“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” 

- George Bernard Shaw

Momentum is building around the call for responsible investments focused on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk. Many early adopters have embraced the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals framework as a structured means of communicating their ESG impact progress. Institutional investors are rapidly maturing their ownership strategies to position ESG responsible businesses in their portfolios. Asset management companies such as Columbia Threadneedle are creating unique responsible investment rating systems to assess financial stewardship and ESG risk management. Many of these organizations are referencing the lessons learned from helping companies address sustainability risks and opportunities to inform how they develop ESG guidance and influence.

“What I hope to achieve with this protest is attention in the media, so that the media will write about the climate crisis, so that people will somehow open their eyes and see the crisis and treat it like a crisis and do something about it.”

— Greta Thunberg, September 2018

In August of 2018, a solo fifteen-year-old sat outside the Swedish parliament building, kicking off the first school strike for climate. In the 14 months since that courageous act, Greta Thunberg has moved millions of teenagers across the globe to become climate activists. She has presented her perspective on climate change to leadership forums including TEDx Stockholm, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the World Economic Forum, the National Assembly in Paris, and the EU Parliament. The New Yorker has called her the “Joan of Arc for climate change.” Elon Musk tweeted his support of Greta’s activities. And on September 23, just days ago,  she delivered her most passionate speech to date at the United Nations Climate Action Summit.

I’ve used this blog to share my strong views and concerns for the future with regard to climate change, and have focused attention on Greta in the past.  This post is not meant to reiterate those points. Rather, it is to consider the changing nature of connection and influence.

“The courage to be vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it’s about the courage to show up when you can’t predict or control the outcome.”

- Dr. Brené Brown

The word trust gets a lot of airtime. All it takes is a quick flip through your favorite news source or social media feed for a hefty dose of reasons why we question our trust in the media, each other, our government, and business. In its recent report Trust and Distrust in America, the Pew Research Center confirms we’re experiencing a crisis in facts and truth. It’s a highly detailed study but makes a central point that this sad state of affairs is tied to the distrust we have in our institutions.

Anticipatory Democracy: The public’s active, conscious engagement in collectively shaping the future of their community, state or nation.^[1] 

“One thing, however, is certain: the world needs your leadership. As divisions continue to deepen, companies must demonstrate their commitment to the countries, regions, and communities where they operate, particularly on issues central to the world’s future prosperity.”

– Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock

If you haven’t been paying attention, you may have missed the important shift happening across the global investment community. The drumbeat for corporate executives to actively engage environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues has gotten louder and no longer can be ignored. Socially conscious investors are raising the volume on their call to action for companies to integrate robust ESG strategies with existing company operations. The expectation is that it is possible for corporations to increase financial value while being accountable for helping to solve issues facing humanity.

“Out of this massive restructuring of power relationships, like the shifting and grinding of tectonic plates in advance of an earthquake, will come one of the rarest events in human history, a revolution in the very nature of power.”

~ Alvin Toffler, Powershift, 1990

Millions of people around the world watched the U.S. Women National Team (USWNT) dominate the Netherlands to win a fourth World Cup championship - the most ever won by a women’s team. It was the second consecutive World Cup win for USWNT, which shared the honor with only one other team - Germany. Jill Ellis, the team’s coach, became the first women’s coach in soccer history to ever win two back-to-back World Cup titles. Even more impressive, that’s a feat that has been achieved only one other time - Italy’s men’s coach, Vittorio Pozzo coached to consecutive wins in 1934 and 1938.

Next year marks the 50^th year anniversary of Future Shock. The upcoming milestone presented the opportunity to recently open my well-worn copy to revisit the epochal writing. As the anniversary of this bestseller draws nearer, we will have more opportunities to discuss the impact of the Toffler’s work. One important idea presented towards the end of the book seems very fitting to discuss now, however, especially given our fast approach to the 2020 election season.

Last summer, social media channels brought us stunning firsthand views of the violence, destruction, and extraordinary beauty of Hawaii’s erupting Kilauea volcano. Fast moving lava flowed from the summit crater through many underground tunnels and eruption vents. From May until August, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) provided daily updates of the amount of lava that was spreading across the island. By the time the eruption ended in August 2018, more than a mile of coastline was added along the big island’s southeast coast.

Earlier this week, an article from Packaging Digest came across my news feed and immediately caught my attention. The report, Nestlé Clarifies its Sustainable Packaging Vision, highlights the company's ambitious vision to make 100% of its product packaging to be reusable or recyclable by 2025.[1] While this public goal is exciting on its own, what is really compelling is the increasing number of such announcements and articles. We're seeing more and more reporting on actions taken, progress made, and ambitions pursued and achieved to address climate change and global sustainability.

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.”

-Isaac Asimov