Explore every episode of the podcast The Responsible Edge Podcast

Chris Pratt on the CBS article naming rage bait marketing as the dominant communication tactic of 2025 and asking what it really costs. This week on The Responsible Edge, why algorithmically-amplified outrage is pushing climate discourse to the fringes, why the CIPR’s 2026 State of the Profession found 52 percent of PR practitioners are pulling back from taking public positions, and why green hushing is not the answer. Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week.

Can a business invest in its community and still leave people worse off? In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Charlie speaks with Thomas Abuhanian Neto, co-founder of Social Impact in Brazil, about the gap between corporate good intentions and genuine social impact. Drawing on examples of poorly designed initiatives, they explore why listening to communities matters, how conventional measures of success can conceal unintended consequences, and whether businesses can build lasting trust without improving people's lives. Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week.

Philippa Hann on the Ethico article arguing that most misconduct is committed by ordinary people, not calculating bad actors.

This week on The Responsible Edge, why good people know when they are crossing a line and rationalise it anyway, why ethics training misses the moments that matter, and how Paradigm Norton is building an emotionally healthy firm to catch problems early.

Sponsored by truMRK.

New episodes every week.

Most compliance programmes assume misconduct is the work of calculating bad actors. Philippa Hann spent 20 years suing financial advisers, wealth managers and banks. She found something else. "This isn't a bad person problem. This is a good person problem."

Philippa is now chief executive of Paradigm Norton Financial Planning and co-author of The Fault Lines of Finance. On this episode of The Responsible Edge, she joins Charlie Martin to discuss an Ethico article on behavioural science and ethical failure.

She agrees that wrongdoing usually starts small. She disagrees that people do not know they are doing wrong. "We do. It's just that we clock that and we justify and we rationalise."

The conversation covers why ethics training rarely reaches the moments that matter, and the four stages of ethical decision making. It includes the story of a junior adviser who deleted a client's email and lost his job. It also looks at how hierarchy can shut down a difficult conversation before it starts.

Philippa explains how Paradigm Norton runs 15-minute weekly training sessions, a weekly 30-minute one-to-one for every member of staff, and an anonymous survey asking whether people see colleagues getting away with things. She is candid about the power a chief executive holds. "I control people's wages and whether they keep their job."

Her one change for the commercial world is simple. "Your emotions are neither good nor bad, but they are telling you something."

Listen to the full conversation on The Responsible Edge.

#BusinessEthics #FinancialServices #Compliance #Leadership #BehaviouralScience #TheResponsibleEdge

Andrew Horsfall on a 2026 Entrepreneur article arguing radical transparency is the new competitive advantage, written by the CEO of an online reputation management firm, with no data to back the claim. This week on The Responsible Edge, why risk mitigation drives disclosure more than trust-building does, and whether the correlation between transparency and commercial trust outcomes has ever actually been proved. Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week.

A May 2026 article in Entrepreneur, written by Paul M. Wilson, CEO of online reputation management firm NetReputation, argues that radical transparency is the new competitive advantage. Openly sharing information, the article contends, builds deeper trust, faster decision-making, and stronger customer loyalty than confidentiality can.

The article contains no data to support the claim.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin discusses the article with Andrew Horsfall, who has just completed an MSc in Global Health, Food Security, Sustainability and Biodiversity at Royal Holloway, and formerly served as a practising attorney and Assistant Dean of International Programs at Syracuse University College of Law.

Andrew arrives at the article from two directions at once. His legal background taught him that confidentiality can be currency and disclosure can lead to liability. "Dance like there's no tomorrow. Email like it may one day be read aloud at a deposition." His recent postgraduate study in sustainability has been actively revising that instinct.

The conversation identifies the real driver for proactive disclosure in practice: not trust-building, but risk mitigation. Charlie draws on conversations from his work at the Anti-Greenwash Charter and truMRK. Organisations are disclosing proactively so they can point to due diligence when challenged, not primarily because they have evidence that transparency builds commercial advantage.

The hypothesis is sound. The proof does not yet exist. "I've seen loads of research on the value of trust," Charlie says. "What I haven't seen is anything that shows the correlation between radical transparency and trust outcomes."

Andrew's magic wand: give nature legal personhood, the same legal imagination applied to creating corporate personhood, and watch what it does to commercial decision-making.

If your work touches sustainability communications, disclosure strategy, or environmental governance, this episode is worth your time.

#RadicalTransparency #SustainabilityCommunications #ProactiveDisclosure #EnvironmentalGovernance #TrustInBusiness #TheResponsibleEdge

Andy Last and Gareth Brown on the Anti-Greenwash Charter's 2026 roundtable with nine purpose-led brands. This week on The Responsible Edge, how responsible sustainability communication builds commercial trust, why precision creates competitive advantage, and how the Charter and truMRK make independent verification achievable today. Sponsored by truMRK.

New episodes every week.

In the summer of 2026, the Anti-Greenwash Charter brought together nine purpose-led brands to examine how organisations communicate sustainability well. The brands spanned food, drink, household goods, personal care, and grocery. Several are certified B Corporations. All have built reputations for doing the work.

The question the roundtable set out to answer was simple: what are the leading brands learning, and what does their practice look like?

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Andy Last, co-founder of salt communications and author of Business on a Mission, and Gareth Brown, marketing director and roundtable facilitator, about the resulting report: Trusted Communications for Purpose-Led Brands.

The findings are practical and commercially specific. Brands with a strong, consistent record of responsible practice build resilience: when limited issues arise, credibility carries them through. Precision creates competitive advantage: a fully substantiated product-level claim can be defended where a sweeping one cannot. And radical transparency about limitations builds more durable trust than a polished surface.

"Sustainability is a lever of trust," Andy says. "And that is only as strong as the last piece of communications you've made."

Both guests arrive at the same magic wand: independent verification of sustainability claims as the market standard. "If customers turn away from brands that aren't verified," Gareth argues, "the commercial advantage flows to brands that have invested in getting it right." The Anti-Greenwash Charter and truMRK are introduced as the infrastructure that makes that standard achievable today.

If your work touches sustainability communications, brand trust, or claims governance, this episode is worth your time.

#SustainabilityCommunications #GreenClaims #AntiGreenwash #PurposeLedBrands #BrandTrust #TheResponsibleEdge

Benjamin Thiele-Long on the PA Future article arguing ESG investing has a governance problem. This week on The Responsible Edge, why the G is not the poor cousin of ESG but its precondition, why "may be" and "can" are doing the wrong work in an argument that should commit, and what it means to move ESG from the bottom line to the top.

Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week.

A July 2026 article in PA Future argues that ESG investing has a governance problem. Investors and media fixate on environmental and social issues while governance, the foundation that makes all other ESG commitments meaningful, is routinely overlooked. The article calls for standardised governance reporting, executive pay linked to investor engagement, and board structures integrated explicitly into risk management.In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin discusses the article with Benjamin Thiele-Long, barrister at Drystone Chambers and formerly SVP and Chief ESG and Communications Officer at Petco.Benjamin agrees with the premise. He is considerably less patient with the execution. The article argues governance "may be" the most important ESG letter and that investors "can" focus on board composition to drive change. His position is direct: "If you're going to say it is, it either is or it isn't." And on investor action: "Not can. Must. Just must."He also notes that the article is published by someone who describes themselves as an evidence-based investor. It contains no data points. "There's tons of research about how good governance is the cornerstone. Let's put our money where our mouth is."The conversation covers Benjamin's parallel careers as barrister and communications executive, why governance is not the poor cousin of ESG but its precondition, and why the sustainability function being "tucked away eating granola bars" is a governance failure as much as a communications one.His magic wand: move ESG from the bottom line to the top. Frame it as a revenue driver, not a cost. Give the ESG team the same data the board sees, and the same seat at the table."There is no right way or wrong way to do ESG. But there is a right way or wrong way to talk about it."

If your work touches ESG strategy, investor relations, or the governance of responsible business, this episode is worth your time.

#ESGGovernance #CorporateGovernance #ESGInvesting #ResponsibleBusiness #BoardAccountability #TheResponsibleEdge

Aimee Rawlins on the trust crisis Onora O'Neill predicted in 2002 and the Reuters and Edelman data confirming it has arrived. This week on The Responsible Edge, why fake news is now a feeling as much as a fact, what local news deserts are doing to communities, and why giving the NLRB enforcement teeth is one structural response to an accountability system that cannot act.

Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week.

In 2002, Baroness Onora O'Neill used the BBC Reith Lectures to predict a coming crisis of institutional trust. A July 2026 article by Gavin Esler in The National argues the prediction has now fully arrived.

The Edelman Trust Barometer 2026 found that seven in ten people globally report hesitance or unwillingness to trust someone with different values or backgrounds. The Reuters Digital News Report 2026 found that roughly forty percent of people practise news avoidance. Only thirty-nine percent get news from ideologically different sources on a weekly basis.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin discusses the Esler article with Aimee Rawlins, freelance editor and writer covering sustainability and climate for Time and The Guardian, and formerly Senior Editor for the Impact section at Fast Company, where she managed a team covering climate, clean energy, and ESG.

Aimee's first observation is precise. The problem is not just that more fake news exists. It is that people now believe all information might be fake. Reuters found that two thirds of respondents believe foreign adversaries could be inserting falsehoods into national media. Once distrust extends to the source, it becomes indiscriminate.

The conversation moves into what happens when local journalism disappears. Research consistently finds that in communities that have lost local news, polarisation increases and social capital falls. "Instead of having a shared source, a shared truth of sorts, people look for it elsewhere, and that is not in a community-oriented place."

Aimee's magic wand: give the US National Labor Relations Board enforcement powers. Monetary penalties for illegal labour practices. Gallup found sixty-eight percent trust in unions. The institution has the public's confidence. The regulatory body cannot act. "There's zero incentive for companies not to engage in terrible practices."

The episode closes with Esler's closing line from Confucius, via O'Neill: without trust we cannot stand.

If your work touches trust, media, or corporate accountability, this episode is worth your time.

#MediaTrust #InstitutionalTrust #LocalJournalism #SustainabilityJournalism #Disinformation #TheResponsibleEdge

Timothy Clement on why construction social value has become a procurement game fifteen years after the Social Value Act. This week on The Responsible Edge, why hitting the targets and missing the community are not in contradiction, and what a three-year post-completion evaluation would change.

Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week.

A June 2026 article by Darcie Lattin of Watson, published in PBC Today, identifies a persistent gap in how the construction industry approaches social value. The industry, Lattin argues, has become good at delivering social value activities and reporting against targets. The tendency is still to focus on what is easy to measure rather than what local communities actually need.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin discusses the article with Timothy Clement, Director of Social Value and Sustainability at Morgan Sindall Construction.

Tim's response is direct. "We've gamified the very needs that the act is supposed to address." The Social Value Act, passed approximately fifteen years ago, was designed to ensure that private sector delivery of public sector contracts produced local benefit. What it produced, in many cases, was a procurement optimisation exercise. Numbers that go up. Communities that ask where it went.

The conversation covers Lattin's argument that the most impactful social value initiatives are not built from scratch but strengthen existing local programmes, Morgan Sindall's ten-question framework for testing whether a social value activity meets genuine community need, and Tim's proposed structural fix: a mandatory three-year post-completion evaluation asking not what was delivered but what changed.

Tim's magic wand is unexpected. "Compassion." Not as sentiment, but as the discipline that changes how an activity is delivered rather than what it delivers. "You don't see it on the wall of a social value thing, generally."

The episode closes on Lattin's conclusion: social value should not start with a spreadsheet. It should start with a conversation. Whether procurement frameworks can be redesigned to reward that conversation is the open question.

If your work touches construction, social value, or the governance of public contracts, this episode is worth your time.

#SocialValue #ConstructionIndustry #SocialValueAct #BuiltEnvironment #ProcurementReform #TheResponsibleEdge

Matt Bourn on the Fortune case for a Chief Trust Officer, written by Edelman's U.S. Head of Corporate Reputation. This week on The Responsible Edge, why the diagnosis of trust as unowned across the C-suite is accurate, why a new C-suite role may not fix it, and what the shift from the attention economy to the trust economy actually requires.

Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week.

A May 2026 Fortune article by Jonathan Jordan, Edelman's U.S. Head of Corporate Reputation, argues that trust is now business-critical but sits unowned across most organisations. The solution it proposes: a Chief Trust Officer, a dedicated C-suite executive whose sole mandate is earning and protecting stakeholder confidence.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin discusses the article with Matt Bourn, Director of Communications at the Advertising Association and co-author of Trusted Advertising and Sustainable Advertising.

Matt's response is precise. He agrees with the diagnosis, and notes that the article is written by a senior figure at a firm whose commercial model involves selling trust-related services to corporations. On the proposed remedy he is direct: creating a new C-suite role for trust misunderstands the problem. "The leadership team has a collective responsibility to make sure it's the most trusted business in its sector."

The conversation covers the distinction the Fortune article draws between reputation and trust, which Matt endorses as the most valuable part of the piece. It covers the Edelman research cited in the article, including the claim that sixty-one percent of people globally hold a grievance mindset and seven in ten have an insular trust mindset reluctant to extend confidence beyond their immediate circle. And it moves into Matt's own evidence from Trusted Advertising: the Giffgaff case, the Net Promoter Score as the closest proxy for trust, and the broader shift from the attention economy to a trust economy.

His magic wand: not a new C-suite title, but stronger industry self-regulation that embeds responsible practice through structure rather than communications.

"There's a huge difference between being liked and being trusted."

If your work touches brand trust, communications leadership, or the governance of responsible advertising, this episode is worth your time.

#ChiefTrustOfficer #BrandTrust #TrustEconomy #ResponsibleAdvertising #CommunicationsLeadership #TheResponsibleEdge

Dr Leeya Hendricks on the Lippincott CMO Outlook 2026 and the gap between what marketing leaders know they should do and what they are actually doing. This week on The Responsible Edge, why the short-term credibility trade-off is costing CMOs something harder to recover than a quarterly target.

Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week.

A global study of more than five hundred CMOs, conducted by Lippincott in partnership with Bloomberg Media, finds a striking gap. Marketing leaders believe long-term brand building is critical for sustainable growth. They are systematically deprioritising it anyway, trading brand investment for short-term credibility with the C-suite.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Dr Leeya Hendricks, Managing Director and Founder of Hark Consultants, Non-Executive Director at the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and author of The Platform Playbook, about what the CMO Outlook 2026 reveals and what it obscures.

Leeya's response to the headline finding is a reframe. The short-term drift is not something being done to CMOs. It is a choice, and it reflects a failure by the marketing function to make its strategic case with sufficient rigour. "It shouldn't be a case of us being forced into a space. It's the job of the CMO to really have those strategic long-term discussions."

The conversation covers the specific AI trap the Lippincott data surfaces: CMOs defunding the digital foundations AI depends on in order to fund AI implementation itself. It covers why the strategy conversation is being mistaken for a technology conversation. And it ends with the question Leeya argues the data is really pointing at: whether boards have the capability to lead organisations in an AI-enabled economy.

"The question isn't simply whether marketers should be in the boardroom. It's whether boards have the capabilities needed to lead organisations in an AI-enabled economy."

Her magic wand: businesses that measure long-term value across customers, employees, partners, society, and shareholders. "Responsible growth isn't about sacrificing commercial performance. It's about creating businesses that can sustain it."

If your work touches marketing leadership, brand strategy, or the role of AI in commercial growth, this episode is worth your time.

#CMOStrategy #MarketingLeadership #BrandBuilding #AIMarketing #ResponsibleGrowth #TheResponsibleEdge

A 2025 Korn Ferry report finds that the Chief Sustainability Officer role is becoming one of the most strategic positions in the enterprise. Sixty-two percent of executives surveyed plan to increase sustainability budgets. The shift is real. So is the nuance underneath it.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Katja Tuomola, Head of Sustainability and Marketing Communications at MM Group, a fibre-based packaging company with over four billion euros in annual sales and fifteen thousand employees, about what the Korn Ferry findings look like in practice.

Katja's read is precise and grounded in more than twenty years in the sustainability and forest industries. The article reflects large corporate reality, not the full market. And the strategic power that is being described does not come from championing sustainability. It comes from operating as a business executive who happens to own the sustainability function.

"I am not doing this for sustainability," she says. "I am doing this for business. My number one priority is that the business does not go out, because then I will not have a job either."

At MM Group, Katja is the final approver of CapEx projects exceeding two million euros before they reach the management board. She checks CO₂ considerations, supplier footprint, and energy impact on every major capital investment. The mechanism does not require any department to champion sustainability. It requires every major commercial decision to answer sustainability questions before it is ratified.

The conversation covers how the umbrella framing of sustainability changes what a CSO actually does, why commercial credibility is the precondition for strategic trust, and why better investment decisions, not larger budgets, is the magic wand that would change everything.

If your work touches sustainability leadership, organisational strategy, or the evolving CSO role, this episode is worth your time.

#ChiefSustainabilityOfficer #CSO #SustainabilityLeadership #BusinessStrategy #CorporateSustainability #TheResponsibleEdge

Harriet Hodgson-Grove on the accounting profession's role in the UK's £105 billion net zero economy. This week on The Responsible Edge, why accountants are uniquely placed to unlock SME decarbonisation, and how embedding carbon reporting in standard practice could transform the journey to 2030. Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week.

The UK's net zero economy has grown to £105 billion and supports 1.1 million jobs. SMEs account for thirty-seven percent of UK greenhouse gas emissions. And accountants already hold most of the data needed to help those businesses start their sustainability journey.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Harriet Hodgson-Grove, Audit Partner and National Head of Sustainable Business Services at UHY Hacker Young, about an ICAEW article making the case for a bigger role for the accounting profession in the net zero economy.

Harriet's argument is practical and specific. Scope 1 and 2 emissions can be estimated from spend data already collected for the accounts. Energy, fuel, travel: it is all there. "To do their basic Scope 1 and Scope 2, we have all of that data already," she says. "We're collecting it to be able to do their accounts." The next step is making that calculation standard across management accounts rather than a bespoke sustainability add-on.

The conversation covers why framing sustainability as resilience opens doors that the word sustainability sometimes closes, how AI tools are accelerating the move from spend-based to activity-based emissions data, and what the internal confidence-building work looks like inside a mid-tier accountancy firm doing this well.

The ambition is clear. "If we had all SME businesses beginning that journey now, imagine what a difference it could make by 2030."

The profession has the entry point. The data is there. The client relationships are there. This episode is about what happens when accountants decide to use them.

If your work touches accountancy, SME sustainability, or the practical mechanics of the net zero transition, this episode is worth your time.

#NetZeroEconomy #SustainabilityAccounting #SMESustainability #CarbonReporting #AccountingForClimate #TheResponsibleEdge

In April 2026, Scotiabank and Royal Bank of Canada both withdrew their 2030 interim financed emissions reduction targets. Scotiabank went further, retiring its 2050 net zero goal entirely. Both cited changing policy assumptions, reduced data availability, and an investment environment in which climate commitments are no longer being demanded with the same force.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Charlie Bronks, Group Head of Responsible Business at Crown Agents Bank, about what the withdrawals reveal and what, if anything, the transition finance metrics offered as replacements actually demonstrate.

Charlie's reading is precise. "The more interesting question is what it says about the evolution of sustainability itself, rather than thinking that two organisations are actually dialling back." She does not dismiss the concern that withdrawing emissions targets creates cover for continued fossil fuel lending. But she argues that exiting a market or a client relationship does not reduce its emissions, and that being inside the transition is different from abandoning it.

The conversation covers Crown Agents Bank's B Corp certification and social value commercial model in emerging and frontier markets, why clients are choosing the bank on sustainability credentials, and the two and a half trillion dollar trade finance gap in underserved markets.

Her magic wand answer is structural. "I would like to see organisations recognised not for making big promises, but for consistently helping clients transition responsibly."

Whether the accountability mechanisms being built, ratings, reporting requirements, procurement criteria, arrive fast enough to make that the industry standard is the episode's open question.

If your work touches banking, ESG accountability, or responsible finance, this episode is worth your time.

#NetZero #ESGBacklash #ResponsibleFinance #TransitionFinance #BankingAccountability #TheResponsibleEdge

As of April 2026, twenty-eight jurisdictions have adopted the ISSB's sustainability disclosure standards. A further twelve are planning to. South Korea, Japan, and the United Kingdom have each issued domestic versions. The S&P Global report tracking this progress is detailed, comprehensive, and authoritative.

It does not mention GRI once.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Charles Cho, Professor of Sustainability Accounting at the Schulich School of Business, York University, and member of the Global Reporting Initiative's Global Sustainability Standards Board, about that omission and what it reveals.

The tension between ISSB and GRI is not technical. ISSB standards ask how the environment affects the company. GRI standards ask how the company affects the world. "You can see that it's a very different type of reporting," Charles says, "when you ask a company to report on what are you doing to address the issue that you are causing to the planet, versus what are you doing about the issues that the planet is creating on your business."

The conversation moves from the standards debate into the structural question underneath it. "We are so into the tree, we don't see the forest," Charles says. "We fight over reporting standards, which is ridiculous. We are far away from actual performance and action."

His magic wand answer: change the capitalist system, redesign how incentives work, and apply that change globally. Better reporting standards make companies more accountable. They do not change what companies are designed to do.

If your work touches sustainability reporting, ESG disclosure, or the structural limits of corporate accountability, this episode is worth your time.

#ISSB #SustainabilityReporting #ESG #GRI #CorporateAccountability #TheResponsibleEdge

During the May 2026 heatwave, a familiar set of narratives circulated across European platforms. Heatwaves have always existed. Scientists manipulate data. The media exaggerates. The claims were recycled. The infrastructure distributing them was not improvised.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Sara Rego, founder of Mossy, Managing Director of BeTrue, and a researcher in sustainability communication at Universidade do Minho, about a June 2026 report from the European Digital Media Observatory: The Same Old Story: A Heat Wave of Climate Disinformation.

The report identifies two overlapping economic systems driving the disinformation ecosystem. The carbon economy funds misleading content to protect its commercial interests. The attention economy's algorithms reward inflammatory content because engagement generates revenue. The two systems do not coordinate. Their incentives converge.

Sara brings a specific lens to this. Her doctoral research produced the CARE model, a peer-reviewed framework for auditing sustainability communication. Mossy, launched in June 2026, applies that model as an AI tool for identifying greenwashing risk in ESG reports and company communications before regulators find it first.

Her argument is precise: the tools being built to counter disinformation operate at the communicator level. They do not change what the algorithm amplifies. "Power and money," she says of why the disinformation ecosystem persists. "Because they think they can buy their exit out of this crisis with money."

The episode covers the organised history of climate disinformation, Russia's state-level strategy targeting the EU, the harassment of climate scientists during extreme weather events, and why reconnecting people to nature may matter more than adding more information to a saturated environment.

The incentive structure making disinformation commercially rational remains intact. That is the condition in which better sustainability communication is being attempted.

#ClimateDisinformation #Greenwashing #ESG #SustainabilityCommunication #AttentionEconomy #TheResponsibleEdge

Remote work expanded access to talent. It reduced geographic barriers and gave organisations new flexibility. But did it also create a new problem?

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Christopher Carter, CEO of Approyo, discusses the hidden trade-off inside hybrid work. After building teams across the United States, United Kingdom, India and Brazil, Christopher argues that distributed workforces create opportunities for businesses while making visibility, mentorship and career progression harder to maintain.

The conversation explores why some organisations are bringing employees back into offices, what leaders lose when informal interactions disappear, and how younger professionals can balance flexibility with career development.

Christopher also shares insights from his work in artificial intelligence, including why businesses should focus on secure, contextually relevant data and why AI should be viewed as a tool that enhances human capability rather than replaces it.

Topics include:

- The future of hybrid work

- Career progression in distributed organisations

- Why visibility still matters

- Leadership in remote teams

- AI adoption and business strategy

- Data governance and decision-making

- Organisational culture beyond the office

If the workplace has changed permanently, what happens to the relationships that careers depend on?

Listen to the full conversation to explore the question.

#HybridWork #FutureOfWork #Leadership #ArtificialIntelligence #BusinessStrategy #RemoteWork

A 2026 report, After Service: The Hidden Costs of Britain's Military on its Veterans, documents a specific failure. The legal commitments made to service leavers exist. At the transition point, they break down. Ten percent of service leavers struggle to find employment in year one. A further fifteen percent need meaningful support in the first two years.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Jim Holland, co-founder and CEO of Carma, a veteran-led climate action business that pairs corporate ESG investment with veteran employment pathways through tree planting and nature-based work.

Jim served thirteen years as a Weapons Engineering Artificer in the Royal Navy. He left at thirty, returned to Barnsley, bought a town centre pub, and spent four difficult years working out what he had lost. "I hadn't realised that I was missing three things: my forces family, my purpose and my identity." He eventually built Carma to address the gap he had lived through, connecting corporate sustainability budgets to veteran employment outcomes through a mechanism that is commercially self-sustaining.

The conversation covers why hiring managers misread veterans as threats rather than assets, why nature-based work changes people in ways office environments cannot, and why Jim believes climate action and social value are a price businesses have never had to pay, not a cost.

"Companies that do it now are stealing the march," he says. "They're being pioneers, not reacting to legislation."

The veteran support system has not closed its gap. The question the episode leaves open is whether the market can.

If your work touches veteran employment, ESG investment, or corporate social value, this episode is worth your time.

#VeteranEmployment #ClimateAction #ESG #TreePlanting #SocialValue #TheResponsibleEdge

China is the world's largest carbon emitter and its largest producer of solar panels, electric vehicles, and battery storage. Those facts are not a paradox. From a Chinese cultural and political perspective, they are entirely consistent.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Paul Gladston, Judith Nielsen Chair Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of New South Wales Sydney, about an article titled A Green World Order with Chinese Characteristics: Implications for Global Climate Cooperation.

Paul's argument is precise. The analysis of China's climate positioning is limited because it focuses on the socio-economic and political while leaving out the cultural variable. "I often think that in order to decode some aspects of that discussion and give a richer view of that, one has to address culture. Leaving it out rather limits the discussion."

The conversation covers the Confucian pragmatic idealism behind China's long-term strategic orientation, why Western frameworks misread Chinese climate commitment as bad faith, and why the global climate debate "remains westernised" despite its global ambitions.

Paul is clear-eyed throughout. "We should not simply dress China up as some perfect exemplar of how to develop a green society." The point is not that China's approach is superior. It is that climate cooperation is being attempted between parties who mean fundamentally different things by the word.

If your work touches climate policy, China, or the cultural dimensions of sustainability, this episode is worth your time.

#ChinaClimate #GreenTech #ClimateDiplomacy #Sinosphere #CulturalIntelligence #TheResponsibleEdge

The energy transition has a materials problem most corporate sustainability reports do not address. Wind turbines, electric vehicles, and grid-scale batteries require cobalt, lithium, and nickel extracted from mines. The governance architecture sitting between those mines and the finished product is, in most supply chains, structurally incomplete.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with J.J. Messner, Sector Lead for Downstream Purchasers at the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, about a 2025 analysis of how CDOP and the Science Based Targets initiative are attempting to give carbon accountability sharper teeth.

JJ brings two decades of field experience across more than a hundred countries, from directing the Fragile States Index at the Fund for Peace to leading responsible sourcing at Microsoft. His argument is precise: the frameworks governing responsible mining are well-designed, but they struggle to reach the people making day-to-day sourcing decisions, because those people are appraised on cost, quality, and timeliness, and nothing else.

"You're looking at people who have the responsibility without the accountability and people who have the accountability without the responsibility."

The conversation covers why excluding risky suppliers moves the problem without solving it, why supplier capacity investment is the structural alternative, and why the green energy transition cannot be separated from the question of who bears the cost of the mining it requires.

If your work touches supply chains, responsible sourcing, or the material reality of net zero, this episode is worth your time.

#ResponsibleSourcing #CriticalMinerals #SupplyChainAccountability #ResponsibleMining #GreenTransition #TheResponsibleEdge

Greenpeace has called out the International Olympic Committee for accepting sponsorship from Eni, the Italian fossil fuel company, for the 2026 Winter Games. The charge is precise: a company contributing to global warming is funding an event whose future depends on snow and ice.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin uses that story as the starting point for a broader conversation with Manuela Zoninsein, CEO and co-founder of Kadeya, about why the economics of single use and fossil fuels hold even when the environmental case against them is overwhelming.

Kadeya has built a bottling plant that fits inside a vending machine. Stainless steel bottles are dispensed, returned, washed, sanitised, and refilled on-site with no plastic, no deposit, and a ninety-nine percent return rate across five commercial deployments. The model cuts carbon footprint by seventy-five percent and costs a third less than single use at current volumes. It works not because consumers changed their behaviour, but because the infrastructure was designed to match the convenience of what it is replacing.

Manuela's magic wand answer is a free and open carbon market, one that would reprice every commercial activity to reflect its true environmental cost. She is clear-eyed about why that does not yet exist: the additionality problem in carbon crediting, the difficulty of sizing a genuinely comprehensive market, and the risk that credits function as purchased permission to keep polluting.

"How do you create a cap? How do you really say that you've got the full market under consideration? I don't know that you can."

The episode does not resolve that question. It makes the structure of the problem visible. If your work sits at the intersection of packaging, carbon markets, or the economics of sustainability, this episode is worth your time.

#CarbonMarkets #Greenwashing #SingleUsePlastic #RefillRevolution #ESG #TheResponsibleEdge

Research suggests forty percent of stressed senior leaders are currently considering stepping down. That figure arrives as organisations face climate risk, AI disruption, and shifting workforce expectations simultaneously. The leadership most needed is the leadership most at risk.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Adrian Ferraro, founder of The Bioasis, an off-grid adventure and conservation company delivering nature-based retreats for corporate leadership teams and school groups on a 5,000-acre estate in South Devon.

Adrian's argument is operational rather than therapeutic. Office-based resilience training does not change the conditions producing burnout. A C-suite team spending three days off-grid, working together outside their normal hierarchy, encountering conservation work with fifty-year time horizons, returns to the office with a different perspective. "If it's raining, it rains on everybody equally," he says.

The conversation covers the lag between educating young people and seeing that thinking reach boardrooms, why resilience alone does not solve the leadership crisis, and the Harvard Business Review finding that nine out of ten people would accept lower pay for more meaningful work.

Adrian is also candid about the limits of what a three-day retreat can do. The structural pressures producing burnout require more than an intervention. They require change. "Being a business that actively makes the world a better place is a really powerful motivator," he says.

Whether that is sufficient to retain the leaders currently considering leaving is the episode's unresolved question. If your work touches leadership, resilience, or purpose-driven business, this episode is worth your time.

#LeadershipResilience #BurnoutCrisis #NatureAndBusiness #PurposeLedBusiness #ResponsibleLeadership #TheResponsibleEdge

Climate communication has a problem that more data will not fix. Research from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication shows that 72 percent of Americans believe global warming is happening, but only 45 percent expect it to harm them personally. Scientific consensus messaging, the most common communication tool, can entrench scepticism rather than reduce it, particularly among those with an active distrust of scientific institutions.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Kim Grob, Founding Partner of Right On, a sustainability communications agency working across corporate sustainability, nonprofits, and foundations. The conversation is anchored by a University of Chicago analysis of climate communication research, which finds that value-based, audience-targeted messaging consistently outperforms consensus-based approaches.

Grob's argument is direct: the sustainability sector has avoided the tools of marketing, associating them with greenwashing and overconsumption. That reluctance has been costly. "The same principles that we use across all of these different types of marketing campaigns have to be applied to our sustainability communications," she says.

The episode covers how identity and ideological filters shape what audiences hear, the Great Salt Lake as a case study in aspiration-led environmental messaging, and what it would mean to shift the objects of desire rather than the structure of desire itself.

"You cannot motivate someone through despair," Grob observes. The question the episode leaves open is whether the marketing playbook that built consumer culture can move fast enough, across a wide enough audience, to change it.

If your work sits at the intersection of communications, sustainability, and behaviour change, this episode is worth your time.

#ClimateComms #SustainabilityCommunication #ClimateMessaging #ResponsibleMarketing #BehaviourChange #TheResponsibleEdge

When OpenAI completed its restructuring as a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation in October 2025, it did not create any new mandate to publish safety metrics, disclose how outputs are generated, or give civil society organisations formal standing in governance. A public benefit corporation requires directors to consider broader stakeholder interests. It does not require them to demonstrate that they have.

That distinction is the subject of this episode of The Responsible Edge. Host Charlie Martin speaks with Asher Jay, National Geographic Explorer, systems strategist, and Chief Network Architect of the Shareholder Democracy Network, about a Financial Times piece asking whether public benefit corporations can solve AI governance challenges.

Jay's position is direct. "Just making it about intention and not having tangible ways to translate that into practice is a cop-out." She traces OpenAI's structural evolution from nonprofit to capped-profit entity to PBC as a case study in how governance language can travel further than governance substance. Anthropic, also a PBC, faces the same test.

The conversation covers mandatory safety metric disclosure, output-level transparency, why retail proxy voting is a practical lever that currently goes unused, and why civil society should hold voting seats, not advisory roles, at AI company board level.

"AI is also a privilege," Jay observes. "I don't think it reaches a vast majority that we don't even converse about."

The governance question is not resolved here. Its structure is made visible. If these questions sit close to your work, this episode is worth your time.

#AIGovernance #PublicBenefitCorporation #OpenAI #CorporateAccountability #ShareholderDemocracy #TheResponsibleEdge

Most sustainability professionals inside organisations spend the majority of their time on reporting. That was not the original intent.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Kelsey Parsons, a global sustainability consultant and former in-house sustainability officer, about what that compliance burden is doing to the people carrying it.

Parsons draws on experience across corporate sustainability, media, and the maritime sector. She describes a structural pattern: professionals hired to create change end up consumed by disclosure requirements. "Every in-house sustainability person ends up working on some level of reporting," she says. The frameworks multiply. The capacity to think strategically does not expand alongside them.

The conversation moves across the current ESG backlash, the divergence between organisations that are genuinely committed and those that were never serious, and what Parsons calls the "alphabet salad situation" of overlapping standards. She argues that reporting will eventually narrow and, when it does, will become more useful as a foundation for innovation rather than an obstacle to it.

Parsons also reflects on sustainability in the Caribbean, where she grew up, and the gap between governmental ambition and corporate practice in emerging coastal economies.

The episode closes with a direct challenge to how the sustainability function is positioned inside organisations. "I will scrap sustainability as a word and probably put in value-maker, change-maker, something like that instead," Parsons says. It is a small linguistic shift with a specific claim attached to it: that what a department is called determines whether a board treats it as peripheral or essential.

Whether renaming changes the structural conditions is left, deliberately, unresolved. If these questions sit close to your work, this episode is worth your time.

#Sustainability #ESGReporting #SustainabilityLeadership #CorporateResponsibility #ClimateAction #TheResponsibleEdge

Circular economy is one of the clearest ideas in sustainable construction. Close material loops, reuse existing structures, extend the life of assets. The business case has been made. So why does it stall in practice?

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Charlie Martin speaks with structural engineer Amira Damji, Director of Additive Sustainability, about the structural and contractual reasons circular construction struggles to become the default in the UK built environment.

The conversation examines the incentives governing developer behaviour, the fragmented nature of construction contracts, and the limited ability of smaller firms to push against client briefs. It looks at why sustainability teams cluster around the largest players, why reclaimed material remains more expensive than virgin supply, and why regulatory levers such as VAT reductions would help but not solve the problem.

Amira argues that designers, contractors and producers should remain accountable for what they build long after handover. "We have responsibility of the end of life." The current system is organised in the opposite direction. Responsibility ends cleanly at every contract boundary.

"Someone's contract ends and someone's contract begins."

The episode also covers the language of "asset maintenance" as an alternative framing to circular economy, the role of perception in what a sector treats as valuable, and the observation that large regulated projects outperform smaller ones on sustainability because compliance requires it.

A conversation about where the built environment is structurally misaligned, and what it would take to close the loop.

Listen to the full episode now.

#CircularEconomy #BuiltEnvironment #EmbodiedCarbon #StructuralEngineering #sustainableconstruction #retrofit

Climate communication is often treated as a messaging problem. This episode examines why that assumption may be flawed.

The discussion centres on a widely shared article arguing that climate messaging should become more human, more local, and more relevant. While this addresses tone, it may overlook a more fundamental constraint: timing and incentives.

“It’s very difficult to think about the climate if you can’t pay the bills.”

Ben Wynn, co-founder of Glad Climate, argues that behaviour is shaped less by understanding and more by immediate benefit. His model reframes climate participation through financial savings rather than moral appeal.

“Save money, and you’ll help save the climate.”

The episode explores how Glad uses brand marketing budgets to fund consumer savings, which in turn support greenhouse gas removal. It also examines a broader issue in corporate climate strategy: the gap between reducing future emissions and addressing accumulated impact.

“You can’t call yourself responsible if you’re not trying to clean it up.”

This is a discussion about incentives, not messaging. It considers whether climate action depends less on persuasion and more on how participation is designed.

Listen to understand where current approaches fall short and what may need to change.

#ClimateCommunication #BehaviourChange #SustainabilityStrategy #ESG #ResponsibleMarketing

Consumers transact daily with limited visibility into who they are buying from. At the same time, trust in institutions is fragmenting, and information is abundant but contested.

In this episode, Raja Darbari, co-founder of Ample, explains how payment data can be used to surface sustainability signals at the point of transaction. His model integrates merchant-level data into banking apps, translating complex information into simple labels.

He describes the problem directly: “No one knows all the time to do the research or verify those claims.” He also frames the ambition in restrained terms: “It’s to give people the right information so they can make informed decisions.”

The conversation explores the limits of that approach. Cost and convenience still shape behaviour. Trust remains fragile. “The only shortage is credibility,” he says, pointing to a landscape shaped by greenwashing and synthetic content.

There is no claim of resolution. Instead, the discussion examines whether visibility can influence behaviour at scale, and what happens when responsibility shifts from institutions to individuals.

Listen to understand how payments, data, and trust intersect in a fragmented information environment.

#SustainabilityData #Fintech #Trust #ConsumerBehavior #ESG

Office furniture waste is not a materials problem. It is a system problem.

In this episode, Dr Greg Lavery explains why large volumes of usable office furniture are still discarded every day in the UK. Decisions are driven by lease cycles, procurement incentives, and design trends rather than asset life.

Greg is founder of Rype Office and a member of the UK Circular Economy Taskforce. His work focuses on replacing new furniture demand with remanufactured supply that matches new in performance and appearance.

He traces the issue back to an early engineering experience. A power station designed for decades had waste systems planned for seven years. “That’s not the right answer,” he says.

Today, the same misalignment appears in office interiors. Furniture is replaced at lease end regardless of condition. Global supply chains add cost and risk, yet disposal remains the default.

Greg explains how remanufacturing works in practice, including material restoration, design integration, and cost outcomes. He also outlines why adoption remains slow.

“If your bonus… depended on selling more new stuff, of course you’re incentivised to sell more new stuff.”

The conversation examines where incentives block change, how government procurement is beginning to intervene, and why individual decision-makers remain central to progress.

Listen to understand why circular models exist, but have not yet displaced the linear system.

#CircularEconomy #BuiltEnvironment #Sustainability #SupplyChains #Procurement

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Pablo Lloyd examines why ethics often fails in real business environments.

The common explanation is lack of time. Leaders are under pressure, dealing with targets, and moving quickly. Ethics is seen as an additional burden.

Pablo challenges that directly. The issue is not time. It is how leadership is defined.

Drawing on his experience as a CEO, he describes operating at speed where “the world is coming at you.” In that environment, anything treated as optional disappears.

He reframes ethics as a decision tool rather than an added responsibility. “This is actually a tool to help the stress become bearable.” When used properly, ethics reduces the number of viable options and clarifies decisions.

The episode explores how this works in practice, why it creates internal friction, and why there is no single standard that resolves it.

This is a discussion about how leaders actually make decisions under pressure, and what changes when ethics is part of that process.

#BusinessEthics #Leadership #DecisionMaking #CorporateResponsibility #Strategy

Sustainability strategy is increasingly central to business. But financial systems are not built to support it.

In this episode, Amelia Woodley explains why Chief Sustainability Officers face a structural challenge. Businesses operate on short-term reporting cycles, while sustainability risks unfold over decades.

Amelia draws on over 20 years of experience embedding ESG into commercial strategy. She explains how sustainability often loses out in capital allocation decisions because it cannot demonstrate immediate financial return.

“Businesses are just bunkered down short term in a survival mode.”

She also addresses the perception problem facing sustainability leaders. “They’re perceived as being kind of moral highwaymen.”

The discussion explores how sustainability must be reframed. Instead of positioning ESG as a separate agenda, it needs to connect directly to revenue growth, cost reduction, and risk management.

The episode also examines the future of the CSO role. As sustainability becomes embedded across organisations, the question is whether the role becomes less visible or more critical.

This is a conversation about financial systems, not just sustainability. It focuses on how businesses price risk, allocate capital, and define value.

Listen to understand where sustainability strategy succeeds, where it fails, and why the gap remains unresolved.

#ESG #SustainabilityStrategy #CorporateResponsibility #BusinessStrategy #ClimateRisk

Food waste remains one of the largest inefficiencies in the global food system. Around one billion tonnes of food are wasted every year.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Charlie Bigham discusses how these issues appear inside a real food manufacturing business.

Charlie started the company from his kitchen table in 1996. Today the business produces prepared meals from two kitchens and employs around 750 people.

The conversation explores why Charlie believes many companies start in the wrong place when discussing responsibility.

"I think you're much better off saying, let's focus on your product or your service and make that extraordinary."

For Charlie, responsibility follows product quality rather than replacing it.

The episode looks closely at operational decisions inside food production. Charlie explains how measuring production processes allowed the company to reduce waste dramatically and redirect surplus food to charities.

Over three years the business eliminated edible food waste and redistributed more than half a million meals.

Charlie also discusses ingredient discipline, the debate around ultra-processed food, and why packaging decisions can involve real commercial trade-offs.

Later in the discussion the conversation turns to the broader role of business.

"Business cannot exist purely for profit. It has to do more than that."

Listen to the full episode to hear how operational discipline shapes responsible business in practice.

#ResponsibleBusiness #FoodIndustry #FoodWaste #BusinessLeadership #Sustainability

The paint industry increasingly presents itself as sustainable. Labels highlight “water-based”, “low VOC”, and other environmental claims.

But what actually sits inside the tin?

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Charlie Martin speaks with historic building envelope consultant and paint manufacturer Michiel Brouns about the gap between sustainability language and material reality in the coatings industry.

Michiel explains how his work began in historic building preservation in the Netherlands before moving to the UK in 2006. While advising architects on heritage glazing, he repeatedly encountered the same question: which paint should be used on historic timber?

The answer, linseed oil paint, had centuries of proven use. Yet many architects had never encountered it. “Somebody has to manufacture it,” Michiel recalls. That realisation led to the creation of Brouns & Co.

The conversation then turns to the wider industry debate. Discussing the British Coatings Federation’s guide on environmental claims, Michiel argues the sector often relies on terminology rather than material transparency. He describes the approach as “a perfect example of flooding the zone.”

The discussion explores the structural power of petrochemical supply chains, the environmental implications of modern coatings, and the growing demand for natural materials in construction.

Michiel also outlines the single change he believes would shift the market most quickly: honest ingredient listings on building materials.

Listen to the full episode for a detailed discussion on natural paints, historic buildings, and the communication gap inside the sustainability conversation.

#ResponsibleBusiness #SustainableBuilding #Greenwashing #NaturalMaterials #Architecture

Sustainability standards are designed to drive real-world impact. Certification schemes cite income gains, biodiversity protection and improved environmental management. But do they transform systems, or simply standardise compliance?

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Pooran Desai, founder of OnePlanet.com and creator of the One Planet Living framework, examines the evidence behind sustainability standards and where they fall short.

Drawing on his experience in sustainable forestry, Pooran describes Forest Stewardship Council certification as “an absolute nightmare,” arguing that auditors often had “nowhere near their knowledge and understanding” compared to the woodland workers they assessed. For him, certification can shift authority away from practitioners and toward box-ticking.

He challenges the reliance on evidence-led policymaking, stating, “Evidence is only what you look for.” Metrics capture what is measured, not necessarily what matters. Standards, he argues, should act as a minimum safeguard. “Regs for the dregs,” he says, suggesting compliance should be a floor rather than a signal of leadership.

The discussion moves beyond certification to corporate governance and shareholder primacy. If sustainability requires systems thinking, can it be delivered through predefined metrics alone?

Listen to explore the tension between compliance and authenticity, and whether standards can ever substitute for stewardship.

#SustainabilityStandards #ResponsibleBusiness #SystemsThinking #ESG #CorporateGovernance

The built environment produces more than one third of global waste. Yet only around one percent of building materials are reused.

In this episode, Tina Snedker Kristensen, founder of BuildDirection and former Head of Sustainability & Communications at Troldtekt A/S, examines why circularity in construction remains structurally constrained.

Drawing on more than two decades inside the building materials industry, Tina explains how certification frameworks such as Cradle to Cradle shifted sustainability from communication to operational discipline. “It’s not just a stamp that you get,” she says. “You have to work continuously and improve on all five criteria.”

The conversation moves from theory to site-level reality. Dismantling decades-old materials is labour intensive. Technical performance must be reverified. Ownership is often unclear. Virgin materials remain cheaper because industrial systems are optimised for linear production.

Denmark’s tightening building regulations are beginning to shift demand. Reused materials can now count as zero CO₂ in life-cycle assessments. But legacy buildings lack documentation. “If I had a magic wand,” Tina says, “I would hope that it could sort of scan a building and define which kind of materials are there.”

This episode examines where circular ambition meets commercial constraint, and what must change for reuse to move beyond one percent.

Listen to understand the operational reality behind the circular construction narrative.

#CircularEconomy #SustainableConstruction #BuiltEnvironment #ESGStrategy #CradleToCradle

Compostable packaging is widely presented as a sustainable alternative to plastic. But does it solve the core issue?

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Clare Brass, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Moree, examines why compostables often fail in practice and why recycling cannot keep pace with rising consumption.

“Very often if you switch one material for another material, you’re just putting the problem somewhere else,” she says.

Claire explains how contamination undermines recycling streams, why recycled material degrades in quality, and why disposal systems were never designed to absorb endless growth. “We have to turn off the tap.”

The conversation then turns to reuse. At Moree, Claire works with coffee roasteries to replace single-use one-kilogram bags with reusable five-kilogram vessels, supported by tracking software and clear commercial incentives. Over time, most clients reduce packaging costs while cutting waste and emissions.

The episode explores upfront cost barriers, incumbent business models built on volume, and why start-ups may be better positioned to test alternative systems.

Listen to the full conversation for a detailed examination of what systemic change in packaging really requires.

#CircularEconomy #ReusablePackaging #Sustainability #CoffeeIndustry #SystemsThinking

Most boards believe they are prepared for a cyber attack.

Joseph Hubback reviewed research showing that 94% of boards feel comfortable with their security posture. Yet cyber attacks continue every week.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Joseph explains why cyber risk becomes an executive decision the moment systems fail. “When the attack happens, the CSO will do all they can,” he says, “but it’s the CEO and the executives that will be in the limelight.”

He challenges two familiar responses.

First, education. Many organisations focus on phishing simulations and awareness campaigns. Joseph argues that leaders should begin with assets. What revenue streams matter most? What digital systems keep the company trading? Protection should start with value.

Second, collaboration. Industry groups share ideas, but few organisations define what support will look like in a crisis. Joseph asks what agreements are in place before the breach. Who provides capacity if systems go down? How will customers and suppliers respond?

This is a conversation about governance, accountability and complacency. Cyber security is tested under pressure. The real question is whether boards understand what they stand to lose.

Listen to explore why confidence may not equal preparedness.

#CyberSecurity #BoardLeadership #RiskManagement #Resilience #CorporateGovernance

Should agencies be held responsible for the harm caused by their clients?

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, we examine one of the most difficult questions facing consultancies and creative agencies today. As scrutiny around greenwashing, ethics, and accountability intensifies, neutrality is no longer an easy defence.

Becky Holland, founder and CEO of BH&P, has spent her career inside marketing, consultancy, and behaviour change. She works with organisations in energy, finance, and technology, sectors where impact is complex and rarely clean. Her view is grounded, pragmatic, and shaped by lived experience.

“There’s a lot of damage that can be done by good people working inside bad systems,” Becky says.

This conversation explores:

- Whether agencies can ever be morally neutral

- How to interrogate the brief behind the brief

- Why refusing work is sometimes easier than doing it responsibly

- The limits of standards, certifications, and absolutes

- What real accountability in consultancy could look like

Becky argues that most organisations operate in grey areas, and that walking away does not always reduce harm. Instead, responsibility lies in rigour, judgement, and an honest assessment of impact.

This episode is essential viewing for anyone working in consulting, marketing, strategy, or sustainability who is grappling with where responsibility truly sits.

#ResponsibleEdge #EthicalConsulting #AgencyAccountability #BehaviourChange #PurposeAndProfit

Many organisations are busy without being effective.

Projects multiply, initiatives overlap, and leaders spend increasing time maintaining activity rather than deciding what should stop. In this episode of The Responsible Edge, John reflects on why motion is often mistaken for progress, and why responsible leadership requires restraint as much as ambition.

Drawing on a career that spans military service, non-profit leadership, global corporate work, and the founding of Anthropy, John explains why middling projects are harder to end than failing ones, how emotional attachment distorts decision-making, and why organisations rarely apply clear endpoints to internal initiatives.

The conversation explores purpose not as a slogan, but as a practical filter for decisions. John describes how clarity of purpose can simplify choices, reduce distraction, and allow authority to be delegated without constant escalation.

The episode also addresses the wider context leaders operate within. Short-term reporting cycles, constant media noise, and social distraction make focus harder to sustain. John argues that courage and maturity are now more valuable leadership traits than speed or visibility.

The discussion closes with a grounded note of optimism, drawn from John’s work with emerging leaders who are already practising a quieter, more deliberate form of leadership.

#ResponsibleLeadership #PurposeInBusiness #LongTermThinking #OrganisationalFocus #EthicalLeadership

Artificial intelligence is moving fast into executive search. Promising speed, scale, and efficiency, it is reshaping how leaders are identified and shortlisted.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Simon Heal, founder of Myco Search, explains why judgment cannot be automated when leadership decisions shape long-term outcomes. Drawing on more than twenty-five years in executive search and his current work in food and agri-food technology, Heal explores where AI adds value and where it creates risk.

The conversation covers:

- How AI tools are changing recruitment workflows

- Why historical data can reinforce narrow leadership patterns

- The danger of filtering out potential in emerging industries

- What transparency should look like in executive search

- Why food system leadership carries ethical weight

“AI is very good at spotting patterns,” Heal says. “It cannot spot potential.”

This episode is for founders, boards, recruiters, and anyone thinking seriously about how technology should support, not replace, human responsibility in hiring.

Listen, reflect, and consider where judgment belongs.

#ExecutiveSearch #AIandWork #FoodTech #Leadership #ResponsibleBusiness

The UK’s emissions are falling. But what if the numbers are hiding a deeper problem?

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Charlie Martin speaks with Sarah Le Gresley, Group Innovation and Sustainability Director at Michelmersh Brick Holdings, about the difference between territorial and consumption-based emissions and why it matters for British industry.

Sarah explains how emissions reductions across the UK ceramics sector are partly the result of factory closures, not just cleaner production. As manufacturing moves overseas, consumption remains unchanged, jobs disappear, and supply chains become more fragile.

“It’s not just an impact to our emissions,” Sarah says. “It’s an impact to our jobs.”

The conversation explores energy costs, offshoring, skills loss, and the unintended consequences of climate accounting that focuses on borders rather than behaviour.

“We are effectively offshoring manufacturing products to other countries,” Sarah says. “But we’re still consuming those products.”

This episode looks beyond headline targets to ask what responsibility really requires from climate policy, industry, and consumers.

#ResponsibleBusiness #ClimatePolicy #UKManufacturing #Sustainability

Recruiting for frontline roles has become increasingly difficult. Employers face high turnover, rising training costs, and constant pressure on customer-facing staff.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, we speak with Christy Acton, founder and CEO of Standing Tall, about why some employers are finding stronger performance by hiring people who have experienced homelessness.

Standing Tall places people into demanding frontline roles alongside secure housing and twelve months of ongoing support. Employers are not choosing this model for reputational reasons. They are choosing it because it works.

Christy explains how lived hardship can translate into emotional intelligence, why recruits who have fought to re-enter work often stay longer, and how inclusive hiring can solve real workforce problems rather than create new ones.

The conversation challenges the idea that social value sits apart from commercial outcomes. Instead, it shows how recruitment decisions shape who succeeds inside an organisation, and why widening the talent pool can improve service where pressure is highest.

This episode is a grounded discussion about labour shortages, overlooked capability, and what happens when business need leads the way.

#InclusiveRecruitment #FrontlineWork #WorkforceStrategy #SocialValue #EthicalBusiness

Urban sprawl is often framed as a practical response to growth. Land is cheaper. Housing can be delivered quickly. Political resistance appears lower. But the long-term consequences are rarely counted.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, architect and urban designer Alec Tzannes reflects on why cities continue to expand outward, despite decades of evidence that this approach fragments communities and accelerates environmental damage. Drawing on more than forty years of practice, he argues that sprawl is not only a planning failure but a cultural one.

Tzannes traces his thinking back to the 1970s, when early environmental research challenged the assumption that growth could continue without limit. He explains why much modern development, including poorly designed density, lost public trust, and how this legacy still shapes resistance to urban living today.

Central to the discussion is a deceptively simple idea. “The first principle of sustainability is make it beautiful.” For Tzannes, buildings and neighbourhoods that people love are more likely to endure, reducing the need for demolition, rebuilding, and further land consumption.

The conversation explores real-world examples of dense neighbourhoods that work, the political incentives that favour sprawl, and why containing the urban footprint may be one of the most urgent responsibilities facing cities.

This is a measured discussion about systems, culture, and the long view. It asks not how cities can grow faster, but how they can grow better.

#UrbanSprawl #SustainableCities #UrbanDesign #SystemsThinking #ResponsibleBusiness

As AI moves deeper into organisations, trust is becoming a design challenge rather than a cultural aspiration.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Charlie Martin speaks with Steve Garnett about a defining moment from Salesforce’s early cloud years. When systems failed, leadership chose to publish every outage publicly.

“We published all of it,” Garnett recalls. “Because we felt that was the right thing to do.”

That decision offers a powerful lesson for today’s AI-driven organisations. As algorithms increasingly decide what employees see, how customers are served, and how performance is measured, transparency becomes essential to trust.

Grounded in a Cerkl article on AI and company culture, the conversation explores:

- Why hiding failure undermines trust

- What transparency looks like when systems make decisions

- How trust must be designed into AI

- Why leaders remain accountable for automated outcomes

This episode is a practical reflection on responsibility, leadership, and what it takes to earn trust when machines act on our behalf.

#ResponsibleAI #CompanyCulture #Leadership #FutureOfWork #EthicalBusiness

The ESG backlash is real, but it is often misunderstood. In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Charlie Martin speaks with Jonathan Hall, Managing Partner of Kantar’s Sustainable Transformation Practice, about what is actually happening inside businesses as sustainability becomes politically charged.

Hall explains why some companies are retreating, why most are staying the course quietly, and why ESG language itself has become a liability. Drawing on global client work and academic insight, he argues that sustainability has not disappeared. It has matured.

The conversation covers:

- Why ESG confidence has faded

- Which companies are stepping back and why

- How sustainability language is changing

- The role of proximity and lived experience in behaviour change

- What leadership looks like in a period of backlash

“We’re constantly having to make the argument,” Hall says. Yet he believes this moment may force a more serious, more disciplined approach to sustainability inside business.

Listen for a calm, unsentimental assessment of where ESG stands and what comes next.

#ESG #Sustainability #ResponsibleBusiness #BusinessLeadership #SystemsThinking

What does it mean for a business to move beyond sustainability and into regeneration? In this episode of The Responsible Edge, consultant and Overstory Earth co founder Zoe Duvall breaks down the shift with clarity and grounded experience.

Zoe explains why many organisations are discovering that traditional sustainability is not enough for the world they now operate in. Regenerative systems thinking looks at entire systems. Soil, energy, housing, food, finance and community wellbeing are treated as connected rather than separate. As she puts it, these are all “linked” systems that shape whether an organisation can thrive.

We also explore Zoe’s own journey. She reflects on losing her father, a “serial entrepreneur,” and how his early death shaped her understanding of ambition and health. She shares the six months she spent travelling in a campervan after a health scare and how it taught her to be “more in tune with my body.”

Key topics include:

• What regenerative thinking adds beyond sustainability

• Insights from Hannah Pathak’s Economist Impact article

• Lessons from PCRAM and cross sector collaboration

• Why agriculture offers clear evidence of regenerative value

• How short term incentives block long term resilience

• Why founders are creating new support networks

• The “future goggles” Zoe wishes leaders could wear

Zoe’s message is simple. Regeneration is not abstract. The tools already exist and the need is immediate. If you value careful, real world conversations on responsible business, subscribe for more.

#RegenerativeBusiness #SystemsThinking #Sustainability #ClimateResilience #ResponsibleBusiness

Can fashion supply chains cut emissions at scale while keeping factories competitive. In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Charlie speaks with Jamie Rusby, co founder of Generation One and former sustainability leader at IKEA and VELUX.

Jamie shares the reality facing many manufacturers in Bangladesh and Nepal. Some borrow at high rates and operate with narrow margins. These conditions make long term investment difficult. As he explains, “These companies have many priorities… so it needs structure for it to move.”

The conversation explores how Generation One supports rooftop solar and energy efficiency projects through planning tools, local delivery partners and impact finance that removes the need for upfront capital. The aim is to create repeatable projects that deliver savings for factories and help brands reduce emissions across their supply chains.

In this episode you will learn:

• How factory conditions shape climate decisions

• Why access to capital is a major barrier

• How long term programs strengthen trust between brands and suppliers

• What IKEA and VELUX taught Jamie about building momentum

• Why programmatic finance depends on collaboration as much as money

• How a practical model can turn climate ambition into operational change

Watch to see how determination, structure and shared incentives can help the fashion industry decarbonise at speed.

#Sustainability #SupplyChains #EnergyTransition #EthicalBusiness #ResponsibleLeadership #RealZero

How long can a business survive if its biggest customer decides it is too risky to keep?

This episode of The Responsible Edge explores the new pressure facing small and medium-sized businesses. Sustainability is no longer a distant idea. Large organisations and public bodies now expect real evidence of environmental action, social value and strong governance. For many SMEs, the change is arriving faster than they expected.

In this conversation, we look at why proof now matters more than promises. We explore how procurement teams check claims, what investors expect, and how the risks build when a single client controls most of a company’s revenue.

This episode also explains how SMEs can take practical steps.

• Build an honest carbon baseline

• Create clear and simple policies

• Understand supply-chain expectations

• Protect key accounts through transparency

• Use sustainability as a commercial advantage

The message is straightforward. Sustainability is becoming part of everyday business. It is not only about ethics. It is also about stability, competitiveness and the future of local communities.

Watch now to understand why responsible action is now part of commercial survival.

#Sustainability #ResponsibleBusiness #SMEs #Leadership #ESG #EthicalBusiness

Can planting trees help cool the planet, or has it become a simple story that hides a complex truth?

This episode of The Responsible Edge looks at how tree planting grew into a global trend and why many projects do not deliver real results. We explore how one company learned from early mistakes, built stronger tools and now focuses on forests that last.

You will hear how restoration works on the ground, why monitoring is essential and how good intent is not enough without evidence. We cover:

- When tree planting supports real climate action

- Why emission cuts still need to come first

- How monitoring and verification protect forests

- The gap between symbolic planting and long-term success

- A simple idea that could help fund nature worldwide

If you care about sustainability, real zero, ESG, the energy transition or nature-positive business, this conversation offers a calm and practical view of restoration.

Watch now to learn how to move past slogans and support forests that grow strong.

#Sustainability #Reforestation #ClimateAction #ResponsibleBusiness #NaturePositive #ResponsibleLeadership

Most people care about sustainability, they just don’t understand how it’s talked about anymore.In this episode, two experienced communications leaders unpack why the climate conversation lost its way, and how simple, honest language can bring people back in.They explore:- Why emotion alone can’t drive climate progress- The danger of “green-hushing” and why silence isn’t neutral- How to talk about progress people can actually feel — lower bills, cleaner air, safer jobs- Why corporate jargon kills trust faster than failure- What it looks like when companies tell the truth, even about the hard stuff“If you missed a target, say it,” says Cat Biggart. “People can handle bad news. What they can’t handle is spin.”Rob Agnew adds, “The minute you sound like a press release, people stop listening.”This is a conversation about honesty, language, and responsibility, and how all three shape the future of business and climate action.Watch now to learn how to talk about sustainability in a way that people can actually believe in.#Sustainability #ResponsibleBusiness #EthicalCommunication #ClimateAction #Leadership #Trust

What if the biggest part of your company’s impact isn’t in your energy bill — but in your advice?

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Jeff Twentyman, former Slaughter and May partner, UCL professor, and Green Finance Institute adviser, explains why professional services must face the real consequences of their work.

Jeff shares how his years in corporate law led him to rethink what responsibility means, how mindfulness and incentives can work together to shift behaviour, and why fairness might be the most practical climate solution of all.

You’ll learn:

- Why advice, not operations, defines a firm’s real footprint

- How self-awareness and structure can change behaviour

- Why regulation and ethics must work hand in hand

- How equality links to resilience and trust

Watch now to explore how integrity can move from intention to action.

#Sustainability #Leadership #EthicalBusiness #ESG #ResponsibleAdvice #BehaviourChange