The Open Secret Change Relies Upon & Sustainabilators Have Missed - Rob Rogers

Today's chat is with Rob Rogers - a legend of the advertising world. A world that is probably foreign and unimaginable to the sustainability people out there. I realised in preparing for this conversation that as a sustainability professional for over 15 years I've never had any formal education or focussed and consistent training in how I communicate, pitch or campaign the work that I'm doing. Considering I think a significant proportion of my time has been and is spent attempting to share, influence, teach and alter hearts and minds that results in more sustainable outcomes, this was a shocking realisation. I would suspect this is likely the case for many in this profession too.So Rob is a seriously credentialed advertiser with more than four decades experience in Australia, the US and across Asia, and was the Grand Jury Judge at The Cannes Healthcare Advertising Festival for a couple of years in the mid 2010s. He's also a music and film creator, a writer and author artist to go with all of his professional experiences.This conversation is all about the lessons and opportunities for sustainability practitioners to better appreciate the craft and tools of advertising, marketing and communications to support your own work, and our work more broadly. Rob is a wealth of knowledge, generous with sharing his wisdom and a very important person to me. I've been struck lately by not only how much information is now available for people in the profession I spend my days doing - this tsunami of reports, guides, analysis, policies, benchmarks - but how little there is in how this information is then converted into materials that are digestible, accessible and actionable by either other workers in other professions like risk management or product development, as well as for consumers and regular folks.In the case of climate change, we've known about and seen just about all we've needed to as a species for over fifty years, yet 2023 was the hottest on record. There are definitely bad actor vested interests out there blocking action, but to reflect in the mirror as a profession - what have we not done, and what could we do differently? I think Rob is a terrific person to begin exploring this, and I hope you enjoy listening.Souling has just been released by podcast guest Natasha Ritz. Finding Nature listeners can collect a 10% discount when they check out - just enter findingnature when you're buying the book and you'll get to enjoy a beautiful and wonderful book I am sure you'll enjoy. Send me a messageThanks for listening. Follow Finding Nature on Instagram