Category Archives: News

My clients often feel that they have very little power to influence the sustainability of their customers and suppliers. This depends on how you define influence. Can we source cost-effective sustainable raw materials immediately? No. Can we ensure that customers will pay extra for more sustainable products or service? No. Can we start conversations thatContinue reading “Newsletter March 2022”

There is more and more interest in sustainability, but it’s not always the best kind. Unfortunately organisations seem to be getting obsessed with measuring their climate footprint and offsetting. This myopia often pushes genuinely sustainable initiatives off the agenda, particularly if they’re not measurable. After all, how do you measure the waste you didn’t throwContinue reading “Newsletter – February 2022”

Don’t be fooled into investing in less-bad ways of operating. At the moment markets and systems can’t support truly sustainable manufacturing or construction so often the best we can do is limit our impact. This in itself isn’t a bad thing, as long as we’re aware that it’s transitory and will need revising as theContinue reading “Newsletter – January 2022”

Lots of very positive developments in the world of sustainability and circularity this month. I was particularly interested in the EPA’s research into attitudes to the climate crisis in Ireland, compiled into the report ‘Climate Change in the Irish Mind’. It’s an accessible and comprehensive report, which is a must for anyone involved in or interestedContinue reading “Newsletter – December 2021”

Did you follow the coverage of Cop26? I doubt you had time so here are the highlights to get you up to speed. Before COP26, the world was on track for 2.7°C of warming, post COP26 this is estimated to have been reduced to 2.4°C, but only if countries deliver on their 2030 emissions targets.Continue reading “Newsletter – November 2021”

Thank god for business! I’ve given up on personal action as a force for change in the world. Not enough people care enough for it to have any real impact. Most people don’t want to change how they live, they just want something to change the outcome of the decisions they want to make. AndContinue reading “Newsletter – October 2021”

Same old, same old. Sorry to rain on parades here but I’m sick of webinars talking about how important sustainability is! We get it! We agree! Now how the heck do we do it? Don’t tell me why I should do it, tell me how I can do it! Stop inviting on guests to talkContinue reading “Newsletter – September 2021”

Every time I check my phone there seems to be another bad environmental news story breaking. In July the EU green deal launched with make-or-break warning for the climate crisis and then, this month, the IPCC’s announced that unless we halve our emissions by 2030 and reduce them to zero by 2050 we’re facing aContinue reading “Newsletter – August 21”

When I read the result of the inaugural Hamburg Climate Futures Outlook first systematic attempt to assess the plausibility of various climate futures I was depressed. According to it’s authors it says that achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is feasible and possible but not plausible given the lack of progress on interventions and social changeContinue reading “Newsletter – July 2021”

Circularity in Ireland is like a game of chicken at the moment. Companies are waiting for the government to bring in binding obligations before jumping and the government is waiting for business to start delivering circular solutions before putting demands on voters and the market. We’re starting to see words in policy documents move fromContinue reading “Newsletter – June 2021”