Gustavo Bernal Torres
The Omertà of Consultancy
“I’m not upset that you lied to me. I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you” - Friedrich Nietzsche
After two decades in sustainability consulting what I fear is that we are not only failing to change much, but that as consultants we are actually part of the problem, providing a polished positional cover for what is broadly business as usual incremental change, whilst simultaneously eroding both the edge and substance of the essential radical shift that is really needed.
What NO consultancy has yet to do empirically as far as I am aware is tackle it’s scope 3 emissions in any meaningful way. Yet. And here’s the rub — scope 3 includes addressing the ‘use of sold products’, and for agencies this is seismic if taken on board meaningfully. If your ‘sold product’ — the counsel, support, advice and propaganda you provide — is still causing emissions to grow you are not just blocking change, you are causing real harm.
Source: https://edgillespie.medium.com/the-omert%C3%A0-of-consultancy-bf26b116e3e0