Do Good. Do Well.

Platforms and Sustainable Living

Thanks for your continued support. Here is your weekly dose of Running Platform Marketing Life. Talking of dose, have you received the second dose of covid19 vaccine yet? If not, please get vaccinated ASAP.

Do share your feedback on this newsletter if you have not done it yet.

If you are reading for the first time, please subscribe for a weekly email discussing Running Platform Marketing Life. 

AND if you are a friend of the RPML, do share it with others. You can add more of your friends to the Community of Platform’ed by using the following link.

DTW

During the Week, valuation guru and NYU Stern Finance Professor Aswath Damodaran caused a stir when he argued that ESG was the most overhyped and oversold concept in business.

Aswath Damodaran @AswathDamodaran

Last year, I argued that ESG was the most overhyped, and oversold concept in business (bit.ly/3lnozXw), and heard from people who felt I was missing its good points. After a year of searching, I still cannot find them..

bit.lyThe ESG Movement: The “Goodness” Gravy Train Rolls On!A blog about markets, finance and all things money related.

According to him, the ESG sales pitch to investors is internally inconsistent and fundamentally incoherent as investors or financial advisers are not able to determine whether the ESG Goodness information is already priced in or not. Another important point is to figure out how individuals can make the difference to the environment and society without the intervention of the stock market. Investors as individual could make their own choices of spending their capital in whatever way they deem fit rather than leave it to the CEOs and boards to take the call.

During 2014-17, I was part of Young Leaders Think Tank team supported by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung India to document the Green Livelihood Initiatives through extensive consultation with grass roots organisations and independent practitioners. We called it Big Green Project. You could also read the complete report at FES India Website. Here is a short documentary that we created to document our journey and insights. Watch out for the end credits wonderful poem written and narrated by Sachin Kumar.

Platforms and ESG movement have multiple facets including engagement for sustainable development and environmental and social standards to promote human well being and the protection of the environment. We can understand the growing interconnected of platforms and environmental sustainability through four dimensions - positive impact through facilitating circular economy & incentivising environmental sustainability AND negative impact through increased resource usage in platforms & pushing materialism through an on-demand economy. You can read more about this in my earlier post on how platforms are rooting for Environment

I have written about platforms and fashion in an earlier post documenting initiatives like  FolkLores , a Social Enterprise run by former student Gargi Kucheria and work done by Yash Raj Ranga .Coincidently, Aru’s latest podcast is on Fashion and Sustainability where we discuss about the new Sabyasachi and H&M collaboration.

While discussing about the role of platforms in solving socio-economic problems, we could look at using platform stratgey and mindset as well as reducing the harm created by platforms themselves. In an discussion on the platform mindset for solving social allocation problems during the Managing Platform Businesses Course, I was joined by Komal Sinha who is their Global Director of Sustainability and a fellow runner who is leading the development of Plastic Waste Recovery Methodology under a multi-stakeholder model, as a part of the first set of globally approved Recovery and Recycling methodologies, along with the Plastic Standard. Platforms have been able to create an efficient mechanism to manage financial and social incentives for sustainable practices. Initiatives like rePurpose Global which is a Plastic Credit Platform dedicated to reducing waste, reviving lives, and restoring nature's balance have been connecting conscious customers and purposeful businesses through empowering grassroots workers including rag pickers.Platforms focussing on 3Rs (reducing, reusing and recycling) can help the world achieve waste-related targets under Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 12 (responsible consumption and production), as well as other SDGs, including on health, water, land, climate, oceans and sustainable cities.

One of the biggest failure of platforms has been the relentless march of consumption and all its consequences for the well being of humans and planet. I have discussed about negative impact of platforms through increased resource usage in platforms & pushing materialism through an on-demand economy. You can read more about it in There is no PLANet B!

To paraphrase Gandhiji’s mantra about materialism and rampant consumption - We have Sufficient for Everybody's Needs, Not For Greed.

OTW

Over the Weekend, we had an interesting conversation about sustainable living and role of food and physical activity in creating holistic living experience. In the monthly session of MountainSpeak, I spoke to Dhiraj Kaveri who is co-founder of Stay Active and Yoga Practitioner.

Amongst the many initiatives, Dhiraj Kaveri runs Stay Active Bicycle Bandhu Program to promote Active Transport in urban settings where students & adults from low income families are given Bicycles to commute to school or work. So far they have gifted 65 Bicycles worth Rs 3 lakhs through crowd funding and micro finance loans. His other significant engagement is as a Promoter of Voluntary Blood Donation with Aarohi NGO  which runs Aarohi Blood Bank which supports Thalassemia Children get Free Blood in Hyderabad.

This session was part of an initiative that Subir Jha, Naveen KL and I had conceptualised to create “Spaces” for interesting conversations on relevant topics. Pandemic stopped it abruptly but we intend to revive it with a healthy dose of “Good Food“ curated by Trice Community.

In an earlier episode of MountainSpeak, I had an interesting conversation with Sandesh Sathyanarayana who started his eco-entrepreneurial journey through Synergize Solar on World Environment Day. They want to attempt to get a million households tap Solar Energy in a sustainable way- one rooftop at a time. Feel free to reach out to him if you work in renewable energy and/or infrastructure including real estate sector.You can watch the video here.

It is time to make sustainable choices. Stay Safe and See you soon.

I Love You

Shailendra

OTM

Opportunities through MountainSpeak are still available at Synergize Solar for creating the next CleanTech enterprise. They are looking for people who're passionate about #cleanenergyfuture and #solarenergy, looking to begin their journey in this space.In an episode in June, MountainSpeak guest and Co-Founder of Synergize Solar, Sandesh spoke about his vision for the company- Synergize Households. One Rooftop at a Time.

Volunteering Opportunities are available at Aarohi Blood Bank for social media and promotional partnerships. Please get in touch with Dhiraj Kaveri if you would like to contribute to their mission of “Bringing Dignity to Life of people by making Quality blood and blood products”.