The Sustainability Agenda

Author, media theorist, professor, activist: Douglas Rushkoff wears many hats. At the heart of his work is a recurring theme: how to redevelop society to better serve humans. In this episode, Douglas discusses his latest book, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, which raises fundamental questions about what he calls the “old extractive, growth-based capitalism.” This is a hard-hitting critique of the digital revolution, finance in Silicon Valley, and its obsession with growth-and a call for new economic, technological, and social programs to create a fairer, more sustainable economy for humans.The post Episode 11: Douglas Rushkoff | How the digital revolution undermines sustainability–and some proposals for a fairer more sustainable world appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Paul Dickinson founded CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project, in 2000 with a vision to help the global economic system operate within sustainable environmental boundaries, and to prevent dangerous climate change.  CDP manages a data platform that gathers data on the greenhouse gas emissions from major corporations around the world. The data reported through CDP is used by a global network of investors and purchasers, representing over $100 trillion. In this interview, Paul discusses trends in provision of climate change information by corporations, how this information is being used in various industries, and gives a frank assessment of the progress companies are making responding to climate change.  The post Episode 10: Paul Dickinson | The crucial importance of corporate climate change data appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

BSR has been providing socially responsible business solutions to many of the world’s leading companies for almost 25 years, working with 250 member companies around the world to create a more just and sustainable global economy. In this podcast, BSR CEO Aron Cramer, gives his frank assessment of where companies are on their journey to sustainability, the crucial role of finance in the sustainability, and asks difficult questions about the future of an economy based on Western consumption models. Aron also talks about the work that BSR is doing around building an inclusive economy, and the role of new sustainability models like the sharing economy.The post Episode 9: Aron Cramer | Corporate sustainability – past progress and future questions appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

John Kay is one of Britain’s leading economists and has a long-standing interest in the relationships between business and society; he has been writing about responsible business, the role of stakeholders, and business and society for several decades. In this interview, John talks about the real meaning of corporate sustainability, which goes way beyond ESG considerations, and looks at what it takes to develop great sustainable business. This is a fresh and direct look at sustainability that clears away much fuzzy thinking about business and sustainability, and some prominent myths –including shareholder rhetoric to maximise profits — and situates ethics at the heart of the sustainability agenda.The post Episode 8: Professor John Kay | The real meaning of sustainability appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

In this episode of the Sustainability Agenda, Professor CB Bhattacharya, one of the word’s leading sustainability researchers, gives his perspective on his evolution of corporate sustainability over recent decades. Professor Bhattacharya discusses his latest research and gives a preview of his new book. What is the trade-off between sustainability and profits? How do investors respond to good and sustainability news? The impact of engaged employees. And he discusses the five necessary steps to integrate sustainability into the business-ideas at the heart of his upcoming book.The post Episode 7: Professor CB Bhattacharya | How to integrate sustainability into the business appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

When it comes to getting a perspective on the future of sustainability, who better to speak to than renowned author, futurist and sustainability pioneer Hazel Henderson. A long-time pioneer promoting the integration of environmental and social considerations into economics and business, Hazel has been a key mover in numerous key sustainability initiatives since the mid-1970s. A multi-award winning author, she has been a board member of many important environmental and social finance organisations, including Worldwatch Institute (1975-2001), Calvert Social Investment Fund (1982-2005), the Social Investment Forum and the Social Venture Network. Hazel co-developed with Calvert the GDP alternative measure now called the Ethical Markets Quality of Life Indicators. She set up Ethical Markets Media, a certified B Corporation in 2004.In this interview, Hazel talks about: Why 2015 was the inflection point in the development of a cleaner green economyThe key role of the UN in convening key parties to promote the sustainability agendaWhy and how the current financial paradigm needs to changeHow the Ethicmark awards aim to transform advertising by demonstrating the power of media campaigns to inspireWhy Hazel is excited about the potential of biomimicry: innovation inspired by natureThe post Episode 6: Hazel Henderson| The future of sustainability appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

It took many decades over the early 20th Century for a standardised way of presenting financial information to investors to evolve. A similar process is now under way in an effort to include non-financial information in mainstream accounts. But we have to do it in years, not decades. Nowhere has there been more progress than with respect to integrating climate change information. In this podcast, Mardi McBrien, MD of the Climate Disclosure Standards Board discusses the progress that has been made integrating climate change-related information into mainstream financial reporting for investors and financial markets. Mardi talks about the CDSB framework, the distinct role the CDSB plays, and the crucial importance of coming to an agreed understanding of materiality in sustainability that is aligned with a more traditional financial perspective on materiality.The post Episode 5: Mardi McBrien | Why we need to integrate climate change-related information into mainstream financial reporting appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

By many measures, humans have shown themselves to be a pretty successful species. But we are living unsustainably. We are consuming more resources than the Earth can provide– we are in global ecological overshoot. The Ecological Footprint, developed by the Global Footprint Network, is a leading measure of human demand on nature, reflecting the productive area required to provide the renewable resources humanity is using and to absorb its waste. And this calculation show that every year we are effectively consuming the equivalent of 1.6 planets. In this podcast, Global Footprint Network co-founder Susan Burns talks about the power of ecological footprint- the impact of our increasing ecological deficit -and talks about her recent research integrating environment risk into sovereign credit analysis.The post Episode 4: Susan Burns | What the ecological footprint tells us appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Marks & Spencer launched its Plan A progamme in 2007 with the ambition to make the company the world’s most sustainable major retailer. This far-reaching ecological and ethical programme is now in its 9th year. In this interview, Mike Barry, who oversees Plan A, and was part of the initial team that developed the programme, talks about the progress that M&S has made hitting its targets, how M&S deals with innovation in sustainability, the challenges and lessons from integrating sustainability across the business-and why this is so crucial to the company’s future success.The post Episode 3: Mike Barry | The path to become the world’s most sustainable retailer appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Over the comings years, sums of between US$5 and $7 trillion a year will need to be invested in infrastructure, clean energy, water, sanitation, agriculture, to meet Sustainability Development Goals.  New Climate Economy estimates that a massive $93tn investment will be required across the whole economy by 2030 to keep the temperature rise below 2 degrees. This will require both a massive increase in investment and a re-orientation of investment towards lower carbon technologies. How will this money be raised? Climate bonds–bonds linked in some way to climate change solutions—are a key and growing source of investment.  Already one of the fastest growing asset classes, some expect to rise to $1 trillion a year by 2020. In this interview, Sean Kidney, co-founder of the climate bonds initiative, discusses the role of climate bonds, explains the recent explosive growth, and looks to future plans to credentialise the market.The post Episode 2: Sean Kidney | Why climate bonds matter appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.