This started it all...

Everyone’s got their story about why they care about saving the planet.

I was never an environment-curious guy.

Your average hungry entrepreneur, I was fully immersed in building businesses. In 2019, my mentor shared a white-paper called Deep Adaptation by Professor Jem Bendell. I threw it aside but told him I’d read it when I had time.

A perfect opportunity to do so occurred on a flight. My plan was simple:

1. Read the white paper for 10 minutes.

2. Build marketing plans for the remaining few hours.

As soon as I started reading, I couldn’t stop. 

The predictions of societal collapse and the existential threat posed by climate change completely shifted my priorities. I remember sitting there, stunned. I thought, “What’s the point of all this?” Everything felt trivial in comparison to the reality of the paper's outline. 

For days afterward, I couldn’t shake the sense of mourning. I was thinking about my kids and their future, or even if their kids would ever exist. It hit me hard, and I spent several days reflecting on the future of humanity.

I had conversations with my dad, a straight-talking Derbyshire ex-physics teacher, who gave me a no-nonsense perspective: 

“One thing that’s certain is that human life will eventually be wiped out.” 

It was a brutal truth, but it snapped me into action. 

I pivoted away from the marketing-focused businesses I had been building and, alongside Elliot, Alex, and Lucy, founded Ecologi. Ecologi was a bold bet we made that businesses want to accelerate global climate action and their economic growth. We wanted to facilitate this.

Since then, Ecologi has achieved incredible milestones. We’ve planted 90 million trees, offset millions of tonnes of carbon, and now have over 25,000 businesses using our platform. In 2020, we were fortunate enough to receive investment from General Catalyst, which allowed us to expand and make an even greater impact. 

It’s been a whirlwind, but my decision to focus my experience and skills on natural capital has given me a renewed sense of purpose.

Deep Adaptation: Five Years On

Looking back, Deep Adaptation continues to haunt me, but in a way that drives action. 

The paper’s message was stark: societal collapse due to climate change is inevitable unless we radically change course. 

Bendell outlined the “Four Rs” as a framework for adapting to this future:

1. Resilience

Resilience is hard-earned, but it is not effective on its own. The whitepaper warned that resilience wouldn’t be enough unless we completely restructured our society, and it feels like we’re still fighting against that reality.

2. Relinquishment

The idea that we need to give up certain unsustainable ways of living. While some progress has been made—phasing out single-use plastics, shifting away from fossil fuels—the pace is far too slow, and in many ways, our economic systems remain deeply entrenched in harmful practices.

3. Restoration

Restoration has gained momentum in the past few years, with reforestation, regenerative agriculture, and ecosystem restoration efforts taking hold. Ecologi’s work planting millions of trees and sequestering carbon is part of this movement, but it’s a drop in the ocean compared to the scale of restoration needed globally.

4. Reconciliation.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of Deep Adaptation is reconciliation—accepting that a radically different future is not just possible but likely. As much as we try to mitigate the impacts of climate change, there’s no going back to the world we once knew. This reality is sobering, and as a father, it’s heartbreaking to think about the future that awaits my children.

As I reflect on the paper nearly six years later, many of its predictions are playing out. The urgency of climate change is now more visible than ever, with record-breaking global temperatures and devastating natural disasters. 

But despite the paper’s bleak outlook, I believe we still have the power to shape a new kind of world—one built on the foundations of a healthy planet, thriving ecosystems, and businesses aligned with the planet’s needs. 

This isn’t about despair but harnessing the challenge to create something better.

As we look ahead, it’s clear that we must rethink the systems we live by, shifting away from short-term profits and focusing on what’s truly valuable: a livable, thriving planet. Deep Adaptation might have been a wake-up call, but it’s also an opportunity to evolve and make decisions that are not only good for business but also for the planet. 

We’re standing at a crossroads, the good news being that we still have time, but not much. My vision for Natural Capital is that maybe the road that leads to a future our grandkids can enjoy can also be paved with gold.