News

The dirty truth about corporate sustainability

In recent years, corporate sustainability has gained prominence in business speeches, ESG reports, and green marketing campaigns. The promise is clear: to integrate environmental and social responsibility into business logic. In practice, however, the reality is far more contradictory than it first appears.

The role of the sustainability professional is not that of an environmental activist acting freely for a cause. More often than not, they operate as a technical specialist tasked with managing the contradictions of the very economic system that drives the ecological crisis. This means working within profit requirements and corporate logic, translating environmental impacts into financial reports, carbon spreadsheets, and efficiency metrics.

This is not about saving the planet, but about mitigating risks

At its core, the job involves justifying environmental actions through economic arguments such as return on investment, reputation protection, and the reduction of regulatory liabilities. The result is a growing gap between discourse and concrete action. This creates a clear dissonance: while efficiency improves, total environmental impact continues to rise. Reducing packaging weight or switching to LED lighting in warehouses does not interrupt the logic of continuous expansion in consumption and production.

Good intentions are not enough. Technical competence is required

Rather than romanticizing the profession, it is necessary to face it for what it is: a highly technical, political, and often solitary job. A profession that operates within the system’s contradictions, pursuing small, incremental advances under significant structural constraints.

It is a field that demands deep knowledge, specific tools, regulatory expertise, and data-driven argumentation. Without these, the professional is easily ignored or neutralized.

Want to understand what happens behind the scenes?

Watch the full video to explore the real work of sustainability professionals, the ethical dilemmas of the field, and what it truly means to be an ESG professional today.

Disclaimer: The video is in Brazilian Portuguese, but simultaneous translation and subtitles are available in multiple languages.

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News

London retrofit cuts carbon and transforms old building into a model of circular housing

Located in London, specifically at 155 Drummond Street, a red brick building from the 1980s has recently undergone a complete transformation. The project, named Trace, was designed by the French architecture studio Bureau de Change for the developer HGG London. Instead of demolishing the structure, the team chose to reuse the existing building, steering the proposal toward modern housing with low environmental impact.

Material reuse reduces emissions

By avoiding full demolition, the project significantly reduced the carbon emissions that would have resulted from constructing a new building. The original façade was carefully dismantled, and the bricks and mortar were crushed and reused to produce new glass-reinforced concrete (GRC) panels. These panels now clad the “new” building, while the crushed brick gives the structure its color, eliminating the need for chemical pigments.

Design combines architecture and efficiency

The internal layout was also reconfigured and now consists of five residential units: three apartments occupying the original floors and two duplex units built above the existing structure. The stepped floor plan improves ventilation and natural daylight, while the balconies contribute to thermal comfort and can be used throughout the year.

The vertical extension was only possible because GRC is lightweight, which helped avoid complex structural reinforcements. The new façade follows a system of hand-molded panels, creating shadow and texture while respecting the rhythm of the street.

A technical model of circular economy

The Trace project demonstrates that circular economy principles can be applied in practice. Retaining the original structure reduced the need for new concrete, urban mining prevented construction waste from being sent to landfills, and local panel fabrication minimized material transportation.

Because the retrofit process complied with the city’s planning regulations, the project was approved even in an area with strict urban controls. This shows that new sustainable solutions can function effectively in dense and historically sensitive contexts.