Medium Short: Modeling Modifying Models

Changing how I create change (with a hint of compost)

B. Lorraine Smith
7 min readMay 12, 2023
A city crew planted dozens of diverse saplings along the bike path near the Lachine Rapids this week, where they join many mature deciduous delights. (photo by me, May 2023)

Welcome to the latest Medium Short, a weekly accountability practice highlighting what I’m up to along the unmarked trail towards #IndustrialHealing. This is a personal update — my (debatably) more professional writing is freely available through this link.

Coming out of the performance appraisal with my Imaginary Boss last week, I’ve been nudged (okay shoved) towards a more focused path. It feels new and weird for me, but these Shorts are a personal accountability practice, so new and weird are nonviable excuses. Also, as I like to remind myself when I get hung up in the rafters, nothing’s that exciting really.

So in today’s Short I’ll share The Next Thing I referred to last week, including how I’m modifying my own model, which flows into how I offer more actionable ideas to other business model modifiers out in this crazy old economic world of ours.

Modifying my model

In my explorations of industrial healing, I look at business models a lot. As long as we live in a world with money, I want to see companies earning revenue based on activities that make society and the biosphere healthier. That’s not how most companies are structured. Instead we have the short-term profit…

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B. Lorraine Smith

Former sustainability consultant replacing ESG with reality-based insights about corporate purpose and impact. https://www.blorrainesmith.com/