Hey there change agents 👋
Last week, our Change Hub membership community came together for our final gathering: a workshop themed “Endings as Openings”.
I designed it around a premise that has fascinated me over the past few months: though endings are an increasingly inevitable part of social and environmental change work, our sector has almost no cultural vocabulary for tending to them well. We love launches and new beginnings. But when it comes to shifts and closures, we either bury in shame, respond with outrage or lean into the dismissive “fail fast, fail often” mandate drilled into our heads by the tech sector.
That’s a problem because a *lot* is ending in the sustainable business space right now — programs are getting cut, goals are getting retired, people are leaving jobs, outdated models are getting sunsetted (or should). And endings that aren't properly tended can become weight that we (and our organizations) carry into our next thing.
In the workshop, we explored a set of nature metaphors for processing endings more intentionally, with help from the Tending to Endings framework (a sneak peek of which we were lucky to share thanks to our collaborator and friend Heather Knight).
It felt like a fitting way to close out the Change Hub: a compelling new framework to sink our teeth into, some personal reflection time and then (as always) the real gold coming from the group. The insights and connections members brought to that closing circle reminded me, one last time, of just how much wisdom, thoughtfulness and generosity lives in this community.
In this week's 5 Links, I share a Stanford Social Innovation Review piece that I came back to several times when mulling over the various “endings” necessitated by Reconsidered’s recent reset. In it, Vanessa Andreotti and Habiba Nabatu argue that our sector’s collective discomfort with endings is part of what keeps us from being present to what's actually happening — and what’s struggling to emerge. It’s a fascinating and important read.
I’m curious — how are you working through the endings emerging in your own life and work? Are there resources that have been helpful in processing them? Hit reply and let me know, I’d love to add a few more to the queue.
Jessica Marati Radparvar
Founder, Reconsidered
What's On In Our World
This Week's 5 Links
The latest in a series of news challenging our perceptions of beloved brands. A quick ;TLDR: earlier this year Patagonia sued climate activist and drag queen Pattie Gonia for trademark infringement; Pattie Gonia went public last week and called it corporate bullying; Patagonia responded that it had no legal choice. The timing of this conflict around Pride Month is… unfortunate. I also appreciated this analysis from HEATED’s Emily Atkin, who dives into the legal nitty-gritty and probes at another elephant in the room: what does it mean for a U.S. corporation to own the name of a real place with a colonial history and living Indigenous communities? (10 minutes)
In the first full month of the Middle East energy crisis — wind and solar quietly surpassed gas in global electricity generation for the first time ever. 🥳🥳🥳 It's one month, not a trend line, and spring conditions in the northern hemisphere gave renewables a boost. But the underlying numbers tell a bigger story: five years ago, gas was generating nearly double what wind and solar combined could. We'll take it! (3 minutes)
This essay on “hard sustainability” is a hard read (and not just because of all those intense AI images 👀). Long-term sustainability advocate John Elkington, best known for originating the triple bottom line concept, argues that the current Middle Eastern conflicts are shepherding in a “harder” era for sustainability and dismantling the “soft” approaches (voluntary frameworks, cooperation, human decency, et. al.) that have characterized climate action for the past several decades. “None of this means that we shouldn’t try to be more responsible, more resilient and more regenerative,” he concludes. “But the ground is shifting all around us — and the game will go to those who play by the best of the new rules, not to those who cling to the old.” Oof. (12 minutes)
Erin Brockovich is back, baby! And she’s trained her sights on AI data centers, launching a new crowdsourced map that overlays major operational and planned hyperscale data centers with community-submitted reports of concerns (it's already received over 2,700 submissions). That this wonky climate tech solution is being covered in People magazine says something about how Brockovich’s star power may bring more mainstream attention to this issue. (3 minutes)
So. much. wisdom. in this discussion between Hospicing Modernity author Vanessa Andreotti and charity director Habiba Nabatu on shepherding endings and transitions with dignity. “A good death invites us to let go of the compulsion to control or extend the life of things that have outlived their purpose — be they industries, systems, or ways of being,” they write. “Instead, we are asked to companion these endings with the same reverence and care that we might offer to a loved one in their final moments, knowing that the end of one cycle is the beginning of another.” Such a beautiful metaphor. (5 minutes)
Impact Interview
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Tehya Kopp, Founder of Courageous Results, Leadership Coach and Fractional Executive
In this profile, Tehya shares her pivot from a longtime career in entertainment, the skills that have shaped her impact career and what excites her about this moment in our space.
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Impact Jobs
📣 thinkPARALLAX — Marketing and Sales Manager (Remote, U.S) *
The engine for thinkPARALLAX's business development and market presence, this role sits at the intersections of strategic marketing implementation, systems architecture and sales operations, translating between creative marketing and data-driven sales.
A few highlights from this week’s curation:
- LEGO Group — Social Responsibility EMEA Intern (London)
- Louis Vuitton — Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility (New York City)
- PayPal — Vice President, Talent and Belonging (New York City)
- Rare Beauty — Assistant Manager of Social Impact (Los Angeles)
- The Nature Conservancy — Conservation Trust Fund Specialist (Remote)
Quick Hits
🤔 Most clicked from the last issue… Perhaps We Owe Shein a Thank You — Shivam Gusain via Substack. A counterargument on why we should maybe be thanking Shein for buying Everlane piqued your interest.
📣 Sustainability has a storytelling problem. Mike Hower's new book fixes it. Sustainability Storytelling: Communicate Trust, Brand Value, and Better Business is out. Get 25% off with code KOGANPAGE25. *
📣 You’ve asked everyone. Read everything. The one person you haven’t fully trusted yet is you. Grounded Coven is a small summer group for women ready to stop waiting and start moving. *
👯 In the Reconsidered LinkedIn Group, members are sharing frameworks for social change, sustainability surveys and impact networking events. Join 22k+ of us here.
*All posts marked with an asterisk and 📣 this emoji 📣 were sponsored by our partners — thank you for supporting our work! If you're interested in amplifying your job or initiative to our community, you can explore our sponsorship offerings here.