Last week B Lab launched a new Climate Justice Playbook for Business (downloadable here) to provide companies with a resource for beginning to actively incorporate racial justice and equity considerations into climate projects and corporate priorities. We held a webinar to mark the launch and to begin exploring what climate justice projects can look like for our industry. It featured an all-star speaker line-up: 

• Michelle Romero, the National Director of Green For All, provided keynote remarks that framed up why every business in our industry should be thinking more about how they are advancing climate justice
• Raj Aggarwal, President of Provoc, a JEDI consultancy and one of the lead contributors to the Playbook, gave an overview of the Playbook
• He then led a discussion with Pukka Herbs' Natalie Sluggett and Kevin Lee from Dr. Bronner's on how they are incorporating climate justice into supply chain projects and staff engagement priorities
• CC co-Founder Lara Dickinson joined to share resources that the new JEDI Collaborative has developed to support companies

I hope you'll check out the webinar and playbook in full. One of the most striking takeaways from the session was a point Michelle Romero made, about the myriad ways the pandemic has forced public reckonings--on climate change, on public health, systemic racism, and so much more. Our job now, she says, is to stay positive, relentlessly solutions focused, and use this moment to ask “How do we turn our breakdowns into breakthroughs?”

The new playbook aims to help companies in our industry do just that--recognizing the journey will look different for every company and every individual. It was created by a global collaboration of private sector and climate leaders and launched in partnership with the Climate Collaborative. B Lab, the COP26 Climate Champions Team, Provoc, and the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Oxford all contributed to its creation, as well as a number of CC companies, including Danone North America, Dr Bronner’s, Gaia Herbs, Guayakí, Happy Family Brands, Pukka Herbs, and Seventh Generation.

You can see an overview and discussion of the playbook, along with Michelle’s full remarks and insights from Dr. Bronner’s and Pukka Herbs on how they are internalizing climate justice, in last week’s webinar. In the meantime, here are a few central takeaways as you get started on the journey:

B Lab’s 5 Key Take-Aways from the Playbook:

1. This is deep, challenging, personal work. We have to set aside conventional ways of thinking and doing to do this work well. The work is non-linear and hard, and must start from within each person. It’s not only a professional journey, but a personal one — rooted in mindfulness, humility and self-awareness.
2. People & equity must be at the center. Climate justice cannot be just a “lens:” people and justice must be at the center of all climate action and advocacy. We must listen to and take the lead from those most impacted who have been historically at the margins.
3. We must work together. We need more than businesses simply working alone on their own impact: it’s collaboration and collective voice, awareness, and action that will enable us to solve the climate crisis and create a just, equitable, regenerative future. 
4. There’s no time like the present to get started. You’re not alone if you’re at the beginning of this journey. The Playbook includes stories and insights from businesses who are at different points along this journey.
5. A fundamental mindset shift is essential. The global business community must make a fundamental mindshift on climate action — from extractive and exploitative approaches that perpetuate a cycle of harm and injustice to equitable and regenerative ones, focused on creating sustained social and environmental well-being.The global business community must make a fundamental mindshift from extractive and exploitative approaches to climate action that perpetuate a cycle of harm and injustice, to equitable and regenerative ones, focused on creating sustained social and environmental well-being.

Download the full playbook here and give us your feedback! We’ll be covering climate justice throughout the year at the CC and exploring how it intersects with regenerative agriculture, climate policy, and more.

"Climate Justice recognizes that those who are least responsible for climate change are more likely to suffer its gravest consequences. Climate change is a human-made crisis that has been primarily wrought by those with economic power and privilege. But the effects of climate change have a disproportionately negative impact on the historically marginalized and underserved – primarily people of color and low-income communities around the world.

Climate Justice means advancing climate solutions that link human rights and development in a human-centered approach, placing the needs, voices and leadership of those who are most impacted at the forefront. Put simply, Climate Justice places people and equity at the center of climate action and advocacy."

- B Lab's Climate justice overview