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Oliver Balch

@oliverbalch.bsky.social
553 followers 1.2K following 22 posts

Journalist / Writer / Speaker ✅ Sustainability. Books. Running. 📝 Current book project: OUT OF AMAZONIA (Head of Zeus). 🗞️ bylines: Reuters, FT, Guardian, Positive News, etc 🎤 Speaking/moderator inquiries: steve@greatbritishtalent.com

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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I tried a 48 hr bad news detox ... this is how it went. www.positive.news/lifestyle/i-...
positive.news
I stopped reading bad news for 48 hours. Here’s what happened
What changes when you swap the daily doomscroll for journalism that asks not just what’s wrong, but what’s working? Oliver Balch finds out
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
"The pluricrisis is close, but not close enough" ... as 2025 draws to a close, some reflections on where the corporate sustainability agenda finds itself: www.pbs.up.pt/en/artigos-e... #ESG #sustainability #woke #climate #climateemergency #business
pbs.up.pt
Why it’s decision time for business sustainability
Corporate sustainability is under pressure as politics, timing and greenhushing reshape priorities. Discover why the field now faces a critical decision.
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
From Bordallo II (...well said!): "Our cities are being converted into huge game boards. The right to housing, enshrined in the Constitution, is now at the mercy of luck or chance." #housing #portugal #bordalloII #Lisbon #masstourism
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Up the 1% 😊
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
My fav Galician hideaway … anyone guess where it is?? @galicia
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Chuffed to bag the FIRST EVER media interview with world 42nd richest man, Walmart heir Lukas Walton ... and even more chuffed that he had something positive to say about how (potentially) to fix the planet's problems. In the upcoming FT Wealth report. Sneak preview here: www.ft.com/content/f1a7...
ft.com
Walmart heir Lukas Walton’s $15bn bet on the environment
With an estimated worth of $39bn, he wants to use market mechanisms to save the oceans
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Joe Biden's national climate advisor has every reason to be spitting mad ... in fact, she's surprisingly chipper. Why? US states are still pushing ahead with clean energy regardless of Trump. More on my interview with @americaisallin.com Gina McCarthy: www.reuters.com/sustainabili... @reuters.com
reuters.com
Gina McCarthy: ‘U.S. companies may not be putting their hands up, but they are still investing in clean energy’
As a former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and ex-White House national climate change adviser, Gina McCarthy thought she had seen it all. But little had prepared even this veteran of Washington D.C. for the abrupt reversal of environmental policy under the new Trump administration.
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Renewables across the Americas are growing fast: not because consumers are "woke", but because solar & wind are common sense (i.e. cheap, home grown, clean ...). My piece for today's FT report on Fastest Growing Companies in the Americas: www.ft.com/content/5b19... @financialtimes.com #renewables
ft.com
Renewables sector stays upbeat but clouds gather over global energy
Natural resources and pricing keep demand buoyant even as the Trump administration embraces fossil fuels
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Reminiscent of New College offering European Jewish intellectuals like Levi Strauss a home in the 1930s … “where was that?”, you ask. In the United States … “Nearly 300 apply as French university offers US academics ‘scientific asylum’” www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
Nearly 300 apply as French university offers US academics ‘scientific asylum’
Aix-Marseille University generates interest amid a US crackdown and calls for a ‘scientific refugee’ status
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Good news: the latest issue of Positive News magazine has just landed!!!! 😊 Lots of uplifting stories ✍️, including a couple from me (on a centre for child victims of modernday slavery in Ghana 🇬🇭, and writer Matt Gaw on his love of gnarly weather ⛈️). More here: www.positive.news. Keep believing 💪
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Meet the urban miners of Leuven, Belgium ... some of the silent heroes build the more sustainable systems of tomorrow. My latest piece for @theguardian.com. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle... #circulareconomy #waste #recycling #reuse #construction #urbanmining @iclei.org
theguardian.com
‘It’s beautiful, don’t you think?’ The urban miners unearthing treasure in Belgium’s homes and garages
As the historic town of Leuven strives to become carbon neutral, it is transforming how its building are made – and demolished. Are there lessons for the rest of the world?
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
“Soft skills”: vital idea, unhelpful term. My latest piece for @reuters.com www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
reuters.com
Brand Watch: Why investing in ‘soft’ skills makes hard-headed business sense
How might disadvantaged young people increase their likelihood of career success in today’s ever more technology-driven economy? The answer is not, as you might think, to learn to write code or master search-engine optimisation (valuable as these may be): instead, it’s to find yourself a mentor.
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Move over specialty coffee: it's chocolate's turn to go "terroir". My review of Rowan Jacobsen's entertaining investigation in to the rise of "bean-lobar" chocolate: this week's TLS: www.the-tls.co.uk/regular-feat... @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social
the-tls.co.uk
Wild Chocolate by Rowan Jacobsen | Book review | The TLS
Everything about the Dancing Lion Chocolate café in Manchester, New Hampshire, sounds a tad pretentious. The edible art. The cutesy tile tables. The fact
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Amazonian artists object to 'Western gaze' in #photography show by iconic photographer Sebastião Salgado: my piece in @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/artanddesign... Thnx: @elianebrum.sumauma.com, @jonathan-watts.bsky.social @infoamazonia.org, @geviana.bsky.social, @firstamart.bsky.social
theguardian.com
‘Let Amazonians speak for themselves’: trouble in paradise for Sebastião Salgado’s Amazônia
Salgado is one of the world’s best-known documentary photographers but a growing wave of Indigenous critics are angry about the exoticised way in which they believe non-native photographers portray th...
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Need some positivity in your life? Good news: Positive News is out with a new issue. Chuffed to bag the cover story, about the rise of the hands-on dad. Just one of the many uplifting themes bursting from its pages. To subscribe & treat yourself to some optimism: www.positive.news/magazine/
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Reposted by Oliver Balch
Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
“How did mate (pronounced “ma-tay”) come to be a cultural institution? And what do its production, trade and modes of consumption tell us about our political economy, past and present?” Read on to discover more in @thetls.bsky.social: www.the-tls.co.uk/culture/food...
The Book of Yerba Mate: A Stimulating History by Christine Folch
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
Here’s to 2025 … flying high 🎈
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 25/12/2024
Happy Christmas from the land of Saint Nicholas
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
One aspect of my work that I LOVE is public speaking. So I'm really chuffed to now be represented by Great British Speakers, alongside the likes of @benedictallen.bsky.social, @bethrigby.bsky.social, @garethwynwilliams.bsky.social, etc. More here: greatbritishspeakers.co.uk/talents/oliv...
greatbritishspeakers.co.uk
Business Sustainability Oliver Balch at Great British Speakers
Oliver Balch is a widely recognised expert on sustainability and the changing role of business in society. Book at +$4 1753 439 289
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Powerful photo essay by Berlin-based photographer, Julia Ochs, on the harsh realities (and poor returns) of ocean bottom trawling 🌊🐬🦑 eu.patagonia.com/nl/en/storie... #saveouroceans #sustainable #fishing
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Oliver Balch @oliverbalch.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Come on @bsky.app peeps, we can do this!!! Hope, help, hilarity ... bring it on #solutions #ideas #betterpresent #brighterfuture
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