The Sustainable Finance Podcast is a weekly program featuring conversations with sustainability thought leaders such as cleantech entrepreneurs, VC investors, CEOs, NGO executives and creators of the ESG indices and analytics platforms.

Episode 254: Helping companies accelerate their sustainability journey

Shila Wattamwar, CEO and founder of Radiant Global Advisory, advises companies that are optimizing logistics, reducing supply chain costs and emissions and fostering community engagement as sustainability goals they expect will produce greater return on investment and profitability. 

Shila believes that companies “need to start offering sustainable solutions to people at scale and consumers need to have the knowledge to demand for those sustainable solutions.” In this episode I ask her how we can make daily sustainability focused actions more tangible for consumers as well as investors and asset managers, and to explain her consumer framework for sustainable action.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Paul Ellis: Shila, welcome to the Sustainable Finance Podcast. Let’s start with food as an example of the interconnections between the sustainable investing space and sustainable living. What’s an example of positive sustainability action that I can take as a consumer focused on healthy eating habits?

Shila Wattamwar: Yes, how we eat is such an important area when we speak about living more sustainably. I think food systems is such an important area. The better food and agricultural practices that support the world also typically lead to a more nutrient rich diet for us.

PE: So, what can we as consumers do to support this dual reward?

SW: There are 3 broad areas. The first is the big one, it’s to waste less. And this translates to everything we do across our lives.

We waste approximately one-third of the food produced that is intended for human consumption every year. That’s equivalent to about 1.32 billion metric tons—enough to feed 3 billion people. The more we can do there, the better. We can support sustainable food systems.

The second area is to make some dietary shifts. By no means am I saying eliminate animal diets. I know that’s quite difficult and even controversial, but certainly reducing diets that are heavy on animal-based products and instead eating more plant-forward meals can significantly reduce the GHG emissions as well as the water and land use pressures that we impart on food systems.

For example, I thought this was quite compelling: Livestock uses 83% of all farmland to produce just 18% of food calories, while food crops such as fruits, vegetables and grains use only 17% of farmland to produce 82% of the world’s calories. As you can see, if we make a little bit of a shift, it can really go a long way with regards to preserving land use.

Lastly, I would say to eat from sustainable local sources. Make sure that you’re supporting your local farmers to encourage fair wage for their work. And making sure that farming practices are regenerative.

PE: I’ve been aware of the imbalance related to meat consumption and animal products for years, but I didn’t realize that the percentages were that extreme. And how just with some minor adjustments in people’s diets, we can probably reduce not only consumption but greenhouse gases, pollution and waste tremendously.

SW: Absolutely. 25% of emissions is dependent on the food system. So any adjustments we make there can have significant effects overall.

PE: Let’s talk about investors and asset managers and how they can stay aligned with the rapid pace of change in sustainability focused personal-health issues. For today’s multiple generations of consumers, there’s much more global awareness about these kinds of health-related issues. 

SW: Asset managers for centuries have had very strong practices and they’ve developed their own theses and methods. But we evolve and new innovations come about. It’s important for investors and asset managers to look more closely at the innovations in the sustainability space, whether it be in sustainable food and agriculture, personal health, energy, infrastructure or even fashion and textile, the sustainable action that is being developed now is often in the private and venture space.

It’s important that asset managers are valuing companies, even large publicly traded companies, on the adoption and investment in these innovation areas.

For example, are companies in the agricultural sector adopting new technologies that are trapping or reducing methane gas coming from cattle? Are large fashion companies engaging with smaller companies that are producing no plastic or plant-based fabrics? Are large consumer goods companies working with emerging technologies that are decreasing the dependency on single use plastics?

So along with many of the other financial factors that they’re considering, as well as the present sustainability disclosures that regulators are asking for, I think it is very important for asset managers to understand the trends associated with sustainable innovation in the private space. And for investors to keep apprised of the technologies that even larger companies will need to partner with, acquire or adopt.

PE: When I talk with asset managers and financial advisers about these trends, one of the things they say is: you know you’re really talking about the stability of deep infrastructure in our economy. How are you accounting for the potential volatility that can be created in the markets?

SW: There’s a lot of new information out there. And as I mentioned, sustainable innovation is relatively new. This is why we’re seeing it in the private and venture space.

So, bringing that forward to their customers or clients can be tricky. That’s why I think about it this way: Are asset managers looking at whether larger companies are adopting these new technologies or partnering with these new technologies rather than encouraging clients to dive into them because of the volatility factor?

PE: Tell us more about the framework that you’ve developed to help consumers, investors and asset managers better understand sustainability.

SW: I’ve often said that to truly drive for a more sustainable world, we need to align three major stakeholders: The investors that are driving capital towards companies that are practicing sustainable initiatives. Then the companies themselves that need to make sustainability part of their operational excellence. And then the consumer who ultimately drives the demand for sustainability from companies, allowing companies to authentically and more easily evolve their behaviors and shift their operations to be more sustainable. As well as the regulators and the consultants, but I see them as a kind of catalyst to this equation.

But with these three stakeholders, I really need to be engaged. And while there is a lot going on amongst investors and their relationship to companies, I think there can be more done to strengthen engagement on this topic with consumers.

And look, there’s far more engagement than there used to be, and we’re all seeing more tidbits on the topic of sustainability everywhere we go. So, I’ve developed a framework that maps the positive actions we hear about, such as how decreasing the use of single use plastics helps drive a more sustainable future.

I think that companies can also explain their initiatives to their consumers through this framework as it provides consumers with the right amount of information needed to understand how their actions matter at high levels, and thus allows for commitment.

In other words, not so much information that it’s overwhelming, but not too little information so that it doesn’t stick. That’s what the framework is meant to do: provide that right level of information, a little bit of a map of what these positive activities are doing to actually help curb climate change or help mitigate carbon going into the air.

Sometimes, when I’m shopping, I read the labels of products that I’m interested in purchasing. But sometimes the size of what’s on those labels is so small that even with my glasses on I can’t see it. Is there a way to address those kinds of issues as a day-to-day consumer more effectively?

I think companies have to become more confident in communicating these actions to consumers, to make it clearer, to not have to worry about greenwashing. Then perhaps they will put the words in bigger fonts so consumers will feel more compelled.

But there’s a lot of scrutiny in this area, and I understand that everybody is a little bit nervous about putting certain labels on. I don’t think a lot of the greenwashing in the industry is intentional. I think it comes from all the pressures that come from these various stakeholders, and then converting that into a language that consumers can understand.

And like I said, we need to make sure that we’re still giving the right amount of information to consumers, not too little, not too much. I think the personal health-care industry, like you mentioned before, has done a good job of that. We take our vitamins more, we work out more. Not because we understand the intricacies of physiology or anatomy. Maybe some of us do, but I think for the masses we don’t. But they’ve done a good job in distilling the right amount of information, and that’s what I’d like to see the sustainability industry and the companies involved.

PE: What I hear you suggesting is that companies find more ways to effectively communicate with consumers about their sustainability actions, which will support a greater use of their products and services.

SW: Yes, it’s more connectivity to the issue. And another important thing—that we as consumers don’t feel we have to be fully sustainable to take part in sustainable action. It’s not all or none. I believe you could make changes, real behavioral changes, a few steps at a time, and be equipped with the right information that justifies those changes.

In fact, I’ll make a quick plug here. I have a book coming out in September called “Simply Sustainable” that can help. It has 52 facts along with 52 actions that people can take so that over the course of one year they’re integrating 52 new sustainable behaviors across the everyday parts of their lives: how they eat and drink, what cleaning products they use around their house, what they wear, and so forth. Bringing it to the consumers’ context, the everyday person’s context, helping them engage a bit more.

PE: That’s one action a week, right? That shouldn’t be terribly hard to take into my daily consumer habits. Can you give us a look inside the book, one or two examples of the kinds of suggestions you’re making?

SW: One example: The U.S. produces nearly 117 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually from air conditioning. This is equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions of 24.5 million passenger vehicles. So, the action is to use natural methods of temperature control when possible. For example, use fans and sweaters instead of turning up air conditioners or heaters.

Again, Paul, very simple, in fact, very intuitive. We all know this. But I think that when you link the action with 24.5 million passenger vehicles worth of greenhouse gas emissions or carbon dioxide emissions, suddenly you start paying attention. Using that sweater or turning on that fan doesn’t seem as bad.

PE: How can all of us as consumers support these connections becoming more tangible on a daily basis? I can do it for myself, and I belong to groups in my community where I can talk about it. Are these the most effective ways on a day-to-day basis that we can participate?

SW: Again, we tell our friends, we tell people. The more intelligence we’re equipped with, the more we want to tell people. You know, people inherently like showing off about the things that they know. That’s always an effective way.

But again, there needs to be alignment between the three major stakeholders. Investors have to do their parts, consumers have to do their parts. And in between that should hopefully help companies really make behavioral shifts, operational shifts that what we’re producing out there is in fact sustainable and that becomes the next norm or the next option available to us.

PE: Thank you, Sheila. And where can listeners go to learn more about Radiant Global Advisory as well as the launch of your book?

SW: I have two websites: The one for the advisory work I do with companies is www.radiantglobaladvisory.com. And www.sustainableme.today is a bit of a passion project. It’s for the consumer side, and I’ve been running it for nearly three years. Information about my book, “Simply Sustainable,” can be found there.

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