Future Super, KeepCup and clean energy retailer Amber among 20 firms to join Not Business as Usual alliance

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Australian tech company Atlassian is encouraging its workforce to take part in global climate strikes this month that will be held to coincide with the United Nations climate summit.

The software company is among an alliance of Australian and global companies urging businesses to support employees who want to strike in solidarity with students on 20 September.

Twenty companies, including Future Super, KeepCup and clean energy retailer Amber, are part of the alliance, which has called itself Not Business as Usual.

Hundreds of young people join Greta Thunberg in climate protest outside UN Read more

Atlassian’s co-founder and chief executive, Mike Cannon-Brookes, said business leaders had to “step up and try to solve this problem” in the absence of effective policy at a federal level.

“Humanity faces a climate change emergency. It’s a crisis that demands leadership and action. But we can’t rely on governments alone,” he said.

“Sadly, in Australia, we can’t rely on them at all. Businesses and individuals must also play their part and this responsibility is even more urgent when governments fail.”

More than 70 strikes are organised in Australian capital cities and regional and rural locations, with numbers expected to top the 150,000 who took part in strikes in March this year.

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The students, whose activism has been inspired by the teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, have invited workers and unions to march this time and the Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union is among those encouraging workers to take time off.

Thunberg arrived in New York last week ahead of the summit on 23 September.

Simon Sheikh, the chief executive of Future Super, said the company had formed the alliance with other businesses “because there’s nothing usual about students skipping school and asking adults to help them fight climate change”.

Sheikh said Future Super would close the day of the strike.

“Businesses who support their employees will be sending out a powerful message that this is not business as usual,” he said.

“We need to put boots on the ground and help solve the climate crisis, and by coming together we all have the power to be part of the solution to solve the moral challenge of our generation.”

Evan Meneses, a 17-year-old student from South Australia, said on behalf of School Strike 4 Climate organisers, “Everyone is invited. Everyone is needed.”

“On March 15, 1.6 million of us went on strike globally. On September 20, we’re going even bigger. If you’re an adult, please take the day off and invite your friends, workmates and families to join us,” he said.