10 Big Conversations That Made a Mark on Sustainable Business in 2021

As sustainable business went mainstream this year it created massive oppportunities for creating change

2021 was not an easy year, as the pandemic continued to barrage our lives in all sorts of unexpected ways, pushing us to languish in our feelings indefinitely without a definite ending in sight. The science is nonnegotiable as the Climate Crisis impacted the world from floods, heat domes, and unexpected weather events that devasted entire communities with a growing price tag.  At the same time the fight and activism for equality and inclusivity swept across North America in many ways including corporate environments. 

The need for honest words was dire, as businesses and industries struggled to align their messages and commitments with real action and impact. For many the world of impact continued with progress but felt very much like the dark satire ‘Dont’ Look Up’. One thing was for certain in 2021- Sustainable Business was a force that finally landed on the mainstream and demanded attention. But for us these were the ten conversations, reports and articles we felt compelled by in 2021, and feel will continue to influence conversations in 2022. 

1. The Perils of COP26 

A call by scientists to attend to our planetary climate crisis was loud and clear yet even at COP26 countries and industries struggled to meet to make significant impact. Many questioned what was actually accomplished at COP 26 and is it enough to curb the global temperature rise and climate disasters? Most scientists agree - pacts are great but won't do much to actually effect global temperature rises at scale. So what was accomplished at COP26 - two really great recaps of the actions (New York Times and Times) and commitments that were made, and the criticism of what was not accomplished. Ultimately the world needs action on every level in every industry - and we can’t wait for big business, government, or leader to solve it on their own. While it may seem grim, the opportunity to create change is within all of us and within all of our businesses, we just have to make the choice to create change. 

2. The Lack of Accountability in Sustainability Reporting 

Commitments, KPIs, and reporting are key to showcasing the embrace of sustainability as a serious measure of business sustainability and performance. Reporting - whether its in annual reports, website stats or claims of impact have for the most part been found to be unsubstantiated by evidence for a significant portion of companies. From Bombay Gin - to Mastercard to Starbucks to Blackrock to Shell - everyone is making a sustainable or social purpose commitment, driving new product development, new departments, but how much of it is real? Many are finding that the lack of actual accountability and process of self reporting, and often self inflating is leading to major over exaggerations, greenwashing and social purpose washing at scale. We anticipate 2022 will explore more accountability strategies and more poking by the public at claims of impact and sustainability, keeping companies and leaders honest. 

3. The Emergence of ESGs as a Significant Tool for Investors 

The ESG has emerged as a tool alongside Impact Investing and Social Responsible Investing to move money towards impact goals and activities without excluding revenue generation. Fueled by the climate crisis realities of 2021 that hit close to home for many individuals, including investors and corporate executives. It is no surprise that ESG emerged, with ESG disclosure becoming a priority in the US and Europe, and more regulation to come. ESG promises to move the pressure onto companies to not only commit to sustainability, social and governance metrics but actually follow through with them with real tangible data. As we mentioned above in point 2, sustainable commitments and reporting is not much help unless companies are actually held accountable to those commitments. ESG has that potential to hold companies accountable but only time will tell if its effects have the environmental and social impact we seek. 

4. The Fashion Business as a critical Contributor to our Climate State

The sustainability gap is still quite vast across fashion sectors from fast fashion to high street to luxury to streetwear to activewear. Greenwashing has been rampant while claims for sustainable fabrics, circularity, resale markets all started cropping up as significant strategies for fashion brands to attach themselves to. And while these new approaches are better then none they still don’t solve the massive issues that fashion has  - everyone is still racing to check outs with volumes and volumes spurring consumerism at a scale never seen before. And while examining fashion in itself seems like a luxury, the matter of fact is that fashion one way or another effects us all and/or we are contributors to its vicious cycle all over the planet - we make it, buy it, wear it, discard it, give it, and have to deal with the waste of it. Solutions are evolving into the mainstream such as #slowfashion, circularity, and accountability within the industry that is heavily influenced by mass consumption, influencers, and a rare ability to ignore its own shortfalls. 

5. Climate Technologies are the Cool Kids on the Block - Again 

Climate investors doubled in just a year, and quadreupled in investment dollars streaming into Climate Tech companies. Not a new discovery just a rebrand from its previous glory days in the early 2010s as ‘Clean Tech’ - Climate Tech is finally stepping into its potential of economic growth and sustainable impact. 2021 presented a perfect opportunity for climate tech to resurfce with a vengeance as climate realities hit close to home, and resource costs dropped exponentially with more scalable and realistic solutions to many of our climate challenges. 

6. Sustainable Food

25% of global emissions come from food production and it's no surprise food security and sustainability is a massive consideration. Vegan and plant-based diets were at the forefront of this conversation for the better part of the last two years with the massive economic success of meat alternative companies such as Beyond Meat, Oatly, Eat Just, with many new startups cropping up all across the globe including even in the pet food category. While alternative meat and milk products have been on the surge, there are other major issues in the food sector from local production to mitigate emissions during transport, food waste, packaging, workers rights, and food shortages due to crippling climate events are just a handful of food-specific topics that will continue to drive conversations in 2022 about what it means to have a sustainable food source. 

7. Indigenous Business is Good Business 

It took the showcasing of the horrific and very real histories of indigenous people across Canada, through the ‘uncovering of the unspoken traumas’ of residential schools to finally shine more light on the current needs, challenges, and traumas indigenous people experience. Of course the road to healing is generational but what has come to the surface is finally the showcasing of the incredible entrepreneurs, creators, and artisans that are indigenous - the original social purpose businesses. They have always been the stewards of the land, and are intrinsically good business that takes into account the planet and the people it touches. 2021 was a year that finally saw the diverse indigenous businesses be highlighted, supported, be invested in, and taken to the mainstream not just as indigenous business but as an entire economy in itself.

8. B Corp as a Force for Good

It is without doubt that B Corps seek to do good through their holistic approach to doing business. 2021 saw a rise in B Corp certifications and an expansion of the community across all industries and types of businesses. With industry giants like Patagonia, Danone, and Ben & Jerry’s continue to lead many conversations on BUsiness activism, leadership (for good or bad), and the journey for what evolution in a sustainable business actually looks like. 

However B Corp hasn’t been without its challenges, in the past couple of years we have seen long B Corp darlings Warby Parker, Honest Company, and Etsy chose to give up the certification in order to more effectively pursue their public options for their financial growth. 

What that means for scalable B Corps or large corporations is still to be determined, but it certainly an area we are watching. Are the public markets ready for B Corps and are companies ready to hold on to their B Corp status in the public markets? 

9. Circularity is Emerging

A major topic of conversation is circularity and how it shows up across industries and business. At the end of the day if we are designing products to be waste at the end of its lifecycle how sustainable is that at all? The answer is a bold NO. We must design with circularity in mind, what that means is ensuring every step of our development, design, production and lifecycle of a product is considered not just one point. Circularity can create a lot of opportunity for secondary and tertiary business and products, if we only try to design from this perspective. Ciruclarity thinking is taking root in many industries such as fashion, food, home, tech, and everything in between. 

10. Rise of the Creator Economy - How Can we Leverage it for Good? 

50 independent creators and growing, an economy now valued at over $20Billion. 2021 shined a big spotlight not only on creators but on their economic influence. From Tiktok, Youtube,  Instagram, and even NFT creation (or some all of the above), creators are building empires, but more importantly they are getting in front of everyone. What is the impact of that? While we have not see much ‘impact’ yet we have seen some creators who focus on a variety of challenges make major impact in business, social movements, and keeping creators accountable. So why do we include it in this list? Well the industry is still young but has massive impact in the world merely by the number of individuals it engages with, by that measure alone its a massive economy to leverage for social good. How can creators be the force for good? 

As we reflect on 2021, things are changing, there is an awakening, a realization that we must act, and act now but who will be compelled to do so? As we look into 2022 our hope is that everyone is compelled, its not just up to government, large multinationals, or billionaires, in fact we know innovation, change, and new ideas often stem from individuals willing to share their ideas, small startups working in the obscure, citizens ready to raise their voices. 

We are seeing a lot more players joining the fight for the climate, planet, and people, and we can’t wait to see what big ideas and execution for impact 2022 brings our way!