Carrie Ellen Phillips is cofounder/partner of BPCM
By Carrie Ellen Phillips There were a few clear themes that continued to bubble up in conversations, lectures and events during my time at the World Economic Forum Jan. 23-26 in Davos, Switzerland. I have chosen to share these insights rather than things and people who may have already been heavily covered in the news. So here they are. Everyone agrees on sustainability, but the word is fuzzy. People use the word sustainability all the time but it means something different to everyone. Some use it to refer to supply chain. Some use it to refer to the environment. Unlike “organic,” there is no governing standard for the word. This leaves the term open for “greenwashing,” similar to the word “natural” on food, which means absolutely nothing. Brands will need to make these distinctions and define their own brand codes for their customers as the word sustainability gets further co-opted. One of the most interesting trends was that whether or not the context was sustainability, the topic of sustainable practices came up, even with those companies not currently practicing them. From a sheer reputation risk point of view, brands and even countries are trying to figure it out or get left behind. Circularity is the future. William MacDonough from Cradle2Cradle and The Ellen MacArthur Foundation are the two leading voices in this charge and both were making themselves heard at Davos. At the heart of this argument is improving profitability by using waste products as the world’s new raw materials. Ellen MacArthur is leading two initiatives, The New Plastics Economy, launched in 2017, and The New Fiber Economy, launched this year. They are incubating technologies that will become the new standard for how to use waste PET and fiber, and are partnering companies with innovative technologies to accelerate development. The foundation highlighted EVRNU, a technology that turns post-consumer textile waste into renewable fiber, as the most promising, scalable technology for the circular fiber economy. One of the biggest themes in circularity is creating products in a way that builds them for future disassembly and near-endless usage without degradation of materials or end-of-life pollution. Technology will save us. Disruptive technology and future innovations were the two buzzwords. The most progressive view of the human effects of climate change is that it is a problem of bad design, and that good design will be the answer to solving the seemingly unsolvable. Boyan Slat from The Ocean Cleanup spoke everywhere. Evian announced its partnership with Loop Technologies that turns post-consumer plastic into food-grade PET, and which will take Evian’s plastic bottles from 25 percent post-consumer waste to 100 percent post-consumer waste by 2025. There was constant talk around how technology needs to change the consumer experience. Both McKinsey and the Boston Consulting Group are deeply entrenched in the sustainability and future technology space, as well as numerous growth funds and private equity funds popping up, which tells you that there is tremendous opportunity in this space.
World Economic Forum 2018 in Davos, Switzerland: Seven women co-chairs, 70-plus heads of state, 400-plus sessions and a lot of snow. Image credit: World Economic Forum/Jakob Polacsek