Gemma Butler

Enjoyed this article on B Lab UK B Lab If, as Laura Slack says, the whole principle of B-Corp is that you; 'don't put profit over people and the planet' why are European companies who choose to manufacture exclusively in China able to gain membership? It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. If you manufacturer exclusively in China, you are purposely choosing profit over planet. Your entire business model is choosing profit over planet. So what does B Lab UK B Lab actually stand for? I'm confused. https://lnkd.in/eRiutaQ7

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"we need to put people at the heart of climate action" - CAST research confirms what many of us in the field know - transformative systems change can not happen without working on models of co-design and participatory decision-making. Ownership and agency is key for people to not just see themselves in the climate story - but to see their own power to have impact. #climate #communications #climateAction

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I've been saying this for-eh-ver. (Or at least 3 years now....) AND for a year or so, I've had an offering — The Sustainability Story — that helps you SAVE market value by increasing engagement with your audiences. Takeaway: you NEED to address sustainability. Organizations that fail to do so at their peril. "Peril" in this case takes the form of disengagement with clients, investors, talent, and more. Let me put words to your sustainability story. Whether it's in process or yet unwritten, people want to read it.

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If you do one thing today, watch Erik Thulin's Bescy Environment Group talk on 'Beyond Nudge'. 🙌 He demonstrates how it's possible to use behavioural science to achieve huge social change in two very tough behavioural challenges to restore the environment and protect people's livelihoods. He says: "We need a complete behavioural science informed toolkit for addressing environmental challenges." "That toolkit does include nudges, but when you want transformative change where people are changing things that deeply matter to their livelihoods, it requires more intensive and complex styles of behaviour change interventions." 🌿 #behavioralscience #environment #behaviouralscience #behaviourchange Rare

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Get ahead of the incoming #BCorp standards with Daisy Lavington's latest post

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Who Should Pay for Sustainability? Is it the consumer? businesses?, or perhaps policymakers? Certainly not the planet! Only 4% of consumers in the UK trust sustainability labels (YouGov report below) Who pays for something you don’t trust? There are so many confusing labels out there (over 230 different green labels saturating the market) and it's hard to know what they mean and which ones to trust. ————— What labels do you typically seek out? How do you decide which ones to trust? ————— #affordability #sustainablelabels #trustinlabels #greenclaims #sustainabilityclaims #sustainabilityeducation

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My second climate change post in two days! Prevention magazine put my article from its July print magazine on its website today, on the psychological effects of climate change. Surprising effects include lower productivity, more irritation, and higher rates of anxiety. Hopefully continuing to point out all the negative impacts of a warmer world will help everyone realize we need to get off fossil fuel now! #climatechange #climatepsychology #globalwarming

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Findings of a new study suggest that citizens struggle to identify #compostable plastic packaging from appearance alone. Clear direct disposal instruction wording can help enable the appropriate #disposal behaviours. Qualitative findings showed that participants preferred clarity and directness in the disposal instructions logo denoting #compostability. The depiction of simple yet unambiguous and instructive #symbols was valued and likely to be the better instigators of #BehaviourChange compared with associative symbols. Implications for labelling policy are discussed. https://lnkd.in/e4sXe3kR

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In the cover feature from the EOS at Federated Hermes Q1 Public Engagement Report, engagers Michael Benedict Yamoah and Shoa Hirosato weigh up the pros and cons of carbon capture, utilisation and storage, which hard-to-abate sectors are likely to rely on to get to net-zero emissions. #climatechange #stewardship #ESG https://bit.ly/4aVTliA

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Today, a research collaboration from Greenpeace and Everyday Plastic was published. This looks into the consumption habits of UK households to understand their use of plastic and the waste generated by this. You can see the results here: https://lnkd.in/eiA83m2w The sobering finding is that every week 1.7bn pieces of plastic waste are discarded by households in the UK. Of that only 17% is recycled domestically while more than 80% of the source of waste is food and drinks packaging. We in the UK are (it's shameful to say it) throwing away more plastic than any other nation on earth except the US. It means that as a society we need to find ways to reduce our consumption of plastic through behaviour change. It also shows that recycling isn't the silver bullet solution that clever marketing might suggest it to be. Reuse needs to be much more prevalent. At BRITA we are working to promote a reuseable water economy. Last year we lauched our Reach for the Reusable campaign to call on the Government to extend the provision of water fountains as mandatory in all public space planning applications. We know that one of the most common reasons we buy single use bottled water is convenience. To get behaviour change in society we can't just highlight the problem, we also need to work together on practical solutions to help reduce the demand for single use plastics. Consumers need to feel better about refill and reuse than they do about convenience when it comes to their water drinking habits.

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🔉🔉 🔉 I don't know why this isn't bigger news today in our #sustainability community but... UK businesses via UN Global Compact Network UK look set to lean into double materiality! 📣 Richard Howitt* states: "...the choice to be made between single (financial) #materiality in the company's sustainability reporting or double materiality (including the company's impact on people and planet), Global Compact member companies are firmly recommended to take the latter, more comprehensive approach. This choice is reaffirmed in the positions quoted in the report from the UK's #sustainableinvestmentforum and by the @UK Impact Investing Institute underlining that many in the financial community itself, want companies to be able to see beyond a short-term, finance-only perspective." ++++ "we predicted it!" is not always helpful but because our statements are always based in 20 years empirical research i do think it helps to know the sources you can lean on to shine a clean light on the path forward in such a confusing space. 🌊 Contrary to popular belief progress is not happening step by step - there are waves of change and then ripple effects. #Greenwashing - #CSRD leavers were the big waves - once these checks and market drivers were in place we advised for all organisations - regardless of geography - to start working towards a double materiality (or better still - context based scoping and materiality). Why - well once the market realised that financial reporting would extend to include environmental, social reporting + governance we knew that getting this right would be the gold standard of how all assets are valued. ✅ What we are advising now is not just geographically but - regardless of being pulled into mandatory reporting ALL organisations should look to at least understand what double materiality looks like for them. Why? - simply put the organisations in the mandatory disclosure bracket will not reach their targets without kicking the pressure up and down the supply chain. ❗ a shocking 84% of listed companies are not aligning with netzero ref: MSCI Inc. Get ahead of changes and join our September 'Beyond Carbon' cohort (with a 50% discount if you will give some time to me for my research on knowledge gaps - Chatham House rule): https://lnkd.in/eEcyqAh2 *Richard Howitt is Strategic Advisor, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, Business and Human Rights, former Member of the European Parliament responsible for the E.U.'s first rules on corporate sustainability reporting and global Chief Executive of the International Integrated Reporting Council. https://lnkd.in/eYJyHEPb

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I want to talk about the honour in chairing quality conversations in sustainability. You may know I attend, curate, host, chair sit on panels and give keynotes at many global events focussed on sustainability (and I have actively complained to some event organisers when I think the knowledge of the interviewer/host is insulting to the expert/s on the stage and/or the audience of experts). Sustainability is complex and multidisciplinary and there is a big gap for change found in the 'don't know what they need to know'. There are also a lot of 'pay to play' events where the quality of the conversation is nowhere near as important as the sponsorship box tick. Sustainability is far too important a conversation for low level approaches. Talks must inform the 'now' but also push into future gazing + reliance building. Audiences need to know what WILL happen - at macro and micro levels for next year -10-20-40 years? So looking at this from a systemic, paradigm change value I find that in chairing conversations I am able to eek out the most useful information - for both the audience and the speakers - and I hope that also puts my business in a good light too. I am generally paid for this role and other times not, in those instances I choose to give my time where I think it adds value to systemic change. Regardless, if I am going to do it do it well. So in the same way as I work with clients, I always undertake a lot of pre research. As an example, at Reset Connect this year I chaired 3 sessions - Here is an example of the prep for one panel conversation on metrics for sustainability. Approximately 5 hours prep + my 20 years deep subject knowledge: ✅ few intro emails and diary juggling ✅ my research on each individual and their companies ✅ Zoom call - hosted by me ✅ 1:1 call ✅ re-listen to the Zoom a few times - gain clarity on the direction of what i think will give the audience the most value and align speaker needs ✅ Work out flow and tempo of conversation so that it makes sense to the audience ✅ email a brief to panelists ✅ quick meet on site before the talk to ensure everyone was happy and clear ✅ onstage i am working out how long each person has spoken to ensure fair dispersal of time and moving on if they are going too long NB: I have worked with the team at Reset Connect since their launch and I chair many roundtable through the year for them too, we know and trust each others work - which reduces the prep time significantly The conversation linked below was with some highly insightful panelists and I chose to alter the flow to allow for a little interview with Carla at the start to set the tone on sustainability from her real life experience in the front line of climate change in Puerto Rico. @carla gautier Mattie Yeta PhD Rupert Bull - Jack Dwyer Sue Riddlestone OBE Have a listen if you wish: https://lnkd.in/ejxB4ZhF

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We love hearing about people #doing circular economy. Better yet, we love getting their products and touching them, feeling them and #reimagining how to build demand/impact (those two words are intrinsically linked) for them. The team at BlockTexx have developed a way to cleverly separate and #dissasemble fashion resources into units of #circularity (ie like nature)…this makes these units operationally flexible for cities like ours: CellTexx® = Derived from recycled cotton, biodegradable and with high organic carbon (~43%). PolyTexx® = Made from recovered polyester and can be used for new polyester textiles, packaging materials, and other polyester-based products or perhaps into roads or blocks? The idea that excites me the most (soil nerd alert) is the possibility to combine CellTexx® and HumiSoil® for #hydromulching projects in our Reef City. Getting clothing and city waste into local #regeneration projects to save water and build stacked offsets has Scope3 innovation written all over it. Keep up the inspiring work Adrian Jones and team, we will find ways to showcase this work and build case studies. #demand matters. Hold tight as we will soon share our next round of #fashion waste 🔬. #soilhealth #smallcircles #looping

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It's critical that we 'bend the arc' on the prevailing marketing and communications narrative from hyper- to considered- consumption. Here's an opportunity to surface your personal story, best practices and ideas to inspire the wider sector to transform with you.

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“How would ‘Nature’ develop a comms strategy?” It’s the question I posed for myself when working with Chris Gaither and Abby Sturges, co-founders of Regenerous. Nature is so intertwined in their practice as sustainability leadership and culture consultants that it felt inauthentic to not approach their communication strategy with the same mindset. Just like they use ‘Nature’ to support and guide their clients, I needed to do the same for them. Here’s how it worked: - Start lofty and ask “what would nature do?”. See what comes up in terms of words, imagery and metaphors - Explore and expand your initial thoughts. What’s resonating and why? - Start making it tangible by asking what these strategic signposts mean in the day-to-day - Link each direction to specific actions Example: If the market is saturated, a brand will need to differentiate themselves. What would nature do to stand out? Where can we find examples of this in the wild and what tactics are being used? Peacock spiders are vibrant, gibbons are loud, dolphins are playful — each unique, proud and bold in their own way. From these initial thoughts, you start to see what marries with the other areas of insight you’ve discovered. This then helps to build a picture of the strategic direction you need to take. From there, you can start to explore how this plays out by asking ‘if we are our industry’s peacock spider, what would have to be true?’ and finally… ‘which means we have to do X’. If this is sounding a bit ‘out there’, ask yourself this. If WE ARE NATURE, why wouldn’t we use Nature to guide us in our work FOR NATURE? Like a river, we’ve got to learn to go with the flow and trust our own instincts. That’s something that Abby and Chris fully encouraged with this project and I’m grateful for the opportunity to explore this approach with them! Looking forward to seeing the strategy come to life #BeMorePeacockSpider! #CommunicationStrategy #StrategicComms #NatureComms Image: Jurgen Otto / Flickr --- Thanks for reading and if you enjoyed it: 1. Comment - Tell me if/how you use Nature in your work 2. Follow me - I write about nature-based solutions, inspiring brands and strategic comms

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In 2015, the UK government told voters it would "cut the green crap," suggesting that a sustainable environmental approach was an unbearable burden for consumers. However, this assumption was incorrect. In fact, "cutting the green crap" ended up costing each household £150 ($200)! ( Link to article in comments) Environmental policy should not be an ideological issue. Often, what makes environmental sense also makes economic sense. We don't have to choose between lower emissions and cheaper energy – we can have both!! For instance, solar power is now cheaper than coal power in many parts of the world. Places like Texas and China, not typically known for environmental activism, are investing billions in renewables because it makes solid economic sense. Despite this, some politicians continue to politicize "green" policies, turning them into cultural battlegrounds. This is foolish, and such politicians do not deserve our votes. In other news....Today, on 5 July 2024, it feels like a brighter day here in the UK. 😎

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a charismatic collision between two worlds not too far apart. B Corp is an experiment, a panacea to what the B Lab cofounders would say is: "a source code error in capitalism". And the backbone to the certification is a rigorous set of standards all companies meet. What's always been a question though is: where is the voice of the workers, the smallholders, the customers, and the community in impact reporting? Is there also a source code error in how we measure impact? We can ask ourselves: what in our collective work risks it becoming a trend and more vulnerable to political tides? How might we ground the data in outcomes, informed by the people whose lives are changed? While B Corps strive to improve the lives and model a more inclusive economy, these three B Corps worked with 60 Decibels to sit with truths. "We came into business with the heartbeat of those we serve. Listening leads to understanding and that builds empathy, which leads to curiosity and innovation. Listening is the beginning of all great ideas.” Safwan Shah Southern Bancorp Counter Culture Coffee Payactiv #bcorp #impactmeasurement #listenbetter

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This looks interesting - a Green Alliance webinar to discuss two recent reports into how reuse business models can help to transform the fashion sector and what the public want to see from a greener clothing industry. Circular fashion: making resale a reality from PwC and Changing fashion: What people want from a greener clothing industry, a forthcoming report produced for Green Alliance’s Circular Economy Task Force. Jane Wood Phil Purnell Dr Debra Carr Elisa Tonda Zeshan Yousaf, PhD, FHEA, CText FTI, MIMMM Dr. Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem Nick E. https://lnkd.in/eYQW9hv4

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