Scaling climate action through embedded experiences
How to drive impact while strengthening your business by Brennan Spellacy, Co-Founder and CEO of Patch
More humans today care about climate action than ever before. In fact 73% of consumers worldwide agree that we must reduce consumption to preserve the planet for future generations. But how can empathy and concern be turned into action that actually moves the needle? Meeting the ambitious goals our planet requires will take more than policymakers, corporations, or individuals alone. It will take action—including, most notably, carbon removal—scaled to one million times our current capacity.
Like My Climate Journey and its quest to understand the climate crisis more deeply, many companies and consumers are searching for ways to make this action a reality. The problem is most don’t know where to start.
The answer lies in weaving climate action into the very fabric of everyday life—and by bringing businesses and consumers together in a way that harnesses existing structures rather than goes against them. In concrete terms, this means embedding climate action into everything we already do, leveraging every solution available and every person’s participation.
Action with every transaction
Imagine a world where every swipe of a credit card results in meaningful action to fight climate change. How does this happen? Companies have an essential role to play here by meeting customers where they are and building climate action into their products and services.
Consumers engage most often in actions they find easy to accomplish. That means the purchase of carbon credits to compensate for a given transaction, for example, must be seamless and create as little friction as possible. Better yet, companies can take some of the onus off of consumers by making things like emissions measurement and compensation altogether invisible—that is, embedded seamlessly into common transactions. Technologies such as Patch’s own climate action API already exist to make this a reality.
At the same time, consumers must be educated on the effects their actions have on the planet so they can make responsible choices. According to a Healthy & Sustainable Living study, 73% of consumers want to reduce the impact they currently have on the environment by a large amount. Consumers want to do their part to fight climate change, but they need to be given the tools, choices, and pathways to act in a more sustainable way.
Engaging and inspiring customers
These same consumers want to know that the companies they’re doing business with align to their values. Over 50% of Gen Z in Canada and 35% in the United States have actively researched a brand's sustainability. When it comes to who should foot the bill — consumers or businesses — 70% of consumers believe corporations and large countries have the biggest impact on climate change.
But that doesn’t mean consumers won’t be inspired to take personal action if they see that a company also has skin in the game. A sustainable approach offers a positive way to motivate your customers to take action themselves. It also engages them to pay greater attention to your brand and spend more time on your app—and ultimately more dollars with your business.
Driving profits while driving change
Profits and climate action are far from mutually exclusive. On the contrary, increased revenue and positive impact can be achieved simultaneously.
As a business, decisions need to be made with the bottom line in mind, but finding levers to build profits and climate action together enables us to scale our impact. Companies doing this well are finding they can increase the lifetime value of their customers: The latter are confident in spending more when they know the footprint generated will be compensated. In fact, according to an independent survey commissioned by Patch, 64% of Gen Z shoppers say that having the option for carbon-neutral or sustainable shipping at checkout makes them more likely to purchase from that business.
At the same time, integrating climate action improves brand loyalty. 49% of Americans and 58% of Canadians agree that a commitment to eco-friendliness inspires brand loyalty.
This means that aligning with your customers’ values increases the likelihood of repeat business in both the short and long term.
Companies innovating for climate action
Some of the most forward-thinking, innovative companies are already applying the above principals to their businesses and embedding climate action into their digital product experiences:
Afterpay, a leader in the Buy Now, Pay Later market, has enabled its customers to take climate action by automatically estimating the carbon emissions of their purchases and providing the opportunity to compensate for those purchases through contributions to climate projects—all without ever leaving the Afterpay app. The company is on track to contribute an estimated $150K in carbon credits by the end of the year.
Route, a package tracking platform, provides carbon-neutral shipping in a single click. It does so by calculating the emissions generated by each shipment and neutralizing them with carbon credits generated by their chosen projects—at no additional cost to their customers.
Cocokind, a sustainable ecommerce beauty company, recently went beyond standard net-zero positioning and doubled down on their impact through investments in high-quality carbon credits that will help fund the future of carbon removal.
JustSalad, a healthy concept food company, now offers their customers the ability to neutralize the carbon footprint of their lunch order with a simple, friction-free swipe.
Lead from the front
No matter a company’s size, structure, or resources, there are ways to take action immediately. Begin with a low-lift solution, such as a marketing campaign that commits to compensating the day’s purchases or add an option to opt in to carbon-neutral shipping. Companies can even empower employees to compensate for their own personal footprints. Whatever the strategy, it has to start somewhere. Get something going, assess the results, then iterate and keep going. Our future depends on it.
✍️ The Draw-down
Weekly climate art by our MCJ Artist-in-Residence, Nicole Kelner.
📢 Climate Action of the Week
Want to do more? Sign up for the next Climate Changemakers Hour of Action here.
To pass the bold climate policy we need, it's essential to protect the pro-climate majority in Congress. This week, make some calls in Colorado to re-engage inactive voters with our partner, Environmental Voter Project. View our slate of key climate candidates here.
📍 Get Local
This week’s local climate issue of note, brought to you by Climate Cabinet.
Did you know? Over 2,000 cities across the US own their own electric utilities. Collectively, these public utilities own 42,000 MW of dirty generation capacity (that's enough to power 40 million homes!). On average, public utilities are still burning 10% more fossil fuels than private utilities. But it doesn't have to be that way! Support local climate leadership in key cities & states at ClimateSlate.com today.
🔎 Fresh Takes
From our marketing friends at The Regenerates.
Storytelling is a climate action and marketers have a powerful role to play. Regeneration for Marketers is a 10-week program for experienced marketers, storytellers and culture-shapers committed to using their skills to do something about the climate crisis. Learn how to supercharge your climate journey and use your marketing skills to pull people toward a cleaner, healthier, and brighter future.
🎙My Climate Journey Podcast
📈 Jason talked with Alex Trembath, Deputy Director at Breakthrough Institute, about eco-modernism, the work at BTI, Alex's views on the nature of the climate problem and what some environmentalists get wrong.
😂 Cody caught up with Rollie Williams from Climate Town about the role of comedy in climate communications, what he's learned about communicating complicated topics to mass audiences, and what's next for the Climate Town YouTube channel and community.
✨ Highlights
We’ve partnered with Terra.do to host the UK’s first nationwide climate job fair on Sept 29th. Sign up here to meet UK startups scaling cutting-edge climate solutions - all of whom are actively hiring. Climate startup interested in participating? Contact ben@terra.do
👩💻 Climate Jobs
For more open positions, check out the #j-climatejobs channel in MCJ Slack as well as past newsletters.
Artyc is looking for a Full Stack Software Engineer (Remote) and Mechanical Engineer (Bay Area) to work on battery-powered cooling containers for the cold-chain.
Carbon Gap has several open positions, including Senior Operations Manager, Communications Coordinator, Policy Analysts and more to join their nonprofit focused on advancing carbon removal across Europe. (Various locations)
Crow Holdings is seeking a Managing Director of Renewable Energy Development focused initially on solar and battery storage development. (Flexible)
gener8tor is hiring a Managing Director and Program Manager to join their climate tech and sustainability investment team. (Appleton, WI)
Grain is hiring a Carbon Offset Project Development Expert to provide insight into the project development process. (Remote)
Kara Inc. is seeking a Head of Engineering (or Chief Technology Officer) to lead the development of a platform to help investors and tech companies achieve their climate and social goals. (New York/Remote)
Mosaic Materials is seeking a Prototype Data Engineer to accelerate development of their unique sorbent technology. (Alameda, CA)
SALT is looking to hire a Biz-Ops Lead to help close the $100 Trillion climate financing gap. (Europe/Remote)
Sila Nanotechnologies is hiring a Product Manager and Technical Product Manager to help define and bring to market the next generation of lithium-ion battery materials. (Bay Area)
WATS is looking for a full stack founding software engineer to join their efforts in decarbonizing businesses with waste operations software. (New York)
Waitt Institute is looking for a Program Director & Manager to help protect the world’s oceans and support coastal communities. (La Jolla, CA)
🗓 September Events
For more climate events, check out the #c-events channel in MCJ Slack.
🇨🇦 MCJ Toronto: Climate Tech Social: Co-hosted by Kyle Hodgson (Toronto native, tech leader and MCJ member) and Leone Baron (MCJ Community Lead) for folks already working in climate tech or curious about doing so. (9/20)
🤝 MCJ Career Transitions Meetup: Casual monthly event designed to build a network of individuals who can learn from and support each other into their new roles. (9/21)
🍻 Seattle MCJ x WorkOnClimate Meetup: For folks in the area who want to connect around climate solutions. (9/21)
🧠 MCJ Monthly Idea Jam! This month, our focus is on: Mobility & Transport. Come along, listen, and share your thoughts. (9/23)
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