The Climate Innovator’s Pitch

Every company participating in the climate innovation space has a distinct challenge with regard to branding. It’s that age-old balance of communicating both value and purpose. For-profit climate businesses are purpose or mission-driven at their core, much like their nonprofit counterparts. 

To be successful, climate businesses must differentiate their products and services through the lens of their value for each stakeholder–customer, partner, and planet. When you stay stakeholder-centric in your brand focus, you’ll quickly realize that you’re better able to achieve that balance of product and purpose in all aspects of your brand-building and communications.  

You have to leverage both value and purpose, whether you’re asking someone to go to a little extra effort or spend more money to be sustainable in their purchases. You have to speak to the mission, and  you have to inspire. But while you can certainly build your sales on affinity with your mission, the only way to sustainably grow as a sustainability business is to balance that affinity with the business case for choosing your products or services. 

I’ve spent a significant chunk of my career product consulting in the sustainable housing arena, helping various stakeholders--builders, architects, suppliers, investors, and owners–understand the benefits of Passive House.  When I do that in my consultations, I know I’m at my best when I’m hitting people with a combination of purpose and business case, with equal passion for both. 

In the 14 years that I’ve been involved with the Passive House movement, we’ve seen, as with many technologies, the costs especially on the building supply side of the equation of design/build/materials come down steadily, achieving near-parity now.  While many of the early adopters were admittedly more motivated by purpose, we saw getting in the game as the movement achieved various tipping points based on cost-benefit analysis. Now, with cost parity, you can have your cake and eat it, too. Yet, while the business case is now undeniably incredible, you still have to focus on that affinity people have for doing what’s right.

With climate innovators there are people who will convince as many people as possible to control and limit their footprint and make a difference. Purpose-driven businesses within climate tech are varied in both the for profit and nonprofit spaces. Yet they have the same business realities that anybody else has. They’ve got to please their shareholders, so their investors get a decent return on every investment they make. 

There are others who will do business sustainably whenever they can, but not without financial hardship, and sadly, that number has got to be monstrously high. If you have the means, you have the access, but do you have the will to do the right thing?

Like any accelerator pitch or sales challenge, the economic impact of climate innovation must be highlighted and balanced with fundamentally seeing purpose and profit as not mutually exclusive.