On Tuesday 16th 2019, several entrepreneurs were brought together by Fast Forward 2030 at an event called ‘Integrating climate action into your business model: ideas for entrepreneurs’ to consider how businesses can adopt more sustainable practices to meet the aims of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Agreement.
Climate Action discussions are usually targeted on either an international or individual scale, often disregarding the substantial role that businesses play. This is problematic considering that preventing catastrophic climate change requires urgent and innovative action from all sectors to limit global warming to 1.5C.
The focus of this event was therefore very relevant to shedding light on how entrepreneurs can contribute to the fight against climate change. The guest speakers briefly discussed their journeys into a sustainability-focused career, as well as how their businesses embed SDG 13 within its operations. A key point that they all reiterated was how embracing Climate Action made financial sense and is essentially in the interest of businesses as a growing market.
The following sections will therefore provide an overview of the companies featured at the event to show how the environmental impacts of the way we do business can no longer be an afterthought.
Hopes
Hopes is a start-up initiative helping businesses to understand their energy consumption through analysing their data. It is hoped that through monitoring energy usage in this way, greater awareness about excessive energy consumption can be brought to light. Hopes is then able to provide businesses with a tailored solution and resources to cut back on their energy usage, helping companies to improve their energy efficiency. This image below gives an overview of framework in which hopes operates.
For more information about hopes click here to check out their website.
AirEx
AirEx is a smart ventilation control designed to provide energy efficiency within domestic households. In the UK, millions of homes have been built with low energy standards resulting in high energy bills and cold living conditions. Interventions designed to improve energy efficiency in these houses have often been unsuccessful, leading to a lack of ventilation that can cause damp or condensation problems. Therefore, AirEx has created a cost-effective ventilation control system that warms homes whilst maintaining air quality. The diagram below shows how the system operates by regulating air flow through responding to changes in temperature, humidity and air quality.
For more information about AirEx, click here to check out their website.
Winnow
Winnow is new sustainable solution that helps to cut food costs in professional kitchens around the globe. As one third of all food that is grown is discarded, Winnow helps to tackle the global problem of food wastage by making the kitchen smarter and more cost effective. With Winnow Vision, kitchens are able to automatically track food waste, leading to better insights into how to reduce this wastage. The image below provides an overview of how Winnow operates.
For more information about Winnow, click here to check out their website.
As all three companies that spoke at the Fast Forward 2030 event show, there are numerous ways that entrepreneurs can incorporate sustainable practices into their business models to help to alleviate some of the world’s most pressing climate problems. The event has proved that businesses are in a position of power to take the lead in helping to reshape the way we think about food and energy. By carefully monitoring what we use, we can begin to change our consumption patterns and help to tackle some of the major causes of climate change.
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