The Responsible Edge Podcast

Charlie Martin, Host
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How to win at business, responsibly. The Responsible Edge is a podcast for leaders in responsible business. Every episode unpacks a real business problem, in leadership, supply chains, marketing or communications, and what it actually took to fix it. No theory for theory's sake, just real decisions and their consequences. 150 episodes and counting. Guests like Charlie Bigham, Pablo Lloyd OBE and John O'Brien MBE have joined the show to talk about what responsible growth actually looks like. New episodes every week. Sponsored by truMRK.

  1. 1d ago

    Radical Transparency Is Asserted as a Competitive Advantage. Prove It.

    Andrew Horsfall on a 2026 Entrepreneur article arguing radical transparency is the new competitive advantage, written by the CEO of an online reputation management firm, with no data to back the claim. This week on The Responsible Edge, why risk mitigation drives disclosure more than trust-building does, and whether the correlation between transparency and commercial trust outcomes has ever actually been proved. Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week. A May 2026 article in Entrepreneur, written by Paul M. Wilson, CEO of online reputation management firm NetReputation, argues that radical transparency is the new competitive advantage. Openly sharing information, the article contends, builds deeper trust, faster decision-making, and stronger customer loyalty than confidentiality can. The article contains no data to support the claim. In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin discusses the article with Andrew Horsfall, who has just completed an MSc in Global Health, Food Security, Sustainability and Biodiversity at Royal Holloway, and formerly served as a practising attorney and Assistant Dean of International Programs at Syracuse University College of Law. Andrew arrives at the article from two directions at once. His legal background taught him that confidentiality can be currency and disclosure can lead to liability. "Dance like there's no tomorrow. Email like it may one day be read aloud at a deposition." His recent postgraduate study in sustainability has been actively revising that instinct. The conversation identifies the real driver for proactive disclosure in practice: not trust-building, but risk mitigation. Charlie draws on conversations from his work at the Anti-Greenwash Charter and truMRK. Organisations are disclosing proactively so they can point to due diligence when challenged, not primarily because they have evidence that transparency builds commercial advantage. The hypothesis is sound. The proof does not yet exist. "I've seen loads of research on the value of trust," Charlie says. "What I haven't seen is anything that shows the correlation between radical transparency and trust outcomes." Andrew's magic wand: give nature legal personhood, the same legal imagination applied to creating corporate personhood, and watch what it does to commercial decision-making. If your work touches sustainability communications, disclosure strategy, or environmental governance, this episode is worth your time. #RadicalTransparency #SustainabilityCommunications #ProactiveDisclosure #EnvironmentalGovernance #TrustInBusiness #TheResponsibleEdge

  2. Sep 22

    How Responsible Sustainability Communication Builds Brand Trust

    Andy Last and Gareth Brown on the Anti-Greenwash Charter's 2026 roundtable with nine purpose-led brands. This week on The Responsible Edge, how responsible sustainability communication builds commercial trust, why precision creates competitive advantage, and how the Charter and truMRK make independent verification achievable today. Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week. In the summer of 2026, the Anti-Greenwash Charter brought together nine purpose-led brands to examine how organisations communicate sustainability well. The brands spanned food, drink, household goods, personal care, and grocery. Several are certified B Corporations. All have built reputations for doing the work. The question the roundtable set out to answer was simple: what are the leading brands learning, and what does their practice look like? In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Andy Last, co-founder of salt communications and author of Business on a Mission, and Gareth Brown, marketing director and roundtable facilitator, about the resulting report: Trusted Communications for Purpose-Led Brands. The findings are practical and commercially specific. Brands with a strong, consistent record of responsible practice build resilience: when limited issues arise, credibility carries them through. Precision creates competitive advantage: a fully substantiated product-level claim can be defended where a sweeping one cannot. And radical transparency about limitations builds more durable trust than a polished surface. "Sustainability is a lever of trust," Andy says. "And that is only as strong as the last piece of communications you've made." Both guests arrive at the same magic wand: independent verification of sustainability claims as the market standard. "If customers turn away from brands that aren't verified," Gareth argues, "the commercial advantage flows to brands that have invested in getting it right." The Anti-Greenwash Charter and truMRK are introduced as the infrastructure that makes that standard achievable today. If your work touches sustainability communications, brand trust, or claims governance, this episode is worth your time. #SustainabilityCommunications #GreenClaims #AntiGreenwash #PurposeLedBrands #BrandTrust #TheResponsibleEdge

  3. Sep 15

    ESG's Governance Problem Is Also an Equivocation Problem

    Benjamin Thiele-Long on the PA Future article arguing ESG investing has a governance problem. This week on The Responsible Edge, why the G is not the poor cousin of ESG but its precondition, why "may be" and "can" are doing the wrong work in an argument that should commit, and what it means to move ESG from the bottom line to the top. Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week. A July 2026 article in PA Future argues that ESG investing has a governance problem. Investors and media fixate on environmental and social issues while governance, the foundation that makes all other ESG commitments meaningful, is routinely overlooked. The article calls for standardised governance reporting, executive pay linked to investor engagement, and board structures integrated explicitly into risk management.In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin discusses the article with Benjamin Thiele-Long, barrister at Drystone Chambers and formerly SVP and Chief ESG and Communications Officer at Petco.Benjamin agrees with the premise. He is considerably less patient with the execution. The article argues governance "may be" the most important ESG letter and that investors "can" focus on board composition to drive change. His position is direct: "If you're going to say it is, it either is or it isn't." And on investor action: "Not can. Must. Just must."He also notes that the article is published by someone who describes themselves as an evidence-based investor. It contains no data points. "There's tons of research about how good governance is the cornerstone. Let's put our money where our mouth is."The conversation covers Benjamin's parallel careers as barrister and communications executive, why governance is not the poor cousin of ESG but its precondition, and why the sustainability function being "tucked away eating granola bars" is a governance failure as much as a communications one.His magic wand: move ESG from the bottom line to the top. Frame it as a revenue driver, not a cost. Give the ESG team the same data the board sees, and the same seat at the table."There is no right way or wrong way to do ESG. But there is a right way or wrong way to talk about it." If your work touches ESG strategy, investor relations, or the governance of responsible business, this episode is worth your time. #ESGGovernance #CorporateGovernance #ESGInvesting #ResponsibleBusiness #BoardAccountability #TheResponsibleEdge

  4. Sep 8

    The Trust Crisis Was Predicted in 2002. It Has Now Arrived.

    Aimee Rawlins on the trust crisis Onora O'Neill predicted in 2002 and the Reuters and Edelman data confirming it has arrived. This week on The Responsible Edge, why fake news is now a feeling as much as a fact, what local news deserts are doing to communities, and why giving the NLRB enforcement teeth is one structural response to an accountability system that cannot act. Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week. In 2002, Baroness Onora O'Neill used the BBC Reith Lectures to predict a coming crisis of institutional trust. A July 2026 article by Gavin Esler in The National argues the prediction has now fully arrived. The Edelman Trust Barometer 2026 found that seven in ten people globally report hesitance or unwillingness to trust someone with different values or backgrounds. The Reuters Digital News Report 2026 found that roughly forty percent of people practise news avoidance. Only thirty-nine percent get news from ideologically different sources on a weekly basis. In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin discusses the Esler article with Aimee Rawlins, freelance editor and writer covering sustainability and climate for Time and The Guardian, and formerly Senior Editor for the Impact section at Fast Company, where she managed a team covering climate, clean energy, and ESG. Aimee's first observation is precise. The problem is not just that more fake news exists. It is that people now believe all information might be fake. Reuters found that two thirds of respondents believe foreign adversaries could be inserting falsehoods into national media. Once distrust extends to the source, it becomes indiscriminate. The conversation moves into what happens when local journalism disappears. Research consistently finds that in communities that have lost local news, polarisation increases and social capital falls. "Instead of having a shared source, a shared truth of sorts, people look for it elsewhere, and that is not in a community-oriented place." Aimee's magic wand: give the US National Labor Relations Board enforcement powers. Monetary penalties for illegal labour practices. Gallup found sixty-eight percent trust in unions. The institution has the public's confidence. The regulatory body cannot act. "There's zero incentive for companies not to engage in terrible practices." The episode closes with Esler's closing line from Confucius, via O'Neill: without trust we cannot stand. If your work touches trust, media, or corporate accountability, this episode is worth your time. #MediaTrust #InstitutionalTrust #LocalJournalism #SustainabilityJournalism #Disinformation #TheResponsibleEdge

  5. Sep 1

    Construction Social Value: Hitting Targets, Missing Communities

    Timothy Clement on why construction social value has become a procurement game fifteen years after the Social Value Act. This week on The Responsible Edge, why hitting the targets and missing the community are not in contradiction, and what a three-year post-completion evaluation would change. Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week. A June 2026 article by Darcie Lattin of Watson, published in PBC Today, identifies a persistent gap in how the construction industry approaches social value. The industry, Lattin argues, has become good at delivering social value activities and reporting against targets. The tendency is still to focus on what is easy to measure rather than what local communities actually need. In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin discusses the article with Timothy Clement, Director of Social Value and Sustainability at Morgan Sindall Construction. Tim's response is direct. "We've gamified the very needs that the act is supposed to address." The Social Value Act, passed approximately fifteen years ago, was designed to ensure that private sector delivery of public sector contracts produced local benefit. What it produced, in many cases, was a procurement optimisation exercise. Numbers that go up. Communities that ask where it went. The conversation covers Lattin's argument that the most impactful social value initiatives are not built from scratch but strengthen existing local programmes, Morgan Sindall's ten-question framework for testing whether a social value activity meets genuine community need, and Tim's proposed structural fix: a mandatory three-year post-completion evaluation asking not what was delivered but what changed. Tim's magic wand is unexpected. "Compassion." Not as sentiment, but as the discipline that changes how an activity is delivered rather than what it delivers. "You don't see it on the wall of a social value thing, generally." The episode closes on Lattin's conclusion: social value should not start with a spreadsheet. It should start with a conversation. Whether procurement frameworks can be redesigned to reward that conversation is the open question. If your work touches construction, social value, or the governance of public contracts, this episode is worth your time. #SocialValue #ConstructionIndustry #SocialValueAct #BuiltEnvironment #ProcurementReform #TheResponsibleEdge

  6. Aug 25

    Should Companies Appoint a Chief Trust Officer?

    Matt Bourn on the Fortune case for a Chief Trust Officer, written by Edelman's U.S. Head of Corporate Reputation. This week on The Responsible Edge, why the diagnosis of trust as unowned across the C-suite is accurate, why a new C-suite role may not fix it, and what the shift from the attention economy to the trust economy actually requires. Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week. A May 2026 Fortune article by Jonathan Jordan, Edelman's U.S. Head of Corporate Reputation, argues that trust is now business-critical but sits unowned across most organisations. The solution it proposes: a Chief Trust Officer, a dedicated C-suite executive whose sole mandate is earning and protecting stakeholder confidence. In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin discusses the article with Matt Bourn, Director of Communications at the Advertising Association and co-author of Trusted Advertising and Sustainable Advertising. Matt's response is precise. He agrees with the diagnosis, and notes that the article is written by a senior figure at a firm whose commercial model involves selling trust-related services to corporations. On the proposed remedy he is direct: creating a new C-suite role for trust misunderstands the problem. "The leadership team has a collective responsibility to make sure it's the most trusted business in its sector." The conversation covers the distinction the Fortune article draws between reputation and trust, which Matt endorses as the most valuable part of the piece. It covers the Edelman research cited in the article, including the claim that sixty-one percent of people globally hold a grievance mindset and seven in ten have an insular trust mindset reluctant to extend confidence beyond their immediate circle. And it moves into Matt's own evidence from Trusted Advertising: the Giffgaff case, the Net Promoter Score as the closest proxy for trust, and the broader shift from the attention economy to a trust economy. His magic wand: not a new C-suite title, but stronger industry self-regulation that embeds responsible practice through structure rather than communications. "There's a huge difference between being liked and being trusted." If your work touches brand trust, communications leadership, or the governance of responsible advertising, this episode is worth your time. #ChiefTrustOfficer #BrandTrust #TrustEconomy #ResponsibleAdvertising #CommunicationsLeadership #TheResponsibleEdge

  7. Aug 5

    CMOs Know What They Should Do. Why Aren't They Doing It?

    Dr Leeya Hendricks on the Lippincott CMO Outlook 2026 and the gap between what marketing leaders know they should do and what they are actually doing. This week on The Responsible Edge, why the short-term credibility trade-off is costing CMOs something harder to recover than a quarterly target. Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week. A global study of more than five hundred CMOs, conducted by Lippincott in partnership with Bloomberg Media, finds a striking gap. Marketing leaders believe long-term brand building is critical for sustainable growth. They are systematically deprioritising it anyway, trading brand investment for short-term credibility with the C-suite. In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Dr Leeya Hendricks, Managing Director and Founder of Hark Consultants, Non-Executive Director at the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and author of The Platform Playbook, about what the CMO Outlook 2026 reveals and what it obscures. Leeya's response to the headline finding is a reframe. The short-term drift is not something being done to CMOs. It is a choice, and it reflects a failure by the marketing function to make its strategic case with sufficient rigour. "It shouldn't be a case of us being forced into a space. It's the job of the CMO to really have those strategic long-term discussions." The conversation covers the specific AI trap the Lippincott data surfaces: CMOs defunding the digital foundations AI depends on in order to fund AI implementation itself. It covers why the strategy conversation is being mistaken for a technology conversation. And it ends with the question Leeya argues the data is really pointing at: whether boards have the capability to lead organisations in an AI-enabled economy. "The question isn't simply whether marketers should be in the boardroom. It's whether boards have the capabilities needed to lead organisations in an AI-enabled economy." Her magic wand: businesses that measure long-term value across customers, employees, partners, society, and shareholders. "Responsible growth isn't about sacrificing commercial performance. It's about creating businesses that can sustain it." If your work touches marketing leadership, brand strategy, or the role of AI in commercial growth, this episode is worth your time. #CMOStrategy #MarketingLeadership #BrandBuilding #AIMarketing #ResponsibleGrowth #TheResponsibleEdge

  8. Jul 29

    The CSO Role Is Growing. Here Is How the Best Ones Operate

    A 2025 Korn Ferry report finds that the Chief Sustainability Officer role is becoming one of the most strategic positions in the enterprise. Sixty-two percent of executives surveyed plan to increase sustainability budgets. The shift is real. So is the nuance underneath it. In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Katja Tuomola, Head of Sustainability and Marketing Communications at MM Group, a fibre-based packaging company with over four billion euros in annual sales and fifteen thousand employees, about what the Korn Ferry findings look like in practice. Katja's read is precise and grounded in more than twenty years in the sustainability and forest industries. The article reflects large corporate reality, not the full market. And the strategic power that is being described does not come from championing sustainability. It comes from operating as a business executive who happens to own the sustainability function. "I am not doing this for sustainability," she says. "I am doing this for business. My number one priority is that the business does not go out, because then I will not have a job either." At MM Group, Katja is the final approver of CapEx projects exceeding two million euros before they reach the management board. She checks CO₂ considerations, supplier footprint, and energy impact on every major capital investment. The mechanism does not require any department to champion sustainability. It requires every major commercial decision to answer sustainability questions before it is ratified. The conversation covers how the umbrella framing of sustainability changes what a CSO actually does, why commercial credibility is the precondition for strategic trust, and why better investment decisions, not larger budgets, is the magic wand that would change everything. If your work touches sustainability leadership, organisational strategy, or the evolving CSO role, this episode is worth your time. #ChiefSustainabilityOfficer #CSO #SustainabilityLeadership #BusinessStrategy #CorporateSustainability #TheResponsibleEdge

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About

How to win at business, responsibly. The Responsible Edge is a podcast for leaders in responsible business. Every episode unpacks a real business problem, in leadership, supply chains, marketing or communications, and what it actually took to fix it. No theory for theory's sake, just real decisions and their consequences. 150 episodes and counting. Guests like Charlie Bigham, Pablo Lloyd OBE and John O'Brien MBE have joined the show to talk about what responsible growth actually looks like. New episodes every week. Sponsored by truMRK.

Information

  • Creator
    Charlie Martin, Host
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    181
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Charlie Martin, Host
  • Show Website
    The Responsible Edge Podcast

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