Sustainability and the VC Taskforce Roundtable

Each month the VC Taskforce hosts The Elevator Pitch Roundtable an opportunity for entrepreneurs “in a startup that is currently seeking capital” to present a 90-second elevator pitch to a panel of VCs, usually four. These are very interesting as the panel gives a score of their interests based on the pitch and the Q/A that follows.

If I were to expand beyond my experience with this group it seems to me many VC’s, not ALL of course, have no sustainability strategy for their investment activities. If they venture outside the business as usual space, they have a laundry list of sustainability related categories, as do the big consulting firms. See my blog article below on laundry lists. Mobile, alternative energy and bio refineries is a list from Khosla Ventures and under “the things we care about” (Khosla Ventures), you will find some of this and some of that.

Microfinance – SKS, SHARE, ASA, CFTS, Jamii Bora Grameen USA, Unitus – with a goal to provide credit to over 25 million “below poverty line” borrowers. See also An Anti-Poverty Success Story; Video
Environment – GE Ecomagination Advisory Council, Chairman of India Advisory Board of the Cleantech Network
Education – Indian School of Business – a world class school of business, DonorsChoose.org – teachers ask for private funding on thousands of projects
Health – Public Health Institutes of India, UNICEF
Affordable housing – Global Home – goaled to build a $5000 home!

Companies need to put all the wood behind one arrow as spreading energies across a broad spectrum of sustainability categories has proven to be pretty ineffective. Jeffrey Hollinger of Seventh Generation hits the nail on the head when he talks about the need for companies – and VCs are no exception – to make sustainability their core business strategy.

At one Roundtable they poohed-poohed two technologies relating to reducing energy consumption in existing buildings (big, big source of greenhouse gases), but got excited over a travel Website catering to honeymooners. That’s when the question entered my mind: Are we twittering while Rome burns?

It’s going to take more than Al Gore to turn things around, if they can be turned around.

McKinsey weighs in on Battery-powered Age

McKinsey Quarterly article

Electrifying cars: How three industries will evolve

My friend and alternative energy colleague, Paul Steinbroner of Energy.tv, has been documenting the electric car industry for years, knows EVERYBODY, and is in the process of raising funds for a major alternative energy documentary staring plug-in pioneer, Dr. Andy Frank. Here’s what McKinsey says about plug-ins:

“are projected to offer a lower cost of ownership than vehicles with improved internal-combustion engines, but only if fuel prices and taxes cooperate.”

Hope to get some comments on the McKinsey story.

Sustainability Defined and Logic

A blog article from the folks at Southern Crafted Homes (which I found through a Twitter alert) starts with a dictionary definition of sustainability and quickly suggests a more simple one:

Resources must be consumed at a rate that allows them to be replenished.

I bring this up because when I talk about our site, earthsayers.tv, and emphasize it highlights the voices of sustainability the first comment is often the question: what is sustainability anyway? On EarthSayers.tv we are capturing the language of sustainability to include definitions from all kinds of people ranging from environmentalists to designers to politicians. This one from Southern Crafted Homes is a good one.

The writer also notes there are extremes of sustainability positions among professionals and our citizens, but, again, the writer simply points out:

“…logic tells us that if we extract a resource from the ground and that resource cannot replenish itself then at some point that resource shall cease to exist. The question then is of scale and context.”

Sustainability Advocates

Sustainable Electric Automotive Solution

An interesting earthsayer is Shai Agassi, founder and CEO of Better Place. In an interview by Kristian Steenstrup of the Gartner Group, she asks: “Shai, did the concept of electric cars and environmental issues give you motivation to leave SAP?”

Not exactly, but the Young Global Leaders forum started him thinking of the question, “how would you run a country without oil?” as the answer for “how are you going to make the world a better place?”

This thinking resulted in his founding the venture-backed company, Better Place. A sustainable electric automotive solution is vital to economic opportunity, energy independence and a cleaner planet.

Does he miss SAP? “No, I think it was the best thing for me to do this, because I have found my passion. I wake up every morning full of life and full of energy to do this. I think SAP has been one of the most instrumental tools to get where I am right now, the ability to do something like that.

Noteworthy from Gartner Group

Sustainability and Green IT: A National Policy Perspective

1 June 2009

Simon Mingay

The issues of sustainability, from energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions to toxic substances and product longevity, will have an increasing impact on national policy areas that directly and indirectly affect the IT industry and IT organizations.

Dell beats HP and IBM on CSI Benchmark Report

Technology Business Research’s Brad Allen, director of the Global Business Sustainability Service, stated that “CSI leadership underscores a corporation’s commitment to sustainability in its business models and practices. By embedding sustainability into the core business fabric, organizations gain competitive advantage and environmental equity, contributing to overall corporate value.”

So what’s CSI Leadership all about?

The inaugural Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI) Benchmark Report evaluates the environmental metrics of 40 companies within the computer hardware, software, professional services, and network and telecommunications sectors.

With an overall score of 317.9, Dell bested firms such as British Telecom (265.2), IBM (NYSE: IBM)(258.5), and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) (255.1), scoring particularly well in areas of renewable energy, recycling and embedded sustainability strategy.

See more complete article at sustainable business.com.

Searching But Not Finding

A must read is Deloitte study, Finding the Green in Today’s Shoppers: Sustainability Trends and New Shopper Insights.

In retail it’s not just location, location, location. It’s also about price and availability and in terms of the latter, companies marketing green and sustainability products and services need to listen up to a major finding in the study:

Sustainability’s appeal to shoppers is already large. Nearly all shoppers surveyed would buy green; nearly two thirds actively seek it on each shopping trip. However, since only 22 percent of the shoppers surveyed actually ?nd and buy the green products that interest them, the latent, unful?lled demand for sustainability-enhanced products must be immense. “

And as a reminder, these “Green Shoppers are a large, high-value segment of importance to retailers and many manufacturers. Green shoppers visit stores more frequently, buy more products on each trip, and demonstrate more brand and retailer loyalty.”

The already converted among consumers are NOT finding reliable information at point of purchase and are leaving empty handed or worse yet, with ecologically-impaired products. Maybe it’s time for the green business leaders to take on a less “conversion” language, be more inclusive, and make substantial investments in POP and Web-based consumer education programs. And do so in concert with members of the supply chain, especially the sales channels.

I recall hearing in a speech a year ago by Mark Lee, CEO of the consulting company, sustainability.com that work at the level of consumer education was a situation waiting to happen. It may be that as we move from “branded organizations” to a value on “authentic organizations” marketing resources will be invested in the right places and with more fact, and less emotion.

We started EarthSayers.tv, the voices of sustainability, to bring educational resources, the unfiltered voices of experts, business leaders, and citizens from all walks of life to those initiating a search, and beginning the learning cycle, on Google for the term, sustainability. We wanted to focus on finding, rather than searching, while using the power of search engines such as Blinkx.

It turns out that searching and not finding is rife throughout the entire buying cycle.

Ernst & Young Survey: Supply Chain Sustainability

“Our survey of executives from US$1bn-plus corporations, in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit, indicates a high level of awareness of sustainability. Companies appreciate the opportunities it offers within the supply chain, coupled with concerns over the cost and complexity of addressing it.

Reputation, cost reduction and revenue growth were the top three opportunities cited by more than half of respondents. The greatest risk is believed to be an increased cost base.”

Sustainability Initiatives

Ernst and Young in their report, Green for go: Supply chain sustainability, lists some of the major initiatives one finds under the sustainability banner, noting “where there is carbon, there are costs” and the low percentage of companies that have undertaken related initiatives — only 35% having embarked on carbon foot printing of any description.

These sustainability initiatives are in order of percent of organizations who have implemented an initiative.

Labor Standard Improvements
Waste/Packaging Minimization
Phasing out of hazardous materials
Community Projects
Estate/Plant energy efficiency improvements
Logistics Optimization
Supplier Qualification
Sustainability Program
Chain of Custody/product traceability
Renewable Energy
Carbon footprinting
Carbon Offsetting

Retail Sector Weighs in on Sustainability

Sustainability Is Here To Stay – Pun Intended so writes Leslie Hand, Research Director, Global Retail Insights.

“Naysayers will purport that the importance of sustainability will fade, but we disagree. One of our 2009 predictions states “sustainability and being green will be embedded in the fabric of leading retailer strategies and tactics”. We are seeing much evidence to support this claim, as retailers are initiating many projects with positive impacts on operating costs and the environment including energy management, recycling, transportation, construction and supplier packaging reduction.

Many retailers are also making consumer facing changes… Some are going the extra mile to work with product manufacturers to promote products with reduced carbon footprints.
… Retail leaders will seize market advantage from participating in a sustainability movement that is far from temporary, and in fact, part of a greater shift towards doing business differently – more sustainably. “

The naysayers are converting to becoming earthsayers and you can listen and learn from them on EarthSayers.tv, the voices of sustainability.