Two Steps Forward — Sustainability Meets Business Reality

Are sustainability professionals working at the wrong level inside a system that resists real change? Joel and Soli dig into that question this week — why external validation is the wrong thing to chase, what a "hero's journey" framework does and doesn't explain about doing this work, and why renewable energy's transformation over one lifetime is the best evidence that incremental effort compounds. Plus, a quick update on the "spheres of influence" framework, now headed toward a forthcoming ISO net-zero standard.

Climate scientist Dr. Katharine Hayhoe — Nature Conservancy chief scientist, Texas Tech professor and author of "Saving Us" — joins Joel and Solitaire to explain why hope beats doom as a climate strategy, why more disasters don't produce more action, and the one underrated lever she'd hand a Fortune 500 CEO instead of another renewable-energy announcement.

What can climate communicators learn from stand-up comedians? Quite a lot, it turns out. Joel Makower and Solitaire Townsend sit down with Stuart Goldsmith — climate comedian, podcaster, and Live at the Apollo veteran — and Esteban Gast, the Colombian-American comedian behind the Climate Comedy Cohort. They talk about performing for hostile rooms, the power of vulnerability, why hypocrisy is the best material, and why treating your audience like friends might be the most underrated tool in climate communications.

Soli and Joel ask an uncomfortable question:sustainability professionals are trained to track trends and build momentum —but are we actually prepared for wild cards?
We went through some big ones: a 90% probability El Niño that most supply chains aren't pricing in, a data center oppositionmovement that's blocked $18 billion in U.S. projects, an insurance exodusthat's quietly making whole communities uninsurable, and the reality that social movements — for and against sustainability — are among the most powerful forces shaping corporate behavior.
As Soli put it: This is literally our job. And we're not doing it.

Joel and Soli dig into the new State of the Sustainability Profession report, which reveals a field under pressure — shrinking CEO engagement, shifting reporting lines, and budgets in flux. Then, author and activist Katharine Wilkinson joins to discuss her new book Climate Wayfinding, and why the inner work of grief, community, and reimagination may be exactly what sustainability professionals need right now.