Our inboxes are awash with sustainability ‘sound bite stats’ – but how much of it is actually useful? Nick Pye examines why so much consumer sustainability data distorts reality, and why the say-do gap is the issue brands really need to be tackling.
When performance pressures bite, sustainability investment is often the first thing to go. But the indirect costs of scaling back can be just as damaging as the direct ones – and the impact on employee trust, motivation and goodwill is frequently underestimated.
Driving sustainability in big companies requires courage – but not just the bold, headline-grabbing kind. Nick Pye raises a glass to the front-line sustainability practitioners whose acts of ‘little c’ courage are quietly propelling progress every single day.
Going for B Corp status is exposing – even with nothing to hide. It got us thinking about transparency: admirable, yes, but is it necessary? We think authenticity is the ultimate currency, and how a business chooses to respond is a decision only they can make.
When Mangrove gained B Corp certification in 2022, the news was largely met with blank faces. Has awareness really moved since then? Justin Wright looks at three lessons B Corp could learn from Red Tractor to hit the mainstream tipping point.
In the race to recruit sustainability talent, ambitious middle managers are signing up for short courses and immediately rebranding themselves as experts. Nick Pye explains why genuine sustainability expertise is born of on-the-job experience – and why confusing the two can be disastrous.
Most mainstream audiences switch off when faced with doom-and-gloom sustainability messaging. But what if there’s a more light-hearted way in? The folks behind Liquid Death certainly think so – and their approach holds a great lesson for any brand wanting to make sustainability genuinely engaging.
Is the sustainability sheen wearing off? COP 28 passed with little fanfare, ESG-focused investors are pulling back, and consumers are refusing to pay more for sustainable products. Justin Wright asks whether we’ve slipped into the trough of disillusionment – and why a ‘wait and see’ approach would be the worst possible response.
Bolt Threads has paused its mycelium leather. Beyond Meat is down 92%. Oatly has lost 90% of its valuation. Nick Pye asks why sustainable substitutes are struggling to cross the chasm from early adopters to the mainstream – and what it will take to change that.
Sustainability creates specific and difficult tensions for manufacturing and industrial businesses. Nick Pye shares five key pressures Mangrove is seeing on the front line, from short-term commitment versus long-term investment to the performance gap that’s holding back real impact.
How much time do we spend chasing carbon reduction whilst ignoring everything else? Carbon Tunnel Vision is a timely reminder that carbon, whilst critically important, is only one dimension of the sustainability challenge.
Nick Pye shares his thoughts on radical transparency in luxury sustainability, in conversation with Martin Townsend of BSI, featured in the Positive Luxury Predictions Report 2023.
