Advice from our climate venture founders
Monica Pun and Jon Conradi explain how they’re using business to cut emissions and boost biodiversity.
As the climate crisis deepens, the amount of environmentally-focused ventures emerging from Year Here has increased, with several businesses joining our portfolio in the past two years. We caught up with the founders of two ventures, Monica Pun from Spedal and Jon Conradi from Mosaic, to get their insights into launching green businesses through Year Here and what the future has in store for them.
Spedal
Spedal is a courier company that sends and returns packages for businesses and the fast-growing circular economy — completely zero emission whilst providing fair and meaningful employment.
At-home delivery was already on-the-rise when Monica joined Year Here in 2020. But mid-programme, the pandemic hit and the industry boomed, worsening already detrimental environmental impacts. The number of parcels delivered in London is expected to double by 2030, so finding solutions to this growing problem is crucial.
“Helping tackle issues like climate change and homelessness are highly complex. Learning about systems change on the Year Here programme really helped us think about Spedal’s impact and its place within the wider ecosystem. We thought about (and continue to think) how we can be an enabler for cleaner and fairer cities by helping businesses switch to a zero-emission and ethical service like Spedal. The more companies we can switch, the more carbon emissions we can save and the more meaningful employment opportunities we can provide.
Since it was founded, Spedal has pivoted its focus to the circular economy, aiming to address the challenges that stop the growing circular economy from thriving. “We create a closed-loop system within business supply chains for sustainable and circular businesses — a bit like a modern-day milkman where products and bottles are delivered and collected by bike for reuse, refill or repair. Regarding our social impact, we have created partnerships with wonderful organisations and charities across London to employ and support young people experiencing homelessness into long-term employment. We’re specifically looking at how we can support them into green jobs based on just transition principles.”
Monica Pun — Spedal
Mosaic
Biodiversity loss is critically interconnected with the climate crisis and a huge challenge in itself. The most recent State of Nature report, published in 2019, suggests there has been a 13% decline in the average abundance of wildlife in the UK since the 1970s. The industrial revolution transformed the country’s landscape to make way for agriculture and farming, the major contributor to biodiversity loss. But there is hope for the future, and rewilding is an important solution. Rewilding is the restoration of ecosystems to reinstate natural processes and species — allowing them to shape the landscape and the habitats within.
Mosaic acts as a catalyst, increasing the land that is being rewilded in the UK. They work with landowners to make it easy to start rewilding a couple of acres at a time. They also work with people who don’t have this land themselves. Instead, they can sponsor a piece of it, enabling and being part of this plot as it is restored and life returns, bringing wildness back to the UK.
For Jon, the most impactful thing he learned while on the YH programme that helped develop Mosaic was how to structure his time and priorities and the power of a strong network.
“Learning the value of structure (even if just to rebel against!) and having supportive people around you is invaluable. Since I graduated from Year Here, I’ve taken my learnings and have been exploring different subscription models so that I am profitable and able to deliver a genuinely wonderful experience to subscribers.”
Jon Conradi, Mosaic
Advice from the founders
What advice do our founders have for future social entrepreneurs in the climate space? Take your time to test and validate your idea before fundraising and scaling; have an element of tech in your social enterprise; avoid greenwashing, and try not to let high-stakes and climate anxiety consume you.
“I think we all know that time is running out when it comes to the climate crisis. But trying to grow fast, which can lead to burnout, compromised operations, and an unhealthy working culture, can do more harm than good. We’ve learnt so much through lean experimentation. You also need to know if your venture will work financially and generate sustainable revenue before going the full way. So if you can, take your time.
Technology can serve in many ways when tackling the climate crisis, and it can help you scale and track your impact. It’s also more investible, so always consider incorporating tech (it doesn’t have to be deep tech) as early as possible. There are some great no-code tools out there. For example, we used Stacker and Airtable to build our MVP, which has taught us a lot about the needs of our customers and riders.
When selling your product or service, ensure your marketing strategy is aligned with what you actually do. Unfortunately, so many businesses and brands out there say they are environmentally friendly to adopt more customers but are they actually minimising their environmental impact?”
Monica Pun, Spedal
Founding a social enterprise tackling the climate crisis can be an overwhelming endeavour, and the extremity of the issue can create a high-pressure situation. Jon advises that you maintain balance in your personal and professional life wherever possible.
“Find a pace you’re comfortable with. It is easy to get overwhelmed by a sense of urgency when you have alarm bells constantly ringing about the climate crisis.”
Jon Conradi, Mosaic
If you’d like to support these ventures, Mosaic is looking to find landowners with three acres that they’re thinking about rewilding, or who are just after a new income stream. Landowners can reach out to jon@wildmosaic.eco. To find out more about Mosaic, Register your interest at www.wild mosaic.eco, and watch Jon’s progress as the website is developed over the coming month.
If you’re a brand or business with a circular business model or you’re sustainably driven, get in touch with Spedal to see how they can support you with your deliveries and logistics. If you’re passionate about cycling around London, reach out as they’re always looking for more riders to join the team.
Drop us a line at hello@yearhere.org to share what insights you’d like to learn from our ventures as we wrap up or to be put in touch with a founder.
