15 years in Climate Tech — What’s Changed?
In episode 3 of the #MettaTalks podcast, we chat to Sarah Middlemiss, COO of Ecometrica — who are experts in #climatemetrics, and have been around since 2008. We had a brilliant conversation with Sarah about all things #climatetech, metrics, emissions, reporting, and the changes she’s seen as someone who’s been in the space for over 15 years.
“Obviously #NetZero is a great ambition, but you’ve got to #reduce before you offset, so figuring out, where are those low hanging fruits and the early wins that you can take to reduce your own impact. And then when there’s nothing else you can do, that’s when you #offset.”
Listen to the episode on :
Spotify: http://bit.ly/40tmRqj
Google: https://bit.ly/3MyLURv
Amazon: http://bit.ly/3TFBzs5
Apple: https://bit.ly/3Qf0st1
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A few of the highlights from the podcast interview:
Wil: What was it that initially attracted you to working in Climate Tech and Climate Reporting?
Sarah: “I think I always knew that I wanted to work for an organisation or a company that had some kind of purpose or mission. What I really loved about Ecometrica, and just the sector in general, is the idea of working for a company that is innovative, and is able to move quickly and have quite a tangible impact quickly. So yeah, it’s been great to work for a mission led company that is also just truly innovative and surrounded by smart people — it’s great!”
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Wil: Do you think there has been that private market pressure to get third sector/public sector further advanced through climate tech reporting since your time with the business? Or do you think that’s still a work in progress?
Sarah: “There’s been a real movement about things like space for development, about AI for development and I think that is a real push. I suspect there might be a bit of a gap between those organisations, particularly smaller ones, I suppose that had been in it, and then the sort of the new emerging tech and just bridging that gap. But you can certainly see particularly the bigger sort of charities and NGOs plus like WWF, RSPC, you know, they’re all using technology to monitor in nature, for example. So I think it’s definitely improving.”
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Nicole: Can you tell us a bit more about climate metrics in general, and why founders/business owners should be paying attention to it if they’re not already?
Sarah: “When we talk about climate metrics, it covers a whole range of things. So we’re looking at your emissions, so GHG emissions. Looking at things like physical climate risk — so in 20 years time, what is the risk that the business I own could be flooded or susceptible to heat waves? And also things like environmental impact — so has there been deforestation? Or is there deforestation in my supply chain? Has there been a sort of damage to the biodiversity in an area that I own?
I think it’s an increasing importance for a few reasons. I think, some sectors in particular, have tangible risks associated to the depletion of nature and climate change — things like agriculture, food supply chain, are obviously really susceptible. But also, there’s been a real push by governments and sort of legislation, that means that companies have to report and disclose on this. And it really has kind of forced the hands of companies to properly look at their impact and disclose and then, ideally, take action to reduce as well.”
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Nicole: Ecometrica have been around since 2008, roughly 15 years — how have you seen interest change in the last 15 years, and has the industry developed in the way you expected?
Sarah: There’s definitely been a shift. I’ve been around for a while, but our founders who started the company were working in this space even before Ecometrica — and they really have the battle scars to show how much things have changed. I remember our CEO telling us a story about he went to quite a large company, you know, during the bit of the sales cycle, and he was introduced as the “tree hugger”, which, didn’t go down too well! But now, we can’t move from the inbound inquiries that we get from companies who just really need help measuring and reporting on their impact. I think what’s really interesting to see is that perception of “Oh, yeah, environmental, it’s a bit wishy washy and tree hugger-y” to now.
I think there’s a real kind of parallel with the financial sector, in that there’s a lot of pressure from investment, its accounting in the same way that you might have to account for revenues and costs, it’s exactly the same with your carbon costs and your carbon revenue.
And the same with a lot of the standards — so there’s the newly established International Sustainability Standards Board, the ISSB, which is actually a kind of a subset of the International Financial Standards Board. There’s that real kind of alignment with financial reporting and financial services, that just makes the whole thing feel a bit more professional. I think we’re going to see a whole load of new talent coming through that is sort of professional sustainability experts or accountants, and I think, yeah, there’s definitely been a real shift over the past 15 years.
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Wil: In terms of the new standards, do you think we’ll see some consolidation or at least simplification of the new structures coming into place?
Sarah: “In terms of the consolidation point, I know it’s something that companies struggle with — just sort of proliferation of standards at the moment. I’m sure I read somewhere that there’s over 300 different types of reporting frameworks for emissions and climate change! I mean, where do you start? But I do think the likes of the ISSB, where the whole purpose is to really consolidate that, and using things like the “GHG Protocol” as kind of the keystone of truth, if you like, about how things are calculated.”
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Nicole: For businesses just getting started, do you have any tips on how to begin the reporting journey? And what are some common misconceptions when people are looking to start out?
Sarah: As we’ve alluded to, there’s a lot of different standards you can choose from, it can be a bit overwhelming. So I think just picking a framework. And you know, things like CDP are sort of meant to be sort of “easy to use”, and have very clear guidance that you can disclose on different parts of your operations. I think it’s really important to, first of all, just define the scope of what it is you want to report on, figure out what’s actually material. If you work in an office environment, you’re one place and probably not really going to be looking really deep down the supply chain at the emissions of the fruit bowl that you get delivered every week. But, if you are a user of cloud computing services, then yeah, that’s probably quite an important part of your supply chain that needs captured. So just figuring out what are the kind of big things in your operation that are likely to have the most impact.
Then it’s about actually measuring it and reporting it, you know, whether it’s using a spreadsheet or using a tool like ours, but just sort of using a robust methodology. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. So once you’ve got that, you’ve understood, then you can properly understand well “Okay, where can I actually make the difference? Where can I reduce? Or should I invest in offsets” or you know, whatever it might be? And then you start all over again, to see if those decisions have had an impact.
There’s a real focus on Net Zero, but I think there’s a bit of a misconception that the route to Net Zero is just offsetting. Obviously Net Zero is a great ambition, but you’ve got to reduce before you offset, so figuring out, you know, where are those low hanging fruits and the early wins that you can take to reduce your own impact. And then when there’s nothing else you can do, that’s when you offset.”
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Nicole: What’s the biggest piece of advice that you could give to any founder or business owners around incorporating sustainability into their everyday business practice?
Sarah: I think it’s just keeping it simple and not trying to do too much too quickly. Figure out what the what the low hanging fruit is. I always think sustainability tends to be quite a good tool for attracting talent, particularly young graduates. And that means that you’re pretty much guaranteed to get champions within your business. And I think once you have a champion for sustainability, or a group of champions for sustainability, then it becomes much easier. And they can roll things out and actually get creative and innovative about how they approach it within the company.
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A huge thank you again to Sarah for joining us on the #MettaTalks podcast. You can connect with Sarah on LinkedIn, and check out the Ecometrica website.
Ecometrica are experts in #climatemetrics, and since 2008, have been enabling businesses and governments to accurately and transparently calculate their #climateimpact using their software platform. Ecometrica is dedicated to providing transparent #environmental reporting, to enable businesses, governments and society to better understand their environmental #impact on resources and build resilience for the future.
Listen to the full podcast episode on :
Spotify: http://bit.ly/40tmRqj
Google: https://bit.ly/3MyLURv
Amazon: http://bit.ly/3TFBzs5
Apple: https://bit.ly/3Qf0st1
Check out some of our other articles —
- How to make your startup both innovative and sustainable
- How to “Speak Startup” in the PR World
- Financial Planning with Impact
- Ecosystems Thinking
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