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Why Sustainable Companies Actually Save Money · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  Why do companies do sustainable things?
• 0:02
  Why do they make their
• 0:03
  supply change sustainable?
• 0:05
  A lot of times, not just for the sake of
• 0:07
  being good for the environment,
• 0:08
  a lot of times it's because
• 0:09
  they save money, like actual,
• 0:12
  they actually save a lot of money.
• 0:13
  And I think that's really important for
• 0:14
  companies to do that in these times,
• 0:16
  try to keep their prices the same or to
• 0:18
  try to maximize their profits.
• 0:20
  And at the same time,
• 0:21
  when they're sustainable,
• 0:23
  they become better for the environment.
• 0:25
  Today, we're going to be talking about a
• 0:26
  particular company
• 0:27
  called Phillips Lighting
• 0:28
  that found ways to not only be more
• 0:31
  circular, but also save a lot of money.
• 0:34
  And we're going to talk about that on
• 0:35
  today's episode of the How
• 0:36
  to Protect the Ocean podcast,
• 0:37
  because this is the podcast where you
• 0:38
  find out a lot of ocean news and
• 0:40
  sustainability news,
• 0:42
  sustainability, sustainability news.
• 0:44
  And that's what you're going to find this
• 0:45
  week on this podcast, Monday to Friday,
• 0:47
  we're going to be
• 0:48
  talking about sustainability.
• 0:49
  Today, we're going to be talking about
• 0:50
  the economics of
• 0:51
  sustainability and how it can
• 0:52
  benefit companies, not only from a PR
• 0:54
  standpoint, but also from
• 0:55
  a cost saving standpoint,
• 0:57
  which we hope, we hope that
• 0:59
  consumers see that cost savings.
• 1:01
  And I want to know from you right now,
• 1:03
  DM, if you're really struggling,
• 1:04
  do you think companies will pass on their
• 1:06
  savings to the consumer?
• 1:08
  I know they pass on when they have to pay
• 1:09
  more and we have to end up paying more,
• 1:11
  but I want to know, truthfully, if you
• 1:14
  think that business, if they
• 1:15
  save money using a circular
• 1:16
  economy, do they actually lower the
• 1:18
  prices or actually
• 1:19
  keep the prices the same?
• 1:21
  So you end up not
• 1:22
  having to spend more money.
• 1:24
  But we'll talk about that later.
• 1:25
  I want to hear your point
• 1:27
  because I want to support you.
• 1:28
  And if you want to support this show, you
• 1:29
  can do so by going to speakupforblue.com,
• 1:31
  forward slash Patreon,
• 1:33
  join our Patreon community.
• 1:35
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• 1:37
  things that I'm trying this new,
• 1:38
  whether it be on YouTube, whether it be
• 1:40
  on podcasting, whether it be on TikTok,
• 1:43
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• 1:44
  different things that
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  I'm going to be trying,
• 1:46
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• 1:46
  in my Patreon community.
• 1:48
  Plus you get access to some cool videos
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  that I'll be showing before
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  I release them to the public.
• 1:53
  So check out
• 1:54
  speakupforblue.com forward slash Patreon.
• 1:57
  All right, let's get into today's show
• 1:58
  because, you know, circular
• 2:00
  business models are kind of
• 2:01
  interesting when we
• 2:02
  talk about businesses.
• 2:03
  And yesterday I talked about how
• 2:04
  businesses are where we're
• 2:05
  really going to find solutions.
• 2:06
  Like government can provide solutions
• 2:08
  from a regulatory perspective.
• 2:09
  And we're going to hear that they can
• 2:10
  incentivize businesses to do that.
• 2:13
  And sometimes they
• 2:14
  incentivize in a forceful way.
• 2:15
  And sometimes they incentivize in a nice
• 2:17
  way by giving them tax breaks.
• 2:19
  But for the most part, you know, the
• 2:21
  government's have to put in regulations,
• 2:23
  but businesses are really going to find
• 2:24
  solutions because businesses, no matter
• 2:26
  where you're looking at, whether it's a
• 2:27
  hospital company or an environmentally
• 2:29
  friendly company, they are the ones that
• 2:31
  find solutions because they come up with
• 2:33
  a way to solve a problem.
• 2:34
  That's a business really,
• 2:35
  it's their solution providers.
• 2:37
  And so yesterday we talked about the
• 2:38
  reasoning why they would go sustainable.
• 2:40
  We're going to really focus in on the
• 2:42
  economy today because they look at
• 2:43
  economy, people and profit.
• 2:45
  They were going to be
• 2:46
  focusing on the economy.
• 2:47
  And one company that really stood out to
• 2:50
  me in doing my research for
• 2:51
  this was Phillips Lighting.
• 2:53
  And they now sell a lighting as a service
• 2:55
  rather than a product extending the
• 2:57
  product lifespans
• 2:59
  through maintenance and reuse.
• 3:01
  So think about the
• 3:01
  business model changing.
• 3:03
  You may be buying less bulbs, but you're
• 3:07
  actually spending more on
• 3:08
  maintenance in the long run.
• 3:10
  So you're buying one ball, but you're
• 3:11
  spending more on maintenance and services
• 3:14
  and that kind of stuff
• 3:15
  and reuse, to be honest.
• 3:16
  So I think it's really cool.
• 3:17
  What really happened is aluminum
• 3:18
  recycling provides 95% energy savings
• 3:22
  compared to producing
• 3:23
  aluminum from like a raw bauxite.
• 3:27
  That's where it really comes from.
• 3:28
  So a British study in industrial
• 3:30
  symbiosis, of industrial symbiosis, where
• 3:33
  companies were sharing waste and
• 3:34
  byproducts, found it saved 1.3 billion
• 3:37
  dollars euros in costs and prevented 42
• 3:42
  million tons of CO2 emissions.
• 3:45
  That's a pretty big impact on just how
• 3:48
  things can change when
• 3:49
  you decide to go circular.
• 3:51
  Right. And a PwC Sweden study modeling
• 3:54
  circular business models in electronics
• 3:56
  found they cut operating costs by an
• 3:59
  average of 12% while
• 4:01
  also reducing emissions.
• 4:03
  So we're seeing a benefit here.
• 4:04
  Not only are they saving money, which is
• 4:06
  great for businesses, but they're also
• 4:08
  saving the environment by reducing their
• 4:10
  emissions or their CO2
• 4:11
  emissions, which I think is fantastic.
• 4:14
  Right. And now they're seeing, you know,
• 4:16
  some things that are
• 4:17
  happening with loans and lenders.
• 4:19
  So like the banks, lenders
• 4:21
  are now now evaluate ESG.
• 4:23
  So ecological sustainable goals or
• 4:25
  ecological social goals resilient.
• 4:28
  They look at that ESG resilience
• 4:29
  alongside financial history and a
• 4:31
  sustainably linked loans offer lower
• 4:33
  interest rates for company to companies
• 4:36
  that hit circulatory targets.
• 4:38
  Right. Sorry, sorry.
• 4:39
  Circularity targets.
• 4:41
  And so I think it's really cool when you
• 4:43
  start to see, you know, companies like
• 4:45
  lenders start to lend money by
• 4:47
  incentivizing their companies to lower
• 4:49
  their emissions or improve
• 4:52
  recycling or improve reuse.
• 4:54
  I think to see companies be rewarded for
• 4:58
  that type of behavior is great because
• 5:00
  now you can get access to more lending
• 5:02
  and maybe eventually they're not going to
• 5:04
  lend to companies who are not doing those
• 5:07
  types of goals, not
• 5:08
  hating those types of goals.
• 5:09
  And circularity is becoming a huge factor
• 5:12
  in whether a company gets access to
• 5:14
  capital and not just a
• 5:16
  marketing angle. Right.
• 5:17
  Now, let's let's be honest. When it comes
• 5:20
  to the economy, I have to say this. There
• 5:22
  are companies who greenwash, who bluewash
• 5:24
  everything that they can just to get away
• 5:26
  with it, just to make sure that they can
• 5:28
  show that they have done
• 5:29
  some really cool things.
• 5:31
  But then on the other side, what you
• 5:33
  don't see, right, what doesn't make the
• 5:35
  PR list, right, the public relations
• 5:38
  list, they start to do some bad things to
• 5:40
  people, to the economy and all that kind
• 5:42
  of stuff into the environment.
• 5:44
  So you have to be careful in how this is
• 5:46
  measured. Right. And that's why I
• 5:48
  mentioned it yesterday in the B Corps.
• 5:50
  I think what I like about because
• 5:51
  although it's not perfect and there are
• 5:53
  some companies who kind of, you know,
• 5:56
  push the boundaries, let's just say, in
• 5:58
  terms of the customers that they acquire.
• 6:00
  With their consulting firms and things
• 6:02
  like that, there is a report that was put
• 6:03
  out or an article that was put out a
• 6:05
  couple of years ago about that.
• 6:08
  Where consulting firms were taking on
• 6:10
  like fossil fuel clients and things like
• 6:12
  that. So that was a little problem. So,
• 6:13
  you know, no system is perfect.
• 6:15
  But a lot of these companies are doing
• 6:17
  what they want are doing. What not only
• 6:19
  do they want to do by saving money, but
• 6:21
  they're also being sustainable. I mean,
• 6:24
  and kind of buying into the circularity
• 6:28
  type of business
• 6:28
  model where you can reuse.
• 6:31
  You can recycle, you can have repair if
• 6:35
  you have it and you can take back. And I
• 6:37
  think that's a really great thing because
• 6:39
  we're getting back to those days where
• 6:41
  you can just give like the empty milk
• 6:43
  bottle as a glass bottle back to the milk
• 6:46
  person who's delivering it so that they
• 6:48
  can take it back and
• 6:49
  wash it and reuse it.
• 6:51
  Those are really important aspects when
• 6:54
  you come to a business right now. Imagine
• 6:55
  a company taking back their containers so
• 6:58
  that they can either reuse or recycle or
• 7:00
  repair them and put
• 7:01
  them back into circulation.
• 7:03
  Yeah, obviously not a lot of people, not
• 7:05
  a lot of companies can do that because of
• 7:07
  the types of containers that they use.
• 7:09
  But if you move towards a more
• 7:11
  sustainable container where they can
• 7:13
  actually reuse them or break them down
• 7:14
  better so that they can recycle them into
• 7:16
  the containers again or into something
• 7:18
  else. That provides a lot of value. They
• 7:20
  can get money back for that equipment
• 7:22
  that they gather up. And there's there
• 7:24
  are some some some legislation like I
• 7:27
  don't Canada. There's legislation that's
• 7:29
  going to be starting to
• 7:30
  track the types of containers.
• 7:31
  From a plastic pollution standpoint of
• 7:35
  where this plastic pollution is ending up
• 7:36
  and where they were derived from. Where
• 7:38
  were they made and then how to where they
• 7:40
  end up and who's actually responsible for
• 7:42
  that? Is it the consumer or is it the the
• 7:45
  the company who made the container sold
• 7:48
  it to another company that was able to
• 7:50
  brand it and put it out to the consumer
• 7:52
  and the consumer either litters it or
• 7:54
  can't really do anything with it. You
• 7:56
  know, a lot of coffee cups are notorious
• 7:58
  for that where you think they're because
• 8:00
  they're cardboard,
• 8:01
  but they got this waxy,
• 8:02
  material because they have to stay
• 8:03
  within, you know, they're they've got hot
• 8:05
  water or hot coffee in the container. So
• 8:08
  it has to has to hold up his cardboard or
• 8:10
  his paper. It's got a hold up. So it's
• 8:12
  got this like waxy material right. But
• 8:13
  that waxy material prevents it from being
• 8:15
  recycled. And so a lot of the times these
• 8:17
  coffee cups end up in the recycling bin.
• 8:20
  Now imagine if a if a Starbucks or Tim
• 8:24
  Hortons or Dunkin Donuts makes a
• 8:26
  container that's fully recyclable. That's
• 8:29
  actually fully and they take it back
• 8:30
  themselves. You can actually bring it back to the container.
• 8:32
  Bring it back just like we do at the
• 8:33
  liquor store at the beer store when you
• 8:34
  bring back your empties. And I don't care
• 8:36
  if you can do that in other countries.
• 8:37
  And can if you bring back your empties,
• 8:39
  they will give you money back for it. I
• 8:41
  don't know if you can do it. The liquor
• 8:41
  store that used to be able to do it. You
• 8:43
  can do it at the beer store with the cans
• 8:44
  and they'll give you a deposit back,
• 8:46
  right? They'll give you money back. So
• 8:47
  you may not make your full money back,
• 8:49
  which obviously that's that's never going
• 8:50
  to happen. But you make some money back
• 8:52
  and then pay for more beer or you go pay
• 8:54
  for something else. I remember in
• 8:56
  university when we used to have house
• 8:57
  parties with us, what we do, we collect
• 8:58
  all the cans. We take
• 9:00
  pictures of how many like
• 9:02
  beer cases and all that kind of stuff
• 9:04
  that was there. And then we would drive
• 9:05
  it all back and multiple runs and we
• 9:08
  would give them all in and we'd make like
• 9:10
  300 bucks off the thing. And that would
• 9:13
  go towards paying for repairs or cleaning
• 9:15
  bills for the house that we were renting.
• 9:18
  So it drives value and it drives like if
• 9:21
  you're motivated enough to take it back.
• 9:24
  That's a huge thing. I know, speaking of
• 9:27
  the bottle returns or the can returns,
• 9:29
  there was a retired
• 9:30
  principal who was going around
• 9:31
  raising money for his old school and he
• 9:34
  every every garbage day or recycling day
• 9:37
  he would come by and he would grab the
• 9:38
  bottles and he would grab the cans and he
• 9:40
  would put them in his car and he would go
• 9:42
  and he would turn and he did that for 25
• 9:43
  years where he raised money to support
• 9:47
  various aspects of his school. And you
• 9:50
  don't think it's a lot of money at the
• 9:52
  time. But if you dedicate that time to do
• 9:54
  that and take bottles and take cans and
• 9:56
  take them back, you can actually earn a
• 9:58
  good a good amount of money to pay for
• 10:01
  something that's fine.
• 10:01
  And you can pay for a lot of money if
• 10:02
  you're a good one or to pay for more
• 10:03
  alcohol or to pay for whatever that you
• 10:04
  really want with that money if you can
• 10:06
  make couple hundred bucks off a big a big
• 10:09
  hall like a university party or after
• 10:11
  university party. But anyway, it's
• 10:14
  there's different ways of experiencing
• 10:16
  the circularity. And of course, not all
• 10:19
  companies are going to just do it because
• 10:21
  of the, you know, they got great hearts.
• 10:23
  There are certain aspects where
• 10:25
  governments have to come in and they have
• 10:27
  to say, hey, we're going to put this
• 10:28
  legislation through and you're going to have to abide by it.
• 10:31
  And to do that, you're actually going to
• 10:33
  save some money, but you may have to put
• 10:35
  some money up front, but you're going to
• 10:37
  save some money. So the EU's upcoming
• 10:39
  circular economy act introduces stricter
• 10:42
  product design rules and a digital
• 10:44
  product passport for traceability.
• 10:46
  So the Europe, as I said yesterday, is
• 10:49
  way ahead of the game in a lot of places
• 10:50
  around the world from a lot of places
• 10:52
  around the world. And then it will have
• 10:54
  it also talk about consumer repair
• 10:55
  rights. So the consumers will be able to
• 10:57
  repair because think about this.
• 10:57
  I don't know if you've noticed this is a
• 11:00
  little bit of a rant part of the show. I
• 11:02
  don't know if you've noticed this before.
• 11:04
  But when I when we used to buy my parents
• 11:08
  when they had their fridge or they had
• 11:10
  their dishwasher or they had their oven
• 11:12
  or washer and dryer, we had that. I
• 11:15
  remember for most of my life, like the
• 11:18
  first 25 years of my life. Maybe it got
• 11:21
  replaced once in my lifetime. But
• 11:24
  appliances back then
• 11:25
  lasted for 20 to 25 years.
• 11:27
  Furnaces, air conditioners, all that kind
• 11:30
  of stuff that lasted for 20 to 25 years.
• 11:33
  I'm not sure if you've noticed this
• 11:35
  lately, but if you own any appliances or
• 11:37
  you have owned any appliances, even if
• 11:39
  you're renting a house that have
• 11:40
  appliances, those things break very soon,
• 11:43
  like under 25 years, under
• 11:44
  20 years, under 10 years.
• 11:45
  A lot of the times when something breaks,
• 11:49
  it's actually cheaper to buy a new one
• 11:52
  than it is to repair the broken piece or
• 11:54
  whatever was broken on that appliance.
• 11:58
  Think about that. Think about the waste
• 11:59
  that is generated from there.
• 12:01
  Instead of going to a repair place, you
• 12:03
  have to go back to because there's not as
• 12:04
  many of those repair places or having a
• 12:06
  person come over to fix that. That
• 12:09
  problem, you would take it back to the
• 12:12
  store because they'd have like a 10 year
• 12:14
  warranty and then they say, yeah, it's
• 12:15
  actually just better. We
• 12:16
  just give you a new one.
• 12:17
  Where does all that metal go? Where does
• 12:20
  all of those pieces of those appliances
• 12:22
  that are either plastic or metal or some
• 12:24
  kind of material that may or may not get
• 12:29
  recycled? Now, metal would get recycled,
• 12:31
  but some of the stuff is all plastic and
• 12:32
  some of the stuff is not great.
• 12:34
  Then there's some chemicals in some of
• 12:35
  them to make them work. And those don't
• 12:37
  get recycled. And if they don't last for
• 12:39
  more than five or 10
• 12:40
  years, what's the point of that?
• 12:43
  So I think governments have a
• 12:44
  responsibility to tell these companies to
• 12:46
  say, Hey, you know what? Remember how you
• 12:48
  used to make these products a lot better
• 12:50
  and they still last a lot longer? We're
• 12:54
  going to do that again.
• 12:55
  We're going to make you do that again
• 12:57
  because we get what you're trying to do.
• 12:59
  You're trying to make people buy more. So
• 13:01
  if you get something, say you buy like a
• 13:03
  fridge and it breaks down
• 13:04
  after like, say, 10 years.
• 13:06
  Well, then you have to buy another
• 13:07
  fridge, right? And a lot of times when
• 13:09
  it's repair, you're not going to order
• 13:11
  the other part because it might take a
• 13:12
  long time, especially when you consider
• 13:14
  these days where it's like next day
• 13:15
  delivery. It might take a few weeks and
• 13:17
  you want that part or you can't go
• 13:18
  without a fridge for very
• 13:19
  long. All that kind of stuff.
• 13:20
  There are so many reasons to just buy a
• 13:24
  new fridge, right? But if there's a
• 13:27
  legislation that puts it through that
• 13:29
  says, Hey, you know what? Like there's a
• 13:30
  right to repair for these consumers. They
• 13:32
  don't have to go out and buy and spend
• 13:34
  another 800 to 1200,
• 13:35
  1500 bucks on a fridge.
• 13:38
  Fridge are expensive. Fridges are
• 13:39
  expensive. Appliances are expensive. So
• 13:42
  to have legislation like this upcoming
• 13:44
  circular economy act, this is great. Like
• 13:46
  for the EU, but I would love it in
• 13:48
  Canada. Love to see it in the US. Let's see it in Mexico.
• 13:49
  Let's see it in Australia. You know, like
• 13:53
  in the UK, it'd be great. So I think we
• 13:55
  should be looking at what countries are
• 13:58
  doing just like country started are
• 14:00
  starting to look at the bands on on
• 14:03
  single use plastic and start to copy
• 14:05
  those look at what works, what doesn't
• 14:07
  and take that into considerations for
• 14:09
  your country, your unique aspect and put
• 14:12
  those suckers into legislation. Right?
• 14:15
  Protect the consumer protect the
• 14:17
  environment and probably the companies will probably eventually see that.
• 14:18
  Companies will probably eventually save
• 14:20
  money on marketing on sales and
• 14:23
  everything like that. But I feel like
• 14:25
  companies are just so greedy these days.
• 14:27
  They want to milk everything they can out
• 14:29
  of you stuff that we never paid for
• 14:31
  before. We're starting to pay for now.
• 14:34
  Right? And it's the same product. We're
• 14:35
  starting to pay for now because they're
• 14:37
  realizing they can get more money out of
• 14:39
  us. They take stuff that they included in
• 14:41
  their product for free and now say, well,
• 14:43
  if you want this, you got to level up to
• 14:44
  a service package or something like that.
• 14:47
  And I'm that that gets that gets me
• 14:49
  bothered. I'm gonna tell you right now
• 14:51
  that that gets me going as you can see in
• 14:53
  this little bit of a rant. So I think
• 14:55
  that's something that like today we
• 14:57
  should look at is the economy and how
• 14:59
  sustainability can affect the
• 15:01
  economical part of a business.
• 15:02
  Businesses provide solutions and those
• 15:06
  businesses are smart. If they can save
• 15:07
  money, they will. And if they save the
• 15:09
  environment as a benefit, you're going to
• 15:11
  hear about it because that's what's
• 15:12
  really important to them. They want the
• 15:14
  consumers to know that, hey, you know
• 15:16
  what? Not only are we saving money in our
• 15:18
  supply chain, but we're actually saving
• 15:20
  the environment while we do that, while
• 15:22
  we reduce emissions, just like Phillips
• 15:24
  lighting or while we make things
• 15:27
  repairable for
• 15:28
  appliances and things like that.
• 15:31
  I think it's really important make things
• 15:32
  more efficient so you can get better air
• 15:34
  conditioning and furnace or heat pumps or
• 15:37
  whatever that might be. That's what we
• 15:38
  need to see. We need to continue to
• 15:41
  incentivize those country or those those
• 15:43
  companies and those in our countries need
• 15:45
  to really incentivize those through
• 15:46
  legislation. And for those who aren't
• 15:48
  incentivized or don't want to do that, we
• 15:50
  got to make them do it because we got to
• 15:52
  protect not only ourselves as consumers,
• 15:54
  but we got to protect the environment. We
• 15:55
  got to protect the planet, not just in
• 15:57
  our countries, but all around the world.
• 15:59
  So that's it for the episode today. I want to thank you for watching. I'm Chris
• 16:00
  I would love to hear your thoughts on
• 16:03
  this DM me links in for the socials in
• 16:06
  the show notes. And of course, if you
• 16:07
  want to support this show, you can go
• 16:09
  speak up for blue.com forward slash
• 16:11
  Patreon. You can see what I do on the
• 16:12
  podcast on YouTube on Instagram on TikTok
• 16:15
  on Facebook, all that kind of stuff. And
• 16:17
  yeah, that's it for today's episode of
• 16:19
  the how to protect the ocean podcast.
• 16:21
  Have a great day. We'll talk to you next
• 16:22
  time and happy conservation.