Ok Boomer, your turn to be woke generation!
Platforms are rooting for Environment
Welcome to the new readers from IBS Hyderabad MBA Class of 2023 as well as Third Semester Platform Strategy students of MBA2022. Here is your weekly dose of Running Platform Marketing Life. Talking of dose, have you received the covid19 vaccine yet? If not, please get vaccinated ASAP.
World Environment Day Flashback- 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.
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During the Week, hip E-commerce site Etsy, known for its marketplace of vintage and homemade goods, acquired garment resale competitor Depop in a $1.6B deal in an effort to engage with the Gen Z market.
This is interesting development as the second hand apparel market is fast replacing the fast fashion market and this could be good for environment. Speaking of borrowed clothes, what about the clothes we are borrowing from future generations ! 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 , again a former student and now Stakeholder Engagement Partner at Jaipur Rugs Foundation.
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.
Positive Environmental Externalities
Platforms have been instrumental in facilitating a circular economy both locally and across boundaries. There has been a lot of investor interest in the fashion resale & rental market with platforms like Rent the Runway ,Thredup, Poshmark , The RealReal etc solving the discovery and authentication problem for buyers and sellers. Most of the western markets are now considering the environmental cost of fast fashion and younger shoppers seem to be shifting towards sustainability. Covid19 and subsequent lockdowns have forced consumers to buy second hand garments, home furnishing, refurbished electronic goods or generally rent stuff instead of buying new. This shift to circular economy on platforms may be attributed to reduced incomes, closed retail stores and rising environmental consciousness. Luxury brands are also not behind in tapping into the resale marker to engage with their potential younger audiences, assure authentication, and control the consumer experience.
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. Komal Sinha who is their Global Director of Sustainability and a fellow runner 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 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. Platforms like Refinitiv offers one of the most comprehensive Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) databases in the industry across more than 450 different ESG metrics. There are multiple socially responsible investment platforms which help retail investors to invest in green tech, renewable energy, clean water etc in easy, automated, transparent, and customizable manner. For example , automated investing service like EarthFolio invests exclusively in funds and ETFs with strong ESG—or, Environment, Social, and Governance—practices.
Next week, we would discuss the negative externalities generated by platforms- negative impact through increased resource usage in platforms & pushing materialism through an on-demand economy. For now, rising e-commerce players like Depop may end up leveraging trends like social connection and environmental consciousness to compete against Amazon.
OTW
Over the Weekend, 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 could also listen to him and share your ideas when I host him for this month’s MountainSpeak session on 13th June 2021 at 7 PM.
We meet once a Month- Every Second Sunday from 7 PM-8 PM. If you would like to join or invite an acquaintance, please fill this google form
https://forms.gle/5vM78Az4ADS81ENk9 You would receive a virtual platform invite and could join in using the personal link.
And let me leave you with this series of videos from Conservation International.
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Shailendra
OTM
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Vey interesting and insightful article sir, never thought about platforms in terms of their relationship with the environment. Would read more about the platforms mentioned in the article. Looking forward to the next issue to understand the negative externalities generated by platforms.
Great article, as always. Thanks for the mention :) those were the days! We, FES are working on climate financing, will be publishing a short paper soon, and will be organising a series of webinar starting July on circular economy, this time with focus on sustainable fashion and electronics. Watch our FB page for updates https://www.facebook.com/FriedrichEbertStiftungIndia