What’s On Our Radar: 07.03.26
Every other week, we share five links that made us think in our popular sustainable business briefing. Sign up here to get the next edition delivered straight to your inbox.
🥵 Unnatural Disasters: Communication Guide — Potential Energy
Required reading for a summer of anticipated heat spikes. I appreciated that each recommendation in this guide — and Potential Energy’s anchor How to Talk About Climate Change and Climate Solutions guide — is backed by science and research into what makes climate messaging stick. Still need to figure out a way to make the conversation-starters and calls-to-action feel a bit more “Jess”, but these guides at least give us a good starting point.
💨 The Overlooked Reason Europe Doesn’t Have AC — The Atlantic
One of the most interesting tensions coming out of last week’s European heat waves was the divide between the haves and the have-nots. More specifically, those who have air conditioning (very few) and those who don’t (most of the rest of us). It’s become a political flashpoint in France but I appreciated this look into the cultural values and norms behind the debate (which helped put into perspective my own reluctance to give in, despite having grown up in a heavy-AC island culture). (8 minutes)
✅ The Great Sustainability Reset — SKU World on Substack
Starbucks. Nestle. Unilever. The past few weeks have featured an unusually high number of headlines on sustainability function re-orgs. Does it mean that sustainability is being deprioritized — or just that it’s shifting shape? Impact brand strategist Christine Taylor shares research (and a helpful infographic) to help us make sense of it all. I also appreciated this summary (and accompanying comment thread) from Fletcher’s Ken Pucker as well as this perspective from Alison Taylor. (7 minutes)
🌶️ Hot Ones: Matt Damon, Gary White, and Kara Hurst Team Up For a Good Cause While Eating Spicy Wings — First We Feast
It’s about time we got one of our own on Hot Ones! In this special water advocacy-themed episode of Sean Evans’ popular YouTube series — which usually features celebrities getting grilled on gossip between bites of supremely spicy hot wings — we get treated to a discussion of the future of corporate sustainability with Water.org co-founder Matt Damon, Water.org CEO Gary White and Amazon CSO Kara Hurst. (10 minutes)
🦫 How eight beavers solved a Tube flooding problem engineers have been trying to fix for years — The Independent
This isn’t reeeeeeally corporate responsibility related… but it was just the delightful nature tidbit I needed in a tough news cycle. It also makes me wonder… what else can nature solve if we just take the humans out of it? (4 minutes)