Sustainability software for SMEs accelerates climate action

Dominique Barker: Welcome to the Sustainability Agenda, a podcast series focusing on the evolving complexities of the sustainability landscape, with a view on addressing current issues in a concise format to help you navigate and take action. I’m your host, Dominique Barker. Please join me as we explore today’s most pressing matters with special guests that will give you some new perspective and help you make sense of what really matters.

Annalee Bloomfield: Project Gigaton is an initiative that Walmart has launched many years ago and has been working on. It’s really impressive, frankly. They really started working on this, I think, before it was a priority for many large companies.

Dominique Barker: Today, we welcome Annalee Bloomfield, CEO and Co-Founder of Sustain.Life. Annalee has an extensive background in data innovation and building accessible technology as she developed what is now known as Walmart’s intelligent retail lab. On today’s episode, we will be discussing Sustain Life, the sustainability software that supports businesses in managing their climate impact. For those of you who are out there who are small, medium sized enterprises and if you’re wanting to measure, manage or report on your carbon emissions and you’re not yet publicly traded or a big company, this podcast is for you. Good afternoon Annalee thank you for joining us on today’s episode of The Sustainability Agenda.

Annalee Bloomfield: Thank you so much for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Dominique Barker: Let’s start with the starting point. I’m sure a lot of our audience is not familiar with what you do, so if you could give a little intro to sustain life and I love the back story, if you could just speak about what inspired its creation and how it all came together to create the software.

Annalee Bloomfield: Sustain Life is a software platform that makes it easier and more affordable for companies to measure, manage and report on their emissions. So getting into the back story, when I worked at Walmart with my co-founder, we saw firsthand the level of investment that Walmart was making in sustainability. And it’s not just Walmart. Big companies like Amazon and Google are spending lots of money with teams of experts and consultants figuring out how to be more sustainable. But big companies only make up 10% of US businesses, and that means that most companies don’t have the resources to figure out how to be more sustainable. And that’s bad news for the planet because collectively these companies have a giant carbon footprint. So we set out to create a solution that helps companies without Fortune 500 budgets, figure out how to be more sustainable without breaking the bank.

Dominique Barker: Thank you. And that’s an interesting number that only 10% of businesses are large enterprises. So that leaves a lot out there, a big hole. So the current sustainability discussion is really focused on those big corporations. But in your opinion, why should small and medium sized enterprises tackle sustainability.

Annalee Bloomfield: At a starting point Sustainability is good business and that’s why the big guys are spending so much on it. Customers, employees, investors are all demanding that the companies they interact with be sustainable. And pretty soon companies that can’t figure out how to be sustainable are going to go out of business because another company with a similar offering will have figured it out. And studies show that sustainable companies are more profitable or more attractive to investors, have an easier time recruiting and retaining employees. Plus, more and more big companies are starting to measure their supply chain emissions, which means pretty soon large clients are going to be knocking on their suppliers doors asking for emissions data. So Walmart, Target, other companies are already doing this with their key suppliers.

Dominique Barker: You came from Walmart, I think. Is it Project Gigaton? Is that what it’s called? And maybe you want to just describe that.

Annalee Bloomfield: Sure. Project Gigaton is an initiative that Walmart has launched many years ago and has been working on. It’s really impressive, frankly. They really started working on this, I think before it was a priority for many large companies and we see that influence throughout our own client base. There are plenty of companies who are responding to requests that Walmart has for their data. And so as a I guess as an overview project, gigaton is Walmart’s goal to remove a gigaton of carbon from their emissions. And they’ve been working across their supply chain to do that for many, many years. And they do provide some guidance to companies on how to do that. But we still see a ton of companies who are within their supply chain, even large companies, even publicly traded companies who just haven’t invested to the same degree that Walmart has. And truly, Walmart has teams of technologists and operators who are working on this problem, and they’ve really devoted a lot of resources to it. And so much of their ability to meet those goals is driven by the change they can make in their supply chain. And that’s where we see ourselves kind of coming into play

Dominique Barker: And so I guess with small medium enterprises, they’re really the scope three emissions for a lot of these other companies, these multinationals such as Walmart or Amazon, for example, that are trying to reduce their own scope three emissions. So scope three emissions are the emissions that one can influence. So is there any investor or consumer incentive for SMEs or small medium enterprises to measure and report their carbon emissions?

Annalee Bloomfield: Studies show that sustainable businesses are more than 6% more profitable than their peers, and that’s a huge number. And as the effects of climate change become more visible, it’s fires, flooding, heat waves, etc. Consumer sentiment is only going to intensify, meaning more and more consumers are going to care about what type of impact their purchasing decisions have on the planet. And climate risk also creates investment risk. And obviously investors want to seek opportunity and avoid risk. So that means sustainable companies will increasingly find it easier to get financing as more and more investors incorporate ESG into their investment strategy. But even aside from those benefits to the planet. We think that businesses that holistically incorporate sustainability into their operations are going to be better positioned in the long run. We think they’ll have better cost structures. They’ll also be more creative and innovative. It’s truly a different lens with which to view the world, and we think that’s going to play out in their offering to consumers and the way they present themselves to investors.

Dominique Barker: Yeah, and for our SME clients out there, I would fully agree with that. And so there’s two elements that would be influencing that. One is, Annalee, as you mentioned, the consumer behaviour element to it, but also what we call inevitable policy response. So there is going to be, for example, a cost on carbon or other policy initiatives that are going to impact businesses and you may as well get in front of it. Thank you for that. So what have you identified as the specific challenges for small medium enterprises in measuring, managing and reporting scope one, two and three emissions?

Annalee Bloomfield: So there’s a number of pain points for SMEs. Like I mentioned, those companies don’t have teams of experts working on this problem like the big guys, so just getting started can be a real obstacle. A lot of companies don’t know what data to measure or how to measure it, and we make that part easy by guiding customers through the data collection process. Our solution breaks everything into business categories that everyone can understand buildings, people, waste, water, etc., so that you can start measuring your emissions in the context of how your business operates. We tell you what data to collect help you enter. However you’re comfortable. You can use APIs, upload a spreadsheet, just enter it manually, and then we automatically calculate an emissions output and help you make decisions to impact that output over time. And then back to these specific challenges, aside from actually entering the data to begin with and sort of getting a handle on your company’s data to start with when it comes to scope three emissions, we help you get your stakeholders involved. And so as your listeners probably know and as you were just saying, scope three takes your supply chain emissions into account. So you’ve got to work with your key suppliers to quantify their impact, too.

Annalee Bloomfield: And we do this by giving users the ability to send their suppliers surveys, and then we help evaluate the results. I can speak specifically to sustain life. One key challenge for us and for other SMEs is having leverage with their supply chain. So we don’t have the purchasing power of a Walmart or a Microsoft, so we don’t always get the response we want from our suppliers. So for companies with many digital services, I’m thinking about things like Slack or HubSpot or Dropbox. It can sometimes be challenging to even find a point of contact to send a supplier survey to. And although that can feel frustrating, we can’t overemphasize how important it is to go through that process anyway. So many of our clients come to us because they’re being asked by their clients about their sustainability metrics. So even if you’re not getting an immediate response, it doesn’t mean that you’re not being heard across your supply chain. But ultimately we do want to help companies reduce. And so the data we collect and analyze helps our users decide what operational changes they can and should make to reduce their footprint and then report on their progress as the changes are implemented.

Dominique Barker: Great. And lastly, what do you see as a future of sustainability software in accelerating climate action and what is needed to get there.

Annalee Bloomfield: In the future, we believe every company will manage sustainability the same way they manage accounting or HR. Software solutions like QuickBooks and Greenhouse are household names at this point. And that’s our goal for Sustain Life. In the same way that we think about budgeting and DEI as a part of almost every role, we think sustainability will become an integrated part of almost every job in the next ten years. You won’t just be doing procurement, you’ll be doing sustainable procurement, sustainable operations, sustainable event planning, etc. At this point, there simply aren’t enough trained professionals to fill this kind of need. And the breadth of sustainability impact on a business means that companies are better off upscaling and educating their existing employees around how to be successful in this space. And ultimately, climate change is a challenge that we all have to fight together and we’re running out of time. And that means there needs to be a solution that can quickly scale to the masses and is also easy and effective enough for masses to use. We think software is the only answer that makes sense.

Dominique Barker: Great. Thank you, Annalee, for taking the time and I hope that our SME clients out there pay attention and start their own journey because I’d never really thought about that, 10% of businesses, only 10% are big multinational or big corporations. And there’s such a big need for some of the smaller companies to measure and manage this. So thank you for taking the time to join us today and to explain all of this. And thank you to our listeners for tuning in.

Annalee Bloomfield: Thank you.

Dominique Barker: Please join us next time as we tackle some of sustainability’s biggest questions, providing different perspectives to help you move forward. I’m your host, Dominique Barker, and this is the sustainability agenda.

Disclaimer: The materials disclosed on this podcast are for informational purposes only and subject to our Code of Conduct as well as IIROC rules. The information and data contained herein has been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable, without independent verification by CIBC Capital Markets and, to the extent that such information and data is based on sources outside CIBC Capital Markets, we do not represent or warrant that any such information or data is accurate, adequate or complete. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, CIBC World Markets Inc. (and/or any affiliate thereof) shall not assume any responsibility or liability of any nature in connection with any of the contents of this communication. This communication is tailored for a particular audience and accordingly, this message is intended for such specific audience only. Any dissemination, re-distribution or other use of this message or the market commentary contained herein by any recipient is unauthorized. This communication should not be construed as a research report. The services, securities and investments discussed in this report may not be available to, nor suitable for, all investors. Nothing in this communication constitutes a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any specific investments discussed herein. Speakers on this podcast do not have any actual, implied or apparent authority to act on behalf of any issuer mentioned in this podcast. The commentary and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the individual speaker(s), except where the author expressly states them to be the opinions of CIBC World Markets Inc. The speaker(s) may provide short-term trading views or ideas on issuers, securities, commodities, currencies or other financial instruments but investors should not expect continuing analysis, views or discussion relating to those instruments discussed herein. Any information provided herein is not intended to represent an adequate basis for investors to make an informed investment decision and is subject to change without notice. CIBC Capital Markets is a trademark brand name under which Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (“CIBC”), its subsidiaries and affiliates provide products and services to our customers around the world. For more information about these legal entities, as well as the products and services offered by CIBC Capital Markets, please visit www.cibccm.com.