Oliver Balch

Why it’s decision time for business sustainability Corporate sustainability is under pressure as politics, timing and greenhushing reshape priorities. Discover why the field now faces a critical decision.

"The pluricrisis is close, but not close enough" ... as 2025 draws to a close, some reflections on where the corporate sustainability agenda finds itself: www.pbs.up.pt/en/artigos-e... #ESG #sustainability #woke #climate #climateemergency #business

From Bordallo II (...well said!): "Our cities are being converted into huge game boards. The right to housing, enshrined in the Constitution, is now at the mercy of luck or chance." #housing #portugal #bordalloII #Lisbon #masstourism

Up the 1% 😊

My fav Galician hideaway … anyone guess where it is?? @galicia

Walmart heir Lukas Walton’s $15bn bet on the environment With an estimated worth of $39bn, he wants to use market mechanisms to save the oceans

Chuffed to bag the FIRST EVER media interview with world 42nd richest man, Walmart heir Lukas Walton ... and even more chuffed that he had something positive to say about how (potentially) to fix the planet's problems.

In the upcoming FT Wealth report. Sneak preview here: www.ft.com/content/f1a7...

Gina McCarthy: ‘U.S. companies may not be putting their hands up, but they are still investing in clean energy’ As a former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and ex-White House national climate change adviser, Gina McCarthy thought she had seen it all. But little had prepared even this veteran of Washington D.C. for the abrupt reversal of environmental policy under the new Trump administration.

Joe Biden's national climate advisor has every reason to be spitting mad ... in fact, she's surprisingly chipper. Why? US states are still pushing ahead with clean energy regardless of Trump. More on my interview with @americaisallin.com Gina McCarthy: www.reuters.com/sustainabili... @reuters.com

Renewables sector stays upbeat but clouds gather over global energy Natural resources and pricing keep demand buoyant even as the Trump administration embraces fossil fuels

Renewables across the Americas are growing fast: not because consumers are "woke", but because solar & wind are common sense (i.e. cheap, home grown, clean ...). My piece for today's FT report on Fastest Growing Companies in the Americas: www.ft.com/content/5b19... @financialtimes.com #renewables

Nearly 300 apply as French university offers US academics ‘scientific asylum’ Aix-Marseille University generates interest amid a US crackdown and calls for a ‘scientific refugee’ status

Reminiscent of New College offering European Jewish intellectuals like Levi Strauss a home in the 1930s … “where was that?”, you ask. In the United States …

“Nearly 300 apply as French university offers US academics ‘scientific asylum’”

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Magazine subscription (print & digital) - Positive News Buying for someone else? Order a gift subscription. Current issue: Apr-Jun 2025, #121, published 9 Apr Next issue: Jul-Sep 2025, #122, published 9 Jul Positive News is the magazine for good journalism...

To subscribe (go on ... it'll cheer you up): www.positive.news/product/maga...

Good news: the latest issue of Positive News magazine has just landed!!!! 😊 Lots of uplifting stories ✍️, including a couple from me (on a centre for child victims of modernday slavery in Ghana 🇬🇭, and writer Matt Gaw on his love of gnarly weather ⛈️). More here: www.positive.news. Keep believing 💪

‘It’s beautiful, don’t you think?’ The urban miners unearthing treasure in Belgium’s homes and garages As the historic town of Leuven strives to become carbon neutral, it is transforming how its building are made – and demolished. Are there lessons for the rest of the world?

Meet the urban miners of Leuven, Belgium ... some of the silent heroes build the more sustainable systems of tomorrow. My latest piece for @theguardian.com. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle... #circulareconomy #waste #recycling #reuse #construction #urbanmining @iclei.org

Brand Watch: Why investing in ‘soft’ skills makes hard-headed business sense How might disadvantaged young people increase their likelihood of career success in today’s ever more technology-driven economy? The answer is not, as you might think, to learn to write code or master search-engine optimisation (valuable as these may be): instead, it’s to find yourself a mentor.

“Soft skills”: vital idea, unhelpful term. My latest piece for @reuters.com www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Wild Chocolate by Rowan Jacobsen | Book review | The TLS Everything about the Dancing Lion Chocolate café in Manchester, New Hampshire, sounds a tad pretentious. The edible art. The cutesy tile tables. The fact

Move over specialty coffee: it's chocolate's turn to go "terroir". My review of Rowan Jacobsen's entertaining investigation in to the rise of "bean-lobar" chocolate: this week's TLS: www.the-tls.co.uk/regular-feat... @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social

‘Let Amazonians speak for themselves’: trouble in paradise for Sebastião Salgado’s Amazônia Salgado is one of the world’s best-known documentary photographers but a growing wave of Indigenous critics are angry about the exoticised way in which they believe non-native photographers portray th...

Amazonian artists object to 'Western gaze' in #photography show by iconic photographer Sebastião Salgado: my piece in @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Thnx:
@elianebrum.sumauma.com, @jonathan-watts.bsky.social @infoamazonia.org, @geviana.bsky.social, @firstamart.bsky.social

Want a lovely post!! ❤️ Enjoy your yummy, memory-rich stew. Pass on my best to your bro. 👊

Need some positivity in your life? Good news: Positive News is out with a new issue. Chuffed to bag the cover story, about the rise of the hands-on dad. Just one of the many uplifting themes bursting from its pages. To subscribe & treat yourself to some optimism: www.positive.news/magazine/

The Book of Yerba Mate: A Stimulating History by Christine Folch

“How did mate (pronounced “ma-tay”) come to be a cultural institution? And what do its production, trade and modes of consumption tell us about our political economy, past and present?” Read on to discover more in @thetls.bsky.social:
www.the-tls.co.uk/culture/food...

Here’s to 2025 … flying high 🎈

Happy Christmas from the land of Saint Nicholas

Business Sustainability Oliver Balch at Great British Speakers Oliver Balch is a widely recognised expert on sustainability and the changing role of business in society. Book at +$4 1753 439 289

One aspect of my work that I LOVE is public speaking. So I'm really chuffed to now be represented by Great British Speakers, alongside the likes of @benedictallen.bsky.social, @bethrigby.bsky.social, @garethwynwilliams.bsky.social, etc.

More here: greatbritishspeakers.co.uk/talents/oliv...

Powerful photo essay by Berlin-based photographer, Julia Ochs, on the harsh realities (and poor returns) of ocean bottom trawling 🌊🐬🦑
eu.patagonia.com/nl/en/storie...

#saveouroceans
#sustainable
#fishing

Come on @bsky.app peeps, we can do this!!! Hope, help, hilarity ... bring it on #solutions #ideas #betterpresent #brighterfuture