S1 E5: Corporate Sustainability with Curtis MacGeever

EarthRights

In Episode 5 of the EarthRights Podcast we discuss the ins and outs of corporate sustainability with Curtis MacGeever, Senior Sustainability Consultant at Anthesis. Curtis’ role is extremely important because he helps to map action plans for businesses and local authorities in order for them to meet targets under the Paris Agreement.Sustainability is a broad term; for Curtis “it is about society being able to thrive in a fair way that does not exploit our planet, ecosystems or people”.The discussion moves on to why a more sustainable approach is needed in the UK (and across the world). Because our current system is centred around the need for ‘growth’, be it at an individual level or the way we measure a government’s success, Curtis, Pippa and Mel express their concerns about how this model ignores the environmental and social impacts it has in favour of profit.Curtis then talks about the ways he and his colleagues at Anthesis analyse the environmental data sets in order to create action plans for businesses and local authorities to reduce their carbon emissions.The long term and short term climate action plans are a great step, but are we really taking the urgency of the climate crisis seriously? And what can we be doing to ACT NOW?Appreciating that the science around sustainability can be technically challenging to understand, the three of them express the need for creating accessible and digestible information about how we can act. These sustainable behavioural shifts need to “trickle down” from managers to workers ‘on-site’, and to consumers.Finally, “never underestimate the impact of your choices… governments and businesses are driven by collective choices.”