# How being ‘green’ became elitist (are you guilty?), Mark Shayler

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/climate-unf-cked-7472327/how-being-green-became-elitist-are-you-guilty-mark-shayler
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/climate-unf-cked-7472327/how-being-green-became-elitist-are-you-guilty-mark-shayler.md
Podcast: [Climate Unf*cked](https://stenobird.com/podcast/climate-unf-cked-7472327)
Published: 2026-01-05T15:42:00+00:00
Episode link: https://episode.flightcast.com/01KE77HN0SJ5B2SQNX9MYY7G4B.mp3
Audio file: https://episode.flightcast.com/01KE77HN0SJ5B2SQNX9MYY7G4B.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/climate-unf-cked-7472327/episodes/how-being-green-became-elitist-are-you-guilty-mark-shayler
Duration seconds: 3863

## Resource

Mark Shayler has spent 35 years working in sustainability before it was cool - and he's saved his clients over $200 million while doing it. He's an environmental consultant, innovation specialist, and straight-talking force of nature who works with everyone from Coca-Cola to Unilever to tiny manufacturing businesses in Bradford. He believes that, whilst business created most of the world's problems, it's also the thing that can fix them. Mark doesn't do sandals-and-placards environmentalism. He meets companies where they are, speaks the language of profit and loss, and isn't afraid to work with the "bad guys" if it means shifting their trajectory by even half a degree. This is sustainability from the inside out - messy, pragmatic, and unapologetically commercial. In this episode, we dive into: Why "being green" has become a way of beating people down instead of democratising climate action - and how judgment creates division, not progress The evolution of corporate sustainability requests: from "keep me out of prison" to "keep me lean" to "help me care more" to today's "help me stay relevant and attract talent" Why Mark would work with Shein - and exactly what he'd change (regenerative cotton, circular polyester, legitimate leasing instead of borrowing-with-tags-on) The project-level litmus test: if you can't put the company name on your intro slide without embarrassment, don't take the work Why quarterly reporting and employer-tied healthcare in America are the biggest brakes on innovation and brave climate action The "highways department conundrum" - we'll need to see it's too late before we do something about it ("no one's died yet, do you want me to volunteer my 93-year-old nan?") How consumption became an anti-depressant and why we're no happier buying our 10th pa…

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## Transcript

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