"If one were to start with a blank slate to design an economic system that provides for comprehensive social and ecological sustainability and regeneration, would our current system be the outcome?

The answer is an unequivocal NO!"

r3dot0.medium.com/funding-govern… "Our current economic system, whose design requires extraction, exploitation, and colonisation, has long been generating:

--Ecological devastation — evidenced by climate chaos, biodiversity loss through the 6th mass extinction, and the breaching of Planetary Boundaries, and..."

"So far, ISSB is just 'blah, blah, blah.’”

Significant that this opinion (riffing on Greta) comes from @SASB Founder Jean Rogers (now Head of ESG at Blackstone), seeing as ISSB absorbed SASB.

Great to see Jean expressing independence from entanglements!

greenbiz.com/article/bob-ec… @SASB She adds: "Adopting standards before following due process that their own constitution requires is concerning right out of the gate.”

@ProfCarolAdams also identified this fatal flaw.

HUGE NEWS: The Impact Management Platform (a network of ALL major sustainability standard setters) launched today w/a website that embeds sustainability Thresholds & Allocations throughout (including a dedicated Landing Page.)

See @r3dot0 analysis here:
r3dot0.medium.com/reporting-stan…

https://twitter.com/impmgmt/status/1460868003323650053

@r3dot0 This move comes after two decades of standard setters increasingly dropping the ball on integrating sustainability thresholds & allocations at the core of sustainability reporting standards/ guidelines.

So we welcome them finally picking up the ball and ALL now running with it!

Thanks to @dvlahov for inviting me & @mwmce to have a conversation (as we’ve been doing for the past decade+) but on the mainstage at the @SustainBrands / @SOCAPmarkets #Integrate21 Conference.

It was fun!

Here’s the deck we used to anchor the convo:

r3-0.org/wp-content/upl… @dvlahov @mwmce @SustainBrands @SOCAPmarkets We first asked: Is Sustainability “Sustainable”?

To answer that question, we grounded our discussion in the @GRI_Secretariat Sustainability Context Principle as introduced in 2002 in the 2nd generation of Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.

r3-0.org/wp-content/upl…

Watching livestream of book launch for "THRIVE: Fundamentals for a New Economy” that @aheadahead1 & I contributed a chapter to.

dezwijger.nl/programma/boek… @aheadahead1 “There is a lot of bullshit about circular economy” says Chapter Author @hanswstegeman referring to companies like Ikea and H&M that are ultimately about fast fashion and planned obsolescence.

The Anthropocene reality of financial risk by @BeatriceCrona Carl Folke & @vgalaz

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Aligns closely w/@r3dot0 Sustainable Finance Blueprint r3-0.org/wp-content/upl… @BeatriceCrona @vgalaz @r3dot0 "Complex dynamics, such as threshold effects (tipping points) and strong interactions resulting in cascading effects, are all known drivers of systemic failure in any complex system. Yet
state-of-the-art risk analyses still do not adequately account
for them."

.@kmac hits the nail on the head!

Europe Should Keep Its Green Bar High, Even If Many Can’t Meet It

Only a small fraction of today’s economic activities would pass a rigorous, science-based assessment for sustainability

bloomberg.com/news/articles/… @kmac "the taxonomy’s purpose … is to set a very high bar based on what scientists [say] is needed ... to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Instead of assessing sectors or companies as they are now, the taxonomy identifies … what...activities ... will lead to a safer planet"

"‘Transformational investment’ requires a ‘transformational framework’” writes Francesco Curto of @DWS_Group

ipe.com/home/guest-vie…

"A transformational investment will not succeed without changes in how we operate. To achieve such frameworks, three objectives must be met:..." @DWS_Group #3 "Resolve the conflict of interest along the value chain [that] are detrimental to consumers, who face uncertain definitions, higher costs and lack protection as financial products make ESG claims that cannot be verified."

Memorandum on Science Based Targets Initiative Steering Committee Response Letter to the Formal Complaint

bbaue.medium.com/memorandum-on-… It makes sense to briefly set the context of the significance of the issues raised in this Complaint.

In a nutshell, the Science Based Targets initiative has gained significance beyond its own direct purview, raising the stakes for it to exhibit deep integrity.

A few examples:

As an original instigator of @sciencetargets it deeply saddens me to tweet this thread on the formal complaint I submitted to the SBTi Executive Board on self-dealing conflict of interests concerns.

See here: bbaue.medium.com/formal-complai… @sciencetargets The substance of the complaint is validated by a scientific study by Anders Bjørn & Concordia University colleagues recently published as an accepted manuscript in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research Letters:

iopscience.iop.org/article/10.108…

Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future

frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

Abstract: We report three major and confronting environmental issues that have received little attention and require urgent action. First, we review the evidence that future environmental conditions will be far more dangerous than currently believed. The scale of the threats to the biosphere & all its lifeforms—including humanity—is in fact so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts

Historic agreement between @Shell & @ActOnClimate100

churchofengland.org/news-and-media…

Welcome steps forward, but as they say, the devil is in the details... @Shell @ActOnClimate100 There’s this:

https://twitter.com/Josh_Gabbatiss/status/1360188467049857024

As original instigator & member of SBTI Technical Advisory Group since the get-go, this isn’t actually accurate. SBTI made methodology decisions on their own, without “approval” by the TAG. In fact, SBTI consistently disregarded substantive input by the TAG.

https://twitter.com/jannikgiesekam/status/1357354529893793793

It’s already part of the public record that SBTI’s Sectoral Decarbonization Approach is structurally impeded from aligning with the 1.5C target — a fact that was solidified by the @IEA opting against disclosing data on its NZE2050 (1.5C) scenario late last year.

Dasgupta economics of biodiversity report:

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

“Truly sustainable economic growth and development means recognizing that our long-term prosperity relies on re-balancing our demand of nature’s goods and services with its capacity to supply them.” "It also means accounting fully for the impact of our interactions with nature across all levels of society,” Dasgupta continued. "Covid-19 has shown us what can happen when we don’t do this.”

In a presentation on @UNRISD thresholds- and transformation-based sustainability indicators I just gave, I point out that thresholds / limits could be viewed as leverage point 12 on Dana’s list ("Constants, parameters, numbers” — or #2: "mindset of paradigm".

https://twitter.com/bethsawin/status/1349015069070413828

@UNRISD Here’s the slide I use to illustrate this difference in leverage points.

.@GRI_Secretariat released its Oil & Gas Sector Standard Exposure draft yesterday.

globalreporting.org/standards/medi…

How did it handle Sustainability Context? you may ask.

Well, let me tell you. @GRI_Secretariat "Sections 2 & 3 include contextual information for the sector, including highlighting authoritative measures of sustainable development, referencing broader sustainable development conditions and goals set out in recognized sector-specific or global instruments…"

Good News / Bad News on the Sustainability Context front.

Good news 1st: @GRI_Secretariat has proposed the first major changes to the definition of Sustainability Context since introducing the Principle in 2002.

Here’s the new definition:

globalreporting.org/standards/medi… @GRI_Secretariat What’s to like about it:

•Explicit use of the term “thresholds”

•Explicit reference to the Paris Agreement, UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights, etc.

@r3dot0 @GRI_Secretariat Epigraph:

"Sustainability requires contextualization within thresholds. That’s what sustainability is all about."

Allen White, Co-Founder, Global Reporting Initiative, 2013

sustainablebrands.com/read/new-metri…

2/ @r3dot0 @GRI_Secretariat I respectfully write with a simple request:

issue robust guidance on applying the Sustainability Context Principle.

I submit the following simple rationale [in 15 points]:

3/

Is Europe living within the limits of our planet? by @EUEnvironment & @foenCH

Europe currently exceeds its safe operating space for:

Nitrogen cycle by a factor of 3+

Phosphorous cycle by a factor of 2

& Land system change by a factor of nearly 2

bafu.admin.ch/bafu/en/home/t… @EUEnvironment @foenCH This falls squarely into the space addressed by the @r3dot0 Global Thresholds & Allocations Council

r3-0.org/gtac/

What’s at Stake: Flatten the Curve to Respect Carrying Capacity
medium.com/@r3dot0/whats-…
The latest blog by @r3dot0 Managing Director @aheadahead1 & me @r3dot0 @aheadahead1 This piece traces how @drewaharris adding the dotted line on “healthcare system capacity” to existing @CDCgov "epi-curve” graphics spotlighted the key role of “carrying capacity” that ultimately fueled the #FlattenTheCurve meme in "going viral”

"The majority of current corporate ESG data gathering & measurement is based on industry peer benchmarking that lacks true sustainability context or performance against science and norm-based thresholds,” says @kyle_cahill of @johnhancockusa / @Manulife linkedin.com/pulse/whats-ne… @kyle_cahill @johnhancockusa @Manulife "If we continue down this path, aren’t we just moving deck chairs? For the substantive change that’s needed, investors & companies collectively need to aim for more meaningful measures that focus more on overall planetary & societal impacts and less on incremental improvements."