Assessing a global meat company in an economy serving life — Continuing the journey towards an economy working in service of life, I recently rounded the corner on the Matereality assessment of JBS, one of the world’s largest food companies. Purveyors of diversified animal and plant proteins, leather, biodiesel, and more, JBS have outsized influence on life as we know it…

Giving life to human details among the TLDR slideware — If there’s one thing I know, it’s that investment analysts aren’t going to read an 80-slide deck from a total stranger. Even if it contains useful insights about the company they’re analyzing. And even if, as one industry commenter said on LinkedIn, it offers — […] exceptionally powerful dot connections…

A simplified approach to Matereality — Companies say a lot about their sustainability goals and performance. And there are oodles of frameworks and methodologies to rate and rank their efforts. …

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…

A brief regroup on what’s where and what now — Alright folks, it’s a wrap. Here’s the tail end of the Matereality Marathon (launched here), exploring global food company Danone through the lens of Matereality. I confess it’s a bit peculiar “publishing” something that one has built in public. It’s not like I submitted it anywhere. …

Headed into overtime! (And happy about it.) — Hello again! An unprecedented double-publishing day. Along with the regular Medium Short (because: Friday) I am keeping to my special-this-week-only accountability plan of updating progress on the Matereality Marathon (launched here), exploring global food company Danone through the lens of Matereality. It’s getting exciting (for me at least) but I’m…

Sausage making: diagrams, themes, and an urge to talk to cows — Hello again! Here’s a look at Day #4 of the Matereality Marathon (launched here), exploring global food company Danone through the lens of Matereality. In today’s recap I take us into the kitchen where the sausages are made — decisions around what goes where to make the information useful. …

CEO signals fade, business model fragments emerge — Hey there! Here’s a look at Day #3 of the Matereality Marathon (launched here), exploring global food company Danone’s role in the future we want by applying the Matereality methodology. I dug into the leadership signals on investor calls, and began to unpick more of the business model. I also…

Productivity meets plant-based existential paradox — Hiya! Here we are at the end of day two of the Matereality Marathon (launched here), exploring global food company Danone’s role in the future we want by applying the Matereality methodology. I’m going to describe this day as both productive and existentially paradoxical and I’ll explain a bit more…

Digesting, interconnecting + sharing stakeholder views on Danone, the food industry and our future — Hey folks! Here we are at the end of day one of the Matereality Marathon (launched here yesterday), exploring global food company Danone’s role in the future we want by applying the Matereality methodology. I’ll recap some of the learnings and doings of the day, touch on a finding that…

Woo-hoo! Wait… What? — I hereby kick off the first ever Matereality Marathon. “What is a…

Asking what a company SAYS versus DOES versus IS — Purpose-washing is icky. When a company states a grand social purpose without backing it up, it adds to the rushing tide of greenwash, making it hard to navigate towards an economy that works in service of life. To tackle this, I offer three simple questions that can indicate if a…

Tips to prime you ahead of the week — whether you’re attending in person or not — This is an invitation to do something useful and joyful in relation to Climate Week, which begins this week in New York City. I compiled this based on years of experience immersed in corporate sustainability while living in NYC. If it seems unfairly critical read from top to bottom, consider…

Lucky for me I have friends who tell me to do better — My dear friend Eva messaged me the other day to say my TD Matereality video brief was painfully impenetrable. I’m paraphrasing of course — she is far more kind and tactful — but I doubled back to have a look. Oof! She was so right. …

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…

I ran an assessment to find out: does the company contribute to—or undermine—the future we want? Here’s what I learned. — What’s this all about? After twenty years of sustainability consulting, including conducting a lot of materiality assessments where I felt like we were side-stepping the real conversations — e.g., about business models and economic structures that incentivize harm — I launched a project called Matereality. It’s a twist on the materiality assessments done for…

No, unless they change two fundamental things, ASAP — I conducted a Matereality assessment on Toronto-Dominion Bank (aka TD). The assessment deck is free to access, download, or share here. A brief video explaining the findings is here [added Sept 15: new and improved simplified video here]. …

You killed my compost worms — I am pretty sure you didn’t mean to. As the CEO of Scotts Miracle-Gro, it’s clear you are doing a lot to address the negative impacts of your products. I realize this is a tough time for the company, financially speaking. The thing is, I think those two things are…