Greenwashing Debunkers Club

The Sustainable Development Report (1) published its 2020 report ranking the countries based on how close they are to achieve the 17 SDGs, available here . The index purpose is to track "country performance on the 17 SDGs, as agreed by the international community in 2015 with equal weight to all 17 goals" and its value "signifies a country’s position between the worst (0) and the best or target (100) outcomes" . The higher the country index, the closer it is to achieve the best SDG outcome. But how realistic this index reflects the real development of sustainable actions? In one of the most significant works in the last years, developed at Leeds University, "A Good Life For All Within Planetary Boundaries" (2) ( interactive site here ) mapped the sustainability performance of a series of countries was estimated using the doughnut economics model , which provides an indication, for each country, on how close it is to the ideal social and environmental e...

Julio F. Campos* Back in 1994, John Elkington  coined  the Triple Bottom Line (here referred to as Elkington’s TBL, or eTBL) concept, which was rapidly adopted by the market and is now widely referred to as the accounting pillar when it comes to corporate sustainability. The TBL states that a corporation system can only be sustainable if its environmental, social and economic impacts are managed to stay as close as possible to a balance between its three components. Although it seems a straight forward approach, he decided that TBL needed a  recall , for it wasn’t being used as he intended it to be. What went wrong? We can narrow down to two reasons why a recall, with an explanation on how it supposed to work, was needed. The first one was business appropriation adapting the TBL (here referred to as business TBL, or bTBL) to a more palatable conceptual structure. Purposely the first paragraph, in contrast with the second one, of this text presented t...

Julio F. Campos Linear, circular, regenerative, green economy ... Amid so many economic models proposing to help solve our socio-environmental problems, how can someone determine its real potential to truly transform the world we live in for a more sustainable future? If we take a look at the core theoretical concepts supporting them, it is possible to catch a glimpse about its potential of change. This infographic provides a summary of the two current mindsets of economic thinking and how those "new economy" models fit into them, allowing the reader to better understand the transformative potential of each proposed model.

(C) Rabitty Julio Campos That sounds like a typical clickbait title you may think, but in fact, the idea of fast fashion is a myth as we’ll see, but maybe not for the reasons that one may think about. Fast fashion is not new, been there since ever, but its use to define a line that can’t be crossed between sustainability and unsustainability is brand new (no pun intended). Some common characteristics are generally used to define it, such as: Cheap. Low turnaround time between collections. Trendy. Low-quality materials leading to the need for constant replacement. The use of cheap labor. All of that fits the objective of the business. Sell as much as possible, as fast as possible to profit as much as possible. At the opposite side of that line, we have the trendy (let it sink a bit) sustainable side of the industry pledging to provide fashionable products with environmental and social responsibility. Focusing on natural, high-quality material, they offer cloth...

  BBC Julio F. Campos  I think it is unnecessary to comment about the recent tragedy caused by Vale in Brumadinho, which has so far resulted in a hundred deaths. What is questioned here is the validity, effectiveness or even the connection with the reality of corporate sustainability reports, in the case of GRI, of which Vale holds the Gold Seal. But a brief historical review of events is required. Back in 2013 Samarco, a joint venture between Vale and BHP was aware of a report warning of problems in Bento Rodrigues, which indicated the risk of its dam. In 2015 the risk became a reality with the rupture of the dam resulting in the death of 15 people, the destruction of the Rio Doce and the contamination of the coastal region. So far the survivors of the tragedy still suffer from the company's unwillingness to assume its indemnity responsibility. The previous report of 2013 pointing out the risk of the dam was rebutted by BHP. The direct consequence of the...

Julio F. Campos The latest trend in the fashion industry,  sustainability is on the hype and widely celebrated by fashion corporations, concerned consumers, designers and whoever wants to save the planet. However, if the electronics industry is the father of planned obsolescence, fashion is doubtless the mother, releasing season after season new collections to allow the engaged audience to keep up with the last tendencies.  Who wants to be kept out of the latest tendencies after all? Like all the other movements towards sustainability, those engaged with the fashion also follows the same set of beliefs used by the rest of business. Optimize the production process to reduce its impact, and; Recycle. So the actions are focused on the start and the end of the process. But is that all? That's the most relevant question and to answer that it is necessary to bring to the reader the statement that explains why those actions are not enough and usually are not ...

Julio F. Campos Disposable products such as plates, cups, and cutlery have been sold due to its practicality as a use-and-dispose option to doing the dishes. Although the idea was born back in 1908 to avoid the disease dissemination in hospitals due to sharing common recipients, it was after World War II and the development of the plastic industry that the disposable products reached the general public. Originally used for packaging, it was not long that the disposability concept reached other daily used products as we know today. In a world where, unfortunately, the time has become a most valuable commodity, the single-use idea was easy to sell, fastly getting public acceptance. It was not only until the recent years that the problem of such "practicality" has become known by the public. Although not new for environmental scientists, the plastic problem got popular worldwide attention after the media in recent years exposed the Great Pacific Garbage Patches (...

Julio F. Campos This article provides a list of four of the most important books on sustainability that one need to read to both understand the causes of our problems and the ways to solve them The Coal Question; An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal Mines; William Stanley Jevons; 1865. Concerned with the fast rates in which the coal was being consumed due to high demand by industries, Jevons approached the issue analyzing how the technological development of equipment efficiency and its consequent reduction in coal use could prevent it exhaustion or scarcity. Over a century before the definition of the eco-efficiency term in 1992, in what become known as "The Jevons' Paradox", Jevons observed that the constant increase in efficiency could if fact leads to increase in recourses use, resulting in a fast decline of resource stocks. While still trying to be disproved by the efficiency advocates, the number of ...

www.intellectualtakeout.org Julio F. Campos With excerpts from the Guardian " How formula milk firms target mothers who can least afford it " Recently I was discussing the role of price over the consumerism that is collapsing our planet's systems. Some argued that the low prices are the more important driving force behind what people consumes, or better, how much they consume, and since corporations only produce to attend the consumer demand, the former would have a more impact of resources depletion than corporations. The basis of that logic is that consumers consume because corporations offer low prices products. I argue that the issue is a bit more complex and deep than that. First of all, both consumers and corporations are guilt for the environmental degradation. To define who’s more important is irrelevant. Prices under the consumer perspective. The first step is to dismember the consume into its two ramifications: The consume of needed go...