A look back at how planting deforested and sustainability apologized for continued devastation — I am going to compare the experience of working as an industrial treeplanter in the 1990s in Northern Ontario, Canada with the ongoing unlearning of my experience in international corporate sustainability. I will be gentle although it is a journey fraught with discomfort. There is lots I could say but…

How a reality-based approach highlights the difference — Business is masterful at messaging. Public affairs crews create simple, repeatable, easily understood soundbites. This is often a good thing. Life is complicated — we need help with complexity! But it is a problem when it means elements of complexity are cherry-picked — motivated by profit — to influence behaviours…

Coming clean on what I really think about “corporate climate action” — We were driving — my boss, J and I — on a wide swath of highway towards a client site just outside Atlanta, Georgia. It was 2012, early days for us. I had been freelancing for the firm where he was a senior leader. I then got hired on as…

You see the madness, you’re not buying the endless growth narrative, and you want to help. Now what? — This is no time for recycling and double-sided printing If you read another sustainability report touting 25% emissions reductions by 2025 when you know what is needed was more than 100%, decades ago, along with a complete rethink of business’ relationship with the rest of the natural world that isn’t hyper-focused on carbon and is hyper-focused on supporting life…

Imagine a friend telling us a story about his mother. She called him up to say: “I’ve got some great news! I counted up how many times your dad beat me this year compared to last year. It’s more than 10% less than last year! And he’s committed to even…

I hope this finds you well. Thank you for publishing your letter to CEOs earlier this year. You made a compelling case to take the risks of climate change seriously. Your letter created a stir. I am involved in corporate reporting projects with publicly listed companies and I have seen…

What if we look at an old tool in a new way? I propose a variation on a materiality assessment, as an alternate way to understand a company in relation to the future we want. This new approach asks the question,“What if materiality was based in reality?” Those of us working in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) space, encounter materiality assessments…

But I have a few questions first. — Dear Samantha Suppiah, Thank you for providing the opportunity to experience a “Plantation Sustainability Starter Pack”. This is exactly what the world has been waiting for! And since I am (I think?) in the world, I have been waiting in that line up with everyone else, patiently hoping something like…

This is a rough draft of a story about events that take place in the year 2035, inspired by what’s already happening in 2021. There’s a lot more I, B. Lorraine Smith, could say but I am probably…

But it’s way more elegant than staying with an abusive psychopath who has no interest in our wellbeing — We are what we choose I hear a lot of hand-wringing these days. “The world is on fire.” “Big corporates are making things worse.” “We’re out of time.” But when ideas — or living examples — of better options are offered, a common response is something like, “It’s all so complicated…” and “people aren’t going…

Because I guess I’m modern*, western** and civilized*** — We interrupt our regular program to create a lot of dots! A friend said something the other day that made my chest expand with resonance: The more I try to control things, the worse I feel. Yeppers. Okay, so don’t control. Surrender. Sure. Got it. Or at least, this sounds familiar and I’m working on it. But then what? Take action…

It’s 4.7 — Modern humans: literate on stuff, semi-literate on life Back when we modern humans* were cosmically young and immature, toddling into the early stages of perceiving a world beyond industrial captivity, we mostly thought in integers. Whole, simple, easy-to-remember numbers gained ground as attractive “answers”. And so the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything being pronounced as 42…

Remember Band Aid’s 1984 hit single, Do They Know It’s Christmas? You might have heard it playing recently, as this fundraising jingle still gets a lot airtime alongside Elvis’ Blue Christmas and Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree. And then there’s John and Yoko’s Happy Xmas (War is Over)… …

[This article originally appeared on the blog on Nov 27, 2019] Keynote Presentation, September 24, 2019 Circular Economy Event, Confederação Nacional de Indústria (CNI) São Paulo, Brazil Presentation is in Portuguese. An English transcript follows. Thank you, and good morning to everyone. Thank you to you all for being here…