Reconsidered's Favorite Sustainable Business Links of 2022
As the year comes to a close, we've been looking back at all the Reconsidered Newsletter issues from 2022 and reflecting on all of the sustainable business links we’ve shared throughout the year (~135 in total!). We’ve narrowed them down to just 10 of our absolute favorites, the ones that resonated with us and our community the most and really made us feel something.
They’re listed below — plus some honorable mentions, as picking just 10 was really tough! Check them out for yourself and let us know your favorites on LinkedIn!
✌️,
Jessica Marati Radparvar, Founder, Reconsidered
Our Top 10
🌊 To Hell With Drowning — The Atlantic
In this poetic essay, recognized as a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize, Guam author and activist Julian Aguon shares stories of life on the front lines of the climate crisis in Oceania. The snapshots are simple but profound — old Fijian women wailing as they abandon their ancestral homelands for higher ground, or the embroidered detail on the mattress that kept the author safe as a supertyphoon raged outside (a memory I share from my first supertyphoon). There are also stories of ingenuity demonstrating that Pacific islanders don’t intend to drown as a result of climate change; they intend to fight. (18 minutes)
✊ Climate change is all about power. You have more than you think. — Vox
“This is not another story about why you should feel bad about your carbon footprint… But this is also not another story about how individuals don’t matter to climate change.” Rather, it’s a story about how your greatest capacity for change might be your role as a citizen, worker and community member. This piece breaks down how individuals can start thinking in terms of collective power to drive climate action within their spheres of influence. (11 minutes)
🌄 Beyond Catastrophe: A New Climate Reality Is Coming Into View — The New York Times Magazine
Just a few years ago, climate projections for this century were pretty apocalyptic. They’re still pretty bleak, says David Wallace-Welles, but there are early signs that recent global efforts have cut expected warming almost in half in just five years — providing much-needed pre-COP27 affirmation that progress is possible. In this animated online companion piece, Wallace-Welles paints a picture of what the world could look like if temperature increases stabilize at 2 degrees — though it’s not full-on catastrophe, it’s still quite scary, reinforcing the need for global commitment to a 1.5 degree pathway. (40 minutes)
🌎 Chevron’s commercials just got the ‘Don’t Look Up’ treatment — Grist
I watched this “Chevron commercial” in a crowded cafe, where I promptly burst out laughing and nearly choked on my croissant. 💀It’s the creation of Don’t Look Up director Adam McKay, who turned his attention to TV ads this year — specifically, a brilliant spoof of an oil and gas ad that reinforces the notion that, “At the end of the day, we at Chevron don’t give a single f*ck about you, your weird children, or your ratty ass dog.” (3 minutes)
🤗 How to find joy in climate action —TED
How can we individually contribute to the climate crisis? For Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, the answer starts with a Venn Diagram. Her new TED Talk and Climate Venn project asks would-be climate warriors to ask themselves three questions: What needs doing? What are you good at? And perhaps the least considered but most important — what brings you joy? (10 minutes)
🗺 The World Has Changed. So Has ‘52 Places.’ — The New York Times
Every January I look forward to NYT’s annual “52 Places” travel list. But in this locked down, heating up, topsy turvy world of ours, it feels irresponsible to think about travel with the same carefree wanderlust I once had. NYT’s travel editors acknowledge this tension when introducing the 2022 list, while suggesting that “travel can also be part of the solution”. The list features places "where endangered wild lands are being preserved, threatened species are being protected, historical wrongs are being acknowledged, fragile communities are being bolstered — and where travelers can be part of the change”. (11 minutes)
🚶 The Mayor of Montrose — Minimum Viable Planet
I eat up pretty much everything climate writer and cartoonist Sarah Lazarovic puts out, but I especially loved this personal reflection on the importance of neighborhood communities for tackling the climate crisis. Also, I want to be besties with her seven-year-old. 🤗 (9 minutes)
👯 Culture-Building as Climate Work — Atmos
This interview with Reverend Lennox Yearwood Jr. is packed with wisdom and head-nodding “YES”-es. As a minister, community organizer and founder of Hip Hop Caucus, a nonprofit working at the nexus of climate justice, voting rights and hip-hop culture, Yearwood believes that culture and faith are vital to the climate fight. “You can’t do this work if you don’t have something to pull on,” he says. “Because if you pull on yourself, you’ll become bitter, jaded, and cynical. Having a faith, or some kind of grounding system that helps you reconnect to humanity, to life—you need to have that to do this work.” (10 minutes)
😂 Netflix Is A Joke: 7 Minutes of Climate Change Jokes — YouTube
“Can climate change be funny?” asks Netflix in the introduction to this video clip. Well, funny in that “kinda laughing/kinda crying because it’s a little too real” kind of way, which makes watching this compilation of comics riffing on climate change pretty cathartic. The video is part of Netflix’s new campaign to “Flip the Script” on sustainability storytelling — a shift we’re all in favor of. Now where’s that Captain Planet reboot? (7 minutes)
🌪️ In an Age of Constant Disaster, What Does It Mean to Rebuild? — The New York Times
This moving essay about climate resilience was included as part of a New York Times Magazine edition that explored rebuilding from a tech and design perspective. This insight captured me: “Disasters offer evidence of what humankind is capable of, and that record stretches in many directions — hubris, cruelty and shortsightedness; imagination, generosity and courage. Learning to live with constant disaster means more than preparing an emergency kit and practicing where to brace when the tremors hit. It means considering how to steer the vast transformations that disaster makes both necessary and possible. It means rebuilding and reimagining at once — acknowledging our wounds and still fashioning new visions not just of who we are, or were, but of who we could be.” (13 minutes)
Honorable Mentions
‘OK Doomer’ and the Climate Advocates Who Say It’s Not Too Late — The New York Times
Earthrise — Climate Reality Project on YouTube
How to greenwash like a pro — GreenBiz
The F-List Awards — Clean Creatives
Who Has Five Atmospheres, Four Layers, One Moon, And Finally Got What They Wanted For Earth Day? — McSweeney’s
The Colors of Dirty Water — charity: water + Pantone
Why a Rhodes Scholar’s Ambition Led Her to a Job at Starbucks — The New York Times
Stop The Wash — wherefrom.org
EU officials being trained to meditate to help fight climate crisis — The Guardian
Metaverse: Could creating a virtual world build a more sustainable one? — EY
The Well-Being Economy — World Economic Forum
Leading with Humor with Allbirds’ Joey Zwillinger, Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas — World Reimagined Podcast
This 100% solar community endured Hurricane Ian with no loss of power and minimal damage — CNN
Hope amid climate chaos: ‘We are in a race between Armageddon and awesome’ — The Guardian
Dig Deeper On Sustainability and Social Impact with Reconsidered
Sign up for the Reconsidered Newsletter. Every other week, we curate the best news, jobs and insights from the world of corporate social responsibility, sustainability and social impact (like the ones above).
Check out the Reconsidered Impact Academy. Find out more about our courses — including the Sustainability Change Agent Accelerator — and join the waitlist for a future cohort.
Work with us! Through our consulting practice, we work hand-in-hand with leading brands and organizations to design impact strategies and communications that cut through the ESG clutter to reach people on a human level.. If you’re ready to take the next step in your impact journey, reach out.