Lessons on the Road from a Linear to Circular — and Even a ‘Surplus’ — Economy

Keynotes on day 2 of SB’24 San Diego explored how companies are putting rubber to road to solve complex business challenges — from creating new value flows to cracking the code to circularity and driving progress toward a zero-emission automotive future.

By Tom Idle | Published 9 hours ago | About a 7 minute read

Image: Keurig Dr Pepper

There was good reason for Mike Dupee to quote John Mayer and deliver a heartwarming story about coaching his son’s little league baseball team — the Sustainable Brands® CEO was reminding delegates here at SB’24 San Diego to maintain hope as we work to make it easy for consumers to live more sustainably.

‘Value management’ — an essential capacity for enhancing system health

Adam Lusby

Regenovate co-founder Adam Lusby backed up his message with a rousing call for a serious shake-up of current business models. Quick to get the doom and gloom out the way (“We’re running a deficit economy. We’re on track to go way beyond 2°C. In my lifetime, biodiversity is in a deficit of 70 percent. One in five Americans is suffering from mental illness. We’re more disconnected from nature than ever before”), the strategist keenly pointed delegates in a different direction.

“Children do something wonderful: They suspend disbelief. They find connections where we don’t see them. I want you all to embrace your inner five-year-old, to find new connections and suspend disbelief,” he said.

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The connections he wants business to make are those that link the value a business can create with the dividends and resilience that come to an organization from enhancing system health. If “financial capital drives degeneration,” it is time for brands to focus on all other forms of capital — including social, natural and manufactured. These capital stocks can combine to create a flow of value, and create what Lusby describes as a “surplus economy — a spillover of value.”

Keurig Dr Pepper: ‘Strategic patience’ key to effectively cracking circularity

Monique Oxender and Mike Dupee

Creating an effective, consumer-friendly and sustainable way to provide single-serve coffee has been a 20-year journey for Keurig Dr Pepper. But as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Monique Oxender shared with Dupee during their onstage discussion, her team finally cracked it — after investing heavily in improving recyclability and moving to polypropylene to make it easier for consumers to dispose of their coffee pods responsibly, the result is a plastic-free and aluminum-free coffee pod with a plant-based coating. It’s called the K-Round, and Oxender is excited about it.

“The thing is, consumers want more than sustainability,” she said. “They want quality, they want variety, and they want value. That’s the unlock — creating something that meets a consumer need.”

After experimenting with paper-based pods (which left a “mushy mess”), they arrived at the polypropylene pod. The trouble was, it demanded that consumers go out and buy a new machine.

“There wasn’t enough packed into that machine to encourage them to upgrade. They weren’t going to do it simply in the name of sustainability,” Oxender said.

What enabled the company to finally succeed? She put it down to being given the time and space to develop the result without pressure or criticism from within the business. Oh, and they also nailed the plant-based coating element by teaming up with a Swiss company that had already successfully deployed it. In partnership, they agreed to license the technology in North America — and voila.

“Consumers do not just want sustainability. They are less and less willing to make compromises. And they also want other things from coffee — they want it smaller, they want it colder … What excites me most is that our efforts to create the K-Round are not just about finding a plastic- and aluminum-free option. It’s been about meeting other consumer demands, too — not just pushing them, but pulling them.”

Oxender concluded by reminding the audience that solutions take time — in this case, 20 years: “You need strategic patience.”

First rule of circularity: Don’t talk about circularity (and other tips from SB’s ‘awesome’ new playbook)

Suzanne Shelton

Suzanne Shelton, founder of Shelton Group and Senior Partner at ERM, then introduced the fruits of SB’s Go Circular Collaborative — a working group of select SB Member brands that has been working to co-create a playbook to help brands drive awareness and adoption of circular products and services.

The resulting playbook, which will soon be made available to SB Members, is largely based on Shelton’s experience and understanding of current “mental models.”

“The good news, when it comes to driving a circular economy, is that most people — 75 percent of them — want to be eco-friendly,” she said. “44 percent of people can even cough up examples unaided of when they have purchased, or not, from a brand because of their environmental or social record.”

The other good thing is that the large majority (97 percent) think recycling helps the environment: “For the last 40 years, we’ve been told: Be ‘green,’ recycle. 89 percent of people say that recycling makes them feel better.”

Shelton argues that because of this current “mental model,” brands don’t need to go much further to start talking about circularity — they just shouldn’t use that word, she said.

“It’s a mental model we have created, but we need to expand the model — and we do need different words.” In a situation where more people are concerned about plastics in the ocean than they are about climate change or biodiversity (according to Shelton’s research), “reuse” and “reduce” are words we can lean into.

“Go check out the playbook, y’all. It’s an awesome tool,” she added. Alongside the 10 principles for how brands should communicate and engage on circularity, there are lots of examples — with tips on words and images that companies should and shouldn’t use.

“Crucially, brands need to work together. No one company should be on the hook for trying to move consumers to adopt circular products and services. Collaboration is key.”

Honda wants to use hydrogen to rid the world of diesel

David Perzynski

David Perzynski is incredibly proud to work at Honda. He is Assistant Manager for the company’s Hydrogen Solutions Business Development — and as the auto giant races towards being a zero-carbon business, he is excited to be working in a sector that can make a huge difference.

Honda’s fuel cell vehicles and technology story are on full display around the conference venue this week, and at the heart of the company’s efforts to have zero environmental impact (and zero traffic fatalities) by 2050. And there is plenty driving Honda’s engineers to scale up the adoption of hydrogen-powered cars and trucks — not least, founder Soichiro Honda’s original vision that “the purpose of technology is to help people.”

Perzynski reminded the audience of how Honda responded to stringent local air emissions regulations during the 1970s, something that many companies thought impossible to achieve.

“Our engineers said, ‘We can do this. We must do this.’ It wasn’t about complying; it was about leaving a better world for our children. And it was a rallying cry that inspired our workers.”

The automaker is responding to a similar rallying cry to make its zero-emissions technology as attractive as possible to consumers and brands. The Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell truck on display in the SB Innovation Zone can drive 400 miles with no emissions.

Honda’s hydrogen fuel cell tech is not new (the company has been doing it for 40 years); but in creating hybrid vehicles and promoting the use of clean energy storage, it hopes to find many new markets in the coming years.

“Please work with us to get rid of diesel; think of the impact we can make together,” Perzynski added.

Tom Idle

Content creator extraordinaire.

Tom is founder of storytelling strategy firm Narrative Matters — which helps organizations develop content that truly engages audiences around issues of global social, environmental and economic importance. He also provides strategic editorial insight and support to help organisations – from large corporates, to NGOs – build content strategies that focus on editorial that is accessible, shareable, intelligent and conversation-driving.

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