11 sustainability buzzwords of 2021

All the anxieties of our time reflected in these trending terms.

What happened

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Why it matters

It is strange hearing activist lingo being used by politicians, but in 2021, many leaders did try their best to get into the good books of the younger crowd – by adopting their style of speech once they took to the podium.

For example, when youth activists and the media started warning against a climate ‘cop-out’ at the landmark COP26 summit, leaders parroted the exact same words, seemingly unconscious of how ironic it was, since the call was obviously targeted right at them. Of course, all of us knew that these speeches were made with good intentions, but it did come to seem rather fatuous in the end, especially when the leaders’ actions did not exactly match what they said.

The year’s sustainability-related trending terms also continued to reflect some of the anxieties of our time. Activists searched for the right words to describe outrageous acts of greenwashing and some ended up reinventing and building upon the vernacular already well-known to the rest of the sustainability folk.

This news brief is based on reporting published by Eco-Business on 2021-12-31. The original report is linked below.