Hello friends 👋
I'm still sitting with the final essay from today's 5 Links (and may need a significant amount of therapy to fully unpack it 😉).
In a recent Substack essay, climate psychologist Renée Lertzman makes the case that a lot of our change work is quietly rooted in a desire to control what increasingly feels uncontrollable. The higher the stakes, the more we reach for whatever promises the clearest KPIs, the most predictable outcome, the cleanest graphs on the slide.
"Once you begin to notice the desire for control, it's everywhere in the way many of us talk about our work. We talk about getting buy-in, moving the needle, scaling impact, driving change, mobilizing audiences. The vocabulary itself reveals a lot about an equation of changemaking with control."
Called. Out.
She continues:
“The desire for control is not a personal failing. It is not a flaw of the field. It is a deeply human response to fear, grief, and the magnitude of what is being lost.”
Lertzman doesn’t suggest ditching known strategies and metrics. She's asking something deeper: what's the energy underneath the strategy? Is it about control, or is it about creating conditions for collective change?
There aren’t clean answers to these questions — but there are some things we can do to start noticing and shifting our default framework. More via the essay linked below.
Jessica Marati Radparvar
Founder, Reconsidered
What's On In Our World
- We recently rebranded and updated our website — same Reconsidered, fresher (and even more colorful) look. Come have a poke around!
- It’s time for our annual sustainable business reading list and I’d love to hear your recs. What books have you loved from the past two-ish years — directly on the topic or more tangentially related? Drop your picks here; the final list will go out in our next issue. 💌
- This Fall, we’re hosting an invite-only Sustainability Communications Roundtable for in-house impact strategy and comms leaders. Invites are limited to current and former Reconsidered clients, but you can register here to get notified when we open it up.
This Week's 5 Links
Slides are my love language, so a deep dive into how Al Gore's famous “Inconvenient Truth” climate presentation has evolved over the past 20 years was always going to hook me. Like many, Gore has quietly shifted his central argument from moral imperative to economic opportunity, reflecting a broader reckoning in climate advocacy about what actually moves people. (8 minutes, gift link 🎁)
Speaking of “inconvenient truths”... Emily Atkin breaks down three frustrating facts about this year’s World Cup — from the climate rationale behind those new commercial breaks, to the tournament's record-breaking carbon footprint, to Saudi Aramco's starring role as a top sponsor. (6 minutes)
When Ben & Jerry's sold to Unilever in 2000, the deal came with a guarantee: an independent board to protect its social mission, in perpetuity. Now, after the business was spun off into The Magnum Ice Cream Company, that board has been effectively gutted via new bylaws — and co-founder Ben Cohen is waging a public fight to push a sale to more mission-aligned investors. (7 minutes)
A behind-the-scenes look at what happens when carbon accounting rules change and a company's emissions trajectory shifts dramatically as a result. eBay's Scope 3 story is a case study in the tough position many sustainability teams find themselves in: use the latest science and lose comparability, or maintain consistency and risk accusations of greenwashing. The in-house sustainability professionals in our audience will feel very seen. (5 minutes)
In this essay — part of a series on the “growing up” of the climate movement — climate psychologist Renée Lertzman argues that much of what sustainability practitioners call "strategy" is actually driven by our need to control. The uncomfortable question we’re left with: are you creating conditions for change, or just reaching for the approach that asks the least of your tolerance for uncertainty? (10 minutes)
Impact Interview
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Eleni Zervos, Content & Community Manager, Reconsidered
In this profile, Eleni shares more about her work with Reconsidered, her advice to social impact career seekers and an encouraging trend she’s observed in our space.
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Impact Jobs
A few highlights from this week’s curation:
- B Lab Benelux — Community and Business Engagement Intern (Amsterdam)
- Greenpeace — Movement Support Coordinator (Hybrid, London)
- L’Oréal — Manager, Environmental and Sustainability, L'Oréal Operations (Somerset, New Jersey, U.S.)
- Rainforest Alliance — Senior Manager, Foundation Relations (New York City or Washington, D.C.)
- Salesforce — Senior Analyst, Climate Action (Seattle)
Quick Hits
🍂 Most clicked from the last issue… Tending to Endings Framework. You all gravitated towards this thoughtful framework on processing endings more intentionally.
👯 In the Reconsidered LinkedIn Group, members are sharing climate action and disability webinars, free impact courses and CSR workshops. Join 22.5k+ 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.