2021 Earth Day: How regenerative practices can in fact create a thriving economy
Hi all,
In celebration of Earth Day, I attended the Nature Conservancy's Spring Summit. Now, more than ever, our lifestyle choices and business endeavors will have consequences on the future of our environment- our home. It's important to consider your money is your voice in the functionality of an economy.
Many business models have adopted a treadmill mentality- a relentless cycle of short-term fixes, creating a depleting treadmill effect. Instead of reactive adjustments, we should draw inspiration from nature—where resilience, adaptability, and long-term sustainability drive survival and prosperity.
In the opening conversation, Mike Sweeney and Alexandra Cousteau discuss how the environment and the economy can benefit each other. Our approach doesn't have to come from a scarcity mindset or prioritizing one over the other. Instead, it can come from an adaptive mindset with sustainable roots.
We need to adopt the dream of finding sustaining practices that support businesses to thrive while helping the environment for example adopting a 100-year plan.
Corporate sustainability, as identified during the Summit discussion, integrates environmental consciousness into business success. It shifts the focus from short-term quarterly gains to long-term, decade-spanning resilience and growth.
For us to succeed and sustain long-term resource use, we must restore environmental balance. Doing nothing isn't an option anymore. If we continue our lives without change, by the year 2050, we will have more plastic in the ocean than fish.
How can business coexist in this vision?
Having a long-term plan is more beneficial, as generational companies and stakeholders then can find short term executions. Mark Hawkins voiced that stakeholder capitalism ensures that core values are not just acknowledged but actively upheld, driving meaningful and lasting impact. Balancing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors with increased frequency of reporting captivates investors, which in turn fuels confidence in sustainable strategies. This shift encourages stakeholder capitalists to prioritize long-term planning while maintaining steady revenue growth.
Sustainability shouldn't have to be a competitive advantage. We need to utilize plastic differently and change our behavior around plastics-to make them more an heirloom in order to slow down manufacturing. This doesn't mean that we need to sacrifice return on investment-there's a balance that can be met. Not everyone can take the same actions, however, each of us has the power to contribute to meaningful change. There is an ingenuity of meeting the needs of all through the durability of a company, relations with clients, employees, community, partners, etc. It lies in a broader based view on delivering those needs.
In all cases, be it philanthropic or commercial income, conducting thorough research and maintaining accountability shape the path to securing funding. This has begun to influence companies' communication approach by conveying public statements of intent on their environmental impacts.
An example that explores this approach can be found with Maney Maceda (Worldwide managing partner for Bain and Company) which has a mission of helping and engaging companies and their investors to go for sustainable practices- for example, hosting virtual meetings instead of flying to clients. They work directly with competitors, by boldly setting a collective goal of bringing down their carbon footprint by 2030 and sparking a conversation on environmentally conscious business practices. Setting this goal sparks questions like what is the new model or normal? or What/will there be social evolution?
We need to keep in mind The Great Acceleration and the impacts this phenomenon has on sustainability. Approaching the future of a business, with a more environmentally conscious plan, allows for finding balance in various models. This, in turn, offers more stability. Should we consider conducting business purely virtually? Mark Hawkins (President and Chief Financial officer at salesforce) discusses that digital transformation will result in a hybridization of business models where expectations will shift from customers to investors.
The company, Earth Force, has become a pioneer business to lead in regenerative practices. Earth Force's representative at the Summit had this to say: "Now we are in a time that Corporations has the opportunity to be on right side of history and adopt long term business models- raise the bar on company sustainability. Employees and customers have raised their expectations, we have created sustainability clouds, we can deliver. rise to meet the challenge time is now".
At Patagonia, Jenna Johnson focuses on the climate crisis and how to collaborate with people in the industry or sectors. She states that "[we] must collaborate to find a sustainable shared advantage and maintain its responsibility". She maintains the values of the company and strives to leverage its revenue to work with good stewards and investments. In other words, putting your money where your mouth is. Jenna goes on to state that "customer base is important. At the end of day, we stay close to ground by absorbing customer values (activists). We are allowing the brand to mold to our customers and continue to maintain strong loyalty and conviction with these values". The hiring team actively seeks out citizen activist who are loyal and hold themselves and the company accountable. This ethically charged business approach meets the demand for high quality products while also maintaining one of the most environmentally conscious corporations of today. the Patagonia Corporation is transparent with being a "guinea pig" in order to find the right balance and customers are willing to pay more since it results in offering an authentic and trustworthy relationship. It offers a story to support - to build loyalty you build a community. Jenna goes on to state that "[It's] up to us to educate customers, by taking shorter margin temporarily in order to maintain our values and not making customers have to choose between the environment and product".
Maya Chorengel , is Co-Manager/partner at The Rise Fund that has also maintained a social justice responsibility. They are currently in their educational phase as there is no one way to do things. Investors care but don't know how it works so have to trust in companies they invest in.
Even if businesses want to maintain a short-term goal approach to their business, climate change is a hot topic and has influenced the market dramatically. Institutional investors have become curious about sustainability and impact investing because they are concerned about the financial impacts such as what ESG principles look like in the next 5 years, or diversity equity and inclusion. They have started to consider what "doing right by companies and being responsible stewards" looks like or what defines the balance between financial return and environmental "good". Since the COVID environment hit, this has affected investor pressures.
Transparency is partially left to trust. The rest is left to facts. This is especially tested with climate change and customer support with sustainability reports. Luckily, third party objective reviewers are established to help build credibility by auditing sustainability reports. These audits include measuring the impacts generated by each company (education, climate, community investments) or reviewing usage of solar services and utility scales.
In the closing discussion, Dr. Jane Goodall and Jennifer Morris are invited to close the Summit.
Dr. Goodall reflects that if we continue to destroy the world around us, as we are, the future for the next generations is grim. However, it's important to have hope, otherwise we should "eat, drink, and be merry- for tomorrow we die". She expressed hope in the energy of our youth to find solutions and that we need a new relationship with the natural world and animals. People are waking up to this, but we need leaders to step up with their political efforts.
Unlimited economic development is a mindset that is misguided by the idea that short term gain is sustainable as there are long term accessible resources. In order to make an impact every single organization who cares about the planet is needed to share small pools of money available to lobby billionaires to help make changes. No one can do it alone. We need to push ourselves to get out of institutional barriers or egos and instead collaborate beginning with local communities. We need to create wholistic programs that helps the locals as well. By prioritizing the resilience of nature and the efforts of man, we open the door to make conservation work and in turn can make sustainability work. We will always be behind factors that degrade the environment if we don't use "all the tools in our tool box". Everything is interconnected- people the environment, and the economy we need to choose what our impact will be.
Dr. Goodall closes with this: "Earth Day should be every day. Hope is important because otherwise we fall into apathy. More of us need to get together to remind each other we can change the world. We should listen and take advice; it may be hard, but we need to take every opportunity to share our optimism, efforts and passion. We need to have optimistic solutions, not the opposite".
Notes:
how to sign up in the future symposiums
Still an Inconvenient truth: Daniel Johnson (The Nature Conservancy in California; Director of Marketing and Communications), Matt Simon (Staff Writer at Wired), Michelle Mijhuis (Science and Environmental Journalist at the Atlantic), Juan Gonzalez (Rutgers Professor of Professorial Practice, Journalism and Media Studies, Co-Host, Democracy Now!)