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.
Share
195 / Courage, Costco & “Complexity Science”
Published about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Hey there change agents 👋
Though I’m not a big football fan, I’m always curious to have a scroll through the latest Super Bowl ads. Because they’re never *just* ads; they’re a cultural snapshot, a barometer of what brands think is resonant and worth amplifying right now.
Just a few years ago, the list was full of courageous, thought-provoking spots positioning brands around the social and environmental causes of our time: equality, climate, LGBTQ+ issues. Yeah, they were still ads. But they were also an attempt, however imperfect, to tap into a broader sense of purpose and responsibility.
In a moment that feels anything but light, brands largely chose silliness and distraction. “Good Will Dunkin’”, et. al.
Hey, I enjoy a funny ad as much as the next person (on this point, the award clearly goes to Anthropic). But part of me was still scanning the list thinking, Really? That’s it?
In today’s 5 Links, we unpack what this shift signals — first through a recent op-ed unpacking why business leaders have gone silent, then through a profile of an unlikely CEO bucking the trend.
Nearly 70 sustainability and communications professionals have taken Reconsidered’s Sustainability Communications Reset, and we’re considering holding a 3rd session later this spring if we get enough waitlist interest. If you’ve been looking to upskill your sustainability comms this year, drop your name below 👇
The Reconsidered Newsletter reaches 16,500+ of the best and brightest in sustainability and social impact, and we’ve had the honor of amplifying opportunities for organizations like Acre, B Lab, Environmental Defense Fund, Etsy, GreenBiz, Hershey's, Peloton, Reformation, The Nature Conservancy and Under Armour. Book a Sponsored Post via our easy portal — or if you’ve got creative ideas for teaming up, just hit “reply” and let us know.
The reactions we're helping our Change Hub members get from stakeholders with this month’s Hot Topic.
February’s Hot Topic in our Change Hub membership community is Business Case Building, and next week we’re hosting a dialogue on Updating the 2016 Business Case for Sustainability for 2026. If you’re looking for new approaches to communicating your impact in a way that lands, come join us!
In this measured but pointed essay, former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin questions the business community’s reluctance to push back on U.S. executive overreach. Having once been on the receiving end of corporate criticism himself, he finds today’s restraint striking. His takeaway isn’t just “speak up” — it’s “use your power.” Whether publicly or privately, leaders still have influence; the question is how (and whether) they’re willing to use it. (5 minutes)
If Rubin is asking where corporate courage has gone, this piece offers a partial answer. Costco CEO Ron Vachris, who rose through the ranks from his first job as a forklift driver, hardly fits the mold of a culture-war provocateur. And yet Costco has quietly held the line on DEI while peers retreated, and even joined a lawsuit challenging Trump-era tariffs. Analysts suggest fierce customer and employee loyalty (over 90% membership renewal) gives the company unusual cover to take these risks, making it an interesting case study in how long-term trust and operational credibility can create space to take a principled stand, without the usual blowback. (6 minutes)
A sweeping new report from Ipbes (the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, often described as the “IPCC for biodiversity”) reinforces what we’ve known for years: that companies that continue degrading nature risk undermining the very systems their profits depend on. It lays out a clear directive for business: embed biodiversity into strategy and risk management, develop credible metrics, and shift from extractive models to regenerative ones. (6 minutes)
An innovation bright spot that had me feeling hopeful this week: complexity scientist J. Doyne Farmer wants to build what he calls the “Google Maps of the global economy” — a super-simulator that models every company as a living, learning agent, so leaders can actually see the ripple effects of policy decisions before they make them. His bet? That better models could accelerate the clean energy transition and save trillions along the way. It’s big, a little mind-bending and refreshingly ambitious — the kind of systems-level thinking sustainability has been craving. (8 minutes)
While the ads were largely silent on social issues, the National Football League stepped up this year — both in their decision to hold firm on Bad Bunny’s halftime show (epic) and in their sustainability efforts. From solar-powered infrastructure at Levi’s Stadium and expanded public transit incentives to reusable PepsiCo cups and food donations to local nonprofits, the league is positioning sustainability as a “core focus.” (5 minutes)
B Lab is hiring an Insights Analyst with at least one year of data analytics experience. This role will oversee data quality, analyze trends, identify key insights and deliver recommendations on a daily basis.
💼 B Lab — Insights Analyst (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.) * B Lab is hiring an Insights Analyst with at least one year of data analytics experience. This role will oversee data quality, analyze trends, identify key insights and deliver recommendations on a daily basis.
📣 *Partner Post. Hiring for sustainability and social impact roles and racking your brain figuring out how to reach the right candidates? We can think of a way.
📆 February 4 - April 15 — Freelance Foundations| 💻 Virtual | Group Program Freelance Foundations, our new 10-week accelerator program for impact-focused independents, is in full swing! If you missed this cohort, you can join the waitlist to get notified when our next one begins.
📆 February 19 — Updating the 2016 Business Case for Sustainability for 2026| 💻 Virtual | For Change Hub Members In this hands-on working session, we’ll revisit Harvard Business Review’s foundational 2016 article on “The Comprehensive Business Case for Sustainability” and stress-test it with a 2026 lens.
📆 February 26 — Community Gathering: Brain Trust | 💻 Virtual | For Change Hub Members In this quarterly mastermind-style community gathering, Change Hub members come together to collectively brainstorm and support one another on challenges we’re facing.
🖤 Most clicked from the last issue…I don’t know how to do this — HEATED. You all resonated with this piece from Emily Atkin that put words to a question so many of us have been sitting with.
👯 In the Reconsidered LinkedIn Group, members are sharing double materiality assessment webinars, impact fellowships and sustainable finance explainers. Join 21k+ of us here.
📣 Our readers are curious, engaged and love to learn about relevant impact projects, events, etc. If you’re working on something you think they’d respond to, you can reach ’em by booking a Sponsored Post.
We are an impact strategy + communications studio on a mission to help sustainable business leaders drive bigger, bolder, more sustainable change.
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.
Happy spring, friends! 🌷 March 20th was the spring equinox — and in our house, it's also Nowruz, the Persian New Year. My husband's family is originally from Iran, and it's one of my favorite holidays: a beautiful excuse to gather people around a table, cook up some Persian food (delish) and welcome in something new. This year it felt heavier than usual, for reasons I don't think I need to spell out. But we celebrated anyway. Sometimes that's the most important thing you can do. It got me...
Hey there change agents, I’ve noticed that greenwashing headlines have started to feel a little predictable. Company makes a big environmental claim, someone calls it out, reputation takes a hit. So when a case lands that's a bit more nuanced than that, it’s worth calling out. Last year, Apple was sued over its "carbon neutral" Apple Watch marketing by buyers who believed the carbon credits behind the claim didn't add up. Last month, a U.S. district judge dismissed the case, finding Apple had...
Hey there change agents 👋 A few weeks ago, my social media feeds turned into a 2016 time capsule. Somewhere between the throwback photos and thoughtful reflections, I started thinking about how much has shifted over the past decade — for me personally, but also for the practice of sustainable business. That curiosity turned into one of our most engaged Change Hub dialogues yet. Last week, we took it back to Tensie Whelan and Carly Fink's The Comprehensive Business Case for Sustainability — a...