April 6, 2016 Shana Udvardy
Udvardy: You have been devoting approximately 20 hours per week on top of a normal job and family commitments — to the startup Omnicarbon, that’s a lot of unpaid time, what stimulated you to work overtime to get this startup and its COSAN software off the ground?
MacFarlane: There certainly is a lot of my personal time invested into Omnicarbon. However, it’s not something I find difficult as I believe in the concept — that’s the key — because it’s one that will make the world a better place. It’s always easier to work on something that makes the world a better place than just doing to for the sake of dollars and cents.
My key motivation for Omnicarbon and the COSAN product was to create something that would help address the global warming problem utilising my core skills -Business, Information Technology and Climate Science. In 2012 university’s Masters in Science program, I studied climate science and specifically, decarbonisation frameworks and developed the world’s first scale of climate change impacts scale for my thesis. So Omnicarbon and COSAN were a natural progression from this.
Udvardy: As a leader of a start-up company what would you say have been the largest challenges and the biggest rewards to date and how do you define a leader?
MacFarlane: The biggest challenges for Omnicarbon to date have been lack of seed funding to get the venture moving. Associated with this, are others issues like being able to explain the concept and the value of the concept to potential funders. Coordinating resources has also been challenging. We operate on a part time basis with each Managing partner having to balance their day to day jobs and family commitments. It’s a challenge to keep everyone focused and motivated. The main reward for me of running a start-up is the thrill of working on something that you really believe will make the world a better place — not money but by achievement.
That’s important to get the best out of yourself and others. Any project involved with finding solutions for climate change is extremely challenging and rewarding as it’s the biggest issue that we face in the world today. For me, a leader is someone who makes the tough calls when others won’t. Especially in the climate change game. There is so much misinformation and politics feeding into the facts. Our worlds needs leaders who can admit there is a problem with manmade global warming and make the big calls to address it. These are not always popular in the short term but are critical if we are to avoid serious impacts of global warming which will be associated with high costs for individuals and for businesses alike.
Udvardy: Do you have recommendations for other startups in the early stages?
MacFarlane: Build a team before you get the funding. That way you can get to know their strengths and weaknesses. It also gives them the chance to work with each other and get to know each other. It comes with initial challenges but pays in the long term. I tried to select people for my team whom I had known or worked with in the past. People who were passionate about solving climate change and whom I thought had the right personality for the venture. I look for people who are passionate and keep a positive mindset. That’s a pre-requisite in the climate change business because at times it can get you down with politics and misinformation stunting progress to solve the problem always there in the foreground. Each of my team members are achievers that do exciting things in their personal lives as well as working on Omnicarbon. They enjoy life to the full and that for me makes them a good fit for Omnicarbon. That’s the culture I want to build and maintain as we grow.
Udvardy: When we hear about unprecedented, record-breaking heat, rapid sea level rise, and other climate impacts, does it give you pause, that is, how do you stay positive?
MacFarlane: By knowing that I am part of the solution and not sitting back denying there is a problem or feeling helpless that I can’t do anything about it. There is no doubt that the world that my children will grow up in will be very different to the one I grew up in due to climate change impacts, but we need to look for opportunities in this. We can make business sustainable and we can still make profit and enjoy business but we have to do so without biting the hand that feeds us-Mother Earth.
Udvardy: How are you feeling the impacts of climate change?
MacFarlane: Australia is a country that is really feeling the effects of early climate changes-increased bushfires, extended bushfire seasons, rapid changes between drought and floods, more Cat 5 cyclones and unprecedented coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef. It’s really disturbing but what I find more disturbing is the apparent apathy of many Australians.
Udvardy: Who is going to “solve” the climate crisis? Is it scientists, policy makers, businesses and why?
MacFarlane: Everyone must work to do their part. From consumers to businesses to scientists to government. It’s not working that way currently. People need to understand that there is no room for doubt or inaction. The impacts of climate change are real and a danger for every country. Its effects are being felt across the globe now and things will only get more intense from here on. We have to try and reduce the problem by reducing greenhouse gas emissions as soon as we possibly can . While I believe we can no longer stop human induced global warming, we can help reduce our emissions and be more resilient to a changing climate.
Udvardy: Depending on who you ask you get different answers to the outcomes of COP 21, what are your thoughts; did COP 21 go far enough, why and why not?
MacFarlane: I think COP21 did what it had to do. An agreement was reached. The real test will be how and when will countries agree to action the agreement. It will take massive leadership from this point to make the real structural changes required to reach the targets agreed to.
Udvardy: Okay, I understand there is a big lift globally to make the change we need to see, tell me more about the role businesses play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to not only help meet, but go beyond COP21 goals? Are there any out there that are actually walking the walk?
MacFarlane: Businesses play a critical role. They supply goods and services to consumers. We can try and reduce demand of consumers but this is not practical nor the most efficient in trying to improve quality of life. Therefore we need to focus on the business supply and demand chains. Businesses can completely decarbonise their supply and demand chains so as to sell goods and services that do not create or increase our global emissions. This is achievable by all businesses no matter their product or service.
We can continue to do good business and make the world a better place by not adding to the problem. Businesses throughout the world are in a unique position and can lead the way in the reduction of global emissions; but it requires strong business leaders who can make difficult decisions that may not be popular (with their board members, shareholders?). It also requires strong leadership to back these convictions and prove that my business can be sustainable to our planet and still turn a good profit. There is no reason we cannot do this together as business leaders.
Udvardy: What role will Omnicarbon play in making a difference in reducing the impacts of a changing climate?
MacFarlane: The Omnicarbon venture is all about getting businesses to become more efficient and transparent when planning decarbonisation of their operations over time. It’s a pragmatic approach to the problem. With a standard methodology for planning and reporting processes we hope that this will provide capability for business leaders to move quicker to decarbonise their operations. It’s fine for governments to say ‘yes, we have agreed to take steps to limit global warming to 2 degrees’ but without business engagement and support this will be very difficult to achieve. We must bring business along on the journey and engage our business leaders. Then businesses can lead in efforts to combat climate change by understanding how their operations are part of the problem and how they can become part of the solution.
Udvardy: At the COP 21 Sustainable Innovation Forum (SIF) back in December, I asked US Energy Secretary Moniz about businesses, and in short, how to deal with the cost question when trying to incentivize reducing greenhouse gas emissions — what’s your answer?
MacFarlane: I think businesses need to understand that they can decarbonise their supply and demand chains to reduce costs and will likely even increase its profits. Businesses need to understand what their current emissions picture looks like, what changes are possible, and how such changes do or do not impact their bottom line. Understanding the impacts of decarbonisation while also making decisions at a steady pace can be challenging for companies. This is exactly the capability we are aiming to create for business with the COSAN product.
We are looking at designing a predictive data capability, which will populate existing emissions data for business without having to complete a full audit, we are trying to understand how we could utilise Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide optimum decarbonisation solutions for companies. We need to strive to find ways to lower operational emissions while also reducing any impact to companies’ bottom lines. Only then will global business engage as one to help solve the global warming issues. Its exciting stuff and you only get to do this type of inspirational work in start-ups because you can pivot quickly and introduce new technologies as they become available.
Udvardy: You mentioned your COSAN software; can you tell me more about that and why that is different from other products out there and how it’ll help make an impact on climate change?
MacFarlane: Omnicarbon’s COSAN product will standardise decarbonisation planning for global business of every size. Our primary focus is on increasing revenues by reducing carbon in the supply and demand chains. COSAN reduces complexity, making decarbonisation planning and communication activities affordable and easy to understand. We will make it easy and affordable for all business to design low carbon pathways with a focus on increasing revenue streams and cutting costs.
Our ease of use in drop and drag design and simplified reporting makes it easy for all business people to understand how low carbon actions will impact business bottom line. Our integration and statistical estimation services with financial systems, and other supply/demand backend systems makes decarbonisation easy for business. Global deployment of COSAN will bring standard workflow method and transparency in reporting globally. This is critical capability for global business to co-ordinate a move to the low carbon economy.
Udvardy: Well, we have heard about your background, your thoughts on startups and leadership, and on Omnicarbon and your COSAN product, for my last question I’d like to know, who is your climate hero and why?
MacFarlane: Good question. I think there are a lot of high profile people out there like Leonardo Di Caprio trying to get the message across that this is a very real and bad problem. However, it takes more than that. People like Al Gore and Bill Nye are very inspirational in that they follow their convictions on climate change.
My heroine is Katherine Hayhoe. She is an atmospheric scientist and associate professor of political science at Texas Tech University, where she is director of the Climate Science Centre. This is a person that comes from a deeply religious background that denies climate change is caused by burning of fossil fuels.
She has travelled from church to church in the southern states of America discussing the facts of climate change to congregations. She is listening to people’s concerns and changing opinion. I think this is real leadership. She is so inspirational in what she does. This is the type of leadership we need to see from our Prime Ministers and Presidents if we are to successfully deal with the issue of climate change.
Udvardy: Thank you Mark for an inspirational interview!
