Holiday Cheer
Hopefully You Won't See This For At Least A Week
It’s going to be a quick edition today, in these final 24 hours of 2024. While Sustainability has faced many trials and tribulations at home and abroad, we’re leaving this year on a high. And not just a sugar high - the momentum going into 2025 is huge.
3 Thoughts From Me:
The Three Levers Are Clicking Into Gear: Government, Finance, Consumers
I’ve written so often about Australia’s new climate reporting legislation that I’m thinking of changing the newsletter to ‘Honey Drops: It’s Mandatory’. Until then, the knowledge that traditional ‘externalities’ are now being brought onto companies’ balance sheets is a huge step in the right direction. It ain’t a silver bullet, but it does bring uniformity to stakeholder expectations of business leaders.
As I shared in the COP29 edition back in October, the UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, said that for the first time in his 17-year parliamentary career, “the economics and ethics have become one”. This combined focus from investors, insurers, customers, employees, local communities and governments means first-movers already integrating Sustainability within their orgs are realising financial benefits from each of the above groups, while their competitors still argue about how much this is going to ‘cost’ the business.
As Rade Musulin has noted, businesses must be regulatory-compliant, so it’s up to their leaders to determine whether their Sustainability program will be an investment or a sunk cost. In my experience, quality CFOs prefer the former.
A quick refresh on the three reporting Groups:
That Burning Platform Is Going To Get Pretty Hot, Pretty Quickly
Being in the Sustainability space means engaging the full spectrum of commercial stakeholders, each with their own formulas for what constitutes their ‘burning platform’. Some have been waiting for the new legislation before they move. Some will only make decisions once there is an immediate ROI, such as customer pressure, cost savings or tender opportunities. Some will only see this is a priority once their competitors are taking action. Others will only move due to their investors asking deeper-than-surface-level questions about their long-term strategy and the commercial cost of inadequate risk management.
For each of these cohorts, however, the rate of change is about to turn exponential, as Execs and their Boards grapple with the combined waves of Sustainability, AI and Cybersecurity, seemingly hitting all at once.
It’s a stark reminder of why Sustainability and Tech need to continue working together, partnering on initiatives to protect their organisations in the short-, medium- and long-term in the face of these accelerating business pressures, opportunities and operating models.
Loneliness Is Exacerbated By Purity
The simplest, two-ingredient recipe for Community is Communication and Collaboration. We’re currently living in a loneliness epidemic, where traditional institutions no longer provide the necessary support networks for much of society. There’s a huge opportunity for Sustainability to provide purpose, connection and agency to those who are looking to generate positive impact but aren’t sure where to start. In fact, I’d venture there’s many in your organisation at the moment.
However, the fastest way too overcook the cake? Expecting too much of others before they have even taken their first steps: aka the Purity Test. This year showed that by encouraging a bare minimum, rather than having an expectation for the maximum, created breakthroughs and advances that otherwise wouldn't have been realised. Put the systems in place, give people ownership of initiatives tied to their incentive structures, and they will run a mile for you.
Be the bridge across the gap to the other side, not the person waiting to see whether people can jump across on their own. Be a Bridge-as-a-Service, if you like.
Outstretch your hand and you'll be amazed at how many takers you have.
2 Quotes From Others
“The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better.
It is wrong to think these three statements contradict each other. We need to see that they are all true to see that a better world is possible.”
"There is a massive solutions vacuum for environmental problems”
Hannah Ritchie, ‘Not The End Of The World’
1 Thing For You To Ponder
R.I.P Jimmy Carter, who has passed away at the age of 100. He was the first U.S. President to acknowledge climate change, responsible for installing the first solar panels on the White House (in the 1970s!), a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work, the creator of the Department of Education, a human rights campaigner committed to gender and racial equality, and the only President who was raised on a peanut farm in Georgia.
A visionary who embodied Nelson Henderson’s quote: “The one who plants trees, knowing that they will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life.”
I hope you’re having a well-earned break this week, that you are surrounded by those you cherish and that you are already feeling your energy levels building back up to continue the work ahead of us.
Thanks for your support of Honey Drops since it first went live in September. I’ll be back with more thoughts in 2025.
Credit: Dan Leverington, looking down Brunswick River at sunset
Until next week,
Dan
Thanks for reading Honey Drops! Subscribe to receive a new edition each week.