Dr Leeya Hendricks on the Lippincott CMO Outlook 2026 and the gap between what marketing leaders know they should do and what they are actually doing. This week on The Responsible Edge, why the short-term credibility trade-off is costing CMOs something harder to recover than a quarterly target.

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A global study of more than five hundred CMOs, conducted by Lippincott in partnership with Bloomberg Media, finds a striking gap. Marketing leaders believe long-term brand building is critical for sustainable growth. They are systematically deprioritising it anyway, trading brand investment for short-term credibility with the C-suite.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Dr Leeya Hendricks, Managing Director and Founder of Hark Consultants, Non-Executive Director at the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and author of The Platform Playbook, about what the CMO Outlook 2026 reveals and what it obscures.

Leeya's response to the headline finding is a reframe. The short-term drift is not something being done to CMOs. It is a choice, and it reflects a failure by the marketing function to make its strategic case with sufficient rigour. "It shouldn't be a case of us being forced into a space. It's the job of the CMO to really have those strategic long-term discussions."

The conversation covers the specific AI trap the Lippincott data surfaces: CMOs defunding the digital foundations AI depends on in order to fund AI implementation itself. It covers why the strategy conversation is being mistaken for a technology conversation. And it ends with the question Leeya argues the data is really pointing at: whether boards have the capability to lead organisations in an AI-enabled economy.

"The question isn't simply whether marketers should be in the boardroom. It's whether boards have the capabilities needed to lead organisations in an AI-enabled economy."

Her magic wand: businesses that measure long-term value across customers, employees, partners, society, and shareholders. "Responsible growth isn't about sacrificing commercial performance. It's about creating businesses that can sustain it."

If your work touches marketing leadership, brand strategy, or the role of AI in commercial growth, this episode is worth your time.

#CMOStrategy #MarketingLeadership #BrandBuilding #AIMarketing #ResponsibleGrowth #TheResponsibleEdge

A 2025 Korn Ferry report finds that the Chief Sustainability Officer role is becoming one of the most strategic positions in the enterprise. Sixty-two percent of executives surveyed plan to increase sustainability budgets. The shift is real. So is the nuance underneath it.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Katja Tuomola, Head of Sustainability and Marketing Communications at MM Group, a fibre-based packaging company with over four billion euros in annual sales and fifteen thousand employees, about what the Korn Ferry findings look like in practice.

Katja's read is precise and grounded in more than twenty years in the sustainability and forest industries. The article reflects large corporate reality, not the full market. And the strategic power that is being described does not come from championing sustainability. It comes from operating as a business executive who happens to own the sustainability function.

"I am not doing this for sustainability," she says. "I am doing this for business. My number one priority is that the business does not go out, because then I will not have a job either."

At MM Group, Katja is the final approver of CapEx projects exceeding two million euros before they reach the management board. She checks CO₂ considerations, supplier footprint, and energy impact on every major capital investment. The mechanism does not require any department to champion sustainability. It requires every major commercial decision to answer sustainability questions before it is ratified.

The conversation covers how the umbrella framing of sustainability changes what a CSO actually does, why commercial credibility is the precondition for strategic trust, and why better investment decisions, not larger budgets, is the magic wand that would change everything.

If your work touches sustainability leadership, organisational strategy, or the evolving CSO role, this episode is worth your time.

#ChiefSustainabilityOfficer #CSO #SustainabilityLeadership #BusinessStrategy #CorporateSustainability #TheResponsibleEdge

Harriet Hodgson-Grove on the accounting profession's role in the UK's £105 billion net zero economy. This week on The Responsible Edge, why accountants are uniquely placed to unlock SME decarbonisation, and how embedding carbon reporting in standard practice could transform the journey to 2030. Sponsored by truMRK. New episodes every week.

The UK's net zero economy has grown to £105 billion and supports 1.1 million jobs. SMEs account for thirty-seven percent of UK greenhouse gas emissions. And accountants already hold most of the data needed to help those businesses start their sustainability journey.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Harriet Hodgson-Grove, Audit Partner and National Head of Sustainable Business Services at UHY Hacker Young, about an ICAEW article making the case for a bigger role for the accounting profession in the net zero economy.

Harriet's argument is practical and specific. Scope 1 and 2 emissions can be estimated from spend data already collected for the accounts. Energy, fuel, travel: it is all there. "To do their basic Scope 1 and Scope 2, we have all of that data already," she says. "We're collecting it to be able to do their accounts." The next step is making that calculation standard across management accounts rather than a bespoke sustainability add-on.

The conversation covers why framing sustainability as resilience opens doors that the word sustainability sometimes closes, how AI tools are accelerating the move from spend-based to activity-based emissions data, and what the internal confidence-building work looks like inside a mid-tier accountancy firm doing this well.

The ambition is clear. "If we had all SME businesses beginning that journey now, imagine what a difference it could make by 2030."

The profession has the entry point. The data is there. The client relationships are there. This episode is about what happens when accountants decide to use them.

If your work touches accountancy, SME sustainability, or the practical mechanics of the net zero transition, this episode is worth your time.

#NetZeroEconomy #SustainabilityAccounting #SMESustainability #CarbonReporting #AccountingForClimate #TheResponsibleEdge

In April 2026, Scotiabank and Royal Bank of Canada both withdrew their 2030 interim financed emissions reduction targets. Scotiabank went further, retiring its 2050 net zero goal entirely. Both cited changing policy assumptions, reduced data availability, and an investment environment in which climate commitments are no longer being demanded with the same force.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Charlie Bronks, Group Head of Responsible Business at Crown Agents Bank, about what the withdrawals reveal and what, if anything, the transition finance metrics offered as replacements actually demonstrate.

Charlie's reading is precise. "The more interesting question is what it says about the evolution of sustainability itself, rather than thinking that two organisations are actually dialling back." She does not dismiss the concern that withdrawing emissions targets creates cover for continued fossil fuel lending. But she argues that exiting a market or a client relationship does not reduce its emissions, and that being inside the transition is different from abandoning it.

The conversation covers Crown Agents Bank's B Corp certification and social value commercial model in emerging and frontier markets, why clients are choosing the bank on sustainability credentials, and the two and a half trillion dollar trade finance gap in underserved markets.

Her magic wand answer is structural. "I would like to see organisations recognised not for making big promises, but for consistently helping clients transition responsibly."

Whether the accountability mechanisms being built, ratings, reporting requirements, procurement criteria, arrive fast enough to make that the industry standard is the episode's open question.

If your work touches banking, ESG accountability, or responsible finance, this episode is worth your time.

#NetZero #ESGBacklash #ResponsibleFinance #TransitionFinance #BankingAccountability #TheResponsibleEdge

As of April 2026, twenty-eight jurisdictions have adopted the ISSB's sustainability disclosure standards. A further twelve are planning to. South Korea, Japan, and the United Kingdom have each issued domestic versions. The S&P Global report tracking this progress is detailed, comprehensive, and authoritative.

It does not mention GRI once.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Charles Cho, Professor of Sustainability Accounting at the Schulich School of Business, York University, and member of the Global Reporting Initiative's Global Sustainability Standards Board, about that omission and what it reveals.

The tension between ISSB and GRI is not technical. ISSB standards ask how the environment affects the company. GRI standards ask how the company affects the world. "You can see that it's a very different type of reporting," Charles says, "when you ask a company to report on what are you doing to address the issue that you are causing to the planet, versus what are you doing about the issues that the planet is creating on your business."

The conversation moves from the standards debate into the structural question underneath it. "We are so into the tree, we don't see the forest," Charles says. "We fight over reporting standards, which is ridiculous. We are far away from actual performance and action."

His magic wand answer: change the capitalist system, redesign how incentives work, and apply that change globally. Better reporting standards make companies more accountable. They do not change what companies are designed to do.

If your work touches sustainability reporting, ESG disclosure, or the structural limits of corporate accountability, this episode is worth your time.

#ISSB #SustainabilityReporting #ESG #GRI #CorporateAccountability #TheResponsibleEdge

During the May 2026 heatwave, a familiar set of narratives circulated across European platforms. Heatwaves have always existed. Scientists manipulate data. The media exaggerates. The claims were recycled. The infrastructure distributing them was not improvised.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Sara Rego, founder of Mossy, Managing Director of BeTrue, and a researcher in sustainability communication at Universidade do Minho, about a June 2026 report from the European Digital Media Observatory: The Same Old Story: A Heat Wave of Climate Disinformation.

The report identifies two overlapping economic systems driving the disinformation ecosystem. The carbon economy funds misleading content to protect its commercial interests. The attention economy's algorithms reward inflammatory content because engagement generates revenue. The two systems do not coordinate. Their incentives converge.

Sara brings a specific lens to this. Her doctoral research produced the CARE model, a peer-reviewed framework for auditing sustainability communication. Mossy, launched in June 2026, applies that model as an AI tool for identifying greenwashing risk in ESG reports and company communications before regulators find it first.

Her argument is precise: the tools being built to counter disinformation operate at the communicator level. They do not change what the algorithm amplifies. "Power and money," she says of why the disinformation ecosystem persists. "Because they think they can buy their exit out of this crisis with money."

The episode covers the organised history of climate disinformation, Russia's state-level strategy targeting the EU, the harassment of climate scientists during extreme weather events, and why reconnecting people to nature may matter more than adding more information to a saturated environment.

The incentive structure making disinformation commercially rational remains intact. That is the condition in which better sustainability communication is being attempted.

#ClimateDisinformation #Greenwashing #ESG #SustainabilityCommunication #AttentionEconomy #TheResponsibleEdge

Remote work expanded access to talent. It reduced geographic barriers and gave organisations new flexibility. But did it also create a new problem?

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Christopher Carter, CEO of Approyo, discusses the hidden trade-off inside hybrid work. After building teams across the United States, United Kingdom, India and Brazil, Christopher argues that distributed workforces create opportunities for businesses while making visibility, mentorship and career progression harder to maintain.

The conversation explores why some organisations are bringing employees back into offices, what leaders lose when informal interactions disappear, and how younger professionals can balance flexibility with career development.

Christopher also shares insights from his work in artificial intelligence, including why businesses should focus on secure, contextually relevant data and why AI should be viewed as a tool that enhances human capability rather than replaces it.

Topics include:

- The future of hybrid work

- Career progression in distributed organisations

- Why visibility still matters

- Leadership in remote teams

- AI adoption and business strategy

- Data governance and decision-making

- Organisational culture beyond the office

If the workplace has changed permanently, what happens to the relationships that careers depend on?

Listen to the full conversation to explore the question.

#HybridWork #FutureOfWork #Leadership #ArtificialIntelligence #BusinessStrategy #RemoteWork

A 2026 report, After Service: The Hidden Costs of Britain's Military on its Veterans, documents a specific failure. The legal commitments made to service leavers exist. At the transition point, they break down. Ten percent of service leavers struggle to find employment in year one. A further fifteen percent need meaningful support in the first two years.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Jim Holland, co-founder and CEO of Carma, a veteran-led climate action business that pairs corporate ESG investment with veteran employment pathways through tree planting and nature-based work.

Jim served thirteen years as a Weapons Engineering Artificer in the Royal Navy. He left at thirty, returned to Barnsley, bought a town centre pub, and spent four difficult years working out what he had lost. "I hadn't realised that I was missing three things: my forces family, my purpose and my identity." He eventually built Carma to address the gap he had lived through, connecting corporate sustainability budgets to veteran employment outcomes through a mechanism that is commercially self-sustaining.

The conversation covers why hiring managers misread veterans as threats rather than assets, why nature-based work changes people in ways office environments cannot, and why Jim believes climate action and social value are a price businesses have never had to pay, not a cost.

"Companies that do it now are stealing the march," he says. "They're being pioneers, not reacting to legislation."

The veteran support system has not closed its gap. The question the episode leaves open is whether the market can.

If your work touches veteran employment, ESG investment, or corporate social value, this episode is worth your time.

#VeteranEmployment #ClimateAction #ESG #TreePlanting #SocialValue #TheResponsibleEdge

China is the world's largest carbon emitter and its largest producer of solar panels, electric vehicles, and battery storage. Those facts are not a paradox. From a Chinese cultural and political perspective, they are entirely consistent.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Paul Gladston, Judith Nielsen Chair Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of New South Wales Sydney, about an article titled A Green World Order with Chinese Characteristics: Implications for Global Climate Cooperation.

Paul's argument is precise. The analysis of China's climate positioning is limited because it focuses on the socio-economic and political while leaving out the cultural variable. "I often think that in order to decode some aspects of that discussion and give a richer view of that, one has to address culture. Leaving it out rather limits the discussion."

The conversation covers the Confucian pragmatic idealism behind China's long-term strategic orientation, why Western frameworks misread Chinese climate commitment as bad faith, and why the global climate debate "remains westernised" despite its global ambitions.

Paul is clear-eyed throughout. "We should not simply dress China up as some perfect exemplar of how to develop a green society." The point is not that China's approach is superior. It is that climate cooperation is being attempted between parties who mean fundamentally different things by the word.

If your work touches climate policy, China, or the cultural dimensions of sustainability, this episode is worth your time.

#ChinaClimate #GreenTech #ClimateDiplomacy #Sinosphere #CulturalIntelligence #TheResponsibleEdge

The energy transition has a materials problem most corporate sustainability reports do not address. Wind turbines, electric vehicles, and grid-scale batteries require cobalt, lithium, and nickel extracted from mines. The governance architecture sitting between those mines and the finished product is, in most supply chains, structurally incomplete.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with J.J. Messner, Sector Lead for Downstream Purchasers at the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, about a 2025 analysis of how CDOP and the Science Based Targets initiative are attempting to give carbon accountability sharper teeth.

JJ brings two decades of field experience across more than a hundred countries, from directing the Fragile States Index at the Fund for Peace to leading responsible sourcing at Microsoft. His argument is precise: the frameworks governing responsible mining are well-designed, but they struggle to reach the people making day-to-day sourcing decisions, because those people are appraised on cost, quality, and timeliness, and nothing else.

"You're looking at people who have the responsibility without the accountability and people who have the accountability without the responsibility."

The conversation covers why excluding risky suppliers moves the problem without solving it, why supplier capacity investment is the structural alternative, and why the green energy transition cannot be separated from the question of who bears the cost of the mining it requires.

If your work touches supply chains, responsible sourcing, or the material reality of net zero, this episode is worth your time.

#ResponsibleSourcing #CriticalMinerals #SupplyChainAccountability #ResponsibleMining #GreenTransition #TheResponsibleEdge