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[thepeoplebehindsustainability]

Piet Colruyt, impact investor - June 2019

“I believe the biggest problem today is our mindset: we still accept people being selfish or companies destroying nature or presidents denying climate change, on the excuse of being the natural condition of humans: we still accept people will always go for the short term benefit for their own just because “it is natural”.”

“I see myself as a social investor, which means that I want to invest in people, organisations, companies with solutions to the big societal challenges we are facing: it can be on climate change, social cohesion, inclusion, integration, poverty,… My focus is on inspiring innovations in impact investing. Which means (1) it will always be “investing” (which can be time, energy, people, money, for profit or not-for-profit) (2) where the first goal is to have positive societal impact (it can be social or environmental).  (3) Innovations mean that I will not invest in existing solutions where enough money is already going to. If other people already invest in such things, I can spend my capital on other solutions.  (4) And last but not least: it must be inspiring.  If accountants give a certificate that the impact is great and the financial returns are ok, but it is too boring to be inspirational, I will not invest, because my ultimate goal is to change how people look at investing. Therefor it must be also fun & inspiring. People should want to change their investment strategies into impact investing not only because they have to, but because they want to.

Sustainability in my sector, the impact investing space, means a combination of positive societal impact and a fair financial return. It should be noticed that the financial return is not always for the investor: sometimes a project can have huge financial returns for the common good. These can also become sustainable if the system (the government, the foundations) provide funding because they see the return is bigger than the cost. Sustainability also means agility to react properly if the situation changes.

Coming from a family business (Colruyt, founded by my grandfather, is today in the top 3 of Belgian foodretailers) long term sustainability is in our DNA. When my grandfather started to sell coffee, wine, chocolate in the bakery of his father in 1928, he wanted to become rich (the first P of the 3P model is Profit): he had 9 children to feed and wanted a big house and a big car. The second generation added the people aspect: a company can only grow if the people grow. My uncle decided to spent 5% of the turnover in time and money in trainings. Since 1991, the third generation launched the Greenline program (the third P of the 3P’s, Planet) : as foodretailers we also have to take care about the planet to leave this in better conditions for our children. I became architect of the supermarkets in 2000 and became board member in 2001 and it was only than that we decided to diversify: we started investing in venture capital, funds and equity besides our main investment Colruyt Group. 10 years later I decided to become full time investor, after I discovered Ashoka and the world of social entrepreneurship and impact investing. We had long debates about the vision, mission, values and strategy of the family holding and I discovered the difference between social first or finance first impact investing. Although both are impact investors who want to combine doing good & doing well, the difference is in their theory of change. Finance first impact investors believe you can have the most impact if you reach market conform returns: in that case, you will find new investors, you can grow the company and the impact. Social first impact investors believe we should change our capitalistic system: if we don’t accept lower returns or higher risks, we are not able to find the new innovations needed to solve all societal challenges. To maximize the impact, they believe investors should lower their financial return expectations or increase their risk appetite.  In 2010 I decided to do both: the family holding and the Colruyt Group are more finance first, but Impact Capital, my own holding, is able to promote and invest in “social first” impact investing. In 2012 I co-founded SI² Fund which was the first private social impact first fund in Belgium and merged with Shaerpa Fund in 2015 to become one of the leading social impact funds in the Benelux. SI² Fund can only survive if it is embedded in a broader ecosystem, where the right funding, coaching and network is provided at the different stages of a companies life. Therefore I started also investing in a foundation, a seed capital fund, an accelerator, a crowdfunding platform… all focused on impact. The Impact House, founded in 2018 is the materialization of this ecosystem view.

It seems that many people want change but no one wants to change. In strategy discussions on what will work best, for example, to tackle climate change, we always see the two positions: some people are convinced that awareness of the scientific facts and predictions of the consequences will people help to change habits. Other strategists are convinced that the only thing that works, is if there is a “what’s in it for me” and you’d better not talk about responsibility or negative consequences, but only positive nudging will change the mindset. Some people, arguing for the green economy, explain that we all should reduce our comfort levels and live differently, take public transport, eat less meat, pay more for fair trade, organic, local,... Others, arguing for the blue economy, are convinced that the green mantra will only convince the 10 to 15% of the people already converted, but if you want to reach the other 85%, sustainability must simply be the easiest or cheapest alternative. That’s why I am convinced that the role of the government is crucial: it is up to politics to change the rules, to raise taxes or give subsidies to steer consumption in a more sustainable, circular way. We need both sides: the green preachers who want us to change habits & the blue optimists who believe technology will finally solve most issues with no loose of comfort. I wanted to make this parallel with green or blue economy because the same discussion is going on in the impact investing space: some people strongly believe there is no trade-off between financial and social return. They look for companies with market conform returns and believe that’s the only way to grow. Others believe we should accept lower financial returns or higher risks, to discover the innovations and help them to grow before they are mature and eventually reach market conformity. We need both sides of the spectrum and that’s what I try to support since 10 years. In my opinion it is all about changing the mindset of investing, which is in essence about changing the human condition: can we be more empathic and more altruist for the common good even when in the short term it is less attractive for the person him/herself ? I strongly believe we are evolving on our planet towards a situation with polluted air, oceans full of plastic, global warming, where it is in our own personal interest to do more for the common good. We have to change mindsets and this takes time. The time we don’t have in case of the climate challenge.

I believe the biggest problem today is our mindset: we still accept people being selfish or companies destroying nature or presidents denying climate change, on the excuse of being the natural condition of humans: we still accept people will always go for the short term benefit for their own just because “it is natural”. But what is natural ? What is the nature of humans ? I dream of a world where every human being strives for the common good and no one is accepting egoism. We are the only species on earth able to fly to the moon, to use our brains and collaborate to invent treatments for diseases, to write and perform art works,… let’s become the only species in the world able to at least save the planet. Humans are the only animal species who can read and write, who can watch movies and understand literature. We are the only animal who can scientifically proof there is a climate crisis which will affect us all. We are the only species who can become angry or sad, just by reading letters in a newspaper about something terribly going wrong in the Amazone Forest. We cannot do nothing and pretend we didn’t know. We cannot keep quiet and continue our business as usual. This shift in the mindset is needed and I see my role in promoting it in the field of investing: by showing good examples of innovative social entrepreneurs who succeed in tackling a problem in a sustainable, healthy, inspiring way. Changing mindsets is a gentle evolution but the examples are often system changing or disruptive. We need both disruptions and gentle evolution, united around one common goal: positive impact for all.

In our book (“Allemaal Sociaal 3.0”) we described the interaction between exact these 3 major players. Social organisations and everyday citizens must become more entrepreneurial: everyone can become a changemaker. Corporates and companies should become more social. And we need a stronger policy level, not to solve everything on their own but to draft the boundaries, set the conditions, embody the rules with a long term vision and for the common good. Today we are in a crisis: politics seem not to work with more extremism, polarization, Brexit, populism… Governments complain, corporates complain and citizens complain. Every player in his/her corner, shooting on the others. While the only solution consists in more collaboration between those major players. And therefore we believe social entrepreneurs and inclusive businesses are best placed to show these new alliances.

I’m convinced we need to re-think the way our democracy is organized. Elections every 4 year and referenda with a simple yes/no question are not the best way to take the decisions for the long term in the common intrest. I would like to see a government of national unity where every party is represented and politicians are forced to find compromises without spindoctors, tweets or polls polarizing our society. If people see the positive effects and personal benefits of being more social and altruist, mindset will change.

Never give up when you see injustice: everyone can be a changemaker. As a consumer, you can inform yourself to vote everyday with your wallet. Choose those products and services who are better for planet & people. But inform yourself, be critical, because marketeers are smart and there is a lot of greenwashing, social washing, window dressing. And don’t be afraid to change your mind. Share what you have learnt to help people to make conscious consumption choices. And ask your bank for ethical investment products. Ask your bank about their fossil fuels policy. Choose a green energy provider. Eat less meat. But don’t blame others, but help them to change their minds. Optimism is a moral duty.

For me the urgency and dimensions of the climate crisis, explained in the alarming IPCC reports, was so obvious, that we simply cannot deny it anymore. It is about people, about ourselves, our children. Of course also about animals & nature. But the global warming above 2°C is not a problem for the planet itself. The globe will keep on turning, animals will adapt like they always did: some will die, others will come. The effects of global warming will be most extreme for the poorest people in the south, the ones who don’t have any responsibility in the current carbon levels, which were caused mainly by the Western countries. Those people in the South will migrate and look for better conditions. The current refugee numbers will only go up. It is not only our responsibility but also in our own intrest to tackle climate change. The costs of doing nothing are much higher than the investments needed to keep the warming below 2°C. We should act massively NOW: consumers, investors, companies, politicians,… Wake up !”

[thepeoplebehindsustainability]

An Beazar, founder & CEO at Enprove - June 2019

“My main advice would be “get informed”. Read, be critical, get the facts as much as you can. If you understand what is going on, nobody can be against more sustainability.”

“In the energy sector, we are guided by the “trias energetica” principle. First, we need to limit energy demand through energy saving. Second, renewable sources should be used to meet the remaining energy demand. Only then should fossil fuels be used, as efficiently and cleanly as possible. With my company Enprove, we apply this principle for our customers: how to make sure you don’t waste energy and water and how to save it. We assist industrial companies to use less energy in different ways. You could say that we sell CO2 and water reduction, and we do it in a way that doesn’t cost you money, but it saves money.

We dive into the company’s operations. We do energy audits and give recommendations on what they can do with, for example, their steam appliances or the cooling systems. We also developed a software that takes data from the installations (temperatures, flows, energy consumptions, …) to detect if something is going wrong, if too much energy is consumed, if water is leaking. We have meters on those installations that detect consumptions so the software can send out an alarm in case of an energy loss.

I do not agree with the idea that climate change is simply the government’s responsibility and that we’ll all be fine if they implement the right regulations. This is such an overestimation of the power of the government. Also consumers need to be aware of the impact of their choices on climate change and maybe change their buying habits. Industry has a responsibility too to reduce its emissions. And banks can help to get it all financed. The responsibility is everywhere and there should be parallel things happening in all these layers.  Consumers may change their daily choices, but the other parties have greater leverage. On a governmental level, it is about daring to go for a greener future. It’s up to the companies to take on their responsibility, develop a vision, and dare to take long term action. Banks can choose to invest more in long term green projects.

Today’s society is no longer a hierarchy where the government controls the corporate world. There are companies larger than states, located all around the world, that have incredible power. Sometimes, consumers will be inspired by ambitious companies and adapt their behavior, sometimes it will be people who inspire governments.

Don’t be that person who says ‘I’m only 1 human, I won’t make the difference”. It’s all about trying to contribute, setting an example, and inspiring other people. My main advice would be “get informed”. Read, be critical, get the facts as much as you can. If you understand what is going on, nobody can be against more sustainability.”

[thepeoplebehindsustainability]

Hans Verboven, professor at the University of Antwerp and founder of Sustacon - June 2019

“If you look at the amount of stuff that is being wasted, I think we can manage to have the same standards – or even higher standards – when we deal with it more efficiently and when we price it more correctly.”

“I have two ways of looking at sustainability. Firstly, I define sustainability as “the maximization of added value for all stakeholders, with a minimum of waste of resources, time, money and talent.” Secondly, there is the concept of ‘shared value’, which was a real eye-opener for me. Creating shared value means, doing well (being profitable) by doing good (creating a positive impact). I strongly believe in the power of organizations that start from their core business and expertise to make a business case for addressing societal or environmental challenges.

I designed the Sustatool: a dashboard with 15 sustainability and optimization themes mapped on 3 levels. The first level, product service excellence, includes everything that has to do with the offer of the company. The second level, operational excellence, comprises everything that is related to operations and processes. Thirdly, we have organizational excellence, focusing on people, human resources, and organizational structure. This tool is the result of many years of academic study and a lot of field expertise. With the Sustatool, organizations can develop a sustainable strategy where sustainability is not a separate silo but completely integrated into the whole strategy and daily operations.

One thing that I believe is truly necessary for a sustainable future, is adding the cost of social and environmental externalities in the price of our products. The low prices in consumer goods lead to overconsumption, which leads to a higher negative impact. If you look at the amount of stuff that is being wasted, I think we can manage to have the same standards – or even higher standards – when we deal with it more efficiently and when we price it more correctly. Next to that, we need to think more on a planetary level or on the level of the United Nations. Let’s share the innovations we have with countries where they have not yet discovered or implemented sustainability solutions. Investing in improving business models of countries with a large environmental impact will save us a lot of climate costs.”

[thepeoplebehindsustainability]

Steven Serneels, Impact Investor and Social Business Angel - June 2019

“An important condition for the success of the entire movement of impact investing is to make sure businesses go beyond measuring and managing impact and embed it into their accounting standards.”

“Within the impact investment sector and at EVPA (European Venture Philanthropy Association) we make the distinction between investing for impact and investing with impact.

Investing for impact is when a (social) impact investor wants to solve a pressing societal issue by supporting innovative solutions. The first priority is addressing the challenge and the second priority is deciding on the right type of financial instrument: a grant, equity, or another kind or mix of capital. In this case, you are willing to potentially give in some of your financial return if it creates additional impact.

Investing with impact is when you are an investor (by definition) and you have a fiduciary duty (or personal objective) to invest money to preserve or grow your capital. You use sustainability metrics mainly to make sure that your invested money is not doing any harm. At the same time, you believe that in the long run, creating impact and financial return can go hand in hand for the investments you selected.

An important condition for the success of the entire movement of impact investing is to make sure businesses go beyond measuring and managing impact and embed it into their accounting standards. That’s the only way to move corporations and financially driven people toward thinking sustainability alongside finance. It’s the only way to be transparent about the impact created and to avoid impact or social washing. Hence, impact weighed accounts are the next step (beyond impact measurement), defining accepted standards for doing bookkeeping along the 3 dimensions: people, planet, and profit. It will probably take another 10 to 15 years, but I’m confident we’ll get there.

Do we first need a small catastrophe before we reach a sustainable future? I would say yes. Do we need small steps and incremental progress in the meantime to secure a sustainable future? I would say yes, as well. They are not contradictory. The catastrophe will create the catharsis, while the smart innovations should move us into the right direction to secure a new course into sustainability. We will need the many social organizations to prepare the mind and be ready to scale. They will leapfrog many others when the time is right.”

[thepeoplebehindsustainability]

Magali Frankl, Corporate Citizenship Lead at Accenture Belgium & Luxembourg - June 2019

“I strongly believe in the “collective intelligence” mindset, which refers to a group or a team’s combined capacity and capability to perform a wide variety of tasks and solve diverse problems.”

“Sustainability embodies many different aspects and requires a broad perspective. As a consulting company, we want to be authentic and bring an authentic story. This means to be sustainable in every single part of the business: your internal processes and way of working, as well as externally, whenever you connect with clients, communities, or other stakeholders. With our corporate citizens program, we want to close the skills gap and help people integrate professionally on the labor market. Our goal is to equip them with the skills they require for a job or to start a business. For instance, we help entrepreneurs and social organizations with impactful solutions on employment and entrepreneurship.

I strongly believe in the “collective intelligence” mindset, which refers to a group or a team’s combined capacity and capability to perform a wide variety of tasks and solve diverse problems. Creating innovative solutions for climate change, for instance, can only occur through collective intelligence of businesses with entrepreneurs and startups. Another striking example is how Tony Chocolonely, who strives for child-labor-free chocolate, invited other CEOs to work together in an open, collective way. He has an open platform so that the other chocolate producers can use his expertise and blockchain solution to trace cacao along the supply chain. We need this kind of joint effort and shared knowledge. Likewise, we need people on all levels of society to contribute within their circle of influence: consumers, corporates, scientists, and governments. This is how we’ll create the positive impact we need and the results that all parties will benefit from in the end.

On a more individual level, I’d like to add this short message: every small thing you do matters. Every small thing in the right direction is great. Don’t blame or compare, but move forward at your own speed.”

[thepeoplebehindsustainability]

Maarten Desmet, Social entrepreneur, founding partner at For Good, founding partner at Endeavour - June 2019

“You may not have the power to change policy or corporate business activities, but as a citizen who is concerned about the environment and future generations: there are many things you can do if you are well-informed.”

“During my studies, I had a fascinating experience in Bhutan, a kingdom in the Himalaya where they have a very holistic approach to sustainable development. They have this perspective where sustainability is one of the building blocks but not the ultimate goal. Imagine that our world is completely carbon neutral and we all have an ecological lifestyle. Even though we absolutely need a healthier and more sustainable environment, there’s more to society than that. The ultimate goal is collective well-being. That is why, in Bhutan, they have the Gross National Happiness (GHN) index. It exists out of 9 domains: psychological wellbeing, health, education, time use, cultural diversity and resilience, good governance, community vitality, ecological diversity and resilience, and living standards. By tracking these domains, they follow-up on the happiness of the population and adjust policies to solve unhappiness. Comparing this with traditional indicators such as GDP, I believe GHN is a better approach to tackle the challenges in our society.

Until recently, sustainable development was mostly a scientific discourse within academia and politics. With For Good, however, we want to make sustainability more accessible and low-threshold. 75% of your ecological footprint is determined by the way you move around, what you eat, your energy consumption at home and so on. The things we do and the decisions we make on a daily basis. You may not have the power to change policy or corporate business activities, but as a citizen who is concerned about the environment and future generations: there are many things you can do if you are well-informed. I believe in the power of empowering people, to let them make better choices. It all comes down to communication and convincing people with the right information. At the same time, I believe in an enlightened government that limits the options that don’t contribute to the well-being of society. For example this simple idea: the default choices on the restaurant’s menu are vegetarian or vegan and if you prefer meat you can ask for it. 

I believe the world would be a better place - and our society a more sustainable one - if we all lived according to the Buddhist values. Don’t hold on to fixed concepts but have an open-minded and mindful attitude with compassion for everyone and everything that surrounds us.”

[thepeoplebehindsustainability]

Philippe Weiler, sustainability manager at Lidl Belgium - June 2019

“When an ecosystem is not well managed, the people depending on it will struggle to survive. It’s a very fragile equilibrium between humans and nature.”

"An easy way to describe a sustainable business is that at the end of the day, the net impact of your activities is positive. In retail, sustainability matters because if we continue in a non-sustainable manner now, it will hinder our business in the future. If we do not care about overfishing endangered species, soon the population will become more and more scarce and prices will increase. Eventually, the fish population will be depleted and the sales stop all-together. It’s crucial to look at the entire value chain when calculating your impact. For Lidl Belgium, we found that 95% of our climate impact is situated outside of the four walls of our company.

Many small steps brought me to what I am doing now. During my first job experiences abroad, I could see how dependent the human population is on natural ecosystems and biodiversity. In Burundi, Africa, I researched how much people depended on the fish in the swamp next to their village. Later, in El Salvador, South America, I again saw how local farmers relied on the production of medicinal herbs for their health. When an ecosystem is not well managed, the people depending on it will struggle to survive. It’s a very fragile equilibrium between humans and nature. This brought me to the negotiation, development and implementation of sustainability partnerships at WWF. After that, my transition from NGO to the corporate world made sense because I continued to have the same conversation, only from the other side of the table. As sustainability manager at Lidl Belgium, I can have a stronger and a more tangible impact.

At Lidl, we have a very ambitious sustainability strategy and a very transparent sustainability report. We first clarified the vision and the ambition level. Then we translated this into 50 concrete targets categorized in 5 pillars: assortment, employees, environment, society, and business partners. For each target, we indicated one responsible person. Another fish example: the fish-buyer is responsible for the target of 100% sustainable fish. Important here is to make sure the sustainability target is integrated into current tasks and workload. It should not be an extra responsibility on top. This is sometimes a challenge: find the ambassadors within the company and inspire them so they can pull and push the strategy forward.”

#sustainability #retail #CSR #thepeoplebehindsustainability

[thepeoplebehindsustainability]

Jonas Mallisse, country manager @Too Good To Go Belgium and a passionate waste warrior - June 2019

“If we genuinely want to change something about food waste, we need to start with changing people’s mindset.”

“I believe a sustainable way of working means making sure that everyone involved wins and that the whole system keeps itself alive in the long run. If you buy cheap clothes, you may feel like getting a good deal, but someone else pays the price. You are not paying the right price, but someone is compensating that for you by not being rewarded in the right way. If you look at Too Good To Go, every actor and every person involved in the circle benefits from the concept.

If we genuinely want to change something about food waste, we need to start with changing people’s mindset. The resources used to produce food are not only water but also the energy used to grow the food, the plastics to wrap the food in, transportation and so on. That is why food waste has such a massive impact, it is tons of CO₂ produced for nothing. In the past, when we were growing up, food was highly precious. Tell me if this sounds familiar “If you do not finish your plate, you cannot leave the table”. Somewhere along the way, we lost this notion of how valuable food is. I believe it’s a challenge we can tackle on an educational level: make sure the next generation truly understands the value of food again.

There are some specific initiatives I would like to see happen. For example, looking at food safety regulations, we have two different dates: “best before” (“ten minste houdbaar tot”) and “use by” (“te gebruiken tot”). They sound similar but are very different and many people mix up these dates. We could change it to “best before, but often good after” and probably save a lot of food with a minor change. We do not expect policymakers and companies to transform complex structures within one week, but there are small opportunities or quick wins that can be implemented in the short term.”

[thepeoplebehindsustainability]

Sam Proesmans, previously a fellow in Infectious Diseases & Tropical Medicine at UZA in Belgium, now Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group - May 2019

“A key concept is the One Health principle, which acknowledges that the health of people is interconnected with the health of animals and the environment.”

“Sustainability got personal when my sense of urgency became too big. For a couple of years now, I’m part of the Friday group, an organization that tries to inspire policy through diversity. We come up with alternative and creative solutions to the challenges that Belgium faces. My involvement in this think tank gradually fueled my interest in consultancy and public health policy. After leaving the clinical part of medicine behind, I decided to go into consultancy, which I see as an opportunity to acquire a strong skillset. I truly believe that step-by-step, I will be able to have a positive impact on public policy in the end.

A key concept is the One Health principle, which acknowledges that the health of people is interconnected with the health of animals and the environment. Having worked in the infectious disease field, I’ve clearly seen how viruses and bacteria spill over continuously from humans to animals and vice versa. When doctors discuss healthcare, they talk about human patients, most of the time neglecting how human health does not exist without proper environmental and animal health.

The plastic movement is a success thanks to the visualization of the problem and showing people clear images of the consequences of their behavior. CO₂ and greenhouse gasses, however, are invisible, which makes it more difficult for people to comprehend or visualize how they contribute to this issue. On top of that, we aren’t very good at long term thinking. It’s already challenging for people to take an umbrella with them when the weather is sunny right now, but weather forecasts say it’ll rain later. The same reasoning applies for acting now in order to prevent climate change consequences in the future. Knowing that the individual has more power than most people believe, I encourage everyone to be more conscious and to try to visualize the impact of your actions. At home, in the supermarket, when deciding on transportation: think about how your individual actions contribute to making the system more sustainable.”