• Beyond Corporate Sustainability: When did Sustainability Become Sustainability Inc.

    Individual companies don’t operate in a vacuum. They’re part of industries, supply chains, financial markets, and a much larger system. So in this bigger picture, how did the idea of corporate sustainability become so ubiquitous and powerful? How did we come to believe that companies could take on some of society’s biggest environmental problems while still turning a profit?

    In the second episode of our three-part series inspired by BU Questrom’s Beyond Corporate Sustainability conference, host Curt Nickisch unpacks those questions with conference co-organizers Kenneth Pucker, professor of practice at Tufts University and former chief operating officer at Timberland, and Andy King, professor of strategy and innovation at BU Questrom.

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  • What Allbirds got right

    “Allbirds recognized that the scale of our shared environmental challenges cannot be addressed by companies acting in isolation — no matter that company’s size,” said Ken Pucker, the former Timberland chief operating officer who is now professor of practice at Tufts’ Fletcher School. “All of the brand’s natural materials innovations were co-developed and openly shared with their competitors.”

    https://trellis.net/article/what-allbirds-got-right/

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  • As Companies Abandon Climate Pledges, Is There a Silver Lining?

    Coca-Cola, BP, HSBC and countless others are dropping environmental goals, highlighting the inadequacy of voluntary action.

     

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-06-12/climate-pledges-dropped-by-coca-cola-bp-hsbc-as-planet-heats-up?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc0OTczNzE4MiwiZXhwIjoxNzUwMzQxOTgyLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTWFFTMEVEV1gyUFMwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiIzRjRGRUZFRDYwMzQ0Q0RDQjlGMTIwNTMyNzFCMUVBQiJ9.-J-3klDvYKh-TIgtwS7ZKPWLwaLmSej9ESX2K066Aw4&leadSource=uverify%20wall&embedded-checkout=true&sref=fnjoKOAK

     

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  • ClimateVoices Featuring Ken Pucker

    Engaged citizens can organize to insist that their employers and legislators better represent their interests and those of their children and grandchildren.

     

    https://climatevoice.org/climatevoices-featuring-ken-pucker/

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  • Fast fashion confronts a reckoning on sustainability under Trump tariffs

    New tariffs and the potential end of a duty-free loophole bring new challenges to fashion brands, resellers and manufacturers.

    The trade policy, although a “fine step,” won’t kick consumers’ addiction to low-cost, polluting polyester clothes, according to Ken Pucker, a former Timberland executive who teaches business at Dartmouth College and Tufts University. “Even with the addition of a few dollars of duty to a Shein dress, it will still cost less than half many competitors’ garments,” he said.

     

     

    https://trellis.net/article/fast-fashion-confronts-a-reckoning-on-sustainability-under-trump-tariffs/?mkt_tok=MjExLU5KWS0xNjUAAAGYmTgzF-jqZWzL04iHD3P5XzrWZxaBESuRN1u_GlwIHVUwb9dAhk-35Plz1K1MrPfqaHiblWbaIozB_3DOiiHV1zMTc70mcOptONXTI10a_w

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  • Allbirds goes wide with ‘net-zero’ shoe hoping other footwear companies copy it

    “Since the outset, Allbirds has been clear that consumers do not buy their shoes because they are sustainable,” said Ken Pucker, professor of practice with the Tufts Fletcher School. “Instead, they seek to make the most comfortable, simple and purposeful products that happen to be lower in carbon.”

     

    https://trellis.net/article/allbirds-wants-footwear-companies-to-copy-net-zero-shoe-design/

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  • Misguided Regulation Is Putting the Sustainable Fashion Movement at Risk

    A backlash against complex and costly new rules is threatening Europe’s pioneering efforts to make the industry operate more responsibly. Failure to address valid criticisms risks undermining the whole endeavour, argues Kenneth P. Pucker.

    https://www.businessoffashion.com/opinions/sustainability/europe-regulation-simplification-fashion-sustainability-threat-omnibus/

     

     

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  • Reasons to be cheerful: Will sustainability change for the better in 2025?

    Looking for reasons to be cheerful has always been challenging for those working in sustainability, but 2025 is set to be particularly tough.

    The new year follows one in which global CO2 emissions hits record levels, and warming crossed the 1.5°C threshold for the first time since records began.

    https://real-economy-progress.com/reasons-to-be-cheerful-will-sustainability-change-for-the-better-in-2025/

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