Sustainability is not a spectator sport: Together, we have the power to Restore Our Earth.

By Theodora Lau and Bradley Leimer of Unconventional Ventures 

As with diversity and inclusion, sustainability can no longer be merely platitudes reserved for corporate-social-responsibility reports. Increasingly, sustainability is being included as part of an organization’s core strategy and daily processes, as corporations are recognizing that we all have a role to play in contributing to a healthier planet and a more inclusive society.

And perhaps as an acknowledgement of this growing opportunity, we are now beginning to see the proliferation of climate-focused businesses that help enable a better future for all of us. 

From inspiration to aspiration 

Long a pioneer, Andrei Cherny founded Aspiration, as a reaction to what he saw as an opportunity to create a different kind of experience: one based on transparency and sustainability. Aspiration’s personal impact score gives consumers an insight on how their day-to-day decisions impact their goals in line with their values towards a more sustainable environment. With the Plant Your Change feature, each purchase made is rounded to the nearest whole dollar and, in partnership with tree planting charities around the world including Arbor Day Foundation, Eden Reforestation Projects, and One Tree Planted, Aspiration plants one tree for each round-up. 

The startup is committed to clean money, and is not shy about pointing out the roles that big banks play in fossil fuel financing. While much of Aspiration’s user base mirrors that of the population in the U.S., there is much higher user engagement around this growing environmentally-minded brand. There is something to be said about having a passionate user community that believes so strongly in the mission of the company, and shares a sense of collective responsibility; a community that is no longer tied to a geography, but one that brings people together based on their values. 

From one tree starts a forest 

Ant Forest is a mini-program within the Alibaba superapp, introduced in 2016 as part of Alipay. Leveraging gamification and behavioral economics, it encourages its users to adopt a greener lifestyle and incentivize low-carbon activities, such as paying utility bills online or walking to work instead of driving by rewarding the behavior with tree planting initiatives. Users can view real-time aerial images of Alipay Ant Forest trees, and they can also grow them jointly with friends and family.

According to Ant Group, over 550 million people have joined the Alipay Ant Forest, planting 200 million trees in China through Alipay and its partners, reducing 12 million tons of carbon emission, and creating 400,000 job opportunities for local communities, and generating RMB 60 million in income as of August of 2018. Doing well by doing good can come about click by click, especially in markets like China. 

The program was given the UN Champions of the Earth award, and the 2019 UN Global Climate Action Award. The initiative has also inspired GCash App from the Philippines to introduce GCash Forest, which enables local users to contribute to reforestation and environmental preservation by adopting a low carbon lifestyle. 

If more corporations like Ant Group and Aspiration engaged their customers to create positive impacts on large societal problems like climate change, imagine what other issues we could tackle? 

Scaling up for a most critical fight  

Beyond new and established fintech startups, there is a glimmer of hope that sustainability is becoming more mainstream in financial services. From ESG (environmental, social, and governance) options for investments to neo-banks focused on tying financial actions to impacts, we are seeing more ways to make banking better. 

In the U.S., Climate First Bank, a climate-focused community bank, will open in the St. Petersburg / Tampa Bay region in June this year. JPMorgan Chase recently pledged to finance and facilitate $2.5 trillion to address climate change and advance sustainable development by 2030, joining Citigroup, which also recently announced $1 trillion to support sustainable finance by 2030. More business models like this evolve each week. 

We all have a role to play in a more sustainable future

Every one of us has to commit to creating a better, more sustainable future. As extreme weather conditions are occurring more often all around the world, from wildfires in the U.S. and Australia to severe flooding in parts of Africa and Asia. As a society — as a planet — we are facing a crisis: Over 1.2 billion people could be displaced from their homes by 2050 due to the effects of climate change.  

Urgent action is needed to combat the immense challenges we face. Every individual, every community, and every company has to continue to enact part of these long term solutions. Commitments by big banks — including the aforementioned Citi and J.P.Morgan as well as Bank of America — to support ESG goals and acceleration to a low-carbon and sustainable economy is a great start, but much more is needed. 

While these are great examples of Wall Street stepping up, this is just the beginning of a long journey for humanity to safeguard our one home. We have the ability to make a difference in every industry, but that can only happen when we unite as one global community. 

Together, we have the power to #RestoreOurEarth.

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In this episode of One Vision, Theo and Bradley chat with Matthew Sekol, US Market Executive, Capital Markets, of Microsoft, on the key topics of our century, from ESG to the digital divide and the ethics around artificial intelligence. Listen to this great episode on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and All Players. 

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Please consider hitting that subscribe button and leaving us a review. Sponsorship opportunities for this season of One Vision are available. Visit unconventionalventures.com to learn more about partnerships.

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Our new book, Beyond Good, is now available for order at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kogan Page, and everywhere fine books are sold. Keep in touch with our book launch events at BeyondGoodBook.com.

Beyond Good is a call to arms for business leaders to recognize how they can do well by doing good. Business for good, which is the philosophy that you can pursue profits while delivering on sustainable and societal development goals, is already delivering big changes. With exclusive interviews with experts from the B-Corp world, policy makers and executives, this book also showcases how companies like Microsoft, Flourish Ventures, Ant Financial, Sunrise Bank and Paypal are doing their bit to make our world better — and you can too. Beyond Good is also available at Bookshop.org (supports local, independent bookstores), Waterstones, WHSmith, and everywhere books are sold.  

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Unconventional Ventures helps drive innovation to improve systematic financial wellness. We connect founders to funders, provide mentorship to entrepreneurs, strategic advisory services to a broad set of corporates, and broaden opportunities for diversity within the ecosystem. Our belief is that anyone with great ideas should have a chance to succeed and every voice should be heard. We work with financial institutions, fintech startups, technology firms, and corporates working within financial services and tangential verticals. Visit unconventionalventures.com to learn how you can partner with us.