Greenwashing Debunkers Club

Julio F. Campos After my last post , I received a most interesting reader comment about why everything about sustainability is so complicated and formal. As an example, the reader presented the example do Stephen Hawking, (hence the post title), to which I could add an enormous list of other scientists that are able to translate their most complicated researches into easy to understand way for the scientific illiterate community. However, the problem is that being a multidisciplinary field, sustainability demands the explanation of a series of concepts from a large number of scientific fields. Which is time-consuming when considered the vast range of knowledge levels of the audience. It's not impossible though. Paradoxically sustainability, or better, what to do to be sustainable can actually be put through only two sentences. Here they are: To explain sustainability to corporations: "There is no such thing as sustainable growth" To explaining sustaina

Julio F. Campos Após a minha última publicação , recebi um comentário do leitor muito interessante sobre o motivo de tudo sobre a sustentabilidade é tão complicado e formal. Como exemplo, o leitor apresentou o caso de Stephen Hawking (daí o título do post), ao qual eu poderia adicionar uma lista enorme de outros cientistas, que é capaz de traduzir suas pesquisas mais complicadas para uma forma fácil de entender para a comunidade cientificamente analfabeta. R espondi que, sendo um campo multidisciplinar, a sustentabilidade exige a explicação de uma série de conceitos de um grande número de campos científicos. O que é demorado e complexo quando considerado a vasta gama de níveis de conhecimento do público. N o entanto, não é impossível. Paradoxalmente, a sustentabilidade, ou melhor, o que fazer para ser sustentável, pode ser apresentada em apenas duas frases. Aqui estão eles: Para explicar a sustentabilidade às empresas:   "Não existe crescimento sustentável" Para expli

Julio F. Campos In this article, I will discuss what qualities a professional need to work with sustainability. As a quick internet search results in a fair amount of similar texts, I decided to approach the topic through another bias. Easily someone will find recommendations on the profile considered ideal for acting in sustainability, however, this profile is the profile considered ideal by the corporate market. For this and other reasons, I will not address the profile of the corporate "sustainability" professional. I will not make a comparison between this professional and the profile sought by the market, a quick search on the internet allows to locate the latter. I leave it to the reader to make this self-critical analysis. I often see new graduates in various environmental areas unsatisfied with their jobs because they can not execute the proposals they know to be necessary, having to shape themselves to the needs of the company and not to sustainability.

Julio F. Campos Neste artigo vou abordar quais qualidades um profissional possui para trabalhar com sustentabilidade. Como uma rápida busca na internet resulta em uma boa quantidade de textos semelhantes, decidi abordar o tema através de outro viés. Facilmente alguém irá encontrar recomendações sobre o perfil considerado ideal para atuar em sustentabilidade, entretanto esse perfil é o perfil considerado ideal pelo mercado corporativo. Por este e outros motivos ,  não vou abordar o perfil do profissional de "sustentabilidade"corporativo. Não farei então uma comparação entre este profissional e o perfil buscado pelo mercado, uma rápida busca na internet permite localizar o último. Deixo para o leitor fazer esta análise autocrítica. Frequentemente vejo recém-formados em diversas áreas ambientais insatisfeitos com seus trabalhos, pois não podem executar as propostas que sabem serem necessárias, tendo que se moldar às necessidades da empresa e não da sustenta

Major household brands are selling everyday grocery staples containing palm oil produced using child labour, Amnesty International has claimed. From Josie Clarke, The Independent Online: Amnesty International report finds manufacturers using oil from Singapore-based company

Hugo Penteado I did not even wanted to participate in 2017. I do not know who chose the unfortunate 360-degree term for the conference, but it's perfect, the conference made it clear that we spin, spin, spin and never advance. In fact, we are much worse than when this whole movement began 20 years ago. Sustainability that does not change anything is worse than not doing any sustainability, just because it creates a sense that something is being done. It is not. The sustainability trophies continue to be sewage in cities, dumps, Vale disaster in Minas, Gulf of Mexico disaster, Alberta, deforestation for monoculture, large-scale agrochemicals decimating biodiversity and insects indispensable to life, accelerated climate change, extreme concentration and uncontrolled income and wealth, uninterrupted pollution, extinction of accelerated life, etc. There is not a single good indication in all this, despite so much conference and beliefs. In general, the lectures were empty, wit

Hugo Penteado Nem quis mais participar em 2017. Não sei quem escolheu o termo infeliz de 360 graus para a conferência, mas é perfeito, a conferência deu a sensação nítida que giramos, giramos, giramos e não saímos do lugar. Na verdade saímos: estamos muito pior do que quando esse movimento todo começou há 20 anos atrás. Sustentabilidade que não muda absolutamente nada é pior do que não fazer sustentabilidade alguma, apenas pelo fato que cria uma sensação de que algo está sendo feito. Não está. Os troféus de sustentabilidade continuam sendo esgoto nas cidades, lixões, desastre causado pela Vale em Minas, desastre do Golfo do México, Alberta, desmatamento para monocultura, agrotóxicos em larga escala dizimando biodiversidade e insetos indispensáveis à vida, mudança acelerada do clima, concentração extrema e descontrolada de renda e riqueza, poluição ininterrupta, extinção da vida acelerada, etc. Não há um só indicativo bom nisso tudo, apesar de tanta conferência e crendices. De uma form

Julio F. Campos My last article about the major issue of corporate sustainability professionals raised an interesting set of comments, especially the negatives ones, which indicated to me that I have touched the right spot. Here are presented the reasons behind that article. As many people, ever since childhood it was my desire to work close to the environment. Being raised close to nature made it a mere consequence. Growing up I understood that the environment was threatened by those “evil” corporations whose main objective was to explore and profit, no matter the consequences. However, as I began to actually do research on the problem while obtaining my scientific degrees on the sustainability field, I realized that that was a naïve perception for those corporations are not the worst problem that one faces when trying to work for a more sustainable world. Those “evil” corporations are not the problem. The enemy within is. The enemy within is that group of profession

Julio F. Campos This article is dedicated to expose how the carbon credit market helps companies evade their responsibilities to the environment and the health of society in their environment. Nowadays when a corporation talks about environmental sustainability the first results presented is the reduction in carbon emissions. Although some of them achieve that reduction by moving to renewable sources but presenting only the results with higher reductions, not the whole life cycle, many use the carbon market to calculate their emissions reductions. The principle behind the carbon market is simple, the company A emits X tons of carbon, the company B grow biomass that sequesters that X tons, generating carbon credits. Company A buys company B carbon credits and neutralizes its carbon emissions. As exemplified by Dr. Katharine Hayhoe an interesting analogy to understand how this can be made is: Imagine that person A wants to loose weight and pays person B to go to