Connect and inspire for a culture shift in business

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The Sustainable Hour’ Business Revolution special episode | Transcript | Podcast notes

This special episode of The Sustainable Hour discusses the lack of focus on climate change, sustainability, ESG and mindset shift in the Geelong Small Business Festival and features three business-related interviews from The Business Revolution podcast:

The first interview features Trent Jones, an expert in electrifying homes and businesses, who emphasises the importance of education and collaboration among tradespeople to drive the transition to electric alternatives.

The second interview features Jenny Agnew, a sustainability expert in the mining industry, who discusses the need for sustainable mining practices and the role of mining in the green transition. In this conversation, the hosts discuss the importance of policy change and the role of individuals and organisations in influencing and implementing change. They highlight the need for honesty, support, and good leadership in driving sustainability practices.

The third interview features Michael Sheldrick, author of ‘From Ideas to Impact: A Playbook for Influencing and Implementing Change in a Divided World’.

The episode emphasises the power of young people in driving the business revolution and the urgency to take action for a better future. The Business Revolution podcast continues to explore the concept of ESG (environment, social, and governance) and the need for businesses to prioritise sustainability.

“The tradespeople need a lot more education. They need to work together and band, they need to band together and make sure we’re communicating the same language to the clients.”
~ Trent Jones, All Electric Homes

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We at The Sustainable Hour would like to pay our respect to the traditional custodians of the land on which we
are broadcasting, the Wathaurong People, and pay our respect to their elders, past, present and future.

The traditional owners lived in harmony with the land. They nurtured it and thrived in often harsh conditions for millennia before they were invaded. Their land was then stolen from them – it wasn’t ceded. It is becoming more and more obvious that, if we are to survive the climate emergency we are facing, we have much to learn from their land management practices.

Our battle for climate justice won’t be won until our First Nations brothers and sisters have their true justice. When we talk about the future, it means extending our respect to those children not yet born, the generations of the future – remembering the old saying that, **“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.”**
The decisions currently being made around Australia to ignore the climate emergency are being made by those who won’t be around by the time the worst effects hit home. How disrespectful and unfair is that?

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Energy Efficiency for Small Business

Part of the Geelong Small Business Festival. This interactive event is designed to help small business owners understand the benefits of adopting energy-efficient practices and how to integrate electrification into their businesses.

Find out how your business can save on energy costs by implementing important energy efficiency practices, and learn about the future of energy for businesses.

When: 5.30 – 7.00pm, Thursday 22 August

Where: 1915 Restaurant and Bar, 33 Mackey Street, North Geelong

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Transcript of this episode

Antonio Guterres:
It’s a time for transformation.

Jingle:
The Sustainable Hour. For a green, clean, sustainable Geelong. The Sustainable Hour.

Tony Gleeson:
The Sustainable Hour acknowledges the traditional owners on the land on which we meet, work, play and broadcast from. The Wadawurrung people. We pay respects to elders, past, present and those who will come. At The Sustainable Hour, we take inspiration from the long history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander activism and resistance in Australia and seek to amplify the voices of marginalised groups. We know there is much for us to learn from the way they manage and nurtured the land for millennia before their land was stolen by the first white settlers.

Mik Aidt:
‘Connect. Inspire. Grow.’ That’s the slogan of Geelong’s Small Business Festival, which started last week and runs until the 23rd of August. ‘Connect, inspire and grow.’ Grow and ignore… Ignore the fact that the world’s climate is spiraling out of control. Like last year has now been confirmed as the warmest on record. And the world had its hottest day ever here in July. And should businesses not care about this?

Should Geelong Chamber of Commerce, should City of Greater Geelong not care? They are the organisers of this festival and they decide what they think is relevant to present to the Geelong business community, organising 50 different events. And out of those 50 events, one single event about energy efficiency, wow! which is of course great… That’s on Thursday, the 22nd of August, and it’s run by Geelong Sustainability. But zero, absolutely not a single event about the climate reality which our world is whirling into and what it means for business. Or what about maybe something about what really ought to be on top of mind of all businesses, not just in Europe, but also here in Australia and in Geelong in particular, the three letters called ESG. Anyone heard about that in the Small Business Festival? ESG.

Well, if you haven’t, maybe listen to The Sustainable Hour today because we will be talking about ESG. It stands for environment, social and governance. And when you think about the future of business, you need to know what ESG is all about. What is the future of business going to look like if you go on like this, pretending that nothing is wrong out there in the environment with the climate and so on, that no one needs to be looking at what’s happening to our world and say, ‘Hey, wow, this is getting serious, we need to change folks! Because if we don’t, our customers are going to change before us and we’ll miss out on business.’

You can talk as much as you want about branding and growth and scaling up and setting up for success and connecting and leading and thriving and all the buzzwords and smiling faces. Everyone’s feeling so smart in that business bubble there. But if you’re living in that bubble of pink, happy-go-lucky pretending that there’s no climate crisis – that the world isn’t heating and it’s getting out of control, then you are in trouble. Your business is part of the problem because you are ignoring the truth.

The corporate world needs to wake up and it needs a completely new set of values. Actually, the climate crisis is not just something about increasing temperatures. It’s about rising sea levels, more frequent, more severe disasters. It’s costs going through the roof for food, for transport, and if we are to really at some point hope to see a genuine transformation of the business sector, it begins with the values both in management and among the employees. It’s about creating a new significant cultural shift, I believe, in The Sustainable Hour today, we’ll be talking about that cultural shift. I’m going to present you to a handful of interviews we’ve done for this podcast we call ‘The Business Revolution’.

That’s a podcast we started about half a year ago and we’re out now with our sixth episode. And the idea with the Business Revolution podcast is that we want to provide the kind of information which is needed when you run a business. The kind of information that this festival could have been providing but missed the opportunity to do so this year. Hopefully that can be done better next year. But if you work in or if you’re a manager in a corporation in a business, then the idea with this podcast is to create kind of like a community of people who get it. People who understand what’s needed and where we need to go, but maybe need some courage or some encouragement of that kind which comes when you create connections and you get inspiration from others about climate initiatives, ESG issues and so on. And that’s what we’ve been talking about in the first six episodes of the business revolution.

So thanks for tuning in to this special business edition of The Sustainable Hour and welcome to the Business Revolution which is hosted by Cherry Ward, Alan Taylor and myself, Mik Aidt. And distributed out to the world through the website businessrevolution.earth.

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Events we have talked about in The Sustainable Hour

Events in Victoria

The following is a collation of Victorian climate change events, activities, seminars, exhibitions, meetings and protests. Most are free, many ask for RSVP (which lets the organising group know how many to expect), some ask for donations to cover expenses, and a few require registration and fees. This calendar is provided as a free service by volunteers of the Victorian Climate Action Network. Information is as accurate as possible, but changes may occur.

Petitions

→ List of running petitions where we encourage you to add your name

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Live-streaming on Wednesdays

The Sustainable Hour is streamed live on the Internet and broadcasted on FM airwaves in the Geelong region every Wednesday from 11am to 12pm (Melbourne time).

→ To listen to the program on your computer or phone, click here – or go to www.947thepulse.com where you then click on ‘Listen Live’ on the right.

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Podcast archive

Over 500 hours of sustainable podcasts.

Listen to all of The Sustainable Hour radio shows as well as special Regenerative Hours and Climate Revolution episodes in full length.

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