What’s On Our Radar: 06.05.26
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.
🌎 What You Need to Know About Patagonia's Lawsuit Against Climate Activist Drag Queen Pattie Gonia — TIME
The latest in a series of news challenging our perceptions of beloved brands. A quick ;TLDR: earlier this year Patagonia sued climate activist and drag queen Pattie Gonia for trademark infringement; Pattie Gonia went public last week and called it corporate bullying; Patagonia responded that it had no legal choice. The timing of this conversation around Pride Month is… unfortunate. I also appreciated this analysis from HEATED’s Emily Atkin, who dives into the legal nitty-gritty and probes at another elephant in the room: what does it mean for a U.S. corporation to own the name of a real place with a colonial history and living Indigenous communities? (10 minutes)
😎 For the first time, wind and solar generated more electricity than gas worldwide in April 2026 — Ember
In April 2026 — the first full month of the Middle East energy crisis — wind and solar quietly surpassed gas in global electricity generation for the first time ever. It's one month, not a trend line, and spring conditions in the northern hemisphere gave renewables a boost. But the underlying numbers tell a longer story: five years ago, gas was generating nearly double what wind and solar combined could. We'll take it! (3 minutes)
🤺 The Soft Sustainability Era Is Over — Rewilding Markets on Substack
This essay on “hard sustainability” is a hard read (and not just because of all those intense AI images 👀). Long-term sustainability advocate John Elkington, best known for originating the “triple bottom line” concept, argues that the current Middle Eastern conflicts are shepherding in a “harder” era for sustainability and dismantling the “soft” approaches (voluntary frameworks, cooperation, human decency, et. al.) that have characterized climate action for the past several decades. “None of this means that we shouldn’t try to be more responsible, more resilient and more regenerative,” he concludes. “But the ground is shifting all around us — and the game will go to those who play by the best of the new rules, not to those who cling to the old.” Oof. (12 minutes)
Erin Brockovich is back, baby! And she’s trained her sights on AI data centers, launching a new crowdsourced map that overlays major operational and planned hyperscale data centers with community-submitted reports of concerns (it's already received over 2,700 submissions). That this wonky climate tech solution is being covered in People magazine says something about how Brockovich’s star power will bring more mainstream attention to this issue. (3 minutes)
🤍 The Work of Hospicing — Stanford Social Innovation Review
So. much. wisdom. in this discussion between Hospicing Modernity author Vanessa Andreotti and charity director Habiba Nabatu on shepherding endings and transitions with dignity. “A good death invites us to let go of the compulsion to control or extend the life of things that have outlived their purpose—be they industries, systems, or ways of being,” they write. “Instead, we are asked to companion these endings with the same reverence and care that we might offer to a loved one in their final moments, knowing that the end of one cycle is the beginning of another.” (5 minutes)