Operating a purpose-led business can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you get the benefits of your employees, customers and stakeholders all buying into and being passionate about the mission. On the other, as a purpose-driven business, you’re held to a much higher standard than any ‘traditional’ business might be. You get called out for falling short. You get dragged on social media if your audience doesn’t think you’re walking your talk. And you get scrutinised for greenwashing if one person complains about a clumsily worded ad on the London tube.
I know because all of these things have happened to Intrepid. And we aren’t the only ones.
A few months ago, a group of over 250 B Corp business leaders gathered in NSW’s Glenworth Valley to discuss what comes next for our region – its economy, its people and its businesses. The event, hosted by B Lab Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, drew leaders from a range of industries: finance, hospitality, fashion, recruitment, health, education and many more. Despite the differences in their day-to-day roles, these leaders all had two things in common. First, they were committed to using their businesses as a force for good in the world. Second, they weren’t going to sugarcoat how hard it is to actually do that.
Take Patagonia, for example, whose recent ‘Work in Progress’ report – led by the claim “Nothing we do is sustainable” – is an outright admission of the hypocrisy so many corporates are facing; of the duality we’re holding. The report includes terrifyingly honest stats, like how 85 per cent of Patagonia products don’t have an end-of-life solution and how their carbon emissions have increased two per cent each year. And this is from the golden goose of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). What hope is there for the rest of us?
From Intrepid’s HQ in Melbourne, we’ve been operating our small-group, locally-led tours all over the world for 36 years. Our team is made up of 3,500 people globally and we have offices in over 30 countries. Our founders, Geoff Manchester and Darrell Wade, have been passionate about using travel as a force for good and empowering local communities since the very beginning – a mission that was crystallised by our B Corp Certification in 2018. Though our intention has always been good, we haven’t always got it right. And through it all we’ve learned a simple truth: when it comes to CSR of any kind, transparency is the only policy.
Climate action in particular is a challenging undertaking for a business of our size. Our global supply chains are enormous and complex, regulations vary from country to country, and measuring emissions is complex when modes of transport are as diverse as light aircraft, tuk-tuks, buses, cars, trains and boats. The biggest elephant in the room is, of course, the flights that our customers book themselves to get to and from their trips with us. In 2020, we joined the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and set three 2035 targets. This was built on our robust carbon offsetting program, which had operated since 2010. This year, Darrell and James Thornton, our CEO, penned a letter that stated, plainly, that we’re now stepping away from those things, because we aren’t on track to meet our targets.
The main issue wasn’t with our ambition or commitment. It was primarily that the world hadn’t moved at the speed or in the direction that we thought it would. Carbon offsets, once the poster child of corporate climate action, were proven to be more of a distraction than a viable long-term solution. The rollout of materials, infrastructure and regulation required to hit our SBTi goals (like sustainable aviation fuels or renewable energy) simply wasn’t where we thought it would be. So, we’re now investing the money we were spending on offsets in building the infrastructure required through our $2m annual Climate Impact Fund. And our new 8 per cent carbon intensity reduction by 2030 target covers the full lifecycle of our trips,which includes those customer flights to and from trips – where the majority of emissions ultimately lie.
So we published that letter; a public admission that we weren’t doing enough and how we were fixing it. Of course, some people were disappointed that we stepped away from the SBTi. But most of our customers and partners applauded our honesty. They supported us. They were even proud of us for holding ourselves accountable when nobody asked us to. And this isn’t the first time. When we removed elephant rides on our trips in 2014 – after years of spruiking elephant rides – our customers rallied around us and the rest of the industry followed in our footsteps. When we were accused of greenwashing in the UK, we owned it and we now share this learning at conferences and on panels so others can learn from us.
As for hope? It’s this honesty, and the ambition it’s driven by, that gives me hope. It’d be easy for Patagonia or Intrepid to set the targets, say the things, do the marketing, and carry on as normal. But organisations like ours are calling ourselves out because we want to be better. That’s real, active leadership. It isn’t just throwing our hands up and saying, “we got it wrong.” It’s admitting we’re not where we need to be, and developing a plan to move forward. To be better. The B Corp framework, with its strong emphasis on transparency, has helped us develop this muscle, and given us more confidence to be open in this way.
Feedback from customers and staff is always a concern when you adopt this kind of transparency. But frankly, it pales in comparison to the negative feedback we’re currently getting from another stakeholder – the planet. One of the most salient messages shared among those 250 B Corp leaders was that a lot of our economic system is built around carelessness, to the extent that businesses are almost rewarded for being careless; for externalising harm and seeking profit at all costs. So building an economy of care is the work required now. And when you truly care for something – a person, a business, a mission, a planet – radical honesty is the only option. Everything else is just noise.