#SustyTalk: Anthesis’ CEO Stuart McLachlan on transitions and transformational change

#SustyTalk is all about keeping edie’s loyal readers connected to sustainability leaders across the world, whilst reminding us all that sustainability and climate action must go on through the current cost of living crisis and beyond. It launched in the early stages of the pandemic in 2020 and has continued since then, keeping us connected to the leaders who are continuing to drive sustainable business and climate action.

As part of edie’s Business Leadership Month, and ahead of the edie Awards ceremony, Platinum Partner Anthesis’s chief executive Stuart McLachlan is the latest to join our discussions.

During the discussion Stuart summarises the current external pressures, often referred to as the “polycrisis” facing businesses and sustainability professionals and what mindsets and skills need to be adopted to overcome them.

As well as talking about the softer, people-centric skills that sustainability practitioners need to nurture, Stuart notes the sheer volume of opportunities that can be captured by businesses that are ready to step back from “broken” business-as-usual models.

“There’s an avalanche of regulation that is hitting the market and I think it’s different regulation to that that we’ve seen over the years. Much of the regulation is demanded, a sort of incremental nudging improvement of performance, whereas this is the big stick,” Stuart says, referencing the new wave of investor demands and disclosure frameworks now emerging.

“It’s basically saying get out of the fortresses and strongholds the these perceived places of safety that you built for yourself over the last 80 years and you’ve got to step into the transition zone. And this transition zone is full of transformational change. And with that is risk and danger and jeopardy, but also a huge amount of opportunity for value creation.”

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Want to be featured on a future episode of #SustyTalk? Email newsdesk@fav-house.com. Please bear in mind that our interview calendar is now booked for March 2024.