It's a bit hard to know where to look at the moment, isn't it Reader?
And even harder to know what is within our power to do. This is something we've been reflecting on quite a bit lately: what is the work we can do here? What impact can we have? Where are our skills most needed?
So, while our eyes are darting between the floods in Spain, the typhoon in Taiwan, the ongoing awful conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, and to the U.S. in the dying hours of the presidential campaign of a lifetime, the results of which will set the tone for the global response to climate action... we mustn't forget the impact we can have right here, right now.
It might start with an exploratory conversation with a peer. Or a small act of kindness.
One thing is clear, we need to remember our humanity and think about the kind of humans, business leaders, parents, and citizens we want to be. And do one small thing towards that.
Followed by another.
Then another.
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All hands on deck πͺ
Melissa
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Inspiring Purpose
The World Farmers' Organisation (WFO) Farmer-Driven Climate Change Agenda supports a just transition by empowering farmers as key change agents for sustainable agriculture. Through a farmer-led approach, it aims to inspire purpose by addressing climate resilience, supporting livelihoods, and fostering equity in the food system, ensuring sustainable outcomes for both people and the planet.
We loved this quote from the WFO President, which is a great prompt for any business engaging with stakeholders: βDonβt invite us to dinner; call us to the kitchen! Donβt take decisions about agriculture without the farmers being thereβ. It's a great call to action to bring stakeholders into where decisions are made, to collaborate on solutions that gain crucial engagement and drive better outcomes.
Business As Unusual Innovation
βGreen Gravity has developed technology to generate energy by lowering heavy weights to spin a turbine. A similar concept to pump hydro, it uses excess energy, when it's available, to raise the weights and drops them to generate power when demand requires.
They need a big hole to drop those weights, so Green Gravity has started working with mining companies with the aim to repurpose closing mine sites. They're at the concept stage with a soon-to-close copper mine in Mt. Isa.We love to see repurposing for renewables.
Hopefully, it might turn some heads within the mining sector away from fossil fuels and towards renewables as an income stream.
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Podcast Guest: Smart Business Growth
What does it really mean to be 'sustainable'? In this chat, I challenge all business leaders to tap into their humanity and ask some important questions.
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Roundup
The update of the Planetary Health Check, shared at the recent Climate Week in NYC, is sobering, but also provides a critical framework for how businesses can future-proof, innovate and move back to within safe limits for planetary systems. Sounds right up our alley.
Unfortunately, it seems that like its climate counterpart, COP16 on Biodiversity has followed suit in reporting more failure than progress, with University of Oxford professor, Yadvinder Malhi, saying "The very limited progress weβve seen so far in the negotiations at Cop16 is insufficient to address the very real implications of getting this wrong."
The "βFrom Limits to Growth to Earth for Allβ" conversation with Sandrine Dixon-Declere hosted by the Australian Institute is well worth a watch. In it, the Co-President of the Club of Rome discusses the planetary boundaries and reminds us that "we are in a deep emergency situation, but we can emerge from emergency".
An interesting article highlights that AI might not produce high-quality or relevant research results. This echoes many opinions that, without responsible human guidance AI may not be the fix-all that so many like former Google CEO Eric Schmidt hope.
In what might be another canary in the coal mine (eww - we really need another analogy), ESG skills appear to be on the rise among the legal profession, with this Wolkers Kluwar survey showing that lawyers are seeing an increase in demand for ESG capability and services.
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What We're Reading
Enough is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources, by Dan O'Neill, Rob Dietz and foreword by Herman E Daly. I'd seen this was highly recommended by many thought leaders I follow who talk about new economic models. Knowing this was published in 2012 demonstrates again that we have all the answers already, we just need to act - M