I was musing the other day that the only two professional rows I’ve had online were with Sustainability practitioners who got offended by my methods. Both of them felt that my pragmatic, inclusive methods compromised their high green ideals where they expected everybody to endure some kind of punishing initiation ceremony to call themselves green. One even went through my client list, slagging off their ethics, as if I should only be working with those deemed above reproach. You can see this attitude in those who now proclaim that recycling is simply a salve on our conscience (and thus show their own ignorance of the need for a circular economy).

Let’s face facts. If we want a Sustainable society, we have to make Sustainability open, intuitive and easy to access, not some exclusive high priesthood. But beyond this, the Sustainability profession must constantly evolve our thinking, assessing what works, ditching what doesn’t and trying out alternatives. As the old saying (usually attributed to Einstein) goes, the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. My Green Jujitsu approach  to engagement (the thing that offended the two egotists above) was born out of the realisation we’ve been preaching eco-doom at people for 60 years and we haven’t yet turned that supertanker around – time for a rethink, perchance?

Steve Jobs famously encouraged those Stanford graduates to “stay hungry, stay foolish”, I would add to this “stay curious.”

To stimulate your curiosity, why not join our 12½ Kick Ass Sustainability Ideas for 2022 webinar on 19 January 2022? It’s free to join!