Sustainability Solved by Will Richardson

Will Richardson
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I am trying to change the way we work, the relationship we have our work and the world around us. We live in a complicated world with a lot of noise. But we need to be making decisions now and those decisions will have ramifications for decades. Will we always make the right decisions; no. But are we doing it for the right reasons I would like to say yes to that - speaking from my heart. This is an audible blog on what I am doing and what we as a business are doing. Some could say it is self promotion, it probably is a bit, I am trying to change the world and be a part of the solution BUT it is also my way to articulate where I am and keep a log of it for my future self and maybe others will learn from my mistakes as I am sure there will be loads!!

  1. 2d ago

    How to Explain Net Zero in One Sentence

    If you can’t explain net zero in one sentence, neither can your customers. And if they can’t repeat what you stand for on climate, you’re adding noise, not building trust. We start with the sentence that holds up in front of regulators, journalists and buyers: net zero means balancing the greenhouse gases you emit with an equal amount you permanently remove. Then we cover the order most businesses get wrong. You reduce hard first, deal with the small residual last, and never let offsets do the work of reduction. We look at how Patagonia, Tesco, Microsoft and TDC NET put a real number at the heart of their climate story. Boring, specific and checkable beats impressive-sounding. You’ll leave with one test for this week. Write your net zero sentence with one number and one date. Read it to a colleague outside the sustainability team, and ask them to repeat it back tomorrow. If you’d like help turning your net zero statement into something people can remember and regulators can check, book 30 minutes with me: https://tidycal.com/willrichardson/ssbywrpodcast30 Read on Substack: https://willsussolved.substack.com/ Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@willsussolved Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sustsolvedbywillrichardson Follow the show, and send me your one-sentence version. CLIP MOMENT: “That number does work an adjective never can.” Mentioned in this episode: Keep informed on Sustainability News I'm Will Richardson, Head of Ecosystems at 51toCarbonZero and a sustainability advisor with 25 years in the field. I founded Green Element in 2004 and spent two decades building it into one of Europe's most respected sustainability consultancies before it merged with 51toCarbonZero in November 2025. Climate action is both an obligation and an opportunity, and that's the thread running through everything I write here. I co-created Compare Your Footprint, carbon accounting software recognised as a key player in the Global Carbon Accounting Software Market, and I'm a Fellow of IEMA and a Chartered Environmentalist. Each week, I break down what's actually happening in sustainability: the data, the regulation, the greenwash worth calling out, and the practical steps businesses can take right now. No jargon, no doom-mongering, just clear thinking for people who need to make real decisions. I also host the Sustainability Solved podcast with Charlie Luxton, 200+ episodes and counting, where we talk to the people building the solutions. Based in Scotland. Writing for business leaders who want sustainability to make commercial sense, not just moral sense. My Personal Substack Sponsorship For Main Podcast Podcast Advertising

  2. 4d ago

    Big Tech’s 215Mt Carbon Forecast: Sustainability News Top 10

    Five tech companies are forecast to emit around 215 million tonnes of CO2e this year. That’s more than most countries, and it lands straight in your Scope 3. This is the Monday countdown: the 10 sustainability stories that got the most coverage this week, ranked and explained in plain English. If you lead sustainability, finance or strategy in a large organisation, or advise one, this is for you. We cover the forecast for hyperscaler emissions and AI’s growing power demand, the ISSB’s proposed nature disclosure rules and TNFD reaching 836 adopters, UNEP’s warning that a 1.5°C overshoot is now unavoidable, California’s 10 November SB 253 reporting deadline, the widening crackdown on green claims, and new research linking climate transition plans to cheaper borrowing. Every story is credited to the publication that reported it, including Trellis, ESG Today, edie and Axios. You’ll leave with one move for this week: take your transition plan to your treasury team and check it for gaps before your next refinancing. Smaller business? Write a one-page plan with a baseline, a target and three costed actions. Stay to the end for three facts that won’t make the headlines, including one about battery storage fires that flips the usual story. For the written version with every source linked, subscribe on Substack: https://willsussolved.substack.com/ Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@willsussolved Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sustsolvedbywillrichardson Follow the show, and tell me which of the ten stories lands hardest for your business. CLIP MOMENT: “On 1.25 billion dollars of debt, that’s about 10 million dollars a year.” (end of story #4; timestamp not known) Mentioned in this episode: Keep informed on Sustainability News I'm Will Richardson, Head of Ecosystems at 51toCarbonZero and a sustainability advisor with 25 years in the field. I founded Green Element in 2004 and spent two decades building it into one of Europe's most respected sustainability consultancies before it merged with 51toCarbonZero in November 2025. Climate action is both an obligation and an opportunity, and that's the thread running through everything I write here. I co-created Compare Your Footprint, carbon accounting software recognised as a key player in the Global Carbon Accounting Software Market, and I'm a Fellow of IEMA and a Chartered Environmentalist. Each week, I break down what's actually happening in sustainability: the data, the regulation, the greenwash worth calling out, and the practical steps businesses can take right now. No jargon, no doom-mongering, just clear thinking for people who need to make real decisions. I also host the Sustainability Solved podcast with Charlie Luxton, 200+ episodes and counting, where we talk to the people building the solutions. Based in Scotland. Writing for business leaders who want sustainability to make commercial sense, not just moral sense. My Personal Substack Sponsorship For Main Podcast Podcast Advertising

  3. Oct 23

    Community wind power: the co-op I almost built

    In 2005 I had a landfill site, a county council and a CFO happy to fund a community wind turbine. Then one phone call ended it all. This is the story of Wind Element, the community wind co-op I set up straight after my master’s. The idea was simple: put a turbine on an unused Veolia landfill site near Eastleigh and give cheap energy back to the people living on its doorstep. We had nearly everything lined up. Hampshire County Council backed it, Veolia liked the use of the land and the PR, and we had a plan to win over locals by talking to them face to face, the way the best developers did. I even persuaded a managing director friend to drive me to the meeting in his Lotus, so I looked bigger than a one-person band. Then the turbine supplier changed the rules; minimum order, three turbines. Demand had exploded, and a single-turbine co-op no longer made the cut. I also talk about the anti-wind headlines of the early 2000s, the scare stories about birds, noise and flicker, and why newspapers kept printing them even when most readers didn’t agree. Misinformation about renewables isn’t new, and it held community wind back for years. If you’re working on a community energy project, or any good idea that stalled at the last hurdle, there’s something here for you. Local ownership of clean power is both a fairness issue and a business opportunity, and we’re far better placed to deliver it now than we were in 2005. Want to talk through your own project? Book 30 minutes with me: https://tidycal.com/willrichardson/ssbywrpodcast30 Subscribe to Sustainability Solved by Will Richardson for more stories from 25 years of making sustainability work in the real world. Mentioned in this episode: Sponsorship For Main Podcast Podcast Advertising Keep informed on Sustainability News I'm Will Richardson, Head of Ecosystems at 51toCarbonZero and a sustainability advisor with 25 years in the field. I founded Green Element in 2004 and spent two decades building it into one of Europe's most respected sustainability consultancies before it merged with 51toCarbonZero in November 2025. Climate action is both an obligation and an opportunity, and that's the thread running through everything I write here. I co-created Compare Your Footprint, carbon accounting software recognised as a key player in the Global Carbon Accounting Software Market, and I'm a Fellow of IEMA and a Chartered Environmentalist. Each week, I break down what's actually happening in sustainability: the data, the regulation, the greenwash worth calling out, and the practical steps businesses can take right now. No jargon, no doom-mongering, just clear thinking for people who need to make real decisions. I also host the Sustainability Solved podcast with Charlie Luxton, 200+ episodes and counting, where we talk to the people building the solutions. Based in Scotland. Writing for business leaders who want sustainability to make commercial sense, not just moral sense. My Personal Substack

  4. Oct 22

    Starbucks Reusable Cups and the Missing Return Rate

    Starbucks says its reusable cup scheme cuts waste. I went looking for the independent study that proves it; there isn’t one. The maths on reusable cups genuinely works, as long as each cup gets used enough times to beat the single-use cup it replaces. Starbucks has published strong return rates from its own controlled pilots. Across its real markets, the return rate isn’t published anywhere, and that gap is the whole story. If you lead sustainability, packaging or marketing in a Food & Beverage business, this is where scrutiny is landing first. New EU consumer rules are now in force, and the UK’s CMA can fine businesses directly for misleading claims. You’ll leave with one exercise for this week. List every reusable, recyclable or sustainable packaging claim you make. Write the number that proves it next to each one. Tighten or pause any claim without a number. If you’d like an honest read on whether your packaging claims would survive scrutiny, book 30 minutes with me: https://tidycal.com/willrichardson/ssbywrpodcast30 Read on Substack: https://willsussolved.substack.com/ Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@willsussolved Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sustsolvedbywillrichardson Follow the show, and tell me which packaging claim you’d most like to see the real data behind. CLIP MOMENT: “Loud on the launch. Quiet on the data.” Mentioned in this episode: Keep informed on Sustainability News I'm Will Richardson, Head of Ecosystems at 51toCarbonZero and a sustainability advisor with 25 years in the field. I founded Green Element in 2004 and spent two decades building it into one of Europe's most respected sustainability consultancies before it merged with 51toCarbonZero in November 2025. Climate action is both an obligation and an opportunity, and that's the thread running through everything I write here. I co-created Compare Your Footprint, carbon accounting software recognised as a key player in the Global Carbon Accounting Software Market, and I'm a Fellow of IEMA and a Chartered Environmentalist. Each week, I break down what's actually happening in sustainability: the data, the regulation, the greenwash worth calling out, and the practical steps businesses can take right now. No jargon, no doom-mongering, just clear thinking for people who need to make real decisions. I also host the Sustainability Solved podcast with Charlie Luxton, 200+ episodes and counting, where we talk to the people building the solutions. Based in Scotland. Writing for business leaders who want sustainability to make commercial sense, not just moral sense. My Personal Substack Sponsorship For Main Podcast Podcast Advertising

  5. Oct 21

    Have We Reached Peak AI? The Data Centre Question

    I was asked to run masterclasses on the environmental impact of AI, and I paused. My gut feeling is that AI’s environmental impact could dissipate within a year, possibly sooner. In this episode I look at why. People are already building language models on phones. Heavy users like me may have reached the limit of what we need AI to do. And I ask why so many data centres are being built: is it for the cars and technology of the future, or to prove growth to shareholders? Could we end up running our own AI agents at home, powered by our own solar panels? The real answer for organisations: future-proof and risk assess your use of AI now. Read the full article on Substack: https://willsussolved.substack.com/ Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@willsussolved Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sustsolvedbywillrichardson Mentioned in this episode: Keep informed on Sustainability News I'm Will Richardson, Head of Ecosystems at 51toCarbonZero and a sustainability advisor with 25 years in the field. I founded Green Element in 2004 and spent two decades building it into one of Europe's most respected sustainability consultancies before it merged with 51toCarbonZero in November 2025. Climate action is both an obligation and an opportunity, and that's the thread running through everything I write here. I co-created Compare Your Footprint, carbon accounting software recognised as a key player in the Global Carbon Accounting Software Market, and I'm a Fellow of IEMA and a Chartered Environmentalist. Each week, I break down what's actually happening in sustainability: the data, the regulation, the greenwash worth calling out, and the practical steps businesses can take right now. No jargon, no doom-mongering, just clear thinking for people who need to make real decisions. I also host the Sustainability Solved podcast with Charlie Luxton, 200+ episodes and counting, where we talk to the people building the solutions. Based in Scotland. Writing for business leaders who want sustainability to make commercial sense, not just moral sense. My Personal Substack Sponsorship For Main Podcast Podcast Advertising

  6. Oct 19

    AI’s Hidden Water Bill and 9 More Sustainability Signals Business Leaders Need This Week

    One planned data centre in Yorkshire could emit nearly twice the CO2 of every Gatwick flight in a year. That is where this week’s sustainability news starts. In this week’s top 10 sustainability news countdown, I take you through the stories business leaders and sustainability professionals need to know. We cover the hidden water cost of AI, the new science-based targets for nature, the Hormuz crisis and the case for clean power, England’s worst harvest on record, California’s 10 November climate reporting deadline and more. Every story comes with who it affects most, smaller companies, larger companies or both, so you can see straight away what matters for your organisation. I finish with three facts you probably won’t see in the headlines, including the waste stream that out-emits the whole aviation industry. If you work in sustainability, carbon accounting or climate strategy and want to turn this kind of insight into client work, take a look at the 51toCarbonZero referral programme: https://www.51tocarbonzero.com/referral/ Subscribe for weekly sustainability news that cuts through the noise, and tell me in the comments which story matters most to your business this week. #SustainabilityNews #NetZero #CarbonAccounting #DataCentres #Biodiversity Mentioned in this episode: Sponsorship For Main Podcast Podcast Advertising Keep informed on Sustainability News I'm Will Richardson, Head of Ecosystems at 51toCarbonZero and a sustainability advisor with 25 years in the field. I founded Green Element in 2004 and spent two decades building it into one of Europe's most respected sustainability consultancies before it merged with 51toCarbonZero in November 2025. Climate action is both an obligation and an opportunity, and that's the thread running through everything I write here. I co-created Compare Your Footprint, carbon accounting software recognised as a key player in the Global Carbon Accounting Software Market, and I'm a Fellow of IEMA and a Chartered Environmentalist. Each week, I break down what's actually happening in sustainability: the data, the regulation, the greenwash worth calling out, and the practical steps businesses can take right now. No jargon, no doom-mongering, just clear thinking for people who need to make real decisions. I also host the Sustainability Solved podcast with Charlie Luxton, 200+ episodes and counting, where we talk to the people building the solutions. Based in Scotland. Writing for business leaders who want sustainability to make commercial sense, not just moral sense. My Personal Substack

  7. Oct 14

    Why Helping Beats Selling: The B Corp Sales Funnel

    I share how helping the B Corp community, rather than selling to it, built Green Element's most robust long-term sales funnel. Subscribe for weekly sustainability intelligence, and tell me in the comments which story matters most to your business. Subscribe to my substack for more insight; https://willsussolved.substack.com/

  8. Oct 12

    Why Scope 3 Supplier Programmes Stall: Price Still Beats Carbon

    Local opposition has cancelled 260 billion dollars of US data centre projects this year, and Washington now wants the rest to pay for the grid they need. That's my number one story in this week's sustainability countdown. I take you through the 10 sustainability stories that mattered most to business this week, ranked by how much coverage they got across Trellis, ESG Today, edie, Axios, Bloomberg Green, Semafor and more. We cover big tech's new nuclear deals, the climate liability case at the US Supreme Court, why suppliers say Scope 3 programmes still reward the cheapest unit price, 130 companies asking governments to stop subsidising nature loss, and fresh evidence that sustainability investment pays. Stay to the end for three facts you won't see in the headlines, including the carmaker whose supply chain footprint shrank by up to two thirds once researchers used real supplier data. If you work on Scope 3, carbon accounting or net zero strategy, that one is worth your time. At 51toCarbonZero our platform and advisory team helps organisations get to supplier-specific data and turn it into action: https://www.51tocarbonzero.com If you advise organisations on sustainability yourself, take a look at our referral programme: https://www.51tocarbonzero.com/referral/ Subscribe for weekly sustainability intelligence, and tell me in the comments which story matters most to your business. #Sustainability #NetZero #Scope3 #CarbonAccounting #ClimateRisk Mentioned in this episode: Keep informed on Sustainability News I'm Will Richardson, Head of Ecosystems at 51toCarbonZero and a sustainability advisor with 25 years in the field. I founded Green Element in 2004 and spent two decades building it into one of Europe's most respected sustainability consultancies before it merged with 51toCarbonZero in November 2025. Climate action is both an obligation and an opportunity, and that's the thread running through everything I write here. I co-created Compare Your Footprint, carbon accounting software recognised as a key player in the Global Carbon Accounting Software Market, and I'm a Fellow of IEMA and a Chartered Environmentalist. Each week, I break down what's actually happening in sustainability: the data, the regulation, the greenwash worth calling out, and the practical steps businesses can take right now. No jargon, no doom-mongering, just clear thinking for people who need to make real decisions. I also host the Sustainability Solved podcast with Charlie Luxton, 200+ episodes and counting, where we talk to the people building the solutions. Based in Scotland. Writing for business leaders who want sustainability to make commercial sense, not just moral sense. My Personal Substack Sponsorship For Main Podcast Podcast Advertising

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I am trying to change the way we work, the relationship we have our work and the world around us. We live in a complicated world with a lot of noise. But we need to be making decisions now and those decisions will have ramifications for decades. Will we always make the right decisions; no. But are we doing it for the right reasons I would like to say yes to that - speaking from my heart. This is an audible blog on what I am doing and what we as a business are doing. Some could say it is self promotion, it probably is a bit, I am trying to change the world and be a part of the solution BUT it is also my way to articulate where I am and keep a log of it for my future self and maybe others will learn from my mistakes as I am sure there will be loads!!

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