Momentum for Sustainability
“We’re only just getting started”, explained the manager of the large-ish Belgian company. They had recently introduced measures to cut paper consumption in their offices, promote reusable mugs and considered a move to Fair Trade coffee. “How can we take our employees along for these sustainability efforts?”
Had they considered setting an objective, I asked. Certainly, employees would be more likely to engage if they saw that the company is serious […]
The other day, a friend of mine asked me about the Tällberg Forum. I told her how Bo Ekman, a former Volvo executive, had founded it 30 years ago and how it had grown to a fantastic conference on today’s sustainability challenges, bridging business, science, government and civil society. Her eyes grew skeptical: “But isn’t that greenwash?”, she asked.
Words are important. They “provide the mental structures that shape the way we see the world”, to say it with Lakoff. We use words in groups and conversations to make meaning.
Yet, I’m sensing a profound discomfort with many of the words we are using in the sustainability space. We were certainly lost for words at Thursday’s conversation on “CSR & Sustainable Development”.