Attendee Overview of Sustainable Manufacturers’ Flagship Convention — The Good, Unhealthy, & Ugly

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An excellent sustainability convention could be arduous to return by. There appears to be conferences for each sort of business and sector. Sadly, sustainability professionals are sometimes the black sheep of occasions which can be sometimes adjoining to their focus.

One of many premier occasions in sustainability is the Sustainable Manufacturers annual convention. This 12 months, I went to SB 23 in San Diego, California. I’ve been to the Sustainable Manufacturers convention earlier than, so this wasn’t my first rodeo. There was quite a bit to like in regards to the convention, however there was one factor that viscerally and negatively impacted my expertise.

First, What I Cherished

The kind of individuals who attend these occasions are second to none. There are a whole bunch of individuals packed right into a room who’re all centered on constructing a sustainable future inside their respective organizations. Every particular person’s story is so dimensional. How they obtained to the place they’re at is a collection of zigs and zags that’s distinctive to them. For higher or for worse, this creates a profession trajectory that’s sometimes not easy.

There are sustainability executives from each giant Fortune 500 firms and local weather tech startups. There are consultants and repair suppliers who give attention to streamlining improvements centered on embedding sustainability into giant organizations. It’s superb to see the ecosystem that has been constructed all through the previous few a long time. The sustainability neighborhood is buzzing with dedication and keenness for a greener future.

Moreover Inexperienced Biz and New York Local weather Week, Sustainable Manufacturers is without doubt one of the solely occasions in America the place giant companies, startups, traders, NGOs, and consultants get collectively to determine easy methods to decarbonize our society.

Convention Programming

From the folks I spoke with on the occasion, content material at SB 23 was checked out in one in every of two methods.

1. Actually good high quality and insightful. This suggestions was sometimes given by an individual who attended the occasion for the primary time.
2. Boring and elementary. This suggestions was sometimes given by somebody who has been to a number of SB occasions.

One of the best a part of this occasion was the lunches, dinners, networking breaks, and after-hours actions. It is because there are such a lot of attention-grabbing folks within the room who aren’t on stage. Out of all of the speeches on stage, my favourite was from one of many leaders at Kiss the Floor.

Apparently, for the reason that documentary got here out, over 33 million acres of land have been transformed to regenerative agriculture. That’s so cool!

The Elephant In The Room

So usually, sustainability professionals stroll a positive line. There are watchdog teams throughout simply ready to pounce on a company that lies about their accomplishments in sustainability. That is generally known as greenwashing. As a recoil of the backlash that firms have obtained for over-embellishing their influence, firms have began one thing referred to as “inexperienced hushing.” That is the precise reverse of greenwashing, the place an organization will disguise (or not publicize) the truth that they’ve achieved one thing that reduces their footprint.

I’m not a watchdog group. I’m only a skilled within the sustainability business who believes in attempting to do my half to higher the planet. Through the years, I’ve seen tons of firms embellish the reality, and I’ve additionally seen firms that under-communicate their influence.

We dwell in a day and age the place some company advertising and marketing groups will say something so long as they’ll get away with it. Though this may increasingly profit the corporate, it hurts our motion. Environmental disinformation is extraordinarily dangerous to the integrity of the sustainability neighborhood. Sadly, some giant firms have turned caring for our planet right into a device for manipulation and deception.

Regenerative Agriculture

It has turn out to be fairly simple for firms to decorate their influence within the subject. On this case, it’s not a lot about embellishing influence as it’s about ignoring the elephant within the room.

In walks Bayer, a frontrunner within the agriculture enterprise. In 2018, it bought slightly firm referred to as Monsanto, the producer of Roundup. For individuals who are unfamiliar, Roundup is a glyphosate-based herbicide with an extended observe file of making well being issues for people.

The truth is, there have already been 100,000 settlements for Roundup lawsuits, totaling over $11 billion. This doesn’t embody the roughly 30,000+ lawsuits that haven’t been settled but. In fact, does Bayer speak about this? No. Bayer talks about main the regenerative agriculture motion. It was additionally the lead sponsor of the Regenerative Agriculture Summit that Sustainable Manufacturers hosted on the finish of the convention.

It’s arduous to consider that an organization like Bayer is main the regenerative agriculture motion when it’s the producer of Roundup (and chargeable for the billions in lawsuits connected to the product). Would the leaders of Kiss the Floor agree that Bayer is a frontrunner in regenerative agriculture? If I used to be to guess, in all probability not.

Flawed Incentives

Sustainable Manufacturers has to earn cash. As a company that helps the sustainability motion, that may be tough.

One of many issues this creates is that firms which have harmed the planet sponsor Sustainable Manufacturers as a method to advertise their sustainability efforts. Sadly, Bayer will not be the one firm to fall underneath this scope. A lot of their sponsors have gotten up on stage to speak about how sustainable they’re.

As a lead sponsor, firms like Bayer deserve their keynote talking session. Sustainable Manufacturers does job maintaining these talks fairly brief (quarter-hour). However, there’s no Q&A session, which suggests there’s no accountability.

Bayer can get on stage and speak about how they’re main the regenerative agriculture motion with no repercussions. And, that’s precisely what they did.

Why This Is A Downside

There’s nothing newsworthy about Bayer greenwashing. The issue is the ripple impact. Frequent dialogue subjects that you just would possibly overhear on the lunches and networking breaks at conferences embody:

• How are you liking the convention thus far?
• What has been your favourite half?
• What learnings are you going to take again to your staff?
• What don’t you want in regards to the convention?

It was superb how many individuals talked about Bayer of their dialogue. This doesn’t replicate badly on Bayer as a lot because it creates an integrity drawback for Sustainable Manufacturers. This group mustn’t flip right into a platform used for greenwashing or environmental disinformation. That’s not helpful for Sustainable Manufacturers, its members, or the ecosystem that surrounds the cleantech motion.

Acknowledgement: A Potential Answer

By acknowledging the issue that has been created, Sustainable Manufacturers is creating belief with its attendees.

Unfettered greenwashing will finally create a company with no integrity. This goes for each Bayer and Sustainable Manufacturers.

In fact, Sustainable Manufacturers can’t inform Bayer what to say and easy methods to say it. That’s not real looking. What’s real looking is telling Bayer that it has to acknowledge the issue that it’s accountable for (earlier than speaking about its answer for a greener future).

This doesn’t have to go on for 13 of the 15 minute presentation. This is usually a few sentences at first of a speech that acknowledges the elephant within the room.

Authorized and advertising and marketing groups will say, “that is unattainable.” Corporations in Bayer’s place are strolling a positive line as a result of they don’t wish to open themselves as much as dangers (rising their publicity to extra lawsuits).

However, I’d wager to say that the authorized and advertising and marketing groups of any giant company can give you some language that acknowledges the elephant within the room with out destroying the authorized footing of the corporate.

A easy 2–4 sentences at first of the speech would go a great distance: “As a big firm, we acknowledge that the influence we’ve had hasn’t all the time been constructive. Generally there are unintended penalties when giant firms create new merchandise. As an government, it’s my aim to guide my group right into a extra sustainable framework over the following few years. And, right here’s how we’re going to do it.”

That is simply an instance of a method leaders at huge firms like Bayer may method acknowledging what everybody within the room is already pondering.

My Ask

Sustainable Manufacturers needs to be telling huge manufacturers that they should come clean with a few of their missteps in the event that they wish to get on stage and inform their story. In any other case, the story is incomplete.

This isn’t nearly Bayer. Sustainable Manufacturers has allowed cigarette firms to offer shows a couple of smokeless future (the place vaping is the brand new normal). They’ve additionally allowed giant firms within the private care market on stage to speak about how a lot they care in regards to the merchandise they placed on their infants’ pores and skin (once they have multi-billion-dollar judgements regarding the well being dangers from merchandise placed on people’ pores and skin). It may be nauseating to listen to such a greenwashing on stage at a big sustainability convention.

Sustainability-focused media organizations have a accountability to ensure their members are educated in regards to the good and the dangerous. Sustainable Manufacturers isn’t silly, and the viewers isn’t both.

If Sustainable Manufacturers ensures that firms that get on stage acknowledge methods by which their firms have each positively and negatively impacted the world, the group will garner the respect it deserves as one of many leaders within the sustainability motion.

By a CleanTechnica visitor contributor who requested for anonymity