♻️ Finding a sustainable economic model
5 questions to Thomas Klaffke, Head of Research TrendWatching and manager of the "Business of Purpose" community.
Hello 👋 my name is Florian Schleicher and this is the FutureStrategies newsletter from FutureS. Thank you for reading along 💚 If you want to learn more about strategic marketing my Simple & Sustainable Marketing Academy is your perfect fit.
We have a problem.
While most people can agree, that we should be more sustainable and the desire to be sustainable - as the next visualisation shows - grows constantly, so do our global CO2 emissions.
This is called “the great disconnect” by many bright minds.
And I often hear from business people words like “I am thinking very thoroughly about climate change - it is a topic dear to me.” - I miss more actions from the same.
Why is that the case?
Well, maybe it all has to do with the mindset of most businesses.
As Clover Hogan, climate activist points out:
In a 2022 survey Deloitte asked leaders what the benefits were of sustainability in business. The #1 response wasn’t, in fact, addressing the climate crisis…It was “brand recognition and reputation.”
I think too, that the system as it is right now, has some serious trouble adapting to a sustainable way of growth. Many, like my friend Reinhard Herok in his interview here, have pointed out, that we will need 1) a mindset of optimism about the future and 2) a new story about sustainable business.
I also think we need 3) more good business cases of companies doing their business with the planet in mind, too. There are many good examples currently evolving and thus reaching target audiences who are more and more looking for “good” companies.
And this is not only on the consumer side - According to a recent survey by KPMG, one in three 18- to 24-year-olds have turned down a job offer because the company's environmental commitments did not align with their own.
So there is a growing importance of corporate responsibility and sustainability in the eyes of the younger generation.
It is possible to reach goals AND achieve sustainable growth.
💡 We need to find some new ways of thinking
So, I spoke to someone who knows his way around sustainable business practices Thomas Klaffke.
Thomas is constantly looking for new out-of-the-box ideas in his newsletter. He also works as Head of Research and Senior Trend Analyst at consumer insights firm TrendWatching and manages Business of Purpose, a community, and newsletter for purpose-driven business professionals.
Here are my 5 questions and his answers about the future of our climate, our businesses and how to find new solutions.:
🎙 The interview
1️⃣ News and conversations are full of bad news about our future and the climate. How do you manage to show a positive attitude towards the future and where do you find rays of hope?
I am in a privileged position because my day-to-day job as a trend analyst focusing on sustainable and ethical trends has me browse through many amazing innovations each day that integrate super creative sustainability and social equity concepts. So I am basically looking at inspiring solutions every day.
On top of that, I am also in constant exchange with what you could cheesily call “changemakers”. So basically interesting people that I meet either via the community I manage, via my personal network or via LinkedIn and my newsletter. That always gives me the feeling that, yes, there are actually many, super smart and passionate people out there eager to change the system and create a better future. And the movement is also growing, at least that’s what it feels like to me. And growing not only in terms of numbers (i.e. more people being interested for example in purpose-driven business approaches) but also in terms of maturity and novel ideas. Five years ago we might have still been discussing the purpose of a company or the value of integrating robust impact measurement, but these days it feels like the movement is discussing topics that are on a higher or deeper level (e.g. regenerative business) while we see much more novel and creative initiatives being launched (e.g. Patagonia’s new “earth is our only shareholder” ownership model).
In short, there is lots of interesting and inspiring stuff happening, the movement seems to attract more people and get more mature with ideas becoming more creative and let’s say provocative or systemic.
Lastly, I am always trying to be quite careful with my general news consumption. Lots of news is negative as it attracts more eyeballs even though there are so many positive things happening all the time. With today’s hyper-convenient access to information, I do think it’s important for everyone to build a system that ensures a conscious and healthy consumption of information. Sometimes what also helps is to focus more on the immediate locale, i.e. your city or even just your neighbourhood. The world is huge and even if one can now access it all by simply unlocking one’s smartphone, it’s still huge. Focusing on specific niche topics or a city might ease the overwhelm and help one create more immediate and clear impact.
2️⃣ Let’s look back - what brought us to this point in our history?
On a very deep level, I think we’ve lost our connection to nature and our symbiotic relationship with it. It always sounds a bit philosophical, but on a very profound level of analysis, that disconnection is, I would say, the core problem that then leads to many, many subsequent problems. Even this idea of duality, of “it” vs. “us” or “nature” vs “humans”, is leading to a false sense of disconnect, when actually it’s all connected.
To make this more tangible, I think one thing that everyone can relate to is that we often don’t really know anymore how the things we are using on a daily basis are actually made, or what they are made of and how these resources are extracted, and by whom. Global supply chains have given us a lot of cheap and convenient “stuff” but they’ve also increasingly distanced or alienated us from our physical surroundings. And it’s not only us, corporations due to their complex operations have also become more distanced from how their products are made, and where, and by whom. And I think that distance or disconnect is then inviting a lack of responsibility and care.
3️⃣ How do we need to equip companies and systems, to really achieve sustainable growth and impact?
I think one of the key challenges for businesses that want to do good is to create a new system that embodies something that doesn't exist yet: a post-capitalistic economic model that champions sustainability and social equity.
Companies today have to basically come up with creative initiatives that enable them to do good within a destructive economic model – ideas like exit to community, putting nature on the board, worker cooperatives, holocracy, etc. – and that’s quite difficult.
But I think any new ideas that push the needle and challenge conventional ways of doing business will eventually help form the bigger new economic model. The important thing, in my opinion, is to have a critical stance toward conventional business thinking and ideologies, even try to detach yourself from them and to always look at things systemically. The goal, I think, should not be to build an organisation or business that does good but to embed “doing good” into the core organisational structure and ideologies of the business.
4️⃣ One of the things, which we will need for sustainable futures is a new story. One that is not driven by “less” and “giving things up”. What kind of story could that be?
That story is really what you want before building a system that is then defined and guided by it. But I would not necessarily say that the story needs to be one that is not characterised by sacrifices, or I wouldn’t frame it that way. Yes, I agree that many of the stories that we hear these days are emphasising personal sacrifices way too much, and many critics of new stories like degrowth are of course always quick to mention austerity measures and all that stuff. I think there is a lot of fearmongering happening. Fear always attracts people's attention, unfortunately. Going back to the question though, I would rather frame it in a way that what we need in general is a story of a sustainable or regenerative future that excites people, that resonates with people. And so far, it feels like we haven’t really got one.
In my opinion, what’s missing or what could help is a deeper reflection of our current situation in terms of our wellbeing and happiness. For a long time, the general answer to the question of “what will make us happier?” was basically “more”, whether that’s more stuff, more money, more status, more experiences, or even more opportunities and choices. But now there are some interesting discussions happening on whether that’s actually true and how the question could be answered differently or be completely reframed.
One example here is what one could describe as “the meaning crisis”. Especially young people are on a quest to find more meaning in their jobs and in life in general. So if the story of “more” hasn’t helped us add more meaning to our lives, what could? Maybe it’s fostering better relationships or adding more “care work” (also caring for nature) into our lives, just to name some ideas. Figuring questions like this one out I think is key for developing a new story of a sustainable and just future that excites people.
So in short, I think, it’s not so much about creating a new story of the future but reframing the story of today which then opens up new stories for the future.
5️⃣ What is the future of impact, purpose, and sustainability communication?
I am not a communications expert, so take this with a grain of salt.
I would actually lean on a few ideas here from sociologist Hartmut Rosa and his theory of resonance which I recently featured in my newsletter. So inspired by that I would say the key elements of the future of impact or purpose communication should be:
listening,
genuineness,
tangibility
and transformation.
By listening I mean being open to new voices and ideas, and seeing communication as a true reciprocal exchange rather than a one-sided thing. Communication, in the end, is about relating to one another. I think there is a lot happening in terms of how a brand can build a community or movement, or how communities can build brands, that relate to this point.
Genuineness basically means authenticity but both in a factual and honest way, as well as in a deeply emotional way. Impact communication should ideally cause affection in the sense of people being touched or moved by it. That’s I think a prerequisite for a meaningful relation with a brand.
By tangibility I mean communication that’s not only clear and easy to grasp but also enables one to do something, that encourages self-efficacy or gives people the capacity to (re)act.
Transformation is what the aforementioned sociologist Rosa would then see as the result of the elements above and therefore the last element. The communication bit should sort of transform people (their selves) and thereby consequently also transform (how they see) the world. The “after reading that book (or after going on that trip) I am a different/changed person” kind of transformation. People then start seeing things differently and also start acting differently.
Lastly, I think impact communication also needs a non-element: coercion. What the marketing and PR strategists of the old (and still present) world have been good at is coercing people to do, want and feel things they would normally not really care about. So a reflective and self-critical part of future impact communications might have to integrate the question: “is this coercing people?”.
3️⃣ Last Questions
What book did you just read and do you like to recommend?
I just started reading “The Dawn of Everything - A New History of Humanity” by David Graeber and David Wengrow.
What brand is doing a good job when it comes to sustainability at the moment?
Early Majority is experimenting with some interesting degrowth business principles.
The future of sustainability is…
…going to require us to – in the words of Buckminster Fuller – “build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete”.
〜 end of interview 〜
👀 My take
In the conversation I had with Thomas and in reading his newsletter I am always struck by the depth of understanding that he brings to the table.
I can really feel deeply when he says, that we’ve lost our connection to nature and our symbiotic relationship with it.
I think what brought us to the situation of our current climate crisis can also be a way out of it.
This reminds me of something I read in “The Power of Ritual” by Casper Ter Kulie:
“The wind rustling through the trees whispers our name. The lapping waves caress our skin. That pilgrim’s tea is a love letter from earth. It can be a challenging reframe. Like a partner who has been away too long from their spouse, it can feel overly intimate, confrontational even. This way of thinking challenges us to be present in nature much more often because we’ll learn to fall in love with it again.”
We need to reconnect with our surroundings, and our planet.
We need to give a stage to those new ideas of doing business.
And we need to bring a healthy set of optimism to the table for the futures.
And in marketing we need strategies to get people from answering the question “what will make us happier?” with “more” to something different, like “a feeling of connection”, “a sense of belonging”, “a life full of experiences”.
Thanks for reading!
Thomas publishes the newsletter Creative Destruction which explores out-of-the-box ideas that shift minds and create a better future. He also works as Head of Research and Senior Trend Analyst at consumer insights firm TrendWatching and manages Business of Purpose, a community and newsletter for purpose-driven business professionals.
PS: You can also read this posting in German.
More to read for you:
🌍🔜 The future is impact marketing - How will sustainable impact on planet, profit & people shape companies in the future and what is impact marketing?
✅ Green marketing with strategy - What does it take for strategic green marketing and which companies are doing a good job?
🤑 Greenwashing in marketing - What it is, why it's bad, and which brands are "greenwashing."