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Why Sustainability Is Becoming a Business Requirement · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  Let's talk sustainability
• 0:01
  because here's the thing.
• 0:03
  When we see wildfires across the planet,
• 0:06
  when we see sea level
• 0:08
  rise and ice melting,
• 0:10
  we get a lot of anxiety.
• 0:11
  I get a lot of anxiety.
• 0:13
  We all get a lot of anxiety
• 0:14
  when we're seeing the world
• 0:15
  literally melt in front of our eyes.
• 0:18
  And of course,
• 0:19
  politicians not really helping out
• 0:21
  in any kind of way
• 0:22
  because they're gonna continue
• 0:23
  to invest in fossil fuels.
• 0:25
  Doesn't matter which
• 0:25
  country or part of it seems
• 0:26
  like that seems to be the way.
• 0:28
  And it seems to be like it's just dire
• 0:30
  situation that we're in.
• 0:32
  We can't get out of it.
• 0:33
  No matter who we elect or
• 0:34
  or if a party takes power.
• 0:36
  This is just what happens to all of us.
• 0:40
  And it's just it's frustrating as a
• 0:42
  citizen of any country that has elections
• 0:45
  and Democratic party
• 0:47
  that can be in a Democratic process that
• 0:50
  they can elect the people that they want.
• 0:52
  It seems that we always go for oil and
• 0:55
  gas and mining and coal
• 0:56
  and fossil fuels and all
• 0:57
  this kind of stuff that is detriment to
• 0:59
  our planet because that's
• 1:01
  the way we are surviving.
• 1:02
  But I'm going to tell you that there are
• 1:03
  businesses out there and not just
• 1:05
  businesses that are all
• 1:06
  sustainable, but businesses that have
• 1:09
  been working for like decades and in
• 1:11
  business for decades who
• 1:13
  are changing the way that they are doing
• 1:15
  business because of us,
• 1:18
  because of the people that are
• 1:20
  the consumers. And this Friday, we
• 1:22
  actually have an
• 1:23
  interview with Zina Harris who is
• 1:26
  a consultant, a sustainability consultant
• 1:29
  that works in the entertainment industry.
• 1:32
  And Zina comes on the podcast,
• 1:33
  and she's going to talk a lot about how
• 1:35
  what you can really think of and how you
• 1:37
  can make things more
• 1:38
  efficient and more sustainable in every
• 1:40
  little process of a
• 1:41
  production of a say a TV show or
• 1:43
  movie. It's quite fascinating. And what I
• 1:45
  wanted to do today to kind
• 1:46
  of prep you for that interview
• 1:48
  is to talk about why sustainability is
• 1:51
  such an important part of the
• 1:53
  process now and why businesses
• 1:55
  are really the key in changing how we do
• 1:58
  things because I have always been an
• 2:00
  advocate of businesses
• 2:02
  being problem solvers. They have a
• 2:05
  problem. That's why they do so
• 2:06
  well. They have a problem that
• 2:07
  we need to that we need to get solved and
• 2:10
  then they pay for a
• 2:11
  service or product or we pay for
• 2:12
  a service or product that helps solve
• 2:13
  that problem, whatever that might be. And
• 2:15
  on today's episode of
• 2:16
  the How to Protect the Ocean podcast,
• 2:18
  we're going to be talking about that.
• 2:19
  We're going to be talking about why
• 2:21
  sustainability has become such an
• 2:23
  important part of businesses and why a
• 2:24
  lot of businesses are turning
• 2:25
  towards that, whether they want to or
• 2:28
  not. So we're going to talk about that on
• 2:29
  this episode of the How to
• 2:30
  Protect the Ocean podcast where you get
• 2:32
  your ocean news and sustainability news
• 2:34
  across the week. So Monday to
• 2:38
  Friday, you get sustainability news and
• 2:40
  ocean news and it's and you know, this is
• 2:43
  what we do. We try and provide
• 2:44
  a resource to kind of make you feel
• 2:45
  better and be more optimistic around the
• 2:47
  ocean so that we can do
• 2:49
  better around the ocean and we can
• 2:51
  make better decisions in our daily lives
• 2:53
  as well as hold our members of government
• 2:57
  accountable. And I think that's going to
• 2:59
  be a really important part in the future.
• 3:01
  It is this hope that there are
• 3:02
  accountability measures that these
• 3:04
  elected officials hold themselves to and
• 3:07
  there could be consequences if they don't
• 3:09
  hold it. But regardless, we're going to talk about why sustainability is so important because you know, one of the questions that I have is that we have a question about sustainability.
• 3:09
  They're just saying that for us in the first time there's one of the reasons why
• 3:11
  sustainability is so important because
• 3:13
  you know, one of the questions that I
• 3:14
  asked Xena, Who uses sustainability
• 3:14
  Okay. Let's just point out, the two things that we have announced today has been sort of I can't allow that to be Broncos add in SD app and then it was the start of a Initiative agation law act and which is why sustainability's so important because you know one of the questions thatamas Zena was like, You
• 3:16
  know, why, why are we production
• 3:17
  companies do this kind of stuff?
• 3:36
  The one thing that's good is
• 3:37
  that we could put pressure,
• 3:39
  consumers can put pressure on the
• 3:41
  products that we have,
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  whether it's a movie,
• 3:42
  whether it's a TV show,
• 3:44
  whether it's a
• 3:44
  physical product that we use,
• 3:46
  that we drink out of, you know, we,
• 3:48
  when you drive around, it doesn't matter.
• 3:50
  We can use our dollar, right?
• 3:53
  We can use our money to put,
• 3:56
  like to invest in what we want.
• 3:58
  So for instance, like, you know,
• 4:00
  bring up the car situation.
• 4:02
  If I don't want a gas car,
• 4:04
  I can go with an EV,
• 4:07
  like an electric vehicle.
• 4:09
  I, you know, it's more, it's
• 4:10
  a little bit more expensive.
• 4:12
  And it's maybe a
• 4:13
  little bit more of a burden
• 4:14
  when you first drive it.
• 4:14
  And it's a little bit of a change.
• 4:15
  But if I truly have values,
• 4:17
  if my values truly
• 4:18
  surround that decision,
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  then I will make the
• 4:21
  effort into doing that.
• 4:22
  Same with like boating.
• 4:24
  There are a lot of people
• 4:24
  who enjoy having a motorboat
• 4:27
  and that's a gas powered motorboat.
• 4:29
  But then now there's
• 4:30
  this up and coming electric,
• 4:32
  you know, boating that we are seeing,
• 4:34
  like, we are seeing electric
• 4:34
  motors and that is quieter,
• 4:37
  that is more powerful.
• 4:40
  And that, you know,
• 4:42
  bust the miss of like running out of,
• 4:45
  of battery while you're on the water.
• 4:46
  And we're going to have
• 4:47
  a guest on in a few weeks
• 4:48
  to be able to talk about that.
• 4:50
  So there's always these
• 4:51
  different things that we can do
• 4:53
  to make sure we're
• 4:54
  holding companies accountable
• 4:56
  for their sustainability.
• 4:57
  And that's forcing
• 4:58
  companies to invest more
• 4:59
  into their supply chain.
• 5:01
  And forcing companies to
• 5:02
  be better business people
• 5:03
  when it comes to the environment,
• 5:05
  think about the environment.
• 5:07
  And to be honest, if you, if
• 5:08
  you take all the businesses now,
• 5:10
  the way they operate, and
• 5:12
  you try to find efficiencies,
• 5:14
  you try to find sustainability,
• 5:15
  there might be an upfront investment,
• 5:18
  but overall, there's a cost savings
• 5:20
  because there's
• 5:20
  incentives built in by government
• 5:22
  to go, you know, more sustainable,
• 5:25
  more green if you want
• 5:26
  to use those terms there.
• 5:28
  And then of course, there's
• 5:29
  the actual money of paying,
• 5:30
  you know, in addition to
• 5:32
  go into renewable energy,
• 5:33
  or to change the way you're doing a
• 5:35
  certain supply chain,
• 5:36
  or the way you do a production, you know,
• 5:38
  for a TV show or a movie.
• 5:40
  There's always little
• 5:40
  different things that you can do,
• 5:42
  and there's ends up being
• 5:43
  benefits in the long run,
• 5:44
  not only for the planet, but for your
• 5:46
  business in terms of cost.
• 5:47
  And I think that's where a
• 5:49
  lot of people, when we discuss,
• 5:51
  when I tell people, when I talk to people
• 5:52
  like just around my area,
• 5:55
  and like, yeah, why, you know, we're,
• 5:57
  government's never going
• 5:57
  to really force people to,
• 6:00
  you know, go into EVs, or
• 6:01
  not gas-powered vehicles,
• 6:03
  and we talk about the same problem each
• 6:06
  time when if we start talking about just
• 6:07
  looking at what we do on a
• 6:08
  daily basis, every business,
• 6:10
  we can actually help,
• 6:14
  you know, become more sustainable, become
• 6:16
  less dependent on, you know, government,
• 6:20
  governments and have businesses actually
• 6:22
  focus in on being more sustainable.
• 6:25
  Now, with that said, people can only
• 6:27
  drive a certain amount, you know, money
• 6:29
  really talks in this type of world.
• 6:31
  And so there are times when the
• 6:33
  government will have to step in and say,
• 6:35
  hey, yeah, you know what, you know, when
• 6:36
  you said, yeah, we're going to, you asked
• 6:38
  us to leave it up to you, whether you
• 6:39
  should go more sustainable in your supply
• 6:41
  chain or in your processes, and you
• 6:43
  decided not to do that.
• 6:45
  Okay, we're now we're going to give you a
• 6:47
  little bit more incentive because we're
• 6:49
  putting in a regulation.
• 6:50
  And that's what happened in Europe.
• 6:52
  So the European Union, their corporate
• 6:54
  sustainability due diligence directive
• 6:56
  requires large companies to identify and
• 6:59
  address environmental,
• 7:01
  and human rights harms across their
• 7:03
  entire supply chain, not just their own
• 7:05
  operations, it entered into force in in
• 7:08
  on July 25 2024 and aims to foster
• 7:12
  sustainable and
• 7:13
  responsible corporate behavior.
• 7:15
  So not just in their like the European
• 7:19
  operations, but if they work globally, it
• 7:21
  has to be global, especially if they're
• 7:22
  headquartered in the EU.
• 7:24
  So I think this is something interesting
• 7:26
  in terms of like government directive,
• 7:29
  right? The European Union is a big place.
• 7:32
  It has a lot of member
• 7:33
  states and countries.
• 7:35
  And so, you know, making them have this
• 7:38
  law that they have to look after Europe's
• 7:39
  always seems to be ahead of North America
• 7:42
  in the way that they do things in terms
• 7:43
  of corporate and environmental
• 7:45
  responsibility for from what I know.
• 7:48
  Please let me know if that's different.
• 7:51
  But also, you know, you can look at like
• 7:52
  the reasoning behind it because the
• 7:53
  companies are increasingly building
• 7:55
  supply chains, you know, business
• 7:57
  partners and renewable energy into their
• 7:59
  operations to positively impact and and
• 8:03
  and positively impact society and the
• 8:06
  environment while still turning a profit.
• 8:07
  And then like there's a twin pressure
• 8:10
  point customers demands for that
• 8:12
  accountability plus regulatory mandate so
• 8:14
  that you know, you have both, you know,
• 8:16
  the the customers are demanding it and
• 8:18
  also the government or demand and the
• 8:20
  businesses are trying
• 8:20
  to move there anyway.
• 8:22
  This helps with having this government
• 8:24
  regulatory system could help in
• 8:26
  incentivizing the businesses in either
• 8:28
  tax cuts or something that
• 8:29
  could help these these places.
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  And now I'm not an economist. So I don't
• 8:34
  know if tax cuts would help. But usually
• 8:35
  that's what have they get rebates and all
• 8:37
  this kind of stuff to help save them
• 8:38
  money as they're as they're paying the
• 8:41
  upfront investment to
• 8:42
  changing these types of processes.
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  So I think that's that's going to be
• 8:45
  really interesting. Now, of course, the
• 8:48
  politics of mall
• 8:49
  politics always comes into play.
• 8:50
  So the European Union ministers recently
• 8:52
  endorsed amendments that reduce the
• 8:54
  number of companies
• 8:56
  covered and delay the timeline.
• 8:57
  So obviously not a good good thing
• 9:00
  following industry pressure about the
• 9:02
  competitiveness against foreign rivals.
• 9:04
  So here's the here's the thing that
• 9:06
  businesses can be worried about.
• 9:08
  And I understand where it comes from is
• 9:10
  like if you have businesses in the
• 9:11
  European Union who have who are forced to
• 9:13
  make these investments and put in costs
• 9:15
  for that and still sell their prices sell
• 9:17
  their products and services for the
• 9:19
  prices that they they sell them.
• 9:20
  They're losing money. Now we could argue to we're blue in the
• 9:24
  face of like, can they handle this costs
• 9:26
  like are there are there shareholders or
• 9:29
  their company leaders not going to make
• 9:30
  as much money as they usually do, which
• 9:32
  is usually in the hundreds of millions of
• 9:33
  dollars when we think about corporations.
• 9:35
  But let's think of like a small business
• 9:36
  for small to medium sized person who has
• 9:38
  to do this as well, which
• 9:39
  is more of an upfront cost.
• 9:41
  So I think there's a little bit of leeway
• 9:43
  here when businesses talk back and have
• 9:45
  and give their feedback and say, hey, I don't know if we can do this right off the bat.
• 9:47
  The corporations, yeah, they could
• 9:51
  probably do it right off the bat.
• 9:52
  They're probably the biggest voice.
• 9:53
  They don't have to give up all that
• 9:55
  money, but also the small to medium sized
• 9:57
  businesses who also have to do this.
• 9:59
  I think that's something that could be
• 10:01
  really interesting for them and could be
• 10:03
  challenging for them.
• 10:04
  And some of those companies might be out
• 10:07
  of the coverage of
• 10:08
  those of those companies.
• 10:09
  So it'll be interesting to see what
• 10:12
  happens now, something that you can do if you're if you're not living with a company, you can do it.
• 10:14
  I mean, obviously, if you're living in
• 10:19
  Europe, you want to pressure
• 10:20
  companies to be able to do more.
• 10:21
  But even in North America or Asia,
• 10:23
  wherever you're from or Australia, you
• 10:25
  can you can speak
• 10:27
  with your dollar, right?
• 10:28
  Speak with your wallet. Don't support
• 10:30
  companies who are not environmentally
• 10:33
  friendly, who are not really trying to
• 10:37
  redo or change their supply chain to make it more sustainable.
• 10:39
  Sometimes you know if they are and
• 10:42
  sometimes you don't know if they are. My
• 10:44
  wife did a certification called the lead
• 10:48
  certification a while ago, and it's a
• 10:49
  business practice is to try and find
• 10:51
  efficiencies and try and find ways to not
• 10:54
  only be more sustainable, but also be
• 10:56
  more more profitable, right?
• 10:58
  Because that's what a lot of businesses
• 10:59
  want. And she went to visit a local like
• 11:03
  a Canadian. It's a pretty large store,
• 11:07
  mountain equipment co-op, and they had a
• 11:08
  warehouse and they had all these extra
• 11:10
  cardboard boxes that they had left over
• 11:13
  from all the products when they were
• 11:14
  getting it in from their suppliers.
• 11:16
  And they just didn't have a system that
• 11:18
  was efficient that would put that
• 11:19
  together, the proper recycling, proper
• 11:21
  packaging, proper sorting and everything
• 11:24
  like that. So they put that in and they
• 11:26
  end up saving like
• 11:27
  millions of dollars in the end.
• 11:29
  Now, there was an upfront cost to do
• 11:31
  that, but overall in the long term,
• 11:34
  they're going to save millions and
• 11:35
  millions of dollars every year just
• 11:37
  because they were founding.
• 11:38
  They found a process that will help them
• 11:40
  get rid and recycle these cardboard boxes
• 11:43
  better because even though cardboard
• 11:45
  boxes and materials are able to be
• 11:47
  recycled, if you don't put them into the
• 11:49
  right containers or you don't follow the
• 11:51
  right process, they're just going to end
• 11:53
  up in the landfill and
• 11:54
  they're not going to get recycled.
• 11:55
  So having that as a big part of like
• 11:59
  these types of efficiencies and these
• 12:00
  types of sustainability practices put in
• 12:02
  is huge. The other thing that's really
• 12:04
  great are the B Corps.
• 12:06
  More and more companies are becoming B
• 12:08
  Corp certified. Now, B Corp is a
• 12:11
  certification program, an audit program
• 12:12
  that does an audit on companies every few
• 12:15
  years and they look at the triple bottom
• 12:17
  line, right? They're looking
• 12:18
  at people, profit and planet.
• 12:22
  And I think that's really important to
• 12:24
  look at the environment and the people,
• 12:25
  how you treat your employees, how you
• 12:26
  treat your customers and of course how
• 12:29
  you're getting your profits and how
• 12:31
  you're sharing those profits.
• 12:32
  And so this certification, this audit
• 12:34
  that's done on these companies changes as
• 12:37
  they get more evolved and they evolve
• 12:39
  over time and they run these audits and
• 12:41
  they end up being, oh cool, they end up
• 12:44
  really proud that they
• 12:45
  pass a certification.
• 12:46
  If they don't pass, they know what they
• 12:47
  have to do to pass and they start to
• 12:49
  better those processes. They become a
• 12:51
  better company for that. So you can go on
• 12:53
  the B Corp website, I'll put a link in
• 12:55
  the show notes, where you can actually
• 12:56
  find where these B Corps are, how to buy
• 13:00
  from them if you're interested in their product.
• 13:01
  And you're able to do the diligence that
• 13:05
  you need. They have like a score on the B
• 13:07
  Corp of like how they scored from a
• 13:09
  people profit and
• 13:10
  planet kind of situation.
• 13:13
  And I just think that's like a really
• 13:15
  cool thing to help you make a decision as
• 13:17
  a consumer of who you want to support.
• 13:20
  And it goes all over the place. Sometimes
• 13:22
  it's like insurance companies, sometimes
• 13:23
  it's like somebody makes a
• 13:24
  product that's more sustainable.
• 13:25
  There's a lot of different things and
• 13:27
  it's not cheap. They companies invest a
• 13:30
  heavy heavily into this process to make
• 13:33
  sure that they get B Corp certified and
• 13:35
  that they treat their employees right.
• 13:36
  They treat the planet right and they
• 13:38
  treat the profit and people equally.
• 13:42
  So I think that's really that's really
• 13:43
  important. So this week we're going to be
• 13:45
  covering a lot of this stuff tomorrow.
• 13:47
  We're going to be looking at like the
• 13:48
  economic case of sustainability.
• 13:50
  We're going to go through the economics
• 13:53
  Wednesday. We're going to be covering the
• 13:54
  sustainability about people. We're going
• 13:56
  to be really focusing on the people. And
• 13:58
  then of course on on Thursday, we're
• 14:01
  going to be looking at, you know, what
• 14:03
  when sustainability claims are true.
• 14:06
  And so I think that's kind of an
• 14:08
  important thing to cover. So we're going
• 14:10
  to we're going to look at all this stuff
• 14:12
  this week before my interview with Zena
• 14:14
  Harris, who's talking about
• 14:15
  sustainability in the
• 14:17
  production of a TV show or a TV show.
• 14:19
  Or movies or entertainment in the
• 14:21
  entertainment industry. So it's going to
• 14:23
  be really interesting to see how
• 14:24
  different sectors maneuver within
• 14:27
  sustainability. So that's it for today's
• 14:29
  episode. If you want to support the show,
• 14:31
  you can do so. Go speak up for blue.com
• 14:33
  forward slash Patreon.
• 14:35
  And if you want to get ahold of me, you
• 14:36
  can just go into the show notes, look at
• 14:38
  all my socials and DM me. I'd be more
• 14:40
  than happy to have that conversation with
• 14:42
  you because this is where we start the
• 14:44
  conversation and you continue it. And we
• 14:46
  want to thank you. I want to thank you
• 14:48
  for joining me on today's episode of the
• 14:49
  how to protect the ocean podcast. Have a
• 14:51
  great day. We'll talk to you next time
• 14:52
  and happy conservation.