SW News 12

Time for radical transparency

In our last newsletter we talked about the fact that when it comes to creating a sustainable world, the why is crystal clear, the what and how are understood, and all that’s left is the will to implement solutions and ‘just do it.’

As anyone working in innovation will know, when developing solutions you’ve got to move from theory to practice as early as possible, because it’s only by trying something out that you truly learn what works and what doesn’t. You need to prototype, test, refine. Then scale.

But one of the risks when it comes to climate solutions is that the narrative companies put out there about what they're doing is not always accurate. This can result in greenwashing: people claiming their actions are 'green' when it's really just business-as-usual. Unfortunately there is plenty of it going on, as this recent review of 500 corporate websites showed.

The antidote to greenwashing is radical transparency. This can come from companies themselves being honest about their challenges and shortcomings, as some brave businesses are. But let's face it: most corporate PR teams aren’t too keen on publicising failures! So we need other mechanisms to keep businesses in check, such as mandatory, verified reporting, and tools like the EU Green taxonomy that clearly define what is ‘green’ and what is not.

While the risk of greenwashing is certainly there, we at SustainabilityWorks would still much prefer to see people diving in and taking imperfect action, rather than sitting on the fence and pondering perfect theories. We simply don't have the time. So to all you brave people and businesses taking the plunge, we salute you, we support you and we urge you to keep trying to move forward as fast as you can. Just beware of the greenwash and be radically transparent. No one can fault you for that.

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