Welcome back to The Ledger - a weekly briefing at the intersection of business, sustainability, technology and systems thinking. Let’s get straight into Issue #2.
The Big Idea: The Progress Illusion
-
We mistake activity for progress far too easily.
A new factory gets announced. A glossy ESG report lands. Another “net zero” pledge makes headlines. It feels like motion. But motion and momentum are not the same thing.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: much of what passes for climate progress is just rearranging the furniture while the house still burns.
Take net zero pledges. Most push the hard work into 2040 or 2050. Or corporate offsets - as if paying someone else to plant trees absolves you from burning coal today. Or the obsession with AI-powered dashboards and disclosures, when the hard work is still swapping pipes, boilers and supply chains.
The danger isn’t just greenwash. It’s the illusion of progress that keeps capital, talent and public will trapped in the wrong places.
So how do we cut through? By asking one blunt question:
Does this action reduce real emissions, at real scale, in real time?
If the answer is yes, that’s progress.
If the answer is maybe, that’s a distraction.
If the answer is no, it’s theatre.
-
The transition is urgent. We don’t have the luxury of mistaking activity for achievement
-
-
Signals from the Noise
What matters, what works, and what’s worth watching
-
🔧 UK Industry: Innovation on Ice
Britain’s advanced manufacturers - the ones we desperately need for renewables, aerospace, and clean tech - are stuck. Innovation exists, but scaling is paralysed by high energy costs, skills gaps and endless bureaucracy. If the UK can’t fix this, “Made in Britain” will become shorthand for prototypes, not production.
-
🧵 Fashion’s New Fault Line: Just Resilience
The term just resilience is creeping into the sustainability lexicon. Translation: it’s not enough for supply chains to be climate-smart; they also need to be socially fair. Adaptation without equity just re-bakes fragility into the system. The fashion industry is a canary here, but the lesson applies across the economy.
-
🇪🇺 Europe Backpedals, Fast
The EU was supposed to set the gold standard on green claims, deforestation rules and due diligence. Instead, it’s stalling and watering them down. Lobbyists call it pragmatism. In reality, it’s progress-by-headline, erosion-by-negotiation. The more rules unravel in Brussels, the more fragile the global transition looks.
-
🔬 Science in the Crosshairs
In the US, climate science itself is becoming collateral damage. A DOE report casting doubt on consensus has forced scientists into defensive mode, fast-tracking reviews to safeguard evidence. Here’s the lesson: truth doesn’t defend itself. And every week scientists spend firefighting politics is a week stolen from progress.
-
♻️ Plastic Diplomacy, Still Broken
Another week, another collapse in plastic treaty talks. The division remains the same: cap production vs. manage waste. Meanwhile, as highlighted last week, the Lancet estimates plastics already impose $1.5 trillion in annual health damages. It’s hard to think of a clearer case study in global paralysis: the science is in, the harm is known and the solutions are obvious - and yet here we are.
-
From the Ground
“Investors love transition stories. They’re less keen on transition costs.”
-
The Ledger Line
Progress that doesn’t cut emissions isn’t progress. It’s performance.
-
End Note
Thanks for reading Issue #2 of The Ledger.
This is about stripping back the noise and asking better questions: what matters, what works, what’s next.
If this struck a chord, please share it with someone who’s tired of watching theatre when we need transformation.
And as always, reply if something here sparked a thought - I read every one.
Here’s to what’s possible.
Dom