the campaign were delivering renewable energy to two of Europe's most remote islands, Shetland and Porto Santo, and developing urban and rural sustainable rail solutions right across Italy. In both cases, innovative technology was at the heart of the solution, whether it be High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) technology to make electricity from the North Sea wind available to the UK grid or cutting-edge rail technology to power the next generation of trains.

But these stories go way beyond technology and way beyond Hitachi. They are human stories built on the will and the skill, the desire and the ambition of entire communities. From a personal point of view it's hugely satisfying to see our company values of harmony, sincerity and pioneering spirit coming to life in these projects, but we need to do more if we're going to succeed in our climate change ambitions.

As a social innovation business for more than a century, Hitachi's role today is to act as a catalyst for the digital transformation which can help achieve these ambitions. Indeed, climate change is at the very heart of what we do, whether that be collaborating with partners on projects like those showcased in the Possible campaign or delivering our own internal decarbonisation targets.

But we can't do this alone - the challenge we face is too big and complex for one single organisation to tackle and my greatest hope is that the Possible campaign can act as an invitation for other businesses and communities to accelerate their own net zero journey.

The worst thing we can do is wait for other people to solve this challenge - now is our moment to come together as businesses, communities and individuals. I hope that the Possible campaign demonstrates what can be achieved when we bring the right expertise and experience together and support this with a real desire to succeed. When we do this, anything is possible - from having an immediate impact on a local community such as Shetland, to longer-term progress on our collective global climate change goals.

As a company, we're evolving quickly and embracing our role as a climate change innovator, starting with our own internal decarbonisation. This has given us the foundation to bring our own data-driven commercial offerings in energy and mobility. Through our own transformation we can help transform others and ultimately help build a better society which respects planetary boundaries whilst providing a better quality of life for generations to come.

If this sounds like a vast undertaking, well, it is. But at the same time the projects we delivered in our Possible campaign clearly demonstrate that small victories can help win the bigger battle. We need more - more businesses, more projects, more speed, more scale, more ambition, more impact - but I truly believe that we can proceed with confidence if we proceed together.