Increase Profit with Sustainability

Introducing Bob Willard

 When it comes to making your business more sustainable, it really doesn’t matter what your motivation is.  It would be nice to think that entrepreneurs are making decisions on sustainability for altruistic reasons, but in business, often the bottom line is what matters.  Regardless of reasoning, the important thing for our planet is that the right decisions are being made and that those decisions can actually increase your profits substantially.

Bob Willard is a man leading the charge to get businesses on track with sustainability and showing them how these efforts will make them more money.  Bob spent over three decades with IBM Canada before taking early retirement to begin his second career as a speaker and author.  During the majority of his career at IBM, Bob was blissfully ignorant to the issues with sustainability until there was a proposal to open a water treatment plant near a nuclear generation station in his home community.  In his attempts to change the plan for the water treatment plant, Bob realized how many big issues that were out there to tackle and he knew that it would require the expertise of business to make the biggest positive impact.  Bob started and finished a part time master’s degree at the University of Toronto, and for his masters paper he took on a subject his professors didn’t think existed… a business case for sustainability. 

Bob has since came out with his book, Sustainability Advantage and now speaks around 100 times a year.  His suggestions can conservatively increase profits for almost any company around 50-80% within three to five years just by doing things that other companies have already done.  By doing nothing, you could jeopardize your current profits by about 35%.  Listen to this week’s episode to get your company on track and future fit.

In this episode

• Bob tells us how he went from working at one of the worlds leading computer companies to a champion of sustainability.
• He tells us why a company’s motivation to become sustainable shouldn’t matter.
• Bob tells us about some big companies doing some big things in the field of sustainability, but wants them also to realize that they have a long way to go yet.
• We hear about Bob’s new project, the Future Fit Benchmark.
• Bob also fills us in on some of the best political parties, countries, and businesses to support for their sustainability efforts.
• Greg mentions how “companies for good” seemed like it was almost fiction 15 years ago and how everything has changed from that perspective.
• Dave mentions how people run companies, and generally people are not evil and have the right intentions.
• Greg and Dave put out the call for guest suggestions from our audience.

Links

- Sustainability Advantage

- Bob on LinkedIn

The Business of Art 

Introducing Kate Wallace

Artists and entrepreneurs have more in common than what would be perceived from the outside.  Both have to be creative, industrious, and freethinkers.  However, often times there is a separation from the arts community and the business community.  There is often even separation within specific artists within a community.  Kate Wallace is the type of person that likes to break down these walls and connect artists to artists, artists to the business community, and artists to society in general. 

Kate is the executive director of Artslink NB, an organization that was founded to bridge connections for artists in New Brunswick.  There is a lot that artists can learn from entrepreneurs and vice versa.  Sometimes solutions to business problems need a creative angle and artists need the money from commissioned pieces from the business world. 

One thing Artslink NB is doing to help artist become financially independent with their work is by offering a pilot program called the Catapult Arts Accelerator.  Taking a hint from the tech world, the accelerator offers advice and business skills to artists that can help them reach new markets and further their practice.  Artists don’t often use the word “customers” and, in fact, the thought of commercializing their work makes many artists feel like they are selling out.  This is just not the case.  All through history artists have been commissioned by the wealthy to make pieces in homage them, their families, or their businesses.  However, when the business side of an artist’s operation is nailed down, the truth is creativity can flourish and the moniker of the “starving artist” need not apply.

In this episode

• Kate tells us when, why and how Artslink NB got started and the important things they do to connect artists to others in the community.
• Kate explains why arts are so important to greater society.
• She explains the accelerator and what it means to the artists that take it.
• She also dispels the theory that arts in New Brunswick (or anywhere else for that matter) can live up to the arts in any other major metropolitan area and that the biggest thing for an artist to have is confidence in their work.
• Kate wants the general population to know that artists are professionals and should be treated as such.
• She also wants the general population to not be intimidated by art and instead embrace it has an expression of their culture.
• Dave brings up the book A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink and the importance of using right brain thinking.
• Dave also appreciates that he had such a rich exposure to the arts at a young age.
• Greg tells business people and artists to meet for coffee and see what they can learn from one another.

Links

- Artslink NB Homepage

- A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink

- Artslink on Facebook

- Artslink on Twitter

- Kate's Bio

Your Path will Emerge

Introducing Kyle Parsons

Looking toward the future, the paths our life takes doesn’t necessarily seem to be interconnected.  However, with the right attitude and openness to new experience we can often look backward and see how our completely unrelated experiences have been linked to a present outcome.  Call it serendipity, fate, happenstance, or destiny, we often find that indirect roads from point A to point B seem to come about 

This is just like the story of Kyle Parsons and his company Indosole.  This San Franciscan had previously interned at New Balance shoe company, worked in surf shops managing the sandals section, and had spent time working at a recycling plant in the east coast.  Somewhat unrelated right?  However, Kyle’s disjointed experiences seemed to gel during a family surf trip to Bali back in 2004 when he was on the hunt for a fresh pair of sandals. 

Coming upon a local market, Kyle saw a really cool pair that was made by local artisans.  The unique thing about these sandals was that the bottoms were made from recycled motorcycle tires.  They weren’t the most comfortable, but they were stylish and cool, and upon further research Kyle found out that tire waste was a huge problem in Indonesia.  His past experiences and a chance meeting got the gears grinding in his mind and he returned to Bali in 2006 with the plan to start his own footwear company that would aid the environment, help out the people of Indonesia, and make him some money. 

Kyle has since grown his B-Corp from receiving suitcase loads of footwear to container loads and has the goal to repurpose a million tires and keep them from adding to landfills.  Check out this episode of Boiling Point to be inspired by the positive impacts you can make using your past experiences and the right attitude.

In this episode

• Kyle tells us the story of Indosole and how he never saw himself previously as the head of footwear business.
• He goes on to tell us about the growth of the company and how a suitcase of sandals being imported is has become container loads.
• Kyle explains how tires are not the only thing he repurposes for his shoes and his commitment to the Indonesian community.
• He explains how he got the financing to start the project while working as an on-the-road sales rep.
• Kyle also tells us how he gets around needing the celebrity endorsement that many footwear companies rely on and how this idea helps to foster community.
• He also tells us about an incredible opportunity to intern for Indosole in Bali.  Surfs up!
• Greg is inspired by Kyle’s journey and asks how many challenges are right on our doorstep that we could turn into mission based businesses if you let “the rubber hit the road” and have “lots of sole”.
• Greg and Dave both note how seemingly unrelated events can turn into something so big.
• Greg recalls how chance encounters ignited his passion and got him partially to where he is today.

Links

- The Indosole Website

- Indosole's Good Humans

- Music from Indosole Good Human Dustin Thomas

- Indosole Retail Locator

- Indosole on Facebook

- Indosole on Instagram

- Indosole on Twitter