Not saying #FreeBritney and other editorial choices

The twists and turns of giving away $100k of consulting work

B. Lorraine Smith
5 min readNov 17, 2022
Image from the “Perspectives from the rest of nature” section of the Danone Matereality assessment.

Let’s start with the end in mind, shall we?

The end I have in mind is one where it’s perfectly reasonable to follow the guidance of wise creatures, leading us to live beautifully in relation to one another. “One” may be my brother, or a lake, a group of people on the other side of the planet, or a dragonfly.

In some ways, this end would be just the beginning of living within an economy that works in service of life.

We are far from this right now, especially in most industrial contexts. When I conducted a Matereality assessment on the global food company Danone (process recapped here), I provided observations and insights about their business model, their approach to measuring success on human health, packaging waste, and more.

The idea was to offer ways to shift the thinking — and doing! — as a means to that end.

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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/