Listen "Has ESG lost its way — or just its courage?"
Episode Synopsis
Is ESG broken — or just leaderless? Lawyer-technologist Scott Lane, founder & CEO of Speeki, joins Sustainability Forward to argue the bottleneck is corporate courage, not cost or complexity. We cover boards’ ESG literacy, reframing the conversation around risk and resilience, compliance vs. true performance, customer-pulled sustainability, China’s scale, and how AI/agentic automation will reshape decisions. Scott’s advice to CEOs: have courage.In today’s episode, Wrishi and Carmine sit down with Scott Lane (lawyer, technologist, and founder/CEO of Speeki) to unpack why ESG feels “stuck” — and how to get it moving again.We discuss:Crisis of leadership: why the missing ingredient is corporate courageBoards & ESG: shifting the conversation to risk, resilience, duty of careReporting ≠ performance: ESG as a management system that happens to reportFrom green push to customer pull: building products people value (not paper-straw optics)China’s renewable scale-up and lessons for global progressAI & agentic automation: from “smart” to truly predictive decision-makingA CEO playbook: long-term thinking, listen to customers, stop being hostage to politics, and learn the new disciplineScott Lane — lawyer & technologist with 25+ years in ESG risk; founder & CEO of Speeki (ESG reporting and management partner). Former founder of The Red Flag Group (acquired by LSEG).
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