Stories of the people and forces that shape our work 

Author’s Note

This post marks the beginning of my 2026 contribution to the global 100DayProject — a commitment to show up daily for a creative practice. For the next 100 days, I will write and share one portrait at a time.

The Why

Over the past twenty years, I have met many characters.

Some carried authority lightly.
Some wore it like armour.
Some knew every family name in a village before a project began.
Some never learned the name of the person pouring their coffee.

Some existed only on paper — sustainability reports, rating agencies, standards, audit frameworks — and yet shaped entire strategies and sleepless nights.

I have sat in boardrooms where decisions were made in minutes that would ripple for decades.
I have sat under trees where conversations moved slowly, carefully, aware of cultural nuance, ancestors and history.
I have stood between operational teams and communities, between executives and consultants, between ambition and consequence.

Sustainability work is often described in technical language — compliance, disclosure, mitigation, impact.
But in practice, it is human work.

It is shaped by personality.
By fear.
By ego.
By courage.
By fatigue.
By conviction.
By silence.

Over time, the profession becomes less about projects and more about patterns.

Certain types reappear.
Certain dynamics repeat.
Certain energies surface in different bodies.

Carl Jung wrote about archetypes — recurring patterns of human behaviour that surface across time and context. I have come to recognise similar patterns in the world of sustainability. Not fixed roles, but familiar currents.

The generous ones.
The difficult ones.
The visionary ones.
The ones who diminished others.
The ones who surprised me.
The ones who changed the trajectory of my own thinking.
And the systems that behaved like personalities in their own right.

These portraits are composite reflections drawn from two decades of professional experience. They do not represent any single individual, organisation or country. They are shaped by memory, pattern recognition and hindsight.

This project forms part of the global 100DayProject — a commitment to show up daily for a creative discipline. For me, that discipline is reflection through writing.

One portrait a day.
One moment examined.
One pattern named.

Not to expose.
Not to accuse.
But to understand.

In sustainability, it is easy to sort people into heroes and villains. It is harder — and more honest — to acknowledge that most of us are navigating complexities, pressure, incentives, blind spots and ambition as best we can.

I have not always responded perfectly.
I have been silent when I could have spoken.
I have spoken when silence might have served better.
I have admired people I later questioned.
I have misjudged others and been misjudged in return.

Some of these portraits will be warm.
Some may feel uncomfortable.
All are written with the benefit of distance.

Over the next 100 days, I will share one portrait at a time.  Behind every disclosure sits a human story. This is part of mine.  End Note:  All images accompanying this series are licensed stock photographs and are intended for illustrative purposes only. They are not representations of any specific individual, organisation or location.