Small firms have to go green and can鈥檛 just put their heads in the sand over climate change - that was the message from a group of innovative eco-friendly entrepreneurs.
The 海角视频 is moving towards a greener economy, with companies of all shapes and sizes having to change the way they work.
Existing firms are changing what they do to become more green and sustainable, while many new companies have had sustainability at the heart from the very start.
At a panel event organised by NatWest, a group of entrepreneurs who focus on sustainability shared advice and tips for other business leaders who want to do more to save the planet and attract more eco-friendly customers.
They were joined by senior executives from NatWest, which is itself championing climate solutions and the push towards a low-carbon future.
The bank, led by chief executive Alison Rose, has set itself the target of at least halving the impact of all its financing activity by 2030.
At least a quarter of the spaces in its accelerator network, which supports some 1,000 entrepreneurs a year, are dedicated to climate-focused businesses - including those at this climate-focused event.
The session was hosted by Rishi Madlani, Head of Sustainable Finance & Just Transition at NatWest.
Much discussion of the need for sustainability focuses on large firms - but Rishi reminded the panel that small firms also have a big role to play in helping the 海角视频 become more sustainable.
He said: 鈥淚 want to hear from entrepreneurs. So SMEs represent probably roughly 25% of the 海角视频 population, nearly 17 million people, but their contribution to emissions is also significant. Business and Industry accounted for about 25% of the 海角视频 emissions with about half these from SMEs.
鈥淪o if we're going to shift the whole economy towards net zero emissions, SMEs, also have a very, very important role to play.鈥
Among those attending was Jack Kennedy, co-founder of North London-based Dodo, whose platform helps companies to monitor their climate impact by automatically measuring and analysing their carbon emissions.
He said: 鈥淭he challenge SMEs face particularly is around the time it takes to actually measure their emissions.
鈥淚t's a hugely challenging process. If you look at some of the industries we're looking into as well, they've never had to do this. They don't even know sort of step one. There's a huge amount of pressure on these companies to track their emissions.
鈥淪o it's sort of human nature to sometimes just put their head in the sand and hope someone else sort of looks at it. It's really, really difficult to solve. And I think it's where we try and come in and help companies to measure that.鈥
Greetings cards you can plant
Another entrepreneur at the event was Sophie Bresnahan, founder of Hove-based Loop Loop. She makes greetings cards made with 100% recycled materials that are embedded with wildflower seeds so they can be planted to create wildflower meadows.
She explained that sustainability was at the heart of her business vision right from the start - and that means she has to make some difficult decisions about growth for growth鈥檚 sake.
Sophie said: 鈥淚t was always part of our decision making process that everything needs to be made from finite resources, because we have finite resources. We have to look at what we already have, and to use that and not actually tap into virgin materials.
鈥淭he challenge that comes with that is, I would love to make loads of things. But I always stopped myself because I think, does the world need more stuff? That is just stuff?
鈥淚t hinders the growth of the business, for sure. But it sits better with me, because I know that I'm always kind of coming back to that idea of doing right by the world.
She added: 鈥淚t's always a real tricky thing, and you can chase the money, but I think the core values need to be there.
鈥淔rom my own point of view, that's the only way I can do it - but it's easier to do that when you build it from the beginning, as opposed to implementing it at a later stage.鈥
Vegan alternative to leather watch straps
Vegan watch company Votch was founded by Laura Way after she spotted a gap in the market for alternatives to leather watch straps.
Her products included straps made with apple skin, made with waste from the apple harvest in northern Italy.
Like Sophie, Hove-based Laura has built sustainability into her business from the start.
She said: 鈥淲e've really seen the journey and evolution over the last five years of being able to utilise more sustainable, more planet friendly materials. And when I first launched Votch, those resources weren't there.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen such a huge growth in these alternatives. A recent study found for example, a third of millennials would rather purchase from a company that uses no animal products at all. And with that demand, and with the animal alternative, like vegan leather, industry set to be worth 拢96bn by 2025, we're starting to see a huge increase in this movement.
鈥淲e started as a vegan company, we have so many more sustainable credentials that we want to apply to our business now. We're working on designs, such as utilising solar panel power, using recycled stainless steel鈥
鈥淲e've had to really learn, learn, grow and adapt to what consumers want.鈥
Laura said she had to take some time away from the business after she became pregnant,
She said: 鈥淚n that time, competitors started emerging and other brands started using the materials like we were.
鈥淪o it was only really been in the last year that we've been able to bring on investment. And I've been able to bring in the resources where we bought on investment and we're seeing year on year growth
鈥淲e are definitely on the path of scaling and growing at the moment.鈥
Making food and drink more local and sustainable
Huge volumes of the YK鈥檚 fruit and vegetables come from abroad - but Chris Davies is part of a team using technology to grow more in the 海角视频 and to make the food world more sustainable
Chris Davies is founder of Harvest London, which runs two 鈥渧ertical farms鈥 in the capital supplying produce such as herbs and leafy greens to local restaurants and caterers.
The company grows crops in layered beds in climate-controlled warehouses, without pesticides. Chris says it is far more sustainable than shipping from abroad - but the challenge he faces is explaining those benefits and moving people away from the existing globalised system.
He said: 鈥淭he food system is an incredibly opaque global system that we've created. It's incredibly hard for us to be able to quantify the benefits of local food production.
鈥淲e work with a London pizza chain called Pizza Pilgrims. And they historically used to buy all of their basil from special DOP designation basil growers in the beautiful hills of Italy.
鈥淲e've proved to them that the basil that we grow in a warehouse in East London, because we go from harvest to delivery in four hours, is just so much better than anything that they can get imported. Plus in the process of working with us, we are saving them at least 250,000 food miles per year. 鈥
Chris and his team are using data to help Harvest London to analyse and then meet the needs of the food industry.
He said: 鈥淭he vision that we have is to create a network of data driven farms.
鈥淎griculture is one of the least digital industries. And because of the significant amounts of improvement that that indoor growing can bring, it's just a prime opportunity of being able to remove a lot of that opacity in the food system.鈥
Still great potential for growth in the sector - but challenges too
Panelists and representatives from NatWest agreed the growth potential in the sector was huge as more and more people and businesses looked to build sustainability into their lives.
Robert Begbie, CEO NatWest Markets, said he and fellow senior bankers were seeing a growing appetite for investments with a sustainable focus.
Asked about his bank鈥檚 role, he said he wanted Natwest to connect sustainable businesses with 鈥渢he wall of money that wants to find investments to make in the ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) space鈥.
He said: 鈥淭he amount of demand that's out there from investors is enormous.鈥
Rishi Madlani added: 鈥淲e've seen significant increase already in consumer demand for sustainable products, particularly at the millennial level.鈥
Jack from Dodo said large organisations like NatWest could play a key role in promoting sustainable values.
Sophie from Loop Loop said she had seen growing interest in zero waste shops and refillable products.
Another company that is part of NatWest鈥檚 accelerator programme is beauty products service Circla, which taps into that market.
Georgina Mackey, regional ecosystem manager for London & South East, NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator, explained: 鈥淐ircla has taken the traditional milkman service and reimagined it for the beauty and home care sector.
鈥淭he website allows you to shop from a curated collection of independent beauty and home care products in packaging that is collected directly from your doorstep when you reorder. Customers are encouraged to return their old bottles and earn 50p in reward points as an incentive for each bottle returned. These are then washed and re-used for future orders.鈥
But there are still challenges - such as e encouraging consumers to buy sustainable products when they may still be more expensive than conventional rivals.
Earlier, Chris Davies from Harvest London said his challenge now was to secure investment to allow him to build more farms. The start-up costs are high, he said, but the potential for growth was strong. Many investors, however, are not yet aware of the potential of sustainable businesses.
He said. 鈥淭he thing about vertical farms is the most success that we've had is with organisations that already understand that grant Infrastructure space. So if you're already into solar farms, wind farms, anaerobic digesters, then you almost understand the economic model of vertical farming, very high capital intensity at the start of the process.鈥
But the push towards sustainability will continue.
Georgina said that climate change was a focus for NatWest鈥檚 Accelerator programme to help start-up businesses.
Applications for the June cohort are open, she said, 鈥渨ith an increased focus on climate-related enterprises and entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds.鈥
NatWest aims to have 60% female representation in the June cohort and 20% from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.
There will also be a continued commitment to ring-fence 25% of space on the programme for climate-focused businesses 鈥渨hose main objective relates to environmentally sustainable practices鈥, ahead of NatWest鈥檚 sponsorship of the upcoming to be held in Glasgow in November.
She said: 鈥淥ur initial pilot supported 82 climate based businesses on the Climate Accelerator and we accepted 170 in our first official cohort in October 2020.鈥
