Doing Business Differently

Published on:
June 26, 2024
Episode #:
3
The Climate Dad podcast with Mike Smith logo.

Summary

In this episode of The Climate Dad, Mike Smith – CEO of Aclymate – dives into various issues, ranging from what scope emissions are to the interconnectedness of development and carbon emissions. Mike will also give a breakdown of the role of renewable energy in decarbonizing our economy. He will cover issues like the Clean Power Plan, the first-ever bill to set limits on emissions from U.S. power plants, and how despite being rejected by Congress, the plan has achieved many of its goals.    

Mike is then joined by Jennifer Blossom Beddingfield, the Director of Human Resources and Sustainability at Xavier Creative House. They discuss the importance of sustainability in the pharmaceutical industry and the journey of Xavier Creative House toward becoming a B Corp. Mike and Jennifer emphasize the idea of shared responsibility in the context of climate change, and the need for collective efforts to drive meaningful action. Jennifer also highlights the role of Human Resources in driving sustainability and the importance of education to empower individuals to make climate-informed decisions.

Chapters

00:57 The Impact of the Clean Power Plan and Decarbonization of Electricity

05:10 The Role of Batteries in Filling the Gap

07:40 Introduction to Scope Emissions

12:41 Shared Responsibility and Climate-Informed Decisions

14:37 Decoupling Economic Growth from Emissions 

19:35 Meet Jennifer Blossom Beddingfield 

20:59 Human Resources and Sustainability

22:37 Xavier Creative House and Sustainability Certification

26:24 Corporate Pressure for Increased Sustainability

30:31 The Road to B Corp Certification

33:50 Excitement and Challenges of Working on Climate

35:59 A Push for Sustainability in the Pharmaceutical Industry

38:14 The Connection Between HR and Sustainability

39:53 Outro

Transcript

[00:00:00] Mike: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Climatedad, the podcast where we talk about and explain the news and science of climate change and the things that you can do both as an individual and also as part of organizations. I'm your host, Mike Smith, a father of two great kids and the founder of Acclimate, where we help businesses measure, reduce, report, and offset their footprint for a really affordable price. And without having to become a climate expert. Today, we'll be talking about batteries in California, learning more about emission scopes and what they are. We'll learn about the footprint of the average American and how it's been changing. And we'll be joined by our friends Jennifer Blossom Beddingfield of Xavier Creative House to discuss their work on climate and becoming a B Corp and how it's benefited their business.

It's a fun discussion, so I encourage you to stick around.

So some interesting stuff is happening in the renewable energy and battery space in California, and it's actually really good news.

Several years ago, when I first started getting into climate, this was in the Obama administration.

The major thing that was in the policy space was something known as the Clean Power plan. The clean power plan was kind of sucking all the oxygen out of the room when it came to talking about climate policy at the federal level.

And the clean power plan, as this name suggests, was to tackle the emissions footprint, the carbon footprint associated with the generation of electricity of the United States.

And that was important. It remains important.

Unfortunately, the clean power plan was immediately rejected by the incoming Trump administration when he came into office in 2017. It was abandoned on the very first day of the administration.

And as a climate voter, I was pretty upset. The interesting thing, though, about renewable energy in the United States is that even though the clean power plan was scrapped, we've effectively achieved the clean power plan's goals, which is to say that we have rapidly decarbonized electricity. And so one of the things that we talk about as a goal for climate and climate policy and climate action is electrify everything. And that's because renewable energy has gotten so, so clean and so prominent and so inexpensive.

And the inexpensive is the part that's driving that as panels, solar panels in particular, and wind.

It follows a curve that every year as, because it's a technology that expands with scale, that the economics get better the more that we produce, and because the more solar power, or there's more solar panels we produce gets cheaper. That means we produce more solar panels, because the electricity that can be generated also gets cheaper. And that's caused some really weird stuff in electricity markets.

So, as you know, every person that is not a fan of renewables or dealing with the climate problem likes to talk about, well, the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine. And of course, we all know that. And that leads to something that's known as the duck curve. And the duck curve is this concept that it kind of looks like the back of a duck if you look at it, which is the net generation onto the grid. That is the duck curve, which kind of looks like the curve of a ducks back, is this idea is that you'll have a lot of fossil fuel generated electricity that's happening in the morning. And then as a lot of solar power comes online, the total demand for electricity drops down. And then it kind of comes back up in the evening as people go home from work, in the office back, and start, you know, firing up the oven, and their air conditioning kicks on, etcetera, and then it by, it drops off. So you can go look up the duck curve. Super nerdy. I kind of love it. But the duck curve has gotten a little crazy over the last few years, and that's because as renewable energy has gotten so cheap, what it's caused is on the wholesale electricity market, the place where, like, power companies buy their electricity rather, rather than like the retail market, which is where you and I. The wholesale market. During the day, electricity has gone negative in price, which is to say that it, the power producers, will pay you to take electricity off. And the reason that this happens is because there's this need for power, for electricity when the sun isn't shining and when the wind isn't blowing. And we all know that. And so typical. That's known as baseload power. And base load is usually generated through fossil fuels. Historically, it's been coal plants or natural gas. Sometimes it also can be nuclear, occasionally hydroelectric. But these things, these plants that are very hard to kind of take off and online, and so they just run at a real minimal rate all throughout the day. But if you have so much sun shining, those plants don't want to turn off, and so they're just trying to unload the electricity.

Well, that's starting to change, too, because, interestingly, batteries are starting to fill the gap.

A few years ago, batteries were kind of a, you know, maybe that could happen. But in about the last five years, the state of California grid has installed a huge amount of battery capacity. So much so that over the last few days, the grid has been overnight, has been primarily run off of batteries. That the solar power that was generated during the day has been stored sufficiently enough that the number one power source onto the grid overnight has been battery.

So much battery power that it's the equivalent of running six nuclear power plants.

That's a lot.

It's going to have a lot of wraparound effects as far as how we deal with climate, and it will change a lot of the economics around it. But one thing that we can continue to feel fairly confident in, because we have now decades of track record, there is renewable electricity will continue to get cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. And by expanding the capacity of batteries, they will also probably get cheaper and cheaper.

And so it's kind of anybody's guess where this goes. But the idea of cheap, carbon free electricity being super prevalent is what's really driving the idea of electrify everything. If you as an individual want to do something about your footprint, one of the basic things you should think about is electrify everything. Electrify your car, electrify your stove, electrify your heat. Because if you're trying to deal with your carbon footprint, the one place where we are having really incredible success when it comes to decarbonization is around the idea of decarbonizing electricity.

Everybody, are you enjoying what you're hearing on the climatedad podcast? Well, if you are, you could do me a huge favor. We're really trying to get the word out about this podcast, and it takes you just a few seconds, costs you nothing.

To help us out specifically, if you would go to wherever you subscribe for your podcast and leave us a review, even if it's two or three stars, that really helps us out a lot. Also, if you can share this with your friends and family, that helps us to move up the rankings and to help to get the word out about how important the work we're doing around climate is. Thanks again for listening and more. Now, coming from the climate dad.

[00:07:40] Jennifer: I.

[00:07:40] Mike: Want to pivot from electricity into kind of electricity related material. Specifically, I want to talk about scope emissions. A lot of times when people start thinking about like what their carbon footprint is, somebody may mention, you know, what are their scope emissions or what's their scope one or their scope three footprint and that language. Sometimes when we talk to customers, you can, they almost look a little bewildered or sometimes even a little scared because it just feels very technical.

And once you internalize the concept, it's not quite so scary, but like the fact it is, you have to learn what it is. At acclimate, we really endeavor to not talk in scope emissions. We tend to talk more like business categories because we think that's a more useful way of doing it. But it's also important to learn ultimately what scope emissions are. So let's talk about it today.

The first scope. Scope one are the emissions associated with the machines that you directly control or operate.

This is the gas that you're burning in the cars that you lease or own. It's the natural gas that you're using to heat your office. It is the refrigerant leak that's associated with your air conditioner. You control these machines. You are responsible for what they put into the atmosphere. That's kind of an open and shut. It's a pretty easy thing to understand. Scope one is relatively easy to calculate as a result.

The other thing about scope one is generally by cutting your emissions, you're also making your company more efficient. There's a lot of money to be made in reducing your scope one emissions, because those are usually emissions associated with the cost of production. So thinking about that is, is a valuable way to do that.

Scope two. Scope two, a lot of times people just assume that's electricity, and for 99% of the people, that's the, the correct case.

But scope two is where you control the machine, but you don't control what's powering the machine. That is typically it's electricity. So you can turn the machine on or off, but you can't determine how that electricity is generated. The computer I'm using to record this video and audio, the equipment that you're listening to my voice on right now is being powered by electricity. And how that electricity was created is mostly out of your control.

So in my particular case, recording this audio right now, this would be my scope to emission.

It would be Excel power. My power company's scope one, emission, because they're running the Cherokee power station, which is run by fossil fuels, and powering the grid that I'm generating, I'm pulling electricity off of that relationship is important. You should think about, like how my scope two and Excel's scope one are inextricably linked. I am creating a demand for them to generate power. I control that they are fulfilling that demand by supplying power, which they control.

So scope two is about shared responsibility. There are other kind of more specialized, like district steam or chill water facilities where you might be using the energy in different ways, but for most people, that's electricity.

Scope three is kind of everything else. And so scope three is the, you have some sort of business relationship here, but you don't really control the machines or the generation of the energy. All you get to do is mostly decide whether you're going to buy, sell, or invest in the, the activity that is creating that.

So, for example, scope three, emissions for acclimate. Were I to buy a plane ticket on United or Delta Airlines, that would be acclimate. Scope three, I would have a business interest in getting onto that airplane and flying from point a to point b.

It would be United Airlines. Is scope one, they're the ones, their pilots are controlling the throttles, they're the one, the, their, you know, mechanics are the ones that are filling the fuel tanks. It's there. They're the ones that are doing the burnin'it. Would also be shell or whoever, the fuel providers. Scope three, they're the ones that are selling the product that is creating the, the emission. And so there's this like shared responsibility that happens associated with Scope one, Scope two, scope three. And I think that's the big thing that you really need to learn about with scopes, which is that it's about describing relationships.

You sometimes hear people, especially kind of within certain circles, that if we would just outlaw the 100 companies that are creating 71% of the world's emissions, then we would all do better.

And that's true. If we could somehow magically outlaw that, that would work. But our whole system actually runs on the emissions that are created by those. Those companies typically are like oil companies.

And so it is a correct statement to say that the downstream use of their product is creating all those emissions. But it's also kind of negating the fact that, like, I bought that plane ticket, I live and operate in a society that requires fossil fuels for it to operate. And so I also share responsibility for that, too.

The flip side of the argument of just going after those companies is like, well, if we just all took care of our individual footprint, we would get there. Well, that's also kind of divorcing of it. It's not an either or. When we talk about scope emissions, what we're really talking about is shared responsibility. It's a both. We both need to make decisions that are climate effective. And that's really ultimately the superpower that I like to think of. As for individuals, your individual decisions may not matter much. Your individual decisions collectively with others making similar decisions can move mountains. No soldier wins a war, but an army is comprised of individual soldiers, and armies win wars. And right now we're in a war for the future and it's for our climate. So we have to think about how we can as individuals leverage all of our relationships in order to change behaviors. And that's how it works. That works when it's when you're talking to your employer, that works when you're talking to your friends, that works when you're in the ballot box, that works when you are buying things. Think about and make climate informed decisions in everything that you do, and you will have an effect. And that is the beauty of scope emissions.

So transitioning slightly from scopes over into footprints more collectively and talking about, like, individual footprints and national footprints.

I saw an interesting graph the other day. It was shared by influencer, who's a really funny and thoughtful guy, a guy named Hank Green, that I really enjoy following both on, actually on multiple social media channels.

He highlighted a graph from our world in Datto, which I thought was great. And according to Hank Green and our world in data, the US per capita emissions, carbon dioxide emissions is now somewhere around 15 tons per person, which is a lot, by the way. Your fair share is far smaller than that. But it's worth pointing out that's about the same as it was in 1913.

And as Hank points out in his thing is, in 1913, only 1% of Americans had indoor plumbing and electricity.

Like, we have actually become a secret little good news story here is actually like, America has become far, far more carbon efficient than we have in decades. And if you look at the shape of the graph, it's gone very steeply down. And that's, again, driven mostly by the decarbonization of the electricity grid.

Only a few years ago, maybe about 15 years ago, it was up over 20 tons per person in the United States. So we've seen a pretty drastic decarbonization in the United States. And that's awesome. That's just unalloyed good news. Now, the population of the United States has grown, some through immigration, primarily through immigration. And as immigrants come to the United States, they tend to learn the us behaviors.

And so as individuals, they become more carbon intensive.

So we have to keep working on decarbonizing our culture more broadly.

But what that's driven is the US has largely known as decoupled their economy from carbon emissions.

Historically, when if your country wanted to, if you wanted to achieve economic success, needed to use a lot more energy, and because that energy was primarily driven by fossil fuels, your emissions footprint went. Your country's emissions footprint went way, way up. The United States historically is the number one emitter of any country on the planet, even though we have a fraction of the world's total population.

But in the last 20 years, we've been overtaken by China, and they have a very large footprint as well.

It doesn't mean their total footprint over the many, many years is the same as ours. But on a yearly basis now, they have the highest footprint. On a per capita basis, there's well over a billion chinese people. Their per capita emissions are tiny relative to the United States.

They have not yet fully decoupled. But what's interesting is that the United States, the European Union, Japan and Korea, and Australia New Zealand largely have. The United States's GDP since 1990 has more than doubled. Its emissions have gone down.

The European Union's GDP collectively has gone up about 80%, 70%. Their emissions have more than gone down. They've gone down pretty significantly. Japan and Korea collectively, their GDP has gone up about like 60%. And about ten years ago, they started decoupling and their emissions are going down. Australia, New Zealand, same thing. So it's interesting to see that as we decarbonize the electricity sector, we are now achieving economic growth without emissions growth. And that is, it's just good news. That means that there's actually, we're starting to see the curve bend pretty significantly and there's pathways to our climate future.

Are you interested in being part of what bends the curve of emissions, but don't know where to start? Well, we'd love to help you over here at acclimate, where we have the easiest, most affordable climate solution for your business. We'll show you ways to reduce your carbon footprint, including those scope two emissions we just talked about, and get you on the path to net zero. It'll help you win new customers and keep the most valuable ones you already have, attract and retain the talent you need from the climate generation. And our green business certification program will help you show your climate bonafides and win certification with B Corp, a covetous green business benchmark, and more. Mention the climate data and get a 10% discount.

Speaking of B Corp, it's time to meet with today's guest, Jennifer Blossom Bedingfield, Xavier Creative House's director of human resources and sustainability, joined by Jennifer Blossom Bedingfield today with Xavier Creative House. Xavier Creative House, or Xavier, has been a client of ours for a while, and I think Jennifer is just an absolute powerhouse of an individual. She's funny. You're going to enjoy meeting her. So, yeah, Jennifer, thanks for joining us on the climate.

[00:19:53] Jennifer: Dad, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

[00:19:55] Mike: If you could start with, just tell us a little bit about who you are, your job title, who you are, as a person, sure.

[00:20:01] Jennifer: So, again, my name is Jennifer Blossom Bedingfield. I am the director of HR and sustainability here at Xavier Creative House.

I love what I do. I love being in this role that I'm in. Aside from the professional role, I think I'm deeply influenced by how I was raised, and it has really formed me into what I do now. I think you said you're a veteran. At one point, I'm a military brat, and then my dad was a firefighter after that, so have the military community and the firefighter camaraderie. And I think that really instilled in me a sense of adaptability and structure. Being military, you understand that the most memorable moments of my childhood were either in my dad's fire station. I mean, holidays, vacations, everything was around the same family. So my dad's work family was our family, so it was always that community.

I also find myself full circle because my husband is a firefighter. So now I've gone from the firefighter military to the military back to the firefighter, and I really feel at home and like I'm in my element. And there's nothing better than going to the fire station to see my husband and realizing that community and that family environment that I grew up with and have so many memories. It's not changed. It's not changed at all. And when I look at the transgression of my life and how Jennifer came to be, I realize that was a direct path to what I'm doing now. I mean, those feelings of community and family and work, it all melded together. It always has for me. And so now the role that I'm in, Xavier, I'm hr, you know, and sustainability. So I'm thinking this is. This is where I'm meant to be.

[00:21:49] Mike: Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's funny how I keep coming back to, we run into these peoples that are come from, like, communities of service, like you have, and it's a good thing that you feel close to that because otherwise you'd be cursed. Like, you, you have so much military and so many firefighters in your take it away in your life. But, yeah, these community of service, like, you really feel strongly about, like, this need to give back and about, like, how not just the service side of it, like to give back and to work with, but also the community side of it to work with others. And, you know, one thing that you mentioned during that was about your work ethic, which everybody on the acclimate team knows about your work ethic. It is, like, legendary. You are just a powerhouse. You dive into so many rabbit holes, like, on sustainability, that you're often, like, teaching us a couple of things. And so it's been. It's just been a real joy to work with you because you do have that. That passion for the work. So, you know, let's talk about your job. What do you, like, wish that everybody understood. I mean, you. You wear two hats, right? You've got the one hat, which is HR. Right, and the other hat, which is sustainability. How did you, like. How did those both get put on you? They're not necessarily something that's obviously tied together.

[00:22:59] Jennifer: They're not. But I challenge you that. They really, really are, because if you think about everything that HR is, it is. It's people. Just people. You know, I mean, it's making sure that you're sustainable with your biggest asset. That's your people. But when I first came to Xavier, I was the director of HR and finance. I owned businesses in the past, and that was kind of the hat, I guess, that I wore. But a few months in, our CEO and I were talking sunny, and we realized how big both of these were. And so she said, jen, you got to choose sustainability or HR or finance. And while I love numbers, numbers don't lie. I love people so much more, and I can put numbers and people in a spreadsheet and get that side that. Get that happiness from there. So I really just dove into the HR side of things. And then we had a client, Johnson and Johnson, that had previously come to us and said, we need you to go through this sustainability certification. It's called Ecovatus. And before I came to Xavier, they had somebody working on that. They had a contractor come in, outsourced. Somebody had helped work through that with some of the staff, and they were able to get a silver rating. And so nobody wanted this project because it was so big. And I think my boss immediately knew that I had that we laughingly say, hold my beer mentality, and I started questioning, what is this? What is this? And I remember, like, it's yesterday. I was sitting, sitting. It was actually in Philadelphia at the time, talking to this contractor, Donna. And Sunny said, hey, I have this thing for you. I want you to. It's your project now. And I almost felt like it was a little bit of, hey, good luck. Sorry. Congratulations.

[00:24:51] Mike: All of that.

[00:24:52] Jennifer: Mikasa won, and I started researching, researching and learning and learning. And the more I dove into it, the more I realized, this is huge. But at the core of it was people and planet, you know? And those came together. And I saw ahead of time. I mean, I could really see the path. This is where the prosperity, you know, you have that whole, you know, trifecta there. And I understood, and I saw something right out of the gate, and I said, this is going to be it. This is. This is where we have to go as a company to continue to grow. And this is my way of continuing to help the company grow. This is how I am able to give back to the company, because in HR, I'm not out doing sales, per se. I'm not doing any of the creative work or the client service work, but this is how I can contribute. So I learned that. And then I just. I dug in, and I was determined at that point that this beast was not going to get me. And it almost did. I cried a little bit. Well, I cried a lot, but, you know, I figured it out. And I think when I found you guys, it was late night into one of my rabbit holes, like you say, and I had gone to, like, six different places and just. Just like this the whole time. And then I stumbled on you guys. What is this? Because I thought to myself, there's got to be a better way to keep track of all of this stuff and to report this.

And that's when I met you guys. I sent an inquiry in, and there was Travis.

[00:26:20] Mike: Yeah, Travis loves working with you.

[00:26:22] Jennifer: Yeah, he's been amazing.

[00:26:24] Mike: That's, you know, so it's kind of interesting because you. It's almost like you came to, like, what in other places is labeled as ESG about, like, the. Because the people, the social, the governance component of HR and then the environmental. Of sustainability, you almost backed into that. So maybe it's worth understanding about, like, you know, for the listeners, what is. What does Xavier do? And then, you know, so you mentioned Johnson and Johnson and others. So maybe you can help to explain what it is that Xavier does. And then, like, why sustainability and Ecovada's certification was important to you all.

[00:26:57] Jennifer: Sure. So, Xavier Creative House is a pharmaceutical marketing agency. So we are a creative agency that specializes in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, med device and biotech. So that is our niche. We've figured out that that's our way to help the world, help the people. And our CEO is so passionate about healthcare, and this is her way of giving back.

[00:27:22] Mike: Got it.

[00:27:22] Jennifer: I don't know if that came across really well or not, but.

[00:27:24] Mike: Well, that's. That's good. So, I know in your journey, you mentioned that you were at silver when you kind of took it over, and, you know, because I get to see behind the curtain a little bit. I know that you guys are now platinum, and so that's. That's more time, that's more effort. Why? Why do you feel so strongly that this is how Xavier differentiates itself amongst its competition?

[00:27:45] Jennifer: So what we realized was that more and more, these clients of ours, these pharmaceutical companies, they are. They are driven to start using sustainable partners. So it's much more important to them that they focus on bringing on partners that have the same values that they do. And that's something that I saw early on. And so, taking what we had and realizing, all right, so to get better and being a very, very small company, remote company, we have to differentiate ourselves. So how do we do that? Well, I saw what they were looking for. I knew that I was developing this passion for it, and I kind of saw how all the pieces went together. I didn't know how I was going to make it work, but I knew that it had to happen. And so we just started on that journey, and I kept thinking, what's the next level? What's going to make us better? What can we do to really stand out? So, I've tried to stay ahead of the journey during my journey, but, again, it has been tough as a very small company and being remote, because what you find is all of these sustainability frameworks and guidelines, they're all not made for remote companies. And so trying to figure out how that works, I mean, I can't figure. I can't count how many times I've emailed you guys at acclimate and said, okay, so how do I do this? How do I track that, you know, now challenge things and the different scopes. And I still remember when you had the conversation about scopes with me, and I'm like, why? Okay, I get that, but where does this fit? And so, having to learn along the way has really been. It's been empowering, exciting, but it has been a challenge because it seems like it's growing just as fast as we're learning. So, to get back to the original question, to stay competitive, we had to go down this road. We didn't have a choice, but we had a choice of how innovative we could be and how high we could go. And so, hence the hold my beer moment, because we were able to get to gold. And then the more I learned, the more I realized, oh, wait, there's more we can do. There's more we can do. Let's try this again.

[00:29:46] Mike: I think that's a couple of things. One, I love the hold your beer moment. Like, I'm just imagining you quite literally, like, handing it off, you know, at the picnic with all the firefighters. But the other part is, I think it was really visionary of you. You know, I actually just came back from green biz a little while back, and there were a ton of pharmaceutical companies. There really seems to be a lot of leadership in this space. And you guys were like, you said you were doing it before. It was cool. So, you know, I want to commend you on, like, a lot of vision. Have you found any, like, internal resistance? This is not a core, you know, mission set for, for your company. So, like, sometimes they must wonder, like, man, is Jennifer just off tilting at windmills? Like, what is she doing here? And, you know, what's been that process of kind of overcoming that resistance and getting the team on board.

[00:30:30] Jennifer: Yeah, well, I think everybody knew we had to go through echo Bottas and get these ratings up and start bringing on all of these different policies and procedures to, to support our submissions for that. Then we discovered B Corp, and that was, that was a bucket list of mine. As soon as I started researching, trying to figure out what Echo bodice was, I stumbled on a B Corp. I like that. What is that? I want to do that. And, and I was told, no, that's too big. You're not going to be able to do that. Can't tell me no.

[00:31:00] Mike: Hold my beard.

[00:31:01] Jennifer: I'm stubborn.

But that just, that, that really made it grow inside me to where I thought, I want to do this, but I want to do it for the right reasons and I want to do it well. And so I took my time, you know, really setting that up and trying to think about how. How can we best achieve that? But I just, I feel like. I feel like in the beginning, not everyone understood how big it was going to be, whereas I saw it. And I think the only frustration was I was thinking to myself, why don't they see it? Why don't they see it? Because it was very clear to me. But then I have to stop and think, well, the different departments are, they're only looking at what they're looking at. And so until I can get this message across, it doesn't work. I mean, when I first brought up, hey, I think we need to dedicate sustainability to my title one, I've been doing all this legwork and I think that it's warranted, but I also feel like we need to make this public announcement that we're all in and we want everyone to know that we're all in and we have a dedicated executive to oversee it and make sure that we stay aligned and that we're continuously growing in our initiatives. And, and once they finally came on board to that, I think we've just been able to take off since then. Now it's, now it's really starting to open up doors. All of the staff is getting on board. I'll now get messages or texts and I'm like, hey, I just bought this curling iron and it says b Corp, or I got this skin cream and it says decor bird pico this. And they're excited. And I love that. I love that because I feel like what I'm doing, even if it's just something small that they're taking, hey, if they buy something that's sustainable, they buy better, you know, food because they see B Corp on it. I've made an impact and that's, that's my little piece.

[00:32:42] Mike: Yeah. That must bring a good bit of satisfaction working in a climate company here. Like, we hire people and people generally are concerned about the climate, but they're, they haven't quite absorbed as much as all the information that you learn in working within a climate company. And it's interesting to watch, you know, without having to preach to people at all. They're just like, this is something that you're passionate about. You share that passion. You see their, you see their behavior starting to change just a little bit too. They're starting to make informed decisions. You don't, you don't bring it up. They bring it up to you. They're really excited to tell you about the thing. So, you know, you must feel very proud about B Corp certification. It's quite a rare cert. There's only like 7000 companies on the whole planet. There's like 30 million small businesses in the US. So you're like a percentage of a percentage of a percentage to be there.

[00:33:25] Jennifer: I mean, and I tell you, that's why it was a bucket list because, you know, ecovatus is global. But I just felt like B Corp was at a different level and I've thought about it and I've realized that. So Ecovadis, yes, it has the pillars and it does focus on the labor and human rights and the people side, but I really felt like B Corp focuses more on the people side than echo bodice does.

[00:33:50] Mike: How about on the bigger issue of climate? Is there anything that gives you hope or maybe some anxiety about it since you've still started this journey as you've talked about? Like we all kind of have heard about climate. We were doing things, but now you're starting to absorb a lot about what the potential consequences are and what the solutions are that we're working on. Have you changed personally on that?

[00:34:11] Jennifer: Again, dealing with the climate, it presents exciting challenges and not so exciting challenges. But I think what excites me is that in my role, I really get to drive meaningful change in my environment and in my company and in the world, really. And I'm contributing, I'm really impacting to a sustainable future. Again, it can be very complex and overwhelming, but I think that it really gives me hope seeing the collective efforts of the individuals and the organizations kind of coming together. At Xavier, our theme this year, because every year we pick a theme, is better together. And that couldn't be any more perfect because when you look at it through this lens, we really are better together. You think about, you know, what? If we're each doing our own little part, even if it's little, even if it's just buying that coffee that says B Corp, that's something, you know, we're making a little change. And when we're all doing that, it's better together.

[00:35:13] Mike: Yeah, they talk about that climate is like the hardest collective action problem of all time. And so as a result, like, it can feel a little overwhelming. But what you just said, like, really resonates with me. I feel better the more I work on this. It gives you a sense of agency. I can be part of the solution. So I love that.

What is something that you've learned about climate or sustainability more broadly that you wish everyone knew?

[00:35:38] Jennifer: One crucial lesson is that the interconnectedness of our actions and their impact on the environment when it comes to the. To climate. Because again, we all need to understand that even those small changes in behavior, they can contribute to significant environmental outcomes. And if we can all do just our little part.

[00:35:59] Mike: Yeah.

Well, what is something about your industry?

Like, where is it going? And like, has anything surprised you recently about.

[00:36:07] Jennifer: I would say that the pharmaceutical industry, it's not that it surprised me, but I like seeing how. How much it has grown when it comes to sustainability. You generally don't think of pharmaceutical companies having this type of vision. There's so much red tape. But then you see, when it comes to sustainability, suddenly they open the doors and they're like, we want to see the world change. We want to do good for good reasons and not just to make money. And to see that they may be regulated and they may. They may do some things here or there that not everybody approves of. There may be medicines that are controversial, but at the same time, they're trying, you know, they're trying to find a way to give back and how important sustainability is becoming in the industry.

[00:36:56] Mike: Yeah, that's, like I said, it was really neat to see that at Green Biz. And like I said, you're a visionary for getting ahead of that.

What is something that everyone in your industry should either start or stop doing?

[00:37:07] Jennifer: I think that everybody should really start if they're not already there, this journey, because it's so amazing to see all the pieces come together and you hear that old cliche. If you don't know, you don't know. But at the same time, there's so much out there. And I had no idea. I had no idea I was gonna be passionate about this. And I went to a conference last year, and I spoke with a diversity alliance for science conference, and it was on the sustainability and how companies can become more sustainable and in their journey. I knew that I was passionate about it, but I didn't know that anybody else really knew that I was passionate about it or cared or anybody liked this like I did. But being able to speak on the panel with other like minded people and this conference room full of people that were just like. They just. They wanted to know more. To see that, it's like seeing your kid walk for the first time, you know, just like, wow, look at this. It's so amazing. And seeing all the pieces come together and you see these small companies now that are hungry to grow and they're hungry to learn more. And just watching that, I think it's really, really amazing.

[00:38:14] Mike: I would agree with that. If you were going to write a book, what would it be about?

[00:38:21] Jennifer: I think that I would somehow love to put into words the real connection and to really show people how hr and sustainability, they do go together, try to make an official framework, I guess, for people to really see that, because it does, you know, you hear so much about, oh, you need a sustainable person or you need a climate person, but really, it all boils down to people and their actions. So it's people. It's people first. And if people are doing the right thing for the right reason, whether it be buying coffee for a certain reason or turning off the light or giving back to their community or just helping somebody, it kind of. It does. It all goes together.

[00:38:59] Mike: That's a big part of what we do here at acclimate, as you know, know. It's like, how do we empower people that aren't experts to make climate informed decisions. It's about education and empowerment for individuals to make smarter decisions. All right, I want to thank Jennifer for joining us today on the climate. Dad. As a reminder, Jennifer is the director for human resources and sustainability, Xavier Creative House, a marketing agency focused on medicine and pharmacy. You can reach them@xaviercreativehouse.com dot again, Jennifer, it's great to, to spend time with you again today. Thank you.

[00:39:29] Jennifer: Well, thanks for having me. I enjoy it. And as always, I thank you guys for all you do for us. You've been with us literally from, I think, day three of the journey that I've had on sustainability. And it's been a wild ride. But I've learned a lot and I appreciate you guys and all you do. And I'm forever shouting you guys out whenever I get a chance.

[00:39:49] Mike: Well, we're grateful for that. Thank you.

Jennifer is just so much fun to work with, and I really both love her enthusiasm and like, her curiosity. She's just always learning so much. And we learn a lot by working with her.

If you're looking for a good creative agency, you really couldn't go wrong by going to the great one that is Xavier Creative house.

Anyway, for those of you that are watching, you'll notice that I'm wearing a tie today and you may be wondering why. And the reason is, it's because I'm attending a funeral.

My friend wouldn't have been comfortable with me talking about him in public, so I won't mention his name. But I will say this, which is love the people in your life hard. Like, love them real hard. This world can be tough, but we're all that we really have.

Anyways, to wrap up, I want to hear from you. Go to climate or, excuse me, go to acclimate.com or send an email to theclimatedad acclimate.com dot. Again, acclimate is spelled acrylic.

To submit a question for me or the show if your business needs help measuring, reducing, reporting, or offsetting your company's climate footprint, please reach out to my team at acclimate and we'll help get you set up with the best, most affordable and easiest climate solution out there. Mention the climate, dad, and you'll get a discount. Thanks to Jennifer Bellossom bedingfield for joining me and thank you all for listening. I'll be back next time with a breakdown of all things climate and with another guest. Make sure to subscribe to the climate dad, where you get your podcast and to share like and or comment on social media again. My name is Mike Smith, and you've been listening to the climate dad.

Subscribe to The Climate Dad!
Want to be notified when a new podcast episode from The Climate Dad drops? Sign up below!
Read about our privacy policy.
Thank you! You will be notified when new episodes of The Climate Dad are released!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.