Why I don’t write on Substack anymore

And what I'm doing now instead

Decommissioned bridge from early industrial days on Montreal’s Lachine Canal. (Photo by B. Lorraine Smith / 2024)

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This is not a rant. It’s an honest clarification. I have benefited greatly from my year of writing on Substack. I am grateful for the financial and professional support, and I will continue to cherish the learning and writer relationships that have evolved beyond this platform.

But, I stopped writing here a few months ago and probably won’t write more. (Subscribers: fear not! You will still have access for as long you subscribe. The articles, podcasts and datasets in English and Portuguese will live on.)

My reason is simple. I need to prioritize my time to run a profitable business. The time it takes to share the content I am best suited to serve, at the level of quality I believe is imperative, is not financially viable in this format. So I’m realigning how I spend my time.

For this reason I’m bringing my writing home to my website, crafting and curating my insights to the best of my abilities beyond the algorithms.

My vision is an economy that works in service of life.

I will continue to write and do all I can to put my years of sustainability and ESG expertise to good use, in service of my vision of a life-serving economy.

However, whereas before I prostituted my services to global Fortune 500 companies and other billionaires who said one thing while doing another (no offence to prostitutes who are beacons of integrity by comparison) now that I can’t unsee what’s going on behind the corporate sustainability curtain, I am only interested in making an honest living.

I accept the risks of this change.

The biggest risk is that I will lose connection with those my work is designed to serve. Many people understandably appreciate the simple, free (or nearly free) variety that Substack offers to readers and writers alike.

Substack has put my writing in front of folks who might never have heard of me otherwise. But what I’ve learned from the posts I’m most proud of here is that I’m doing the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars of consulting work for some of these articles, which is neither reasonable nor sustainable. I need to be honest with myself about my time and needs. There is an audience that benefits from this work, specifically those sustainability and ESG professionals and others who are smelling bullshit and looking for guidance, data, and case studies on their trail. It is a leap to trust they—you?—will find me where and when you need me, in ways that make more sense for me.

And if and when you do find me, you will be better served by a more complete, accessible offer.

Also: I cannot reasonably ask folks to embrace industrial transformation, shifting your own approach to work in spite of the mainstream incentives and norms, while being unwilling to take risks and make meaningful change myself. 

I appreciate a lot about Substack, especially the platform’s openness, where any writer can contribute. And I can see that the model works for many writers. I think that’s awesome.

To reiterate, I have benefited from my experience here on Substack. It trained me to focus on deep data dives, amping up the credibility of my research while always grounding it in day-to-day reality. For example, the post, Why following the money led me to exit the market—

—changed my life for the better and could not have happened anywhere else. And the benchmarking data from Recycling plastic data into reality—

—helped me define the opportunity to support people in seeing what’s really going on using corporate disclosures while comparing them to what they see in their own front yard.

Substack put some great writers in front of me whose work I continue to value. I hope it also put me in front of some people who value my work. 

What I’m doing now instead

I will continue to publish a weekly free letter — you can sign up here. My blog will also continue to be free. I recently created a marketplace with events and premium downloads (i.e. reports with audio and video) comprising comprehensive consulting work bundled into digestible economical packages.

I say economical because, having done mainstream consulting work for twenty years, I know a $10k benchmarking project when I conduct one. I also know a $90k sustainability stakeholder engagement project when I conduct one. Corporate budgets are currently getting distributed for work that lacks impact and fuels the broken, endless-economic-growth machine with dashes of “less bad”.

My work disrupts this mainstream sustainability approach, at a tiny fraction of the cost — often open source and sometimes even free.

This change in my offering is admittedly an experiment. But I prefer the look and feel of the new, customized design and layout I’m working with. And I strongly prefer life without any algorithm intermediating—just people showing up, engaging and sharing what they find if it’s worthy — plain and simple.

Those who know me IRL will back me up when I say: this isn’t about the money. It’s about making the most effective, peaceful, elegant, and compelling shift to an economy that works and service of life.

I’ll still be on Substack as a reader. And I would love to see you over here if I may be of further service to you. Feel free to get in touch directly if you’d like to connect more.

Meanwhile thanks for the good times. I’m looking forward to continuing to walk alongside in all the ways that work.

Yours in connectedness,

Lorraine

P.S. I was going to do a bit of a link fest of all my favourite writers here, but then I realized I was never going to remember you all, and some of you are also writing less here too, so I wasn’t sure how best to shine the light. Instead I’ll simply say thank you. You know who you are. Yes, I mean you. 🌱🙏

A road in Northern Ontario. Long, beautiful, and uphill. (B. Lorraine Smith / 2024)