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192 / Our Favorite Sustainable Business Links of 2025 (+ Our New Accelerator Program for Impact-Focused Freelancers!)
Published 3 days ago • 8 min read
Hey there change agents 👋
Hard to believe this is our last newsletter of 2025!
While I was pulling together our annual “Favorite Sustainable Business Links of 2025” list (below) I found myself reflecting on the energy and momentum this year has brought, in a time when not all momentum in the wider world has felt so positive.
Baby Isabel arrived in January, bringing a burst of joy that set the tone for everything that followed. Stepping back into work was its own adventure with two little ones in the mix — but ultimately an energizing one, thanks to the incredible projects and partners we had the privilege of working with this year. Shout-out to J.Crew Group, Maybelline, Etsy and our other collaborators — you know who you are and I’m so grateful for you. 🫶
Then came a late summer surge of momentum. Being back in New York for Climate Week, presenting our New Landscape of Sustainability Communications workshop at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit and reconnecting with so many of you IRL sparked something in me — a sense of possibility, of creativity, of “OK, time to shake things up”.
That spark carried through the fall, fueling a flurry of new and refreshed offerings at Reconsidered:
We launched and ran a successful first cohort of our Sustainability Communications Reset masterclass series with 30 sustainability professionals (and will run a second cohort in January).
And today, I’m so excited to introduce Freelance Foundations — our new accelerator program for impact-focused freelancers, fractional leaders and solopreneurs kicking off in February 🎉 (more below). We’ll be hosting a free Annual Planning Workshop on January 21st, which will give you a sense for what you can expect.
It’s been a season of creating, experimenting, stretching and remembering why I do this work: to help sustainable business leaders — organizations and individuals — drive bigger, bolder, more sustainable change… the kind that feels increasingly urgent given the brave new world we’re navigating.
And this creative, experimental energy? I’m carrying it with me right into 2026. Expect more community offerings, more outside-the-mold learning experiences and more ways for Reconsidered to support and amplify the important work you’re doing for this wild world of ours.
As always, I welcome your ideas for what you’d love to see from us next. We go further when we go together — I really believe that.
With gratitude for this community and excitement for the year ahead,
P.S. We start our annual Winter Pause on December 19th, which means we’ll be skipping the next few newsletter editions and jobs curations (and may be slow to respond to email). We’ll be back in your inboxes in January, rested and refreshed!
P.P.S. My husband Dave has created a fun, free “Year In Review” generator, inspired by our annual keep-in-touch tradition. If you’re looking for a design-forward way to recap your year for friends and family, give it a try.
Say hello to Freelance Foundations — our new 12-week accelerator program for impact-focused consultants, fractional leaders and solopreneurs. If you’ve been craving sharper positioning, stronger offers, a steadier business development rhythm and a community of peers (and potential collaborators) to brainstorm with, this program is for you. Our first cohort runs from February to May with introductory pricing — and we’re running an early bird special (with a hefty discount andvaluable bonuses) until January 9th. 🙌
Sustainability needs leaders who can connect big-picture systems with real-world solutions. Northwestern’s fast and focused one-year MS in Energy & Sustainability program develops the technical and strategic skills to both think big and take action. Explore the intersection of technology, markets and public policy in their program guide.
Every year, it’s a Change Hub tradition to dedicate our December Hot Topic to Reflection.This month’s big highlight is our Year-End Celebration on December 17th, which will feature a Word of the Year Workshop co-led with Chosen Directions alignment coach Drew Taylor Cohen.
This much-shared Fast Company cover story charted “the rise and fall of an unprecedented era of business” and named what so many of us have been feeling: that parts of the “business for good” vision we’ve worked on for years may no longer fit the moment. A sobering yet strangely energizing mirror for anyone working in this field. (30 minutes)
📌 PRO-TIP: If you don’t have a Fast Company subscription, you can listen to this article for free via the audio player under the byline.
Wild stat: turns out 80–89% of the world’s population wants stronger climate action, but most people don’t realize they’re in the majority — a gap that might be holding back louder calls for change. It’s a textbook case of the behavioral science concept of “pluralistic ignorance” and was the focus of a whole fascinating article series launched on Earth Day.
From BP to Coca-Cola to FedEx, several major brands quietly walked back their climate commitments or missed them altogether in 2025. It was easy to feel disheartened, but as this deep-dive argued, the corporate retreat might force a long-overdue reckoning: voluntary pledges aren’t cutting it and it’s time for stronger regulation (and sharper attention to corporations’ political actions). (21 minutes)
One of the year’s most delightful viral surprises: Samuel L. Jackson — “the face of righteous fury in every movie ever” — spotlighting the unexpected perks of offshore wind farms. It came from Swedish energy company Vattenfall, which created its “Wind Farmed Seaweed Snacks” as a concept to show that wind infrastructure can do more than generate power; it can help regenerate ecosystems, too. This advertising trade magazine article shared the story behind the stunt. (7 minutes)
John Elkington may have dubbed 2025 the year of the “sustainability recession,” but this July edition of Tim Mohin’s Sustainability Simplified newsletter suggested that we may be nearing the bottom of the dip. I especially appreciated Mohin’s roundup of encouraging stats from recent reports — like the finding that 85% of companies have increased their sustainability investments this year. At the time, it served as a refreshing reminder that even in the midst of backlash and uncertainty, business momentum for sustainability is still very real. (5 minutes)
For more context on this year’s historic International Court of Justice climate decision, you’ll want to read this op-ed by Julian Aguon, one of the lead lawyers on the case (and fun fact — my cousin!). Using poetic prose (the dude’s a Pulitzer Prize finalist, after all) Aguon’s piece doesn’t just lay out the team’s legal strategy; it shares the deeply human stories, testimony and traditions that grounded the case, from women navigating landslides in Vanuatu to communities in Papua New Guinea forced to relocate for the fifth time. A stunning read, especially for those of us feeling disillusioned by politics-as-usual. (20 minutes)
“Fuck waiting for the end of the world like it’s a season finale … We’re the scrappy weirdos, the rebels, the fellowship, the kids on bikes with slingshots who bring the monster down.” So goes this rousing campaign from creative agency Futerra, which launched at Climate Week NYC and took narrative inspiration from all your favorite post-apocalyptic action movies.
We lost a good one this year: Jane Goodall — primatologist, zoologist, anthropologist, conservationist and heroine to environmentalists the world over (including so many in this community). In her later years, Jane centered hope as the legacy of her life’s work, as brought to life in this documentary — previously available only on Disney+ but made available to view in full on YouTube after her death. Continue the Jane-inspired binge with the award-winning 2017 documentary Jane. (93 minutes)
This thoughtful profile of veteran organizer Bill McKibben doubled as a diagnosis of the broader climate activism landscape. The piece traces how we went from inspiring school strikes and divestment wins to today’s polarization and fatigue. It also surfaced a key question: if the “confrontational protest” era is on its way out, will the “giant potluck supper” approach advocated by McKibben be able to accomplish what it couldn’t? (15 minutes — 🎁 gift link for free access)
I followed COP30 with the delightful podcast host trio of Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson. In their final “Inside COP” episode, they unpacked the last-day drama of the plenary and zoomed out to share the stories that should have dominated the headlines. While most COP coverage fixated on the politics, their summary of the economic signals emerging from COP (like this one) felt far more interesting — and hopeful. (38 min)
Felicia Garcia-Rivera is a creative strategist and a member of the Reconsidered Change Hub. In this profile, she shares what drew her to social impact, the decision to drive change within an industry and the skills she finds most important in her work.
Mondelez International is looking for a key contributor to transformational projects and analysis that enable the North American business to achieve its packaging goals. This role develops and executes solutions in organizational change, cross-functional activation and product portfolio management.
Change Hub members will wrap up the year with this cozy, communal workshop led by alignment coach and Chosen Directions founder Drew Taylor Cohen.
📆 January 15 — The Sustainability Communications Reset: Cohort 02 | 💻 Virtual | Hosted by Reconsidered. The next cohort of our three-part live virtual masterclass series on navigating the sustainability communications landscape runs January 15, 22 and 29.
📆 January 21 — Freelance Foundations Annual Planning Workshop 💻 Virtual | Hosted by Reconsidered. In this *free*live, hands-on session, Jess will give you a peek into the year-ahead planning process we use inside Reconsidered and guide you in setting some clear intentions for the year ahead. Note: Zoom registration is required to attend!
📣 Hosting any gatherings for impact professionals in 2026? We're here to help — book a Sponsored Event Post and we'll spread the word.
🧑🏫 On January 15th, we kick off the second cohort of The Sustainability Communications Reset, our new masterclass designed to help you navigate the sustainability communications landscape and communicate with confidence in 2026.
🌱Join Sister Seasons for Reimagining Leadership, a 4-month nature-inspired program for experienced women and non-binary changemakers who want to re-envision the possibilities of leadership. The program starts January 14th with group cohort and 1:1 track options — and Change Hubmembers get 10% off. **
👯 In the Reconsidered LinkedIn Group, members are sharing sustainability reporting tips, impact design forums and masterclasses for social entrepreneurs. Join 20.5k+ of us here.
📣 ** Partner Post. Kick off 2026 by spotlighting your project to thousands of our readers with a Sponsored Post.
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Get fresh finds from the world of corporate responsibility, sustainability + social impact delivered straight to your inbox, every other week. Each issue includes 5 thought-provoking links, a curated list of impact job opportunities, interviews with global impact leaders and loads of exclusive tools + resources for sustainable business professionals.
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