Anna Bocca 
With COP29 (the UN’s big yearly climate change meeting) coming up in a few days, in this video, I’ll dive into Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks and how major consulting firms—might be using carbon credits, ESG ratings and other corporate smokescreens, to help their fossil fuel clients cash in rather than create change. From the UN’s climate conferences, to the fossil fuel giants and the entangled world of consulting, I’ll unravel who truly profits from ESG frameworks and sustainability consulting #ESG #Sustainability #COP29 #UN #CarbonCredits #ESGRatings #ESGFramework #Consulting
0:00 Intro
03:45 A short history of sustainability
07:07 The consulting industry & ESG
08:45 Marketing “sustainability practices”
11:04 Consulting fossil fuel & COP
20:14 Consulting governments
23:32 Carbon offsets
28:50 ESG reporting standards and frameworks
Here’s the link to a document where I list all the sources I used for this research:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a6N_ayDHj8MOwvCBVBXFPpVI1bxweHTfIdJv4HtpxoQ/edit?usp=sharing
My instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boomers_hate_this_trick/
I mostly post photos of my cats
And check out the small jewellery label I started with my two best friends: www.the-squid-studios.com
We produce all our jewellery in Germany and France and have a lifelong guarantee – and with the code ‘CONSULTING=SCAM’ you get 10% off your order 🙂
source
About The Author
The shortsightedness and stupidity we can exhibit as a species can be mindboggling.
Is Diversity, Equity and Inclusion a similar consultancy-led corporate image enhancement exercise?
I used to work at a bank. I quit for the same reason (and am now a brokie too) but for a while I really thought "we're one of the good guys" – not without cause, we really did do some cool stuff that helped people, and we could do it because we were rightly considered to be on the forefront of innovation, which led to higher profits, which allowed for doing some actual good with the budget. (At least that's how it looked from the bottom up, which I never rose from.)
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say I was being groomed for great things (despite my lack of higher education). I was head of the innovations team, president of our Toastmasters club, I helped people win some awards, first-name basis with the national CEO. I worked until midnight not because of, but despite my HOD (who often gently told me to go home). But I noticed some things. Our entire "innovations" department seemed to be a PR label for "the department that fixes problems that incompetent or corrupt leaders created". I started to question things, and people didn't like being probed, which led to some bizarre meetings, like one where one person in a badly-performing dept was simultaneously asking us to solve some system problems in his space, and being angry that we were talking about them. But on the whole, things seemed to be moving up and I was excited to oil this machine so it runs even better.
That all changed with COVID. Initially, my outlook was reinforced: Many of us started working from home, the company announced that amid all other corpos doing massive layoffs, we value our people and vow to not do that. I'm no economist, but I knew this was a mistake. I thought they were buying goodwill with a cheque they couldn't cash, because the economy was tanking and the bills have to be paid.
That's when the dam burst. Some departmental reshuffling was to be expected, but as my own department got absorbed by another, and I saw what would fill the inevitable cracks: Worker exploitation. Our new KPI structure was such that it was impossible to get a halfway decent work performance rating. As in, it was literally impossible to qualify for a bonus or even a raise on par with inflation – both things that were unofficially promised (and delivered) to everyone not undergoing performance management. But it was done in a way that was hidden by math – very similar to exploitative video game currencies, for those familiar with them. You had to convert your productivity hours into a rating, then to a percentage and combine it with some other indicators, then back to a percentage and then to your final rating. Most people didn't look into this and instead just used the handy-dandy spreadsheet provided by the team leaders, and they would just input their numbers and report the final number that came up.
But my autistic ass did look into it, and found the skeleton in the machine. And I started making noise. This was during the departmental reshuffle, so many things were up in the air, and I thought "this must just be an arithmetic oversight, I'm sure they'll sort it out before finalizing". I CC'd everyone that this affected, which was just under 100 people. Management said something like "thank you for bringing this to our attention, we will look into it." And then, nothing. I bumped the thread after a week or two, and got told basically "sorry for not replying earlier, but we looked into this and found no problem". I still thought maybe they didn't understand, so I clarified: This means nobody can get a raise or a bonus, even if they are literally robots being 100% productive 24/7. I corrected the formula and plotted both the current and correct method of calculation. And still CC'd everyone. A few days later, I was told I'm being rude (which, to be fair, I kind of was – I said "either management is completely incompetent, which I don't believe they are, or deliberately dishonest").
Some days later still, I got a message from the HOD. There have been complaints about me. From customers and coworkers. That I'm rude and unhelpful. Recordings of this behaviour were sent to me, proving this rudeness: One from two months, and one from a couple of weeks prior. (My "transgression" was that I didn't provide information to these people because they failed to answer some security questions. I was following procedure to the letter.) I was asked to admit guilt. I didn't. I said I've done nothing wrong. They said okay, now you're getting a second written warning for the same crimes, how do you like that? I refused again, for the same reason. Another week later they made it a final written warning. Same answer.
At this point, my former view of the company was completely shattered. I didn't care about my job and it showed. I was doing the bare minimum to get by (and honestly kinda less than that sometimes). I was called into a hearing to defend my job. They concluded that I was underperforming and should be fired, but were giving me a chance to keep my job, so I was under performance management and "serving" two simultaneous extended final written warnings. I appealed the decision (which required getting involved with a workers' union, where my rep absolutely repulsed me with the underhanded, deliberately dishonest slimy practices they were engaged in – think Evrart Claire from Disco Elysium). I told him, on the record, to stop lying. He said "then I will recuse myself" and left. That was a mishearing. We held another after a month. That one ended with the bank concluding that they were right all along. Shocking, I know.
A few months later, Exco sent out a company-wide memo: Anyone who wishes to resign will get full severance, and also a bonus proportional to the number of years worked at the company. (Like Margin Call but less Hollywood.) I and about 10 others took the deal. Now here I am, 3 years later.
I doubt anyone will read this, but I felt like sharing. If you did, I hope it was somewhat entertaining or useful.
great vid, as always.
You're killing it with those videos Anna!
As always a great video👍 More on carbon credits will be interesting. I mean, carbon trading in a capitalistic system screams 'scam' from the get-go 😂
Thank you for turning down consultant money to make these important videos instead
Monetizing how others monetize climate change is next level
Great video! I sent you an Instagram message a while ago. You are probably flooded with such messages but I was wondering whether I could help you with research for future videos?
Die ganze Wahrheit ist, dass auch im IPCC-Bericht nirgends steht, woher man eigentlich wissen soll, dass der Mensch mit seinen Co2-Emissionen die Ursache für die Erwärmung ist. Und wenn man das mal geschnallt hat, dann hat man das Thema auch wirklich verstanden. Es geht hier um eine Industrie, die mit dem Moralbedürfnis der Menschen arbeitet. Sie gibt Sinn in einer gottlosen und areligiösen Gesellschaft.
Thank you! Your videos need much more attention, hope they get the traction they absolutely deserve.
This video is so good. More people need to see that
When I saw this video in my feed I was worried it would be another "climate change is fake" video.
Thankfully it is not, and actually interesting
i hear "Nachhaltigkeit", i click like
There's one problem…… the world is not getting warmer, and there is no "Climate Crisis", there is no such thing as "renewable energy"
Another cracker from you, thanks mate. Shame it's so depressing 🤣
Your videos are seriously amazing!