Pursue imperfection

As I browse the web, my antennas are always looking for signals of a company doing climate-positive, people-positive, and planet-positive things.

Over time, as I’ve started seeing through the smoke-and-mirrors of terms like Carbon Neutral, I’ve noticed that I’m now looking for something else.

Planting trees is an amazing thing do, but when I’m looking for someone to spend money with, a carbon-offset-tree-planting scheme on it’s own rarely cuts it for me anymore.

So what else is there?

Turns out, what I’m looking for is not just a brag-fest of amazing things they’re doing… I’m actually looking for an admission of imperfection.

3 things here:

1. I believe it’s worth the effort to brag about your efforts to do good, so people like me know if we’re barking up the right tree.
2. Bragging in this context is 100% ok as long as it’s true.
3. …but also proudly brag about the gap.

By “gap” I mean what you’re not doing, or what you plan to do better in the near future.

Eg: I buy power from a mostly-renewable-powered provider (Red Energy) which is ok, and much cleaner than buying from a fossil-fuel provider, but plan to switch to solar as soon as possible. Being in an apartment building, that’s a more drawn-out process than if I lived and worked in a freestanding building.

It’s a gap I’d like to fill and I openly talk about that here.

Whether your claim is around power, EVs, banking, or something else, offer whatever detail you can – but don’t shy away from the gap.

Being imperfect is human, expected, and very relatable.

In this context, transparency is a healthy mix of bragging and imperfection. If you only talk about the good and none of the gaps, you may be unintentionally skirting greenwash. Don’t do that 😉