Who's Saving the Planet?

Let's say you're on the beach one day with your metal detector (as we do) and happen upon a chest of buried treasure, as it were. Your first call is your mom, clearly, but then after that, ring up CEO of Boundless Impact, Michele Demers, and she'll tell you where you can put your money to get a healthy return and save the planet along the way.  Michele has been in the impact investing world since she worked for Pierre and Pam Omidyar, founder of Ebay, directing them toward initiatives that could meaningfully improve the world through a  combination of philanthropy, political influence and capital investment. From there she recognized that the ecosystem of impact investing was far too opaque, with the fakers raking in money that should instead go to the genuine makers.  Boundless Impact is a quantitative and qualitative research firm that assigns a specific score to individual companies using a variety of methodologies, including life cycle analysis. Through their work they're able to direct investments toward the companies which have the best shot of succeeding, both in terms of their bottom line and mission.  Stick around to the end, where Michele gives us her professional insight into where we should be looking to find the next Tesla, Impossible Foods, or another company you've never heard of that will one day be an everyday staple.

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, personal protective equipment (PPE) like medical grade gloves flew off the shelves in an effort to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe. But PPE supplies aren't exactly eco-friendly. In fact, 100 billion pairs of single use gloves end up in landfills every year, and they take over 100 years to break down. Fikile Mthwalo came up with a solution — Glubbs. This biodegradable alternative breaks down 10x faster than conventional rubber gloves. Tune in to learn how Fikile, a Brooklyn based creative/star of stage and screen, tapped into her passion for the environment, entrepreneurship and her artistic savvy to not only protect us from harmful germs, bacteria and viruses — but also reduce our carbon footprint (and look stylish while doing it!).

For a long minute in venture capital world (and on Shark Tank, for those of us playing at home) if you were pitching your new start up, it was useful to say you were the "Uber of X". Whatever X may be, cupcakes, thoroughbred racehorses, custom fitted clogs, you wanted to be the business in the middle that aggregated the sellers and made it simple, easy and efficient to connect to the buyers. Yaniv Kalish, CEO and founder of SolarKal, set out to be the Uber of commercial solar installation, and by golly, he got there! Unlike taxis, the process of spec'ing out a solar project, from understanding the electrical needs, the physical capacity of the space, the budget, and so forth, was extraordinarily complex, so much so that the time it took to figure out which solar panels to get and who to trust to install them wasn't worth the energy savings to mid-sized businesses. Yaniv recognized this inefficiency and set out to solve it, unlocking the potential of solar while providing a much needed service to both the buyers and the sellers. Today, SolarKal is the industry leading marketplace for solar installation, facilitating over $100,000,000 in transactions in 2020. However, unlike Uber, Yaniv didn't part with huge stakes in his company to get there. We talk about what it takes to bootstrap a business, how to weigh the benefit of outside capital with the sacrifice it could mean for the business, and the importance of building the right team from the start. 

Big tech companies like Microsoft and Apple are guilty of planned obsolescence. They purposely make stuff glitchy so you have to buy whatever new gizmo they roll out. Not only is it annoying because it forces us to spend more money, but it's bad for the environment as devices needlessly end up in trash heaps. Serge Verdoux and his team at Back Market have had enough. They're shaking up the electronics sector by taking old smartphones, making them good-as-new and reselling them to customers at a discount with a guarantee that they work. Good for your wallet... even better for the planet! BackMarket also provides fixer-up services for other thingamajigs like computers, PS4s, tablets, televisions — you name it. Prior to Back Market, Serge held leadership roles at Amazon and Expedia. Today, he's wielding a circular solution to reduce e-waste. And because of that, we were thrilled to feature him on this episode of WSTP, which was recorded on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2021. Everyone was in fine spirits (especially Tony who imbibed fine spirits prior to recording). 

With degrees in Industrial Engineering, Business, and Fashion Design, Kristy Caylor was well prepared for the world of fashion by the time she joined GAP Inc. in 2004. She led the Project (RED) initiative within GAP, which engaged the private sector in raising awareness and funds to help eliminate HIV/AIDS in Africa. This initiative revealed the enormous people and planet-saving power when consumers vote with their dollar on mission-driven, sustainability-focused outcomes. After GAP, Caylor created Maiyet, a brand that moved the needle for mission-driven businesses by proving that positive social impact can coexist with world-class aesthetics. Caylor’s ventures also revealed how devastatingly inefficient and wasteful fashion can be. She knew clothing companies would need to take responsibility for business practices that encourage 80 pounds of landfill waste per consumer, per year. The entrepreneur felt that she could spark a revolution in the fashion industry if she could change the company’s relationship to the consumer and consequentially, the consumer’s relationship to their clothing. Kristy Caylor’s vision to transform commerce came to fruition with For Days, a circular clothing company she launched in 2018. For Days is a zero-waste, closed-loop company with a SWAP program that allows shoppers to send back used— ripped, stretched, and even stained— clothing to be upcycled into new products. The shopper is rewarded upon returning items with credits towards their next purchase. When For Days sends customers new clothing, customers can return used clothing in the same bag, empowering shoppers to swap clothes easily and with minimal shipping waste. For Days makes sustainability accessible with price points, styles, and sizes that welcome participation from anyone and everyone. Their SWAP model builds loyalty and trust with consumers while emphasizing the long-term value of what’s in all of our closets. Intrigued shoppers can earn credits with For Days by sending them a Take Back Bag, which can be filled with old clothes from any brand, in any condition— the goal is to divert all clothing from landfills.

9.8 million tons of furniture end up in landfills every year, and most of it was pretty crappy to begin with. Jay  is here to change that, and along the way, our conception of how we use, enjoy and own our stuff.  To be clear, the CEO and founder of Feather, Jay Reno, would never claim to be the anti-anything, he's focused on creating forward looking solutions rather than dragging the Swedes (neither are we, great people). That said, the business model of furniture built out of particle boards relies on the assumption that many of us would rather trash it then schlep it when it's time to move. In today's increasingly transient and urban lifestyle where people are moving more frequently and buying homes later in life deciding whether a couch is worth the haul happens every 2 or three years rather than decades, and if that couch wan't that great to begin with, hello curb. Feather has built a rental model that offers high-quality furniture at a monthly rate that doesn't crush your wallet, and when it's time to go, they'll gladly come collect the couch and you can start fresh in the new pad. The furniture is built so that component parts can be exchanged or repaired instead of trashed and replaced. This makes it easier for the customer to keep their stuff in good condition and incentivizes the company to build things to last, all while lightening the burden on the planet. Win win win, our favorite.  On a more personal note, Jay didn't saunter into this multi-million dollar VC backed hyper-success over night. Feather is his third start up, and he's learned many a lesson. We talk about the tumultuous path every entrepreneur walks, what it takes to stick it out, and advice that gets you through along the way. 

Our guest this week is Evan Hanczor, a chef at the sustainable breakfast restaurant Egg and the founder of Tables of Contents. TOC brings people together to enjoy a book passage paired with a meal that really brings imagination to life. The new Tables of Contents book, coming out the first week of February, collects recipes from incredible authors and pairs them with beautiful illustrations. And if that wasn't enough, proceeds from the book will support FIG, a grassroots collective of food and hospitality workers in New York and beyond.

By the age of 25 Abigail Lorick had clocked a successful career as a Ford Model and was on her way to launching her own brand. From there her career would continue to unfold in the fashion world, as the ghost design behind the WALDORF brand on TV's Gossip Girl and the design director for Stance. When she was approached by a female run private equity firm (more on that later) to create a women's surf brand by women for women, it was "a dream come true opportunity."  Ansea was designed intentionally to bring a women's perspective to the world of surfwear, owned and operated and supported by the people who not only design the clothes but also are the target market. Large companies largely run by men had long dominated the board-shorts and bikinis featured in surf mags which ubiquitously featured very fit, generally young, and mostly white models. Abigail and her patrons at Solera Capital saw an opportunity to create a brand that would champion women of all shapes, ages and shades, translating the openness of the ocean into a clothing line that celebrated the broad diversity of ocean lovers.  Much of this story is about the why which drove the creation of Ansea, as well as the what that defines their product. Their principles of course also stretch into the sustainability of the clothes they make, choosing to forgo Neoprene for the Yulex, a plant based material which is more expensive and harder to source, but also won't spend the next millennium degrading in a landfill. 

Hydropower already provides nearly 7% of the nation’s electricity. It also holds tremendous potential for expansion! But there are challenges: How can we harness water as a renewable energy resource without disrupting sensitive ecosystems, communities and wildlife? Gia Schneider has an answer. Her company is Natel Energy, which she co-founded with her brother back in 2005. The goal: change the way hydropower operates. The California-based shop is known for its Restoration Hydro, which generates several benefits: habitat creation, improved water quality, and sustained increases in groundwater. Natel also enhances river, wetland, and watershed connectivity, which can help mitigate the impacts of droughts and floods. With changing water patterns and more extreme precipitation events — i.e. snowpocalypses! — there is a critical need to meet sustainability needs of the future. Gia and her team are leading the way as we transition to a zero-carbon grid, wielding hydropower to improve watershed habitats, generate electricity, and upgrade critical water infrastructure, while also supporting reduced carbon goals. 

66°North began not so much as a clothing company as it was a means of not dying. In 1926 the company was founded to provide a layer of protection from the elements to their local community of fisherman. Considering it was Iceland, that was no small task.  This week we invite the CEO of 66°North, Helgi Oskarsson, in from the cold, to talk about how he's shepherding a company with values that stretch back a century into the modern era. As Heigl puts it, every company needs a North Star, a set of principles against which decisions are weighed and assessed. He inherited a company with a rich history, but consistent commitment to quality products built to last, using the best materials (again, had to keep those fishermen alive) with the minimal amount of impact, and, at it's core, being in holistic harmony with nature.  95% of apparel  made by 66°North is repairable, a fact they track because they offer free repairs on all clothing. And if they can't repair it to your satisfaction (or you'd rather move on) they will donate that item directly to the red cross, creating a circular path wherever possible. They've been carbon neutral since 2019, in the process planting over 2,700 trees in the process, many by hand.  As they themselves say, they make clothes "that make life and activity possible where there would otherwise be none, and business practices that conserve and protect the North at a time when our glaciers, and natural landscape are under dramatic threat from climate change."