In this episode, host Tia Collings sits down with Ellie Moss, the Managing Director of Focus Group. Ellie brings over 15 years of experience in marketing and a passion for sustainability to the table. She even gave a TED talk on how marketing can combat climate change. Ellie's main focus, however, is her latest research that unequivocally demonstrates that companies with an authentic sustainability strategy outperform their competitors in various aspects.

So if you’re a CFO or simply finding it hard to convince your company to take sustainability seriously, this piece of research may help tip the scales.

Show Notes

Ellie and her team believe that the critical difference to a successful sustainability strategy is if it is authentically embedded into an organisation, meaning that what a company says and does are in alignment. They have now successfully shown this hunch through crucial research conducted in partnership with McCrindle.   

Here are a few things we discuss in this great chat

• The seven areas where companies with authentic sustainability excel: talent attraction, productivity, talent retention, resilience, profits, customer growth, and innovation.
• Ellie and Tia discuss talent attraction, resilience, and innovation as standout advantages of authentic sustainability.
• The appeal of companies with robust sustainability strategies for potential employees and the role of culture.
• Resilience exemplified by examples like COVID-related supply chain disruptions.
• The idea of resilience replacing efficiency as a business focus for sustainability.
• Innovation as another advantage of authentic sustainability strategies.
• Ellie shares insights on cultivating an innovative culture within businesses.
• Real-world examples of companies reaping the benefits of these advantages.
• Focus Group's strategies to assist businesses on their sustainability journey.

Relevant Links

• The Authentic Sustainable Advantage Report

Ellie’s Top 3 Green MBA Topics

1. Commitment: set clear and measurable targets.
2. Culture: how to build an employee value proposition.
3. Communication: use emotive language to capture the imagination of your stakeholders 

How to connect with Ellie 

• Linkedin 

Welcome to Episode 13, in this episode I chat with Tsung Xu, the founder of Materially Better and a serial entrepreneur. Tsung is passionate about exploring new performance materials that will play a big role in unlocking innovation and help solve big problems on a global scale. 

Show Notes

As you’ll hear Tsung is very positive about our future, he believes that now is the best time in history for a startup to build products made of atoms and to leverage todays incredible technology's including new materials, synthetic biology, batteries, real-world AI and more. 

Here are a few things we discuss in this great chat

• The speed at which our global economies are charging toward a renewable energy future.
• Carbon and its use in materials.
• How cheap energy can drive growth in multiple industries.
• What are the pillars that are driving renewable energy globally. 
• The growth in batteries. 
• Profitability and margins for companies producing products in the new energy shift vs historical big tech companies.

Relevant Links 

• A Guide To The Energy Transition
• How Solar Energy Became So Cheap By Gregory Nemet
• Energy: A Human History By Richard Rhodes
• Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects by Vaclav Smil
• Slack Groups; My Climate Journey, Work On Climate, My Climate Journey - Visit this link to find more. 
• Distributed Energy Resources. 

Tsung Top 3 Green MBA Topics

1. Assess emerging technologies, what is the current landscape, how have they scaled, what are the costs curves as they double capacity. 
2. Acknowledge the history of other energy transitions and that of your sector, having a birds eye view can lead to more innovative thinking and insights others may not be able to see. 
3. Critical thinking, be willing to look widely at resources and various sources of data including experts and then try and snythisis look at where data and ideas conflict and think through why they might conflict and what insights you might be able to get from that information. 

How to connect with Tsung

• Website

Join our community 

1. Linkedin
2. Instagram

This episode is brought to you by Sixty7.Green a consultancy that helps you link sustainability to business prosperity.For organisations large and small, Sixty7.green uses data and purpose-driven insights to help businesses achieve corporate social responsibility ambitions. They provide strategic insights, a sign-post to good practice and help develop nature-based solutions.

Talking to Elizabeth it’s hard not to be inspired by her energy and vision for regenerative agriculture. Her deep understanding of the systemic issues around historical and current farming practices damaging our planet, degrading animal welfare, and the human rights issues within the farming industry are vast and fascinating. Tune in to hear how you and your company can get involved and help this important movement.  

Here are a few things we discuss in this great chat

• The difference between an Organic Certification and a Regenerative Organic Certification and why it’s essential for people and the planet. 
• The benefits of regenerative agriculture include; increased carbon sequestration, soil health, the ability to grow more nutrient-dense food, farms’ ability to be less impacted by draughts and flooding, and, a 40% reduction in inputs such as fertiliser.
• The controversial topic of hydroponic food growth 
• GMO corn and soy used for animal feeds 
• Integrated grazing to build healthy soil 
• The importance of learning from indigenous people who have lived on the land for many years around the world to regenerate the earth and soil. 
• Is the concept of cheap food broken? 
• How long the Regenerative Agriculture Certification takes and how brands can get involved and support farmers in their supply chain. 
• Surprising loopholes in the Organic Certification 

Relevant Links 

• Regenerative Organic Certification
• Kiss The Ground Documentary
• The Rodale Institute

Elizabeth’s Top 3 Green MBA Topics

1. Transparency - Ensuring that companies are transparent in their reporting, and business operations. For example in the farming sector, it can often be challenging to pay a living wage, farmers need to be transparent about the pay gap (if one exists) and how they plan to pay a living wage over time.   
2. Life Cycle Analysis - how do you reduce your waste and minimize your carbon emissions at every stage of your product’s life cycle.  
3. Waste reduction - 30% of emissions from agriculture come from food waste, waste, in general, needs to be rethought, renamed, and, used to continue the nutrition cycle - ultimately, we shouldn’t have “waste'“. 

How to connect with ROC 

1. Instagram
2. Linkedin 
3. Website 

Join our community 

1. Linkedin
2. Instagram

This podcast was made in partnership with Ecologi, a subscription service that helps you take action on the climate crisis via funding climate projects & planting trees.

This podcast was made using SquadCast.