The Case for Secret Sustainability Spies

Episode 108 | 25.6.2025

The Case for Secret Sustainability Spies

After years shaping sector-leading ESG strategy at Holcim, Magali Anderson is done waiting for change from the top. Now, she’s building change from the inside.

Listen to the full podcast episode on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

Her new venture—S4: the Secret Society of Sustainability Spies—isn’t a stunt. It’s a philosophy: train people at all levels to embed sustainability into their everyday decisions, no job title required.

“If companies won’t go to sustainability, sustainability must go to the company—whether they want it or not.” — Magali

 

🕵️‍♀️ Changing the System Quietly

As Holcim’s first Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer, Magali helped shape the cement industry’s first net-zero commitment and aligned executive pay to ESG metrics. But the CSO role, she says, is being hollowed out—stuck in reporting loops, isolated from the business’s core.

That’s why she’s turning toward “systemic subversion.” The new goal? Empower procurement officers, engineers, and marketers to push change from within—what she calls changing your job without telling anyone.

“Sustainability isn’t a job title. It’s a way of working.”

 

🧠 Why the CSO Role Isn’t Working

Magali is blunt about the burnout plaguing sustainability leaders. When asked why, she doesn’t hesitate:

“Too many CSOs are doing reporting instead of reshaping business models. That’s like asking a CEO to focus only on financial disclosures.”

Her solution: embed ESG where the power is—finance, operations, product. The job of a CSO should be to make themselves obsolete.

“The goal is for the CSO role to disappear because everyone is doing the job.”

 

🧱 Building Holcim’s ESG Edge

During her time at Holcim, Magali led some of the boldest moves in the building materials sector:

  • The first net-zero pledge validated by SBTi

  • Integration of nature targets into business strategy

  • Launch of the Roof Over Our Heads campaign to house 1 billion people

But for all the public wins, her focus was always internal: realigning incentives, simplifying systems, and rooting sustainability in business logic.

“We treated sustainability like a business transformation—not a comms campaign.”

 

🔮 From Oil Rigs to Boardrooms

Magali’s career began in oil and gas. She doesn’t hide it; she embraces it.

“I don’t feel guilty. Guilt locks the past. I use it to unlock the future.”

That honesty fuels her mission now: to help professionals everywhere reframe their roles, histories, and power to act.

 

✨ If She Had a Magic Wand…

No jargon. No tech. Just this:
Tie executive bonuses to long-term ESG metrics.

“You can’t ask factory workers to care about sustainability if their bosses aren’t paid to care.”

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Why Sustainability in Media Starts Off-Screen

Episode 107 | 22.6.2025

Why Sustainability in Media Starts Off-Screen

On this episode of The Responsible Edge, three voices from inside global content giant Banijay pull back the curtain on how sustainability is really shaped in the creative industries—not just in what we show on screen, but in how we show up to make it.

Listen to the full podcast episode on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

The guests—Kate Humphreys (Chief Communications Officer), Edouard Minc (ESG Director), and Alma Santo (Format Manager and Banijay Green Co-Chair)—represent the rarely-aligned triangle of strategy, storytelling, and systems. Together, they reveal how one of the world’s most prolific entertainment firms is tackling ESG not as a comms challenge or compliance box, but as a cultural operating system.

“We produce 17,000 hours of content a year. That comes with serious responsibility.” — Kate Humphreys

 

🎬 The Real Battleground for ESG? Behind the Camera

Banijay’s influence spans over 70 countries and household names like Big Brother, Survivor, and MasterChef. But the ESG frontier, as Edouard Minc points out, doesn’t lie in splashy climate specials. It’s embedded in format bibles, carbon audits, and the design of studio kitchens.

From measuring emissions across hundreds of decentralized productions to embedding welfare guides in every format package, the company is building what Minc calls a “dual ESG strategy”: one for behind the scenes (decarbonisation, compliance, HR policies), and one for what appears on screen (storylines, casting, subtle norm-setting).

“Calculating emissions was step one. But our biggest challenge now is decarbonising how we create.” — Edouard Minc

 

🧠 Beyond Greenwashing: Authenticity as a System, Not a Slogan

The team’s approach to greenwashing is refreshingly clear-eyed. Rather than dodging the term, they interrogate its causes: stakeholder pressure, disconnected comms, and a temptation to lead with ambition instead of truth.

For Humphreys, the key is radical internal transparency—communicating internally before externally, and ensuring every campaign is “earned through action.” For Santo, that means making sustainability desirable and routine. Not every message needs a megaphone. Some should feel as normal as putting leftovers in the fridge.

“My utopia? That sustainability no longer needs to be said. It’s just how we do things.” — Alma Santo

 

🌍 Local Markets, Global Impact

With 23 countries and wildly diverse regulatory and cultural contexts, Banijay’s ESG strategy isn’t a top-down playbook. It’s a patchwork of locally tuned initiatives: from e-waste drives in Spain, to mandatory bibles that ensure green practices in unaffiliated production houses.

This decentralized model isn’t just practical—it’s philosophical. It reflects the media itself: local in flavor, global in influence.

“We’re not just a production company. We’re part of the media ecosystem that shapes norms. That comes with power—and pressure.” — Kate Humphreys

 

🪄 If They Had a Magic Wand…

  • Minc would make cross-industry ESG collaboration mandatory: “You can’t decarbonise in isolation.”

  • Humphreys wants companies to honour their values under pressure: “Authenticity is when you stick to your position even when it’s hard.”

  • Santo dreams of sustainability so embedded it no longer needs a name.

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The Creative Who Gave Up Magic Markers for Planetary Boundaries

Episode 106 | 19.6.2025

The Creative Who Gave Up Magic Markers for Planetary Boundaries

“We’re not reacting to windmills and green fields anymore,” says Martin Kann. “It’s just visual spam now.”

Martin Kann, one of Sweden’s most decorated creative directors, didn’t start his career wanting to save the planet. He wanted a desk full of coloured markers, like the ponytailed ad men he idolised at 17. But a lifetime orbiting two parental influences—his father, a Mad Men-era advertiser; his mother, a nature-loving artist—set the stage for a late, yet seismic pivot. Ten years ago, he walked away from a traditional agency partnership, abruptly exiting a system he realised was complicit in ecological harm.

Listen to the full podcast episode on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

That decision wasn’t born of sudden enlightenment. It was, as Kann describes, “an unpleasant epiphany.” Despite decades spent immersed in natural environments during his free time—diving, birdwatching, identifying flora—he had never connected his day job to the crises he deeply cared about. “It was embarrassing,” he says. “I was a cog in a system built on eternal growth at the cost of everything.”

Kann’s journey is a case study in the power of alignment. After leaving his agency, he joined sustainability communication firm Futerra. “It felt like walking into heaven,” he recalls, describing the excitement of collaborating with climate strategists and communication activists. For someone who once viewed advertising as “the highest level of cleverness,” this new chapter was about redirecting that cleverness towards survival.

 

From Fear to Worry: A New Emotional Lexicon

Central to Kann’s current mission is emotional literacy. Referencing Anna Townley’s earth.org article on emotional engagement in climate messaging, Kann zeroes in on a paradox: while fear can paralyse, “worry” motivates. “Worry creates support,” he says.

“Fear, when overused, leads to fatigue.”

He’s seen the arc first-hand. The early days of climate comms relied heavily on doom: melting glaciers, starving polar bears, flooded cities. While impactful, these fear appeals often backfired, overwhelming audiences. The lesson? Humans aren’t persuaded by science alone—we act when we feel. And the sweet spot is not terror, but tension. Worry, Kann argues, is just enough emotion to drive action without tipping into paralysis.

This insight aligns with behavioural psychology’s “Goldilocks principle”: too little emotion, and people shrug. Too much, and they shut down. But just the right amount—a simmering concern? That’s where change brews.

 

Killing the Cliché: Why Visual Language Matters

One of Kann’s most powerful critiques is aimed at sustainability’s visual status quo. “We’ve exhausted the tropes,” he says.

“Smiling families in green fields, hands cradling Earth—it’s all wallpaper now.”

He believes the biggest communications challenge isn’t inventing new facts—it’s disrupting stale aesthetics.

“The visuals need to change before minds do,” Kann argues. And he’s right: humans process images far faster than words, and emotional cues often come more from tone and imagery than rational argument. In this sense, sustainability comms isn’t just a content issue—it’s a design problem.

 

What Does Success Look Like Now?

For Kann, success is no longer measured in Cannes Lions or market share. “Success is making a real difference,” he says.

“It’s using creativity not for persuasion, but for transformation.”

His “magic wand” wish? A commercial world unshackled from short-termism. In such a world, brands would optimise for ecological continuity, not quarterly returns. “Nature restores quickly if you let it,” Kann notes. “But we need long-term thinking to let that happen.”

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Decoding Nature’s Balance Sheet: The Race to Quantify Biodiversity in Finance

Episode 105 | 16.6.2025

Decoding Nature’s Balance Sheet: The Race to Quantify Biodiversity in Finance

On this episode of The Responsible Edge, Cédric Olivares-Jirsell, Director of Sustainability Data at Matter, joins the show to unpack one of the most complex and urgent frontiers in ESG: making biodiversity legible—and investable.

Listen to the full podcast episode on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

Cédric’s path from traditional finance to biodiversity metrics is both a personal and professional evolution. With experience at institutions like Schroders, Russell Investments, and Matter, he brings deep quantitative expertise to an area many in finance still struggle to define, let alone measure.

But what if nature wasn’t just priceless—but priced?

 

🌿 The Biodiversity Blindspot in Finance

“Historically, the financial sector has treated biodiversity as too complex to touch,” says Cédric. “But the reality is that biodiversity underpins our economy in ways we haven’t even begun to quantify.”

While climate has clearer proxies (like carbon), biodiversity lacks a single, unifying metric. This has made it easy to ignore—and difficult to regulate. That’s changing fast.

Cédric’s team at Matter is responding to frameworks like the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and evolving EU regulation by building datasets and scoring systems to bring biodiversity into the fold of investment decision-making. They’re quantifying exposure, impact, and alignment with global nature goals—all while navigating significant scientific and methodological uncertainty.

 

📉 From Gut Feel to Data-Driven Risk

Biodiversity loss isn’t just an ecological tragedy—it’s a material financial risk. Supply chains fail when pollinators disappear. Insurance claims rise when wetlands that prevent flooding are paved over. But these systemic risks are rarely captured in quarterly reports.

“We need to move from qualitative guesswork to decision-useful, quantitative data,” Cédric explains. “That means mapping corporate activity to actual biodiversity outcomes.”

Matter’s approach doesn’t just look at direct biodiversity impacts (like deforestation), but also indirect dependencies—such as water use or habitat fragmentation. The result? A far more granular picture of nature risk exposure.

 

🧠 Complexity Is a Feature, Not a Bug

Cédric is quick to caution against oversimplification.

“You don’t solve biodiversity the same way you solve carbon. It’s not a single figure; it’s a web of interdependencies. But that’s not a reason to give up—it’s a reason to lean in.”

Indeed, Matter’s work reflects a new kind of ESG thinking: one that embraces nuance and uncertainty, rather than papering over it with vanity metrics or green gloss.

 

🧭 What’s Next? Rethinking Value Itself

When asked what he hopes the industry will look like in 5–10 years, Cédric is clear:

“I hope we’ve moved past the idea that nature is an externality. It’s foundational. And our financial systems need to reflect that.”

That means not just better data—but better decisions. Capital must flow away from extractive business models and toward regenerative ones. That shift is already underway—but tools like Matter’s Natural Capital & Biodiversity Framework will be essential to accelerating it.

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Data Can’t Save Us — But Collaboration Might

Episode 104 | 11.6.2025

Data Can’t Save Us — But Collaboration Might

On this episode of The Responsible Edge, sustainability strategist and former TalkTalk executive Will Ennett offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at what actually drives corporate environmental progress. Hint: it’s not just targets, dashboards, or reporting software.

Listen to the full podcast episode on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

Will isn’t just another voice in the ESG crowd. He’s been on the inside, designing sustainability strategy, engaging boards, and wrestling with the brutal complexity of telecom supply chains. And he’s refreshingly honest about what does and doesn’t work.

“The target’s just the start. It’s the action behind it that matters.”

In conversation, Will makes a compelling case: true progress demands that we escape our own organisational silos and rethink where value actually comes from—often in places overlooked by traditional ESG frameworks.

 

💡 Forget the Net Zero Checklists—Think Industry-Wide Standards

During his time at TalkTalk, Will led efforts that cut emissions by 58% in just four years. But he’s quick to point out that individual corporate action isn’t enough.

“We had to look beyond the four walls of the company. That meant getting competitors, regulators, and suppliers around the table.”

That effort led to one of the most ambitious initiatives in UK telecoms: a cross-sector collaboration representing £50 billion in annual revenue. The goal? Create minimum joint standards to address Scope 3 emissions—a problem that no single firm can solve in isolation.

Key Outcomes:

  • 85% of suppliers (by spend) now have science-based targets

  • A roadmap for reducing upstream emissions shared across the industry

  • Ongoing work with Ofcom to align regulatory frameworks with sustainability priorities

This isn’t ESG as branding. It’s ESG as systems change.

 

🧠 Why ESG Reporting Misses the Point (and What to Do Instead)

Will’s critique of standard ESG reporting is incisive. He doesn’t reject it outright—but he’s sceptical of the weight it carries in decision-making.

“Reporting on ESG metrics is often about satisfying frameworks. But that doesn’t necessarily lead to change.”

So what does?

  • Board-level engagement that links sustainability to commercial risk

  • Simplicity and clarity over 80-page reports

  • A shift from defensive disclosures to forward-looking strategy

His approach also included mandatory ESG training for TalkTalk employees and Carbon Literacy Training—a first in the sector.

 

🌐 What’s Next: A Commercial Lens on Sustainability

After nearly 12 years at TalkTalk, Will is shifting his focus to consultancy, bringing a commercial mindset to ESG challenges in other industries. He sees massive untapped potential for mid-sized firms—too often overlooked in policy discussions.

“The companies that are going to move the dial are those that see sustainability not as a cost, but as a catalyst.”

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