A few years ago I began to see the writing on the wall, so I started this project.
A little background... after Covid hit I had gotten laid off and was looking for the opposite of what I had just spent the last few years doing: working in the land of private equity.
What's a fresh change from PE? ESG: Environmental, Social, Governance.
The recruiter said I was the unicorn she had been looking for: someone who had basic knowledge about sustainability, cared about the planet, and yet could talk the PE finance world verbiage.
My expertise though was not on the data side, it was talking to c-suite finance guys and exploring with them why they might care about green house gasses, supply-chain labor policies, and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives.
A change had perked up their interest in ESG, institutional investors were much more likely to hand over their millions to partners who can explain their labor policies, keep their employee retention rates high, and keep them away from the bad press about their carbon footprints. Not to mention if they wanted to do global deals they needed to start working on tracking and making transparent sustainability disclosures that the European Union require.
What I was perplexed about and then understood quickly is why the principles of ESG are controversial at all? Politics. Also, profits and PR for those who want to milk the idea of do-gooding. But mostly politics!
Which is ridiculous because ESG is a risk mitigation strategy and it's not about the blue or red teams, it's all about the green! The planet and profits go together. Ask the insurance companies who now have to pay out for the blue state CA's wildfires as they recover from the red states' hurricanes.
Anyway, the project started because I wanted an easy way to tell my friends, family and skeptics what ESG is really about.
[ READ AFTER YOU FINISHED SLIDEDOC ABOVE ]
What prompted me to take a week off work and finish this project up was the urgency you read about: AI
And I want to share a little story that makes this so darn surreal...
When I finished up the project I did what we'll all be doing soon, checked it with ChatGPT (shhh don't tell Gemini-- I don't want either to know everything about me 😜). Here is what it started with:
Good Capitalism 2025 project is a powerful, bold, and compelling call to reframe ESG through the lens of urgency, humanity, and systemic risk. You've successfully distilled complex ideas into an engaging, almost conversational style, which is a major strength.
Nice, right?!
Well then in a moment of meta perfection, this is the #1 thing it told me I needed to improve on:
It wanted me to point out more emphatically the THREAT IT IS!!
I mean ....
🎤
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What can YOU do?
Al Gore, Amandeep Singh Gill, Anand Giridharadas, Arianna Huffington, Brian Moynihan, Cheryl Dorsey, Chris Anderson, Dan Pink, Demis Hassabis, Eric Schmidt, Gary Vaynerchuk, Hamdi Ulukaya, Ian Bremmer, Indra Nooyi, Jamie Dimon, Jeffrey Sachs, Kara Swisher, Larry Fink, Marc Benioff, Mariana Mazzucato, Mark Cuban, Meredith Kopit Levien, Michael Lewis, Mitt Romney, Paul Polman, Reid Hoffman Richard Branson, Ronald Cohen, Rose Marcario, Rutger Bregman, Sam Altman, Samantha Power, Sasha Luccioni, Scott Galloway, Seth Godin, Steven Bartlett, Tim Ferris, Timnit Gebru, Tristan Harris
Thanks for your time... and be careful out there! 🤗 💚
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