Innovating for Sustainability series is back  after an unintentional summer break with a great interview.

Adam Parr is an Oxford-based barrister researching law, enterprise, and the environment (website, wikipedia, academic bio). His 30-year career has encompassed finance, law, industry, and sport. Since 2012, Adam has helped build a number of companies as a VC investor and founder. He chairs Oxford Semantic Technologies (an AI technology business), Cheesecake Energy Limited (a heat storage business) and Homeland Conservation, a charitable trust dedicated to accelerating action on climate. He is a member of the Bar of England and Wales and a Business Fellow of the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment.

We cover a lot of ground, especially on Adam's role as a board chair and angel investor. Some things to pull out:
-The role of a chair is not to run the company.
-The first responsibility is to make sure there is a great chief executive in place.
-Often, the original founder might be a great technologist. But that's not the same as great CEO.
-Fundraising can be a massive burden for a start-up CEO.
-A startup is thinking about funding all the time, and also making sure the next raise does not harm the the future fundraising options.
-Adam looks at each business in its own context, not trying to impose one sustainability approach, or require a pre-determined 'impact'.
-He selects areas to be in based on solving crucial pinchpoints (eg energy storage for renewable energy grid). Focus on things that are going to make a strategic difference.
-Story about realising the energy transition was important to Formula One, and so developing a hybrid vehicle, and doing carbon report.
-Formula One shows that you have to get the rules (and incentives) right, so that people do what can be done. Changing the rules is fiercely contested by incumbents, who succeed with the rules as they are.
-THe Inflation Reduction Act is a great example of setting good rules.
-All this shows how much political economy is tied up with innovation activity, especially when it requires displacing incumbents.
-Adam uses a variant on Agile, drawn from Schaffer Consulting's Rapid Results method. The Stanford Social Innovation Review article ($). Key insight: create the zest of a crisis to get more done.
-With climate, we don't have a lot of time. "Nuclear fusion is fantastic. Quantum Computing is fantastic. Anybody who says that ...[these technologies are] going to help us address the climate crisis needs their head examining."

This is part of a series of interviews about innovation for sustainability conducted for the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, as a contribution to a module in this Masters. You can find out more about these interviews, and the module, here.

Alison Ward (LinkedIn, Twitter) is the CEO of CottonConnect, which helps global brands source more fairly and sustainably by creating more robust, resilient and successful raw material supply chains.

Our conversation covers:
-Just how complex the cotton supply chain is, with cotton traded 10 times once it leaves the farmer.
-How it takes time to turn an innovative concept into real impact. CottonConnect has a 10 year journey from working with just 1,251 female farmers to now reaching well over 300,000 farmers across Bangladesh India and Pakistan.
-Being a CEO of a social enterprise has to combine being commercial and driving impact at every level.
-In the status quo supply chain, the farmers have the least power, least information, worst negotiating position, and so are, often, proportionately the most exposed to risk. CottonConnect is trying to change that. Knowledge is power: if you have just one piece of important insight then you can use that on your suppliers or competition.
-How new legislation on claims by shops or brands is forcing them to improve traceability, which is an opportunity for CottonConnect and a driver of innovation.
-The importance in shifting from 'efficiency through arms-length transactions' to 'effectiveness through long-term relationships' in order to deliver lasting outcomes.
-The use of PESTLE framework: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental.
-Deliberately having the vast majority of the staff close to the cotton farmers, rather than in a UK head office -- important in avoiding charges of neocolonialism, as well as getting better insight on what's really happening.
-The need to accept failure, celebrating it (and lessons learnt) and then gracefully stopping  an idea, before you throw good money after bad. Stopping something that isn't working, but you've learnt from, is a success. 
-The importance in determination in overcoming obstacles and influencing people over time.
-A big focus going forward on women, who are hugely involved in cotton but often not empowered by that involvement.
-People can be agents of change, even in the face of the most difficult situations, with the right support and resources.

This is part of a series of interviews about innovation for sustainability conducted for the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, as a contribution to a module in this Masters. You can find out more about these interviews, and the module, here.

Mike Pitts is Deputy Challenge Director, Transforming Construction at Innovate UK (LinkedIn, Twitter). Innovate UK is the UK’s national innovation agency, supporting business-led innovation in all sectors, technologies and UK regions.

Our conversation covers:
- How a publicly-funded innovation agency tries to nurture innovation and contribute to economic success, especially on Net Zero, leveling up and increasing UK exports.
- The importance of storytelling in innovation in particular, and in change more widely.
- The importance of deeply integrating sustainability, so that the stand-alone 'sustainability' job is made obsolete.
- How Innovate UK tried to shift key parts of the construction industry.
- The innovation required wasn't just of new technologies, but of techniques, including: tacit know-how, process innovation and business models. Therefore, a novel innovation in one sector can come by learning from another sector.
- Addressing the challenges that sustainable construction often has much higher upfront investment and lower unproven running costs, which means that the developer is unwilling to risk the higher upfront investment because they cannot be sure the extra upfront cost (with a lifetime benefit) will be covered by a higher sales price.

The book I mention which covers the importance of story is Gaia Vince's Transcendance.

I also mention the Net Zero Review by Chris Skidmore (known as the 'Skidmore Review'). I also briefly mention Michael Gubb's innovation chain.
 

This is part of a series of interviews about innovation for sustainability conducted for the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, as a contribution to a module in this Masters. You can find out more about these interviews, and the module, here.

Beverley Gower-Jones has two roles:
(1) the Founder and Managing Partner of the Clean Growth Fund, which" invests in companies with products and services focussed on driving clean growth in the low carbon economy"; and
(2) CEO of Carbon Limiting Technologies, which "works with industry and government to commercialise low carbon innovations and accelerate clean growth".

Our conversation covers:
-The need for a UK-based Venture Capital fund focused on early stage companies (pre-revenue or just about generating revenue) who need to build a commercial demonstrator to stimulate the next phase of their success.
-The different investor demands on a software vs hardware businesses.
-The story of founding the fund, and the personal and technical challenges of that.
-Why she sought public as well as private finance. And why they both, in her view, have to be exposed to the risks equally.
-The constant need, when doing innovation, to overcome inertia, where people choose to improve their current approach rather than explore the next. The book I mention is 'The Modern Firm' by John Roberts.
-Addressing the challenge of being a first-timer.
-The constant need for entrepreneurs to be able to describe a plausible route to investors to exit, with larger returns.
-The importance of government industrial strategy, especially the Skidmore Review on the economics of Net Zero.
-Their own playbook of where a company needs to get to as it grows, called the Commercial Readiness Levels (inspired by NASA's Technological Readiness Levels).
-How getting to Net Zero will mean whole-of-society, whole-of-economy shifts. Every part of our lives will be touched. There will be a need for invention and diffusion everywhere.



Links to other episodes:
-James Corah of CCLA, a funder of the Clean Growth Fund,  in Episode 4.
-Kyle Grant of Oxwash on using the Technology Readiness Levels in Episode 11.
-Leigh Huudson on the struggles of deeptech innovation in Episode 6.

This is part of a series of interviews about innovation for sustainability conducted for the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, as a contribution to a module in this Masters. You can find out more about these interviews, and the module, here.

Alyssa Gilbert is the Director of Innovation at Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment. She is the boss of the second speaker, Naveed Chaudhry who is Head of The Greenhouse at the Centre for Climate Change Innovation, now known as Undaunted, at  Imperial College.

Our conversation covers:
-How the Grantham Institute at Imperial is trying to support climate-related innovation through 'Undaunted'.
-How the Greenhouse operates as an incubator and accelerator of climate-related entrepreneurs.
-The example of Notpla, who do packaging solutions are made from a material made from seaweed and plants that disappears naturally.
-How they used the status of the university to create a lobbying voice for climate-related industries that don't yet exist.
-The approach at the Greenhouse: trying to get applications from beyond the usual groups; using a bootcamp to select based on the potential of the technology and the team; the 'germination' and 'propagation' phases.
-The importance of the Skidmore Review of Net Zero, and what's needed from government now is strong policy direction backed up by resources.
-Undaunted as a vehicle for connection and collaboration on climate-related innovation, starting in London but engaging around the rest of the world.

This is part of a series of interviews about innovation for sustainability conducted for the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, as a contribution to a module in this Masters. You can find out more about these interviews, and the module, here.

Kyle Grant is Founder at Oxwash, an on-demand and laundry service made simple and sustainable (LinkedIn).

Our conversation covers:
-The role of a start-up CEO.
-Transfering the skills of a NASA Life support systems engineer to laundry.
-How Oxwash can be the operational back-end of many circular fashion companies, and so is (1) an example platform business and (2) a pocket of a possible 'access economy', where people don't own things but have access to them (as many people do with music and Spotify now).
-Oxwash expansion plans are both more physical business in the UK and licencing IP overseas (as Ocado has done with online groceries).
-Innovating how clothes are dried, from heat to sound.
-How companies can be satisfied with 'local maxima', and so  stay with technology and techniques which are not the best they could be. (Think of that as accepting the view from the top of a hill when there is a mountain a bit further along the path.)
-The value of going through process of doing the B-Corp accreditation, as a way to learn good practices which have been codified into a standard.
-How a carbon price would provide a level playing field.
-The different innovation approaches they have adopted: from Agile to NASA's Technology Readiness Levels and Toyota's Lean Management.

This is part of a series of interviews about innovation for sustainability conducted for the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, as a contribution to a module in this Masters. You can find out more about these interviews, and the module, here.

Jolyon Swinburn is a Senior Policy Analyst at The Treasury / Te Tai Ohanga in Aotearoa New Zealand (LinkedIn). The specific innovation which prompted the conversation was Jolyon working on Aotearoa New Zealand's first green bond.

Our conversation covers:
-Aotearoa New Zealand's approach to prosperity which cannot be captured by GDP through the Living Standards Framework and the Wellbeing Report.
-The fundamentals of what are a bond and a green bond.
-The steps they went through to investigate and then create the green bond.
-Using a third party sustainability ratings agency for credibility.
-Making sure that the green bond was funding transitional projects that would not happen otherwise ('additionality').
-The way in which raising a green bond is a signal from the government to international investors and national businesses on the desired direction of the economy.
-How governments pushing green bonds is forcing investment analysts to upskill on green issues.

This is part of a series of interviews about innovation for sustainability conducted for the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, as a contribution to a module in this Masters. You can find out more about these interviews, and the module, here.

Shama Skinner is an executive, entrepreneur, advisory Board Member and Edmund Hillary Fellow (LinkedIn). She was an early team member of Thinx Inc, the company with sustainable solutions to menstruation and incontinence. Shama had spells as Chief Product Officer, Chief Operating Officer and interim CEO.

Our conversation covers:
-Being a start-up with new innovations in a category (menstruation and incontinence) that had seen no new products for decades.
-Growing a new product which was part of the circular economy.
-Shifting who was involved in the innovation process, especially female engineers and faster connection with customers.
-Innovating how a category was marketed.
-Shifting a market, from stuck with predominantly single-use products to one where reusable products are so fast-growing that competitors have to respond.
-The tension between 'Improve the current' vs 'Explore the next' (that framing taken from a book I mention called The Modern Firm by John Roberts).
-For a start-up, competitive advantage comes from innovating faster than incumbents.
-Addressing 'Period Poverty' and the need for Universal Basic Services.

This is part of a series of interviews about innovation for sustainability conducted for the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, as a contribution to a module in this Masters. You can find out more about these interviews, and the module, here.

Chris Bean is Serial Entrepreneur, Technology Developer, and Edmund Hillary Fellow (LinkedIn). He is the CEO and co-founder of REVOLUTION Turbine Technologies (RTT).

RTT is "developing reliable, scalable, and green energy solutions for powering mission-critical equipment in remote locations" as part of "the world’s transition to a sustainable energy future".

Our conversation covers:
-How a niche new technology can be used to decarbonise energy use in gas networks.
-What it is like to be the CEO of a ' hardtech' start-up, including the funding rounds.
-How to protect IP to ensure you capture value.
-How the innovation ecosystem is shifting to prioritise sustainability.

This is part of a series of interviews about innovation for sustainability conducted for the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, as a contribution to a module in this Masters. You can find out more about these interviews, and the module, here.

Chris Gagné is an Enterprise Agile Coach, Meditation Teacher, and Edmund Hillary Fellowship Fellow (LinkedIn). Chris operates through Approach Perfect, as the vehicle for coaching using the agile methods. Previously he has worked for or coached with many Silicon Valley start ups and Fortune 500 companies.

Our conversation covers:
-The similarities and differences of innovation in start ups and large corporates.
-The use of Agile and Scrum techniques to deliver innovation.
-The importance of learning quickly, iteratively and across functional expertise. In innovation the fastest learner is more likely to succeed.
-Not only do you need the ability to come up with the initial idea novel idea but you also need to have the infrastructure to commercialise it and to continue to develop it once launched.

You can get a deeper view on Chris' thinking here.

Chris provides introductory videos to both Agile and Scrum on his website here.

(Apologies for the clunky start and end -- amongst my first recordings!)

This is part of a series of interviews about innovation for sustainability conducted for the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, as a contribution to a module in this Masters. You can find out more about these interviews, and the module, here.