I had this pop up in a news feed and just laughed at how tone-deaf the whole thing was:

In 2021, the Body Shop gathered a group of Gen Zers who are passionate about the climate to critique the company and provide insight into how to be a force for good at the United Nations’ COP26—what could go wrong?

“The activists that were working with us were pretty critical of commerce,” Davis says, adding that there’s a cohort of extremists who think that all businesses are bad from an environmental standpoint. “We live in a world of trying to balance profit and principles. It’s not so straightforward.”

Although the conversation was colorful, he quickly learned that in order for criticisms from a board comprising bright young minds to actually be constructive, they’d need to be less radical.

“It wasn’t just a question of getting young people who are interested, who are smart, who care about the world, who want to make a difference—that’s actually not enough. On top of those things, you’ve got to bring people in who are on the side of wanting business to succeed,” he says, with the caveat, “but succeed on sustainable terms.”

With a vested interest in the company’s success, Davis imagined their feedback would err on the side of constructive criticism, rather than the company just being “slammed.”

“Sure, we could have a moment of introspection when even the labor aristocracy we surround ourselves with as underlings want our heads for lighting the planet on fire for profit, or we could just ignore that and find sycophants to keep telling us we’re doing great.”

Still a good sign that the kids are at least a little alright.