There is no PLANet B!
Saving the Environment from Platforms
Thanks for your love and attention. This newsletter has been my outlet for staying in touch and talking to you directly over last 15 months now. It has been an incredible experience and I look forward to your comments and suggestions.
Covid19 second wave has been really hard and has struck many of us fairly closer home. There have been deaths and debilitating illnesses amongst family, colleagues and friends. As always, friends and family have shown great strength and resilience to help us recover from misfortune of disease and misery. We have had incredible stories of resilience in these difficult times and I would like to highlight two long form blogs by my dear friend and accomplished researcher/writer, Dr Nupur Pavan Bang.
Following her brush with Covid19, she took time to pen down her thoughts on fighting the infection and subsequently about getting on with her life. You may read her blogs in the following two links- Up Close and Personal AND Post-Covid, recovery phase. Here is an interesting piece of advise- Patience!
धीरे-धीरे रे मना, धीरे सब कुछ होय ।
माली सींचे सौ घड़ा, ॠतु आए फल होय ।
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, Netflix announced netflix stores to sell merchandise based on its shows and sounded battle horns for Disney or may be even Amazon! At least , Disney has an amazing merchandise marketplace model and it would not take long for amazon to set up one! But the environmentalist may not be happy with the idea of more waste generated through online shopping of streaming media trivia!
Last week, a group of shareholders tried to force Amazon to disclose how much of its plastic packaging winds up in the environment. According to a report by the nonprofit organization Oceana , Amazon generated 465 million pounds of plastic packaging waste in 2019. On its part, Amazon promised to review and address the “concern for reducing plastic pollution” by taking steps to share information on its progress on the issue.
Last week, I had discussed the two positive environmental externalities through facilitating circular economy & incentivising environmental sustainability.This week we would focus on negative impact through increased resource usage in platforms & pushing materialism through an on-demand economy.
Negative Environmental Externalities
Platforms and packaging have a symbiotic relationship to offer convenience and safety. Packaging technology has helped platforms deliver goods to their almost inaccessible customers. Platforms have been criticised for their energy intensive nature both in technology and delivery infrastructure.
Platforms in food tech offering Home Delivery are also susceptible to creating environmental hazard through packaging and single serve plastics. According to a report by The Ken, more than 22,000 tonnes of plastic waste is generated monthly by food tech platforms.
And this has also become more dangerous and striking us closer home when we realise that much of this micro plastic may end up in our food.
Elon Musk had to beat a hasty retreat when environmentalist pointed out the tremendous amount of fossil fuel energy used to mine bitcoin and has now started advocating for a greener cryptocurrency.
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. To paraphrase Gandhiji’s mantra about materialism and rampant consumption - We have Sufficient for Everybody's Needs, Not For Greed.
I suggest that we are thieves in a way. If I take anything that I do not need for my own immediate use and keep it I thieve it from somebody else. I venture to suggest that it is the fundamental law of Nature, without exception, that Nature produces enough for our wants from day to day, and if only everybody took enough for himself and nothing more, there would be no pauperism in this world, there would be no more dying of starvation in this world. But so long as we have got this inequality, so long we are thieving.
M. K. Gandhi - Book - Trusteeship
Navajivan Trust Publication-Ahmedabad, 1960 ; Page 3.
Platforms could do a lot to reduce plastic use and save environment. Because of their extraordinary power over their vendors, they could reduce overall plastic usage in their ecosystem . They could incentivise less plastics in packaging for products manufactured by other companies. Of course, more importantly they could reduce plastics in packaging that they use to repackage for delivery. They could also lead by example by reducing/minimising plastics in their own brands/products.
OTW
Over the Weekend, I read How I built this by Guy Raz. I had been following his NPR Podcast for quite sometime now and was fascinated by how Guy dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. This podcast titled How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.
This took me back to another story i.e. Saying No to Jugaad- The Making of BigBasket by TN Hari and MS Subramanian. It is an incredible story of customer centricity and relentless focus on people , process and culture. It is also an incredible story of single mindedness and forgoing Jugaad (taking no shortcuts). Their stance is vindicated as Tata Digital had committed an investment of ₹1,591 crore ($219 million) in BigBasket. More power to such entrepreneurs.
Stay Safe. Get Vaccinated ASAP.
I Love You
Shailendra
PS- “Refill” Your Water Bottle. Reduce Plastic Use.
OTM
Opportunities through MountainSpeak are 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.This month’s MountainSpeak guest and Co-Founder of Synergize Solar, Sandesh spoke about is vision for the company- Synergize Households. One Rooftop at a Time. You can watch the video here.
Know plastic for No plastic.
Amazing how steps have been taken by ignoring companies to fight the over burden on earth. Really insightful.
Insightful article sir!
Given the rising popularity of food platforms, the food demand is sure to grow and is growing at a fast pace and so also the mountain of plastic debris generated by them. Unless this issue is addressed seriously now and alternate, eco-friendly packages are made mandatory, we will not be in a position to tackle the problem. Consumer demand for packing materials made from natural fibres will also make a difference.