Per study after study, companies that can prove they are environmentally sustainable make more money.

This video interview discusses that when a company offers the consumer a choice, they choose sustainability over non-sustainable options.

Odds are, your company is not certified sustainable.

Odds are, you are in the middle of 2027 planning right now.

Odds are, you fashion yourself as a smart businessperson.

Odds are, you are not going to choose to become certified sustainable.

Odds are, you are one of the guys way, way, way, back there.

Yes, we know AI is the new shiny toy.

Yes, we know – “Everyone else is doing it”

But remember this:

• If, per this article, the creators of AI believe we are “gambling with our lives”
• If, per the article, just like the Terminator movies, “it will be smart enough to kill us”
• If we know the environmental impact is catastrophic
• If we know your privacy is toast
• If we know it is making your staff dumber
• If we know, even the best LLMs are 20% wrong on the easiest questions
• If we know you are getting speed but not quality
• If we know, 99% of the people claiming to be an expert are just shiny toy salespeople
• If we know there are no guardrails

Maybe, you think twice before blindly following everyone else over the cliff.

Per this master class, there are 8 components of a sustainability program that will be successful and make you happy:

• It MUST include Employee Performance / Health
  • Sustainability is not just about energy savings or ‘Greening Up’, it is about people
  • For most businesses, the employees are one of the biggest costs, one of the biggest risks (mistakes, insurance, law suits) and one of the biggest opportunities (new ideas, collaboration, product knowledge)
  • Every organization suffers from the Big 5 – insomnia, stress, anxiety, physical pain, mental acuity
  • You are losing 5% of your corporate profit/year to the Big 5
  • It takes a lot of LEDs to make up for one worker comp or workplace violence case
  • Make sure your program has a ‘people piece’ that addresses employee performance, health and happiness

• It MUST certify the business not the box
  • People care about things that involve people
  • Most building (ie, ‘Box’) certifications only care about building energy
  • Building certifications are expensive and hard to market (poor ROI)
  • You want to say, “Buy more of my product because we are a certified sustainable business”
  • You do not get much value from, “Buy more of my product because we are in an energy efficient building”
  • You want the certification on your business, not the building your business is in

• It MUST have a 3^rd party audit component
  • Oversight delivers credibility and trust
  • From passing your driving test, to getting your college diploma, to passing a bar exam, we use 3^rd parties to ensure compliance
  • There are many sustainability programs that deliver a certification based on your ‘word’…..and your payment
  • Don’t do it!
  • Make sure the program you choose uses a 3^rd party to validate your work

• It MUST follow a respected and integrated global standard
  • The sustainability industry is maturing and coalescing around few standards
  • The UN has created its SDGs (17 sustainability development goals)
  • 50% of the world’s economies require sustainability reporting
  • Greenwashing lawsuits are growing
  • Don’t pick a program that is not globally respected by, and integrated with, the world leadership groups; and that does not have the ability to integrate the other three legs of the stool – carbon neutrality, ESG and net zero
  • No reason to spend the time and money, then find you are not following the same programs and protocols that the leadership groups have adopted

• It MUST include promotion of the certification
  • Historically, sustainability has been a cost-side play
  • Most programs and providers have been 100% trained and focused on cost-side measures – energy reduction, carbon reduction, waste reduction, water reduction, travel reduction (ie, engineering)
  • But we know consumers are searching for certified sustainable companies
  • If you don’t talk about being certified sustainable they will never know you are (ie, marketing)
  • You want a program provider that is built to do the cost-side work AND the revenue-side work; and helps you promote your certification

• It MUST pursue continual improvement
  • Sustainability is not finite. It requires long-term commitment
  • But…change is hard for all of us
  • If the bar is set too high, we can get frustrated and give up
  • You want a program that lets you come as you are and allows you to continually improve
  • This will keep everyone happy and committed year after year

• It MUST require annual updates
  • Current = credible
  • Sustainability is not finite; we need to continually improve
  • You don’t want a program that does not have a date attached to its certification
  • You want to continually improve, see your success, and annually update your certification to show you are current and credible in your actions

• It MUST be at a price you can afford and produce a positive ROI
  • We could have started with cost but you need the above seven components at a price you can afford
  • It needs to show a positive and rapid ROI
  • The cost includes both money and time and covers everything – the certification, the 3^rd party audit and your work to become certified

We deliver all eight components mentioned above to our clients.

We enjoy a 100% client renewal rate – every year, every client has a decision to make and every year, every client has renewed.

If you use a program that delivers all of the above, you will probably be happy too.

Climate physical risk is your company’s financial exposure to extreme weather.  This does not include any other environmental impacts.   

If we extrapolate the data from the study in this article, we arrive at the following:

• Climate risk (ie, financial hurt due to extreme weather) is currently taking 1% off the top (from your sales number)
• In five years, it will grow to approximately 1.5% off the top
• Unchecked, it will continue to grow

Not counting the positive ROI benefits of being certified sustainable, if we just look at the out-of-pocket cost to you of becoming a certified sustainable company and being able to say you are part of the solution, unless you are a micro-company, the cost is lower than the climate risk. 

You have two choices:

• Do nothing and continue to bleed out.  
• Fight back, be part of the solution, and gain all the benefits of same.

If you would like to fight back and gain the benefits of same, watch this master class and contact us.

July 2026 was the 2^nd warmest July on record and finished with an average global temperature of 1.56° +/- 0.09° C above the 1850 – 1900 average – trailing only 2023 and tied with 2024.

With a strengthening El Niño already showing a +2.7° C increase, forecasts suggest it will peak at 4.0° C.

With July being so hot, combined with the El Niño projections, Berkley Earth now gives a 69% chance 2026 will be the hottest year on record.

However, holding the crown will be hard, as 2027 is expected to be even hotter.

We’ve worked hard over the past 100 years to warm this place up.

If we want to, we can work equally hard to cool it down.

• In less than 4 years, AI will be using more power than all but five countries (China, USA, India, Russia and Japan) – We are already at the tipping point with carbon emissions and global warming.  AI is not going to nudge us over; it is going to throw us over.
• In less than 4 years, AI will be consuming the equivalent of the water needs of 1.3 billion people (15% of the world’s population) – It is taking the water needed to keep people alive.
• AI has reached your children – We need standards and controls for their safety.
• AI will be used in war, improving our ability to kill each other – How will a country’s leaders not choose to use it to kill thousands/millions if those leaders feel threatened (externally AND internally)?
• We may be the last generation able to set the terms on which humanity and machines co-exist – Yes, this sounds like it is coming from a movie, but it is not.

Trailing only 2024, June 2026 was the 2^nd hottest June in recorded history – 1.49°C above the industrial baseline.

Our oceans are warming even faster than the overall air temperature and June 2026 was the hottest June in recorded history for our oceans – 1.17°C above baseline.

The rising global temperatures have served as a foundation for the heatwaves and fires in Europe and Canada.  This will impact the cost of your food.

The rising ocean temperature is killing the reefs, which will also impact your food cost.

An El Niño is forming and, driven by the above, is expected to become the strongest ever.  In fact, the forecast models are literally scoring off the charts – they are providing numbers above the range they are designed to test at.

The impact of the El Niño will be mostly felt in 2027.  It will magnify droughts in some areas and flooding in other areas, while adding more damage to coral reefs and fish populations.

Net, we can expect 2027 will bring more damage to food production and housing.

Don’t expect this end.  The scientific community believes the human-driven component of global temperature increases will slow/stop approximately ten years after the world reaches net-zero carbon emissions.  However, given that we are nowhere close to that, and given that carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, high temperatures will continue for centuries, even after emissions stop.  Further, with polar ice/snow melting, our ability to reflect the Sun is reduced.

Net, its only going to get worse.

Which side of this do you and your company want to be on?  Do you want to remain part of the problem or become part of the solution?  +70% of consumers will move their business if they find a company they believe is taking action to be part of the solution (which is why there is so much greenwashing from companies trying to cash in without becoming certified/verified).

Since 1971 we have been consuming more than the Earth can produce each year.  

To make matters worse, our consumption has been increasing.

This year, Earth Overshoot Day is July 30.

On this date we have consumed all the Earth can produce for this year.  For the rest of this year, we consume from future years.

We are currently consuming 1.8 Earths every year.  

We have been over-consuming for 55 years.

How does that math work for you?