The time for change is NOW
Last weekend, the largest positive impact gathering in the world (Change NOW) took place at Le Grand Palais, Paris.
Last weekend, the largest positive impact gathering in the world (Change NOW) took place at Le Grand Palais, Paris. Entrepreneurs, government officials, and leaders of change in the corporate world came to discuss, consider, and showcase sustainable, inclusive, and impactful solutions. The goal, however, was to go beyond thinking, to acting. Concrete actions were planned with tangible outcomes. Our Climate vertical considers this a key event in the calendar for 2020.
The challenges we face as a society to move to more inclusive and sustainable solutions often appears overwhelming. Yet, at the conference, we saw several examples of our climate-focused corporate co-creation model in action. Momentum for the grand transition provides fertile ground for us to deliver more ventures with a purpose that goes beyond simply making money.
The Climate vertical has proven before that sustainability and profitability can go hand in hand. Yet, we understand the challenges that corporations face when attempting to transform their current business. We want to change the perception that impact is just another cost and reframe it as a massive opportunity, which can be achieved through venture building.
Richard Vevers, CEO of the Ocean Agency, showcased an excellent example of how to drive change. His organization supports and accelerates ocean action through collaboration. It is incontrovertible that our oceans are paramount to all life on earth. In fact, they support billions of people; influencing the climate and (fresh) water production; producing over half of the world’s oxygen supply. We breathe and absorb 50 times more carbon dioxide than our atmosphere. Hence it is vital that our oceans stay healthy.
Yet, they are on the frontline of climate change. Efficient and morally questionable industrial production methods dispose of waste in gigantic dystopian trash islands. Furthermore, if we are not able to deliver on the Paris Agreement and catastrophically end up at a 2-degree increase in average global temperature, we will lose almost all of the earth’s coral.
In addition, plastic trash pollutes ecosystems in the oceans poisoning animals and at the end of the food chain, humans consume these microplastics. There are two complications here: reefs and the oceans are not really on our radar when it comes to climate change and oceans are not paying customers, or the earth itself, so how can this be considered a business opportunity?
First, the need for healthy oceans is scientifically proven and millennials care passionately about protecting them. Second, because there are companies that argue they have an opportunity to do something, engineer solutions and scale them. Adidas, for example, is going to make two billion Euro worth of shoes out of ocean waste.
Why? Because they accept that they have a responsibility, and because millennials choose companies that act and respond over those that do not.
PARIS, Grand Palais
So how can we quantify the impact of “for good” in the above example? We spoke to Richard who recognized the complexities of quantifying impact. Yet when he worked together with Adobe, and created filters based on ocean colours, it reached mass awareness. He created the equivalent of 200m worth of advertising with creative business thinking. It’s part of his success formula: outrage + optimism + excitement = action.
As Richard’s Ocean Agency argues: “To inspire rapid ocean action, you can’t just raise awareness of the issue. Creating outrage alone leads to very slow progress. Instead, it needs to be balanced with optimism. By showcasing or creating innovative solutions and excitement by getting powerful players involved. Only then do you get quickly to meaningful action.”
We are talking to SVPs, CFO’s and entrepreneurs in our network and outside of it. Part of the climate vertical is the creator of the Platform Innovation Kit, Matthias Walter, and Adam Mitchell Heggs, an expert on circularity. Together we are improving the ways to quantify the impact on a corporate level. With this, we have even more arguments for CFO’s and CEO’s to pursue this opportunity.
Combining impact and revenue, however, remains a challenge. Successful companies are superstars in production efficiency with incremental improvements, a different world to building a venture. That is the raison d’etre of the climate vertical at FoundersLane: to help large companies in this journey by establishing new ventures that have exactly this mission.
Watch the Emmy award-winning Netflix documentary “Chasing Coral’’. It reveals the crisis facing coral reefs. If you want to learn more about the Ocean Agency, and or get involved — follow them on LinkedIn
If you are interested in discussing and finding out how to quantify impact or how to develop new digital businesses that are both profitable and sustainable, let’s talk and get in touch! https://www.linkedin.com/in/fvbeuzekom/
