SW News 16

A sliding doors moment

Hello everyone,

It’s been a while! The SW team is back after a much-needed break over the summer and we’re re-charged and ready to go. Just as well given the recently published IPCC report, which made for very sobering reading. We and everyone working in the climate and sustainability space will need all of our energy, expertise and determination to make this year the year the world finally responds with appropriate urgency to the ‘code red’ warning issued by scientists. It feels like a sliding doors moment, where we will look back several decades from now and see whether we followed the right or wrong trajectory. 

As consultants and advisers, we find ourselves in the privileged position of influencing the trajectory that our clients follow, through the sustainability strategies and roadmaps we develop with them. During the summer we were reflecting on the sense of responsibility this brings. We want to ensure we are offering the best possible advice, that we’re being challenging yet encouraging, and that we’re conveying the urgent need for radical change while being cognisant of commercial realities. 

It’s a delicate line to tread and one that we regularly reflect on and talk about within the team. This excellent article by Ed Gillespie led to our latest round of discussions. It’s well worth a read for any consultant working in this space and raises important questions that we should all ask ourselves as we do our work. The bottom line is that we must make sure we’re not complicit in facilitating business-as-usual when what the world needs, within this decade, is a total re-set.

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