Corporate climate spin

One of my climate heroes, Ali Sheridan, shared the list below on LinkedIn this morning, taking a dig at what she calls the “corporate climate playbook”. Basically saying that corporates are quick to jump on the climate bandwagon, but their intention is basically to delay any real climate action they need to take:

👉 Launch a net zero strategy 
👉 Take minimum action 
👉 Shift to offsets 
👉 Then to the need for more Research and Development 
👉 Then to the role of future technologies  
👉 Fund a solutions incubator 
👉 Found or join a voluntary scheme
👉 Highlight role of consumer action 
👉 Call for policy moves 
👉 Then lobby against them 
👉 Relaunch strategy using new language such as regenerative

It’s concerning because it’s true. The third point – shift to offsets – is the entirety of the playbook for some companies.

Climate policies are easy enough to make up. You can say “we’re sustainable this or regenerative that” and a lot of people will believe you simply because you’ve said it publicly.

One of the things I advocate for is publishing your climate achievements and your climate goals on your website – by doing that, I’m very aware of how easy it can be to produce this kind of spin.

Publish whatever you want, but set one rule for yourself… it’s gotta be true. Shocking right? No spin, no fudging numbers. Watch how people become drawn to the honest story with all the flaws, rather than the perfect story.

I’ll publish a list of companies doing this well (and as far as we can tell, truthfully) in a future email.