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206 / Time Travel, Tipping Points & Channeling Gloria Steinem for Climate Week
Published about 19 hours ago • 5 min read
ISSUE 206
Hello friends,
I'm sitting with some real dissonance this week.
On one hand: the UN Environment Programme publisheda report officially throwing in the towel on a 1.5°C pathway. Plenty of us have been operating on this assumption for a while now, but seeing it acknowledged in an official document by the institution that negotiated the target felt... momentous.
On the other: a flurry of invitations, announcements and excited email and WhatsApp exchanges as our sector gears up for Climate Week NYC, now the largest global gathering of sustainability professionals in the world.
Within all that, the response to the report has been quiet. That's even in my feeds, where the algorithm is primed. Under normal circumstances I too would have missed the moment. I'd probably see the headline, feel that familiar flash of fear/grief/bleakness/numbness, then move right on along.
But this week I was felled by a bad migraine that forced me to cancel commitments and slow down. Laid out in bed, I had no choice but to sit with the news, let myself feel it and seek out content that could serve as some kind of comfort, which is not something a normal week makes room for. Some of that content is shared below in this week's 5 Links.
Now I'm back at work. And yes, that includes Climate Week prep, conflicted as I am about confirming catering and deciding which cocktail parties I can attend when it feels like we’re all on a precipice.
I am going in with a sharper intention, though. After this week, a calendar optimized for panels and networking feels a bit beside the point. So I’m embracing what Gloria Steinem (RIP) called her “on the road” state of mind in a 2015 conversation with Oprah Winfrey (also in this week’s 5 Links). She describes it as being fully open to the present moment, like "birds riding a current" or "a surfer riding the waves." Her point is that the most useful things tend to come from the encounters you didn't schedule.
There are two events I’m fully committed to, though.
One is a small, closed-door roundtable of in-house sustainability strategy and communications leaders that I’m hosting on Thursday. I'm so excited to gather some real smarties to talk shop about the challenges of showing up for sustainability in 2026. The room is full but if you’re interested in joining the waitlist, let me know.
And the other is Tuesday’s After Glow NYC event, which I’m co-hosting alongside a wonderful group of fellow sustainable business professionals. One friend called it a “big fun sweaty party”, which hooked me. I’ve got a few discount codes available, message me if you want one.
These aside, I intend to leave lots of gaps in the calendar so I can put myself in the path of new ideas, new people and new inspiration. And who knows, maybe some never-could-have-imagined-it opportunities to make a meaningful impact on this crazy polycrisis we find ourselves in.
Prepping and packing for Climate Week NYC. 🗽 You can find me at After Glow NYC on Tuesday evening; reach out if you'd like a discount code just for Reconsidered subscribers.
Hard at work on some new research on sustainability comms and looking to speak with in-house practitioners off-the-record. All participants get access to a deeper set of insights than what we’ll make available publicly. Hit reply if you’re open to having a chat!
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I appreciated this summary of the UNEP Limiting Overshoot report from an informed person who actually read the whole PDF (versus, say, Claude 😉). Ayana Elizabeth Johnson walks through the report’s main points, adds loads of helpful context and ends on an honest but optimistic note. (9 minutes)
Ohhhh did we need this piece of good news! Where the UNEP report above spends a lot of time on scary tipping points, new research released this week from the University of Exeter and the Earthshot Prize celebrates some positive ones. Namely, the moments when a clean technology gets cheap enough that it spreads on its own, without needing a policy push. Solar, wind and EVs have already hit that point in many markets 🙌🙌. (6 minutes)
This is one of the resources I went looking for during my week laid out in bed. Unthinkable grew out of Dr. Britt Wray's book on climate anxiety, Generation Dread, and the Resource Hub is their collection of evidence-informed tools for climate distress, anxiety and grief. I'm always a sucker for quizzes and I particularly appreciated theirs, which generates a personalized “care package” of free resources based on what you're experiencing.
This book has been sitting in my queue since it came out last year, and the title felt like just the salve I needed this week. The premise comes from Hopkins's podcast From What If To What’s Next, where he and guests “time travel” to 2030 and imagine a world they'd be thrilled to live in. But the book goes further, tracing how movements throughout history have used vivid pictures of the future to make big change happen. I’m a few chapters into the audiobook and loving it.
RIP Gloria Steinem, whom we lost on September 2nd. I loved spending an hour with her via this 2015 Super Soul conversation, in which she's funny, unsentimental and clear about where she drew the energy for 50 years of activism: the road. Not travel exactly, but an “on the road” mindset of staying truly open to the present moment. An important reminder in an era of overscheduling and optimization (ahem, Climate Week). (31 minutes)
Impact Interview
Marlot Kiveron, Author of De impactmissie and Sustainability Director at KARL LAGERFELD
On Marlot’s career turning point, the “invisible” moments that drive progress, how she thinks changemakers can help companies prepare for the future and more.
Impact Jobs
A few highlights from this week’s curation:
Burberry — Climate and Operations Manager (London)
DÔEN— Impact and Responsible Sourcing Manager (Los Angeles)
L’Oréal— Apprentice, La Roche Posay, Sustainable Development and Social Impact (Clichy, France)
Oura— Director of Sustainability (Hybrid, San Francisco)
Planeterra— Learning and Systems Coordinator (Remote)
📣 The leadership that got us here won't get us where we're going. Join GCC founder, TEDx speaker and coach Lis Best for an Embodied Relational Leadership workshop September 17th.*
👯 In the Reconsidered LinkedIn Group, members are sharing climate action trainings, CSR company databases and futures thinking workshops. Join 23k+ 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.
About Reconsidered
We are a boutique strategic communications consultancy specialized in sustainability and social impact. Through hands-on advisory, practical trainings and value-add resources, we help sustainability leaders meet this moment with clarity and courage.
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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