Will Richardson argues that climate leaders who experiment early and fail fast gain strategic advantages in emissions reduction and profitability. Companies that try initiatives regardless of outcome learn faster than those waiting for perfect plans. Richardson spent 25 years consulting on sustainability and says concrete transition plans matter more than arbitrary percentage targets.
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Hey, thanks so much for listening. I would love to be able to help you more on what it is that you are listening to and why you're listening to, to me. If you could click on the link in the show notes, that would be awesome because it will help me define what it is that we should be talking about on this podcast. This is Sustainability Solved by Will Richardson. Thanks for listening. It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer Of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. That's a quote by Theodore Roosevelt. It's interesting, isn't it?
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it's all about just trying. And if you fail, try again. And if you fail, try again. And that's sustainability and the environmental sector in a nutshell. I've been helping organizations for 25 years now. And one thing that's definitely clear is the companies that have succeeded, the companies that have increased their bottom line, and the companies that have reduced their emissions and become more adaptive to a future climate and to a future economy. are the ones that have tried early on, the ones that have wanted to see if something will work. And if it does work, it's brilliant for the organization. And if it doesn't work, it's equally brilliant for the organization because they've got time to try again. Science has always been paramount and pretty much 100% there. Agreeably, 25 years ago, I think we were looking at 95% of scientists agreeing that climate change was anthropogenic, which means human-induced. And the reason why we had a 5% lag was because the fossil fuel industry were paying for scientists to manipulate data, because data can be manipulated and thrown in different lights. And we know that to be the case because there's a number of scientists that were on the payroll for the tobacco industry, and the tobacco industry succeeded with that doubt. But we digress. I'm not pointing fingers. I want to discuss how you, the reader and the listener, can review what they're doing or what you're doing and ensure that your reduction strategy is going in the right direction. I remember when science-based targets came out. I was really excited because finally we had a target that could just be set in stone. And the reason why I was excited about having a target that could just be set in stone was because the amount of conversations I had about a 5% decrease or a 4% decrease or a 10% decrease Or a 20% decrease, etc., etc., was ridiculous because they were so fixated on the target that actually the actions were missed. And a board or a senior leadership team should be looking at how are we going to get to that target, not what that target is because they may or may not look good or stupid. It's really important to ensure a transition plan to adapt to the future and to mitigate against climate change. And going back to Theodore Roosevelt's quote, it's the companies and the people that try, that get into that arena and dust themselves off when knocked down and get up again. And then dust themselves off and then get up again. Again, they are the ones that will ultimately succeed. They say that the best founders are the ones that have failed because they've learned from their mistakes. And I think that's with anything, isn't it? The people that succeed the fastest are the ones that fail the fastest. There's got to be a reason why there's a Silicon Valley quote of fail fast, succeed fast, or something like that. So one thing I want you to do today Is I want you to think about your top 3 failures as an organization in adapting to climate change. I want you to write them down and I want you to celebrate those failures because those failures are wins. Because on the back of those failures, we'll be exploring what those wins were. What did you do to change? What was it that you decided to do instead?
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