Straight Talking Sustainability

• The 80-25 Rule: Why You Only Need to Activate 25% of Your Workforce to Transform Sustainability Culture

  In this game-changing solo episode of Straight Talking Sustainability, host Emma Burlow reveals the counterintuitive strategy that's transforming how organisations achieve climate action: forget trying to convince everyone and focus on activating just 25% of your workforce to create unstoppable momentum.Emma unpacks the frustrating paradox facing sustainability professionals everywhere: if 80% of UK adults care about climate change (DESNZ 2025) and 73% of businesses say they're prioritising net zero (Net Zero Business Census 2025), why does driving action feel so impossibly difficult? The answer lies in understanding tipping points, social norming, and the critical mass needed to shift organisational culture from apathy to action.Drawing on behavioural psychology research from the University of Pennsylvania, Emma explains how social change movements (from Me Too to Black Lives Matter) achieve transformation when approximately 25% of a community actively engages. This isn't about awareness or concern (that's your 80%), this is about people willing to bring sustainability into their work conversations, decisions, and daily actions without being asked.The episode challenges the exhausting approach most sustainability professionals are taking: picking off individuals one by one, hunting for ambassadors, playing the long game of incremental change. Instead, Emma advocates for strategic activation of your critical 25% (one in four people in any meeting room) who then naturally lead the remaining 75% through social norming and peer influence.Emma shares a powerful case study from the housing sector where training just 50 to 60 people (around 25% of a 200-person organisation) over five to six months created a complete cultural transformation. The shift wasn't about hitting carbon targets immediately but about transitioning people from "somebody else's target, I'll get on with my job" to "I'm behind this target, this is what I do to contribute, and I've got loads of ideas." The organisation moved from having virtually no one able to articulate their net zero strategy to ensuring every meeting with four or more people included at least one carbon-literate advocate who would naturally raise sustainability considerations.The episode systematically dismantles three persistent myths: that you need 100% buy-in to succeed, that targets automatically equal action (spoiler: there's a massive target-action gap), and that individual champions alone can create the momentum needed for transformation. Emma argues that whilst your 1% to 2% early adopters might be important sparks, they never achieve critical mass without a deliberate strategy to activate the broader 25%.Emma introduces the concept of the "messy middle" (the 60% to 80% of your organisation between the 10% to 20% who are already committed and the 10% to 20% you'll likely never convince). This messy middle is where your 25% lives, and Emma provides practical frameworks for identifying them through three strategic lenses: roles where climate action has the most impact (facilities, supply chain, commercial, finance), teams that interact with key stakeholders (marketing, sales, customer-facing roles), and individuals already showing quiet interest regardless of their position.The episode explores why the value-action gap persists despite high levels of concern, examining how busy professionals who genuinely care about climate change remain silent because they assume others don't care and fear looking like "the social pariah" who disrupts business as usual. Emma explains how this creates a vicious cycle where everyone waits for permission and social norming that never comes, resulting in organisations with strong ambition, brilliant strategies, and even budgets that still feel like they're dragging their people through sustainability rather than being driven by them.Drawing...

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• The Untapped Power of Volunteering: How Community Action Transforms Climate Anxiety into Local Impact with Ben Luger

  In this inspiring and deeply personal episode of Straight Talking Sustainability, host Emma Burlow sits down with Ben Luger, Marketing Project Specialist at Ecosurety, to explore how volunteering can be the secret weapon for engaging people in climate action whilst simultaneously improving mental health and building stronger communities. Ben's journey from delivering carbon literacy training to establishing a thriving community tree nursery in just 12 months demonstrates how individual action, when channelled through community organising, creates exponential impact without the overwhelming time and energy drain that most people fear.Ben traces his volunteering journey back to an unexpected source: delivering carbon literacy training for the packaging sector. Whilst training others about the causes and impacts of the climate crisis, he found himself experiencing increasing climate anxiety despite making personal lifestyle changes (not flying, barely using a car, cutting meat consumption, sustainable banking). The deep dive into climate science that carbon literacy demands created an "itching urge" to do more, which reached a tipping point at the Blue Earth Summit in 2024.After two days of talks, panels, and workshops, Ben felt simultaneously enlightened and frustrated by what he describes as an "echo chamber of the same people coming together to talk about it." The breakthrough came during a session called Reasons To Be Cheerful featuring inspiring community activists including Speech Debelle (who launched Black Fish to connect Black communities with fishing and nature) and No Ven (who transformed a community garden whilst escaping years of abuse). Two days after that talk, Ben was writing emails to launch his own community tree nursery project.What makes Ben's story particularly powerful for sustainability professionals experiencing burnout is how he found an existing community organisation (Rooted Chippenham) rather than starting from scratch. By approaching an established Community Interest Company with an existing volunteer base of 30 people, polytunnel, and governance structure, Ben could piggyback on infrastructure whilst contributing his marketing and communications skills. The group launched a crowd funder with match funding and hit their initial target within 24 hours, ultimately raising nearly three times their goal (£4,300) by the campaign's end.The conversation explores why volunteering works where other engagement approaches fail. Ben describes discovering an "extended family" of like-minded people on his doorstep who share the same worries, anxieties, and motivations. This social connection creates energy rather than draining it, transforming what could feel like another burden into something people actively look forward to. Emma relates her own volunteering experiences (parkrun, local library, helplines) and reflects on how people outside the volunteering world consistently underestimate the benefits whilst overestimating the time commitment.Ben candidly discusses how volunteering has become his antidote to climate and biodiversity crises, particularly during a difficult year when grief from his father's death resurfaced a decade later. His GP prescribed nature, which led Ben to recognise how local nature-based projects offer something uniquely cleansing and energising. Now running both the tree nursery (growing around 1,000 trees annually for free distribution to local residents) and community bat walks, Ben describes feeling "unburdened" compared to the anxiety that previously consumed him.For workplace applications, Ben explains that whilst Ecosurety offers three volunteering days annually (with corporate sponsorship for his projects), only about one third of employees across organisations typically use these days. The challenge is not lack of...

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• One Year of Straight Talking Sustainability: Anniversary Special Featuring the Most Powerful Insights from Nicola Jones, Briony Pete, Andy Middleton, Jen Gale, and Phil Korbel

  In this landmark anniversary episode of Straight Talking Sustainability, host Emma Burlow celebrates one year of the podcast by revisiting the most impactful moments from five extraordinary guests who have shared their hard-earned wisdom over the past 12 months. After nearly 30 years in the sustainability sector, Emma knows that we simply do not have time to keep knowledge locked away, which is why she launched this podcast to democratise sustainability expertise and make connections across industries, backgrounds, and experience levels.This bumper compilation episode features powerful excerpts from conversations with industry leaders, changemakers, and thought leaders who are actively transforming how we approach climate action, carbon literacy, sustainable living, and systemic change. From heavy industry decarbonisation to personal behaviour change, from ambitious climate action to managing eco-anxiety, these voices represent the breadth and depth of sustainability challenges and solutions.Nicola Jones, Market Business Development Manager at Tata Steel UK, shares insights from the frontlines of industrial transformation, revealing how a £1.25 billion investment in electric arc furnace technology will deliver an immediate 90% carbon reduction when it comes online in 2027. Her perspective dismantles the myth that heavy industry resists climate action, demonstrating instead how customer Scope 3 emissions requirements are driving rapid change. Nicola explains why companies that fail to decarbonise will lose customers within five to ten years, making sustainability not just ethical but essential for business survival.Briony Pete, Director at The Circular Life, explores the critical importance of mindset in sustainability work, tackling imposter syndrome, overwhelm, and the burnout that sustainability professionals frequently experience. She introduces practical frameworks for understanding where people are on their sustainability journey (from closed to leadership-ready) and emphasises the power of meeting people where they are rather than expecting everyone to jump to expert level immediately. Her insights about moving from judgement to curiosity offer a roadmap for more effective sustainability communication.Andy Middleton, Co-Founder of Do Good Faster, brings a provocative perspective on ambition and long-term thinking. Drawing on his experience taking 200,000 people safely through potentially dangerous outdoor adventures, he argues that we are facing a "big volume class five rapid" as a species, yet most people have not even looked at the river or understand the terminology. He challenges the notion of being "realistic" by arguing that true realism means preparing for the threats and opportunities ahead with appropriate urgency and scale.Jen Gale, Author of The Sustainable(ish) Living Guide, offers candid reflections on managing climate anxiety whilst doing advocacy work, the power of reaching mainstream audiences rather than preaching to the converted, and why influence often creates unseen ripples that advocates may never witness. Her work with schools, veterinary practices, and the Sustainable(ish) community demonstrates how embedding sustainability conversations in trusted community institutions can create exponential impact.Phil Korbel, co-founder of the Carbon Literacy Project, explains how carbon literacy training has become one of the most powerful tools for closing the gap between net zero targets and actual action. With examples ranging from AutoTrader (a FTSE 100 company driven by employee demand) to the British Plastics Federation, Phil demonstrates that carbon literacy works across all sectors by giving people the emotional engagement and practical agency to act on climate knowledge they may already possess intellectually.Throughout...

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• Carbon Reporting for the Missing Middle: How Medium-Sized Companies Can Navigate Supply Chain Pressure Without Breaking the Bank

  In this practical and reassuring episode of Straight Talking Sustainability, host Emma Burlow reconnects with long-time colleague Kirsteen Harrison from Not Sustainable to tackle the carbon reporting challenges facing what they call "the missing middle" (companies with 250 to 1,000 employees). These businesses face intense supply chain pressure to report emissions but often lack the dedicated sustainability teams and resources of larger corporations, creating a perfect storm of fear, confusion, and questionnaire paralysis.Kirsteen brings over 20 years of experience working with SMEs and medium-sized businesses on waste, energy, compliance, and carbon reporting. She reveals a troubling pattern: companies receiving generic carbon reporting requests from larger clients that ask the wrong questions, demand inappropriate data, or require commitments to frameworks (like the Science Based Targets initiative) that were not designed for their size or sector. The result is fear-driven inaction, with some companies ignoring requests for years until contracts face risk.The conversation exposes uncomfortable truths about carbon reporting as potentially a "dark art" where data manipulation remains possible despite verification standards like ISO 14064. Kirsteen challenges the assumption that companies always need perfectly accurate data, arguing that the purpose of reporting determines the required precision. For hotspot analysis and strategy development, understanding key levers matters more than decimal-point accuracy. For legal disclosures and verified reports, precision becomes critical. Yet many companies waste years and thousands of pounds chasing accuracy they do not actually need.Emma shares a revealing case study of a call centre company that ignored carbon reporting requests for three years because the FD could not see the relevance (they operated in leased offices with minimal reportable emissions beyond business travel and employee commuting). This illustrates how supply chain questionnaires often fail to account for business model variations, creating disproportionate burdens on companies with naturally low operational emissions.Kirsteen offers a radically different approach: instead of panicking or ignoring requests, engage directly with the client, asking for the data. Her experience shows that sustainability managers at large corporations are desperate for supplier engagement and will welcome conversations about reasonable timelines, appropriate metrics, and phased implementation plans. One client she worked with turned a compliance headache into a strategic partnership by proactively sharing their supplier engagement strategy and requesting feedback from their multinational client.The episode tackles practical barriers, including spend-based conversion factors (a particular dark art within carbon accounting), the challenge of standardised reporting platforms like CDP and EcoVadis (comprehensive but resource-intensive for smaller companies), and the maturity journey from discomfort and fear through compliance to proud leadership. Kirsteen emphasises that we are building an entire carbon accounting and sustainability disclosure system in years rather than the decades or centuries it took to develop financial and legal systems, so imperfections and gaps are inevitable.Toward the end, Kirsteen highlights an invaluable new resource from the We Mean Business Coalition: a report cherry-picking best practice examples from 70 sustainability reports by companies under 1,000 employees. This goldmine shows how smaller businesses can innovatively report what is relevant to them without being constrained by frameworks designed for multinationals, using their agility and flexibility as competitive advantages.In this carbon reporting and supply chain sustainability episode, you'll...

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• Mind the Gap: How to Close the Target Action Gap and Turn Your Workforce Into Net Zero Champions

  In this powerful and practical solo episode of Straight Talking Sustainability, host Emma Burlow tackles the most frustrating challenge facing corporate sustainability teams today: the target action gap. Companies have set ambitious net-zero targets, invested heavily in reporting and data collection, yet most employees remain disengaged and the sustainability team feels isolated, pushing a rock uphill alone.Drawing from her experience training over 1,500 people across major organisations, including BT, B&Q, Silent Night, Kenwood, and Openreach, Emma reveals why traditional sustainability engagement approaches (lunchtime webinars, team days, or brief e-learning modules) fail to create lasting change. The problem is not that employees do not care; they simply have never been given permission, confidence, or the minimum knowledge needed to act.Emma identifies the critical question every sustainability leader should ask their frontline staff: "On a scale of one to five, how confident do you feel talking about our net zero targets to customers or suppliers?" The typical response is ones and twos, revealing a confidence crisis that prevents progress regardless of how brilliant the strategy document looks. When employees run in the opposite direction from sustainability questions, the entire burden falls back on a handful of sustainability professionals trying to move targets forward in companies of thousands.The episode shares a compelling case study of a consumer products company with a 2040 net zero target struggling with staff disengagement and isolated sustainability teams unable to demonstrate progress. After implementing focused carbon literacy training, a senior commercial team member independently added a carbon stage gate to their business case process (worth millions of pounds in impact). Even more significantly, the sustainability leader overheard corridor conversations about carbon reduction weeks later, proving the training had created foot soldiers doing the work without prompting.Emma challenges the assumption that you need 100% (or even 50%) of your workforce engaged in sustainability. Instead, she focuses on identifying where the rub is: What is the one thing that will drive people to act? Is it customer pressure, supplier requirements, competitive threats, or regulatory mandates? Once you identify the pinch point and the critical roles (sales, procurement, marketing, operations), you can focus training on the minimum knowledge needed to move that specific rock downhill.The episode concludes with a practical 10-minute task: Ask three people in critical business roles how confident they feel discussing your net zero targets externally. Their responses (typically ones, twos, or fence-sitting threes) will reveal your exact gap. Emma argues that moving people from ones and twos to fours and fives creates the holy grail of sustainability implementation: employees taking action independently, building capacity across the business, and having conversations without the sustainability team present.This episode is essential listening for sustainability professionals experiencing burnout from trying to single-handedly transform their organisations, those struggling to demonstrate progress against targets, and leaders who recognise that their current engagement approach is not working but do not know what to try next.In this corporate sustainability implementation and training episode, you'll discover:Why net zero targets often create tumbleweed across organizations despite enormous reporting effortsThe three common gaps preventing sustainability action (value, knowledge, and target gaps)How carbon literacy training creates foot soldiers who independently drive change across businessesThe critical confidence question that reveals your...

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