Will Richardson (51toCarbonZero.com)

Most boards still treat climate risk as a sustainability issue. It sits alongside geopolitical exposure, cybersecurity and cost of capital. By the end you will know why monitoring protects your share price, reputation and assets. How are you managing Scope 3 supplier data right now? We're offering a free sustainability assessment of your top 10 suppliers, giving you a clearer picture of your Scope...

This week in sustainability, Europe rewrote the rules of its carbon market, the UK got a new prime minister with a climate balancing act to manage, and sustainability teams everywhere are turning into risk managers. We break down the EU's ETS overhaul, the new Electrification Action Plan, and what a 55% jump in climate tech investment tells us about where the smart money is heading. Plus: the $44...

If the internet were a country, its emissions would rank higher than international aviation. Most boardrooms have not caught up. By the end you will know where the credible 2026 data sits, and what to do about it. How are you managing Scope 3 supplier data right now? We're offering a free sustainability assessment of your top 10 suppliers, giving you a clearer picture of your Scope 3 data and wher...

Eighty per cent of listed companies have a net zero commitment. Only eleven per cent have cut emissions. By the end of this you will know exactly why plans stall in delivery, and what closes the gap. How are you managing Scope 3 supplier data right now? We're offering a free sustainability assessment of your top 10 suppliers, giving you a clearer picture of your Scope 3 data and where supplier eng...

This week's biggest sustainability story is SBTi's Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0, the largest update to corporate target setting since 2021, and what it means if your organisation already has a target or is thinking about setting one. I also cover why Microsoft and Google's AI data centre buildout is putting real pressure on their own climate commitments, why JBS and Starbucks have both stepped...

America's most sustainable corporations pulled in $1.15tn in revenue while federal policy pulled the other way. Here's what business leaders should learn. How are you managing Scope 3 supplier data right now? We're offering a free sustainability assessment of your top 10 suppliers, giving you a clearer picture of your Scope 3 data and where supplier engagement can improve. At 51toCarbonZero, we he...

From 27 September 2026 the EU bans offset-based carbon neutral claims, with a penalty floor of 4 per cent of turnover. By the end you will know what changed, whether offsets ever worked, and the order of priority to use instead. 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...

This week, Europe is sweltering through another record heatwave, Brussels has torn up a chunk of its own sustainability reporting rulebook, and two of the biggest names in food and drink have quietly stepped back from their climate targets. I run through the top 10 sustainability stories that mattered this week, from AI's rising energy bill to why private equity is suddenly obsessed with climate r...

The 2026 World Cup carbon story everyone's talking about only tells 3% of the truth. We dug into the real environmental impact of the 2026 World Cup and found six stories FIFA isn't joining up: water stress in North American stadiums, 800 native trees at risk in Mexico City, biodiversity corridors under threat, and a travel footprint that makes up 87.8% of total emissions while stadium operations...

If you’re building a sustainability business or you’re a CFO who just got a net zero quote that made your eyes water I need nine minutes of your time. Because I’m about to show you exactly why genuine climate work costs what it costs, and what happens to a business that refuses to charge for it. I know, because that business was mine. I built a sustainability consultancy to over a million pounds i...

This week the most severe heat wave ever recorded in Europe made the business case for climate resilience impossible to ignore, so I have pulled together the ten stories that matter most for business leaders and sustainability professionals. We cover the confirmed link between climate change and Europe's record heat, the UK's new mandatory deforestation due diligence rules and what they mean for f...

The world just changed — again. This week in sustainability, I am covering 10 stories that directly affect your operations, supply chains, and reporting obligations. From the US-Iran ceasefire and the Strait of Hormuz reopening, to the SBTi's new Net-Zero Standard 2.0, to CBAM expanding into downstream products. I've ranked these by frequency across the sustainability press, so the number one stor...

If you run a business, build climate strategy, or sit on a board that has ever published a sustainability target, this is the most important case study of 2026, and almost nobody is talking about it honestly. The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off in June. FIFA say the tournament will produce 3.7 million tonnes of CO2. Independent researchers put the real figure closer to 9 million tonnes. Some estimat...

he net zero rulebook just got rewritten. The Science Based Targets initiative has released Corporate Net-Zero Standard 2.0, and in the same week a super El Niño officially emerged in the Pacific. In this week's sustainability news countdown I cover the ten stories that matter most for business leaders and sustainability professionals: the new SBTi net zero standard and its five-year milestones, El...

The insurance companies have stopped covering certain risks. Supply chains are breaking. New legislation is rewriting business models. Yet most organisations are still treating climate and operational risk as a future problem. In this episode, Will Richardson explores why corporate risk management has lagged behind market reality — and what needs to shift in how boards measure, weight, and act on...

This week in sustainability, four major climate regulation retreats happened in a single week. The SEC proposed scrapping US climate disclosure rules. Brazil went voluntary. New York pushed back its climate goals. And California handed oil refiners $4 billion in free carbon allowances. But here is the bigger story: oil crossed $114 a barrel, Russia suspended jet fuel exports, and Bloomberg Green i...

SBTi has quietly halved the minimum emissions reductions companies need to hit by 2030 — no announcement, no press release, just an appendix edit. That's story #2 this week. Story #1? Oil hit $114 a barrel and the IEA has declared the fossil fuel industry "broken forever." This week's top 10 sustainability stories ranked by what the world is talking about — including the EU's 70% CSRD simplificati...

I gave my first public talk on the environment at 15. Three things have changed in 25+ years. One has not. What is the climate conversation you wish more business leaders were having?

That's the question I'm asking following our National Emergency Briefing screening. Because here's what's coming: tomorrows temperatures could hit 28°C in the south in May! Within 35 years, 40°C summer heat will likely be typical. The Climate Change Committee is already saying we'll need air conditioning rolled out at scale. Schools may reschedule exam timetables. Hospitals may need complete redes...

The Science Based Targets initiative revised its Corporate Net Zero Standard this week - and in some cases roughly halved the minimum near-term emissions cuts required by 2030. It was not announced with any fanfare. If your business uses SBTi validation as a procurement signal or investor commitment, the floor just moved. This week's sustainability news breakdown covers ten stories that matter for...

This week in sustainability, there are things happening that most businesses aren't paying attention to — yet. Microplastics in the atmosphere are contributing to climate warming. The Iran war is driving renewable energy investment faster than any climate policy ever did. Carbon removal is moving from pilot projects to billion-dollar infrastructure. And the EU's deforestation regulation just had i...

We have recorded 208 episodes of the Sustainability Solved podcast. Over 20,000 followers. Guests from every corner of the climate space. And the thing that changed my thinking most was not a guest. It was a pattern. When we started the podcast, I expected to learn about new technologies, new regulations, new frameworks. And we did. But the pattern that kept coming back, episode after episode, was...

This week, the world got a brutal lesson in what energy dependence really costs. Europe is weeks away from running out of jet fuel. Airlines are cancelling tens of thousands of flights. Fertiliser prices have doubled. And in the middle of all this, clean power quietly overtook coal globally for the first time in over a century. We break down the top 10 sustainability stories of the week, ranked by...

This week in sustainability, we are covering the story that almost no mainstream business outlet is connecting properly: the carbon removal market just lost 96% of its demand overnight, a global energy war is reshaping every supply chain assumption we had, and some of the biggest corporate climate commitments are quietly being walked back. I cover ten stories ranked by impact, including: the Micro...

Ten of the UK's leading climate experts walked into Westminster last November and delivered one of the most evidence-based briefings Parliament has seen. Now it is a film, and it changes the conversation for anyone running a business. This is not abstract environmentalism. The National Emergency Briefing connects climate science directly to the things business leaders care about: health systems, f...