Good vibes were off the charts at our TFE Live event this week, brought on by Elena Bondareva, who’s on a changemaking arc following the release of her book Changemakers’ Handbook, her fellow guest Pablo Berrutti of Stuart Investors, whose passion project sustainable finance library Altiorem, and upbeat moderator Maria Atkinson. The road to sustainability is, in fact, full of barriers and opportunities.
On the United States and its impacts on Australia and the rest of the world
After spending 12 years in the United States, Bondareva confirms what’s been on all our minds – former US president Donald Trump was, in fact, one of the biggest threats to all things green and sustainable – maybe the world.
In her books, Trump winning the election means five things:
- persecution of minorities, especially the LGBTIQIA+ and women
- corruption of public services, including political appointments into the 50,000 jobs working under the federal government – creating a culture of fear and political appointments
- targeting independent agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice Department and others operating outside the political establishment
- roll back many environmental policies and regulations and give away EPA regulations to the highest bidder – “if you give me this many million, I’ll undo some clean air provisions for you.”
- inciting international conflict – “We’ve seen it with China, we’ve seen it with Russia.”
“It’s really scary stuff from the standpoint of sustainability,” Bondareva said. “I spoke to the creator of a living material using mycelium to create structural solutions as replacements for steel and concrete. They are in capital raising, but they are in potential danger of actually having to shut down because nobody will move before the election.”
While the US is leading on environmental regulations, Bondareva wonders how many businesses won’t make it “because they get suffocated [under the pressure]”
Meanwhile, Stuart Investors’ Pablo Berrutti says that despite the potential federal level setback, it was important that the state governments in the US continue to drive sustainability initiatives. “While [Trump] would clearly set back some things that many of us care about very deeply…it doesn’t mean that it’s the end either.”
Good examples, according to Berrutti, include the huge California and New York, while on the flip, states like Florida had banned companies from reporting their ESGs, “which seems kind of crazy because you’re an investor being told that you can’t think about the state the world is going into [which is dependent on] whether you can make a good investment.”
The key solution, he said, was clear communication that is free of “technical jargon” that may alienate people from the real world benefits of sustainability initiatives. For example, the ESG acronym was not something people outside of business or finance know.
“You [can] take it all on your shoulders, [but] you clearly can’t, so it’s building community with other people, but also recognising that sometimes you’re not the best person for the job.”
“We can take a lesson, Australia, because it has been and will be polarised here again.”
The role of AI in communicating sustainability across culture
Matthew Trigg, from ERM, who watched the live broadcast in person, asked how people can overcome the racial prejudice and cultural misunderstandings that are so prevalent when working together on international sustainability projects.
In response, Berrutti said that AI could be the solution to overcoming these barriers. For example, Altiorem, a sustainable finance library he founded, uses artificial intelligence to translate foreign language research and tools, making them accessible to an English speaking audience.
An example was a professor who grew up in Latin America and struggled to understand why finances were important to the grand scheme of the transition.
“It’s currency exchange rates, a lack of local knowledge, and having partners on the ground that can put things at risk for people because when you come into a new environment, you clearly see a lot of risks,” Berrutti said.
“Having those local partners and some stability around currency gives you additional confidence to let capital flow. And so do with kind of the types of things that we kind of think about that are holding back investment in emerging markets.
“I completely agree that that lack of cultural awareness is a huge barrier to being able to find better solutions because they’re out there, and we’re not the sole custodians of what can work.”
On making change: how to avoid failure and create success
Change was not easy, says Bondareva. She added that after 20 years working across six continents, she had concluded that “we don’t have good language to differentiate incremental change and continual improvement from transformation.”
Without this distinction, organisations often misinterpret the scope and scale of the change needed, leading to failures in execution. The key to that was leadership – many initiatives fail because they lack the right people at the helm—those who can think strategically and avoid reacting under stress.
“Only about 5 per cent of the population can think strategically without a stress response,” Bondareva says. “Changemakers are the world’s most precious resource and the least appreciated. We need them at the helm of these transformational projects, just like we need operators.
“We don’t actually design change. We don’t design transformation. We stumble into it.”
However, there were building blocks we could use with intentionality and strategic thinking that can drive transformational change. These are:
- splitting efforts – there’s a point where you need to split your focus, with one eye on transformation and another on embedding the change to prevent it from reverting; it was important to then split your work with others such as operators, stabilisers, tinkerers
- powerful questions – questions can bring people together even if there are divisive answers; examples include “What does sustainability make possible if we succeed?”
- maintaining tension – there should be the right amount of tension in the process of change; an example includes the Green Star rating system, where the “tippy top” and the “long tail” need to be kept in balance
- nurturing the first follower – identifying and nurturing the “first follower” or the person who helps turn the initial changemaker into a leader by being the first to support the idea
“I would encourage more of us to be intentionally a first follower,” Bondareva says, noting that it’s not always about being the first with the idea but backing good ideas with full force. “There’s a lot of ego in our movement… but sometimes the best way to influence change is to go, yours is great, and I’m actually going to throw everything I can behind you.”
Watching out for mental health
Moderator Maria Atkinson noted that when there had been a “consistent statistic of failure for many, many years”, it was no wonder that leaders were faced with intense pressure. According to Bondareva, the solution was giving yourself permission to rest and recover.
Burnout is a symptom that affects individuals, “weakens the broader movement,” and can reduce the long-term viability of any sustainable efforts. Having a supportive community that fosters a culture of self-care was critical to changemakers, says Bondareva.