What I Think About This So-Called Scandal

People keep tagging me on the JBS CDP thing. Here’s a wee rant.

CDP rankings are meaningless when it comes to impact on the ground. This is not a scandal. We need to focus on the real scandal, and do real things to change it. (Screen grab from the article).

***What follows is a somewhat inside-ESG-baseball rant. You are forewarned.***

There is a scandal — and it’s not the CDP ranking

I guess I’ve made myself into a mini-lightening rod on the topic of global meat company JBS’s claims around environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impacts, given the recent Matereality assessment I did. (Briefing here ICYMI). People keep tagging me on the “scandal” about JBS’s CDP ranking improving in spite of concerns about deforestation in their supply chain — concerns I share in this 5-minute video.

But debating CDP rankings is the wrong conversation to have, and it’s a dangerous distraction.

We could discuss all day long whether or not the CDP should rate a company like JBS as an A-, or as anything at all. What will this change? Nothing.