Thread by @remblance_erin

When it comes to choosing between achieving sustainability goals or pursuing growth, 99% (maybe more?) of the time companies will choose growth and expansion.

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footwearnews-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/footwearne…

#degrowth

In this example Crocs can't achieve its initial sustainability goals because it acquired a brand and because of its "ongoing global expansion", even though they admit that their initial net-zero by 2030 goal was "neither vast nor fast enough".

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To be clear, Crocs Inc had committed to a net-zero target and has a global head of sustainability, which is a "a newly created position at Crocs to help hit the ambitious goal of being net zero".

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Neither of these things made a difference to its strategy, BAU has prevailed, & the growth is reflected in its increasing GHG emissions: "[I]n 2022, Crocs said it saw a 45% increase in total emissions … due to the company’s continued growth and data transparency".

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Yet - in vast contrast to the actual data, which is the only thing the atmosphere cares about - the company CEO says "[w]e are pleased with the progress we have made in our ESG journey & are as committed as ever to becoming a more sustainable & equitable global organization.”

Thankfully, "it expects Q1 revenues to grow between 27 percent and 30 percent, compared to Q1 of 2022", because while we might be in the 6th mass extinction event, the last thing we would want is for genuine attempts at sustainability to get in the way of revenue growth.

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We are living globally as if we have 1.7 Earths & in the home country of this org as if we have 5.2 Earths. We have to consider what activity we NEED for human & planetary wellbeing & which ones simply feed the growth machine, the very machine at the core of our ecological crises

I suspect in a genuine democracy where there was a much greater awareness of our planetary overshoot thanks to leadership, media and education, many of these businesses would no longer exist.

May we reach a social tipping point where such systemic changes are possible.

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In the words of George Monbiot, this is how we bring about systemic change:

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https://twitter.com/remblance_erin/status/1653208249330728961