Impact Nation: a sustainable result in 100 days

According to an ancient Chinese proverb, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. But it’s often that first step which is the hardest, mainly because the journey is perilous and reaching one’s destination far from certain. That goes for businesses looking to make their products and services more environmentally friendly, too. After all, they know they need to get their sustainability act together, but they lack the time and expertise to really go for it.

“Entrepreneurs are often attracted to the latest thing going,” says Menno van Leeuwen, programme manager at ABN AMRO’s Impact Nation. “Sustainability is important to them in the long run, just not today. Plus there’s the issue of the commercial value of sustainability, which isn’t always immediately obvious. To what extent does sustainability contribute to profits or cost reduction? As a result, the topic often gets put on the back burner in favour of more pressing business challenges."

Momentum

What entrepreneurs need is momentum. Enter Impact Nation, a new initiative ABN AMRO launched in January of this year, which completed its first round in September. Impact Nation enables the bank to link businesses looking to take their first steps towards sustainability with other businesses which know exactly how to handle the specific issues they face. They’re then given 100 days to achieve their first concrete results.

Menno explains, “If, like ABN AMRO, your aim is to speed up the transition to sustainability and you really want to provide meaningful support, you shouldn’t go it alone. That’s why we’re harnessing the power of our network. As a bank, we can be part of the solution, at the very least. We can inspire others – with our circular pavilion CIRCL for example – and at the end of the process, we can provide financing. It’s the bit in between, though, that’s the hardest.” And it’s precisely that bit which ABN AMRO has enlisted Impact Hub and The Next Web in Amsterdam to focus on, two businesses with extensive experience in innovation and a large network of progressive partners.

Silicon Valley

The first eight participants presented their results in September. One of them, Vogel’s, was looking to produce a sustainable replacement for a plastic component in its television screen suspension systems. In just 100 days, the company managed to produce a biodegradable substitute after teaming up with a group in Silicon Valley, and tested it in their laboratory in Eindhoven. “Now that they’ve taken this first step, things have really taken off for them,” says Menno. “The company is currently working on a sustainability strategy. And in the long term, they want to work in accordance with a fully circular model, with their products being collected after use. They hope this will give them a better grip on their product’s life cycle.”

Another participant was Wereldhave, a commercial real estate investment company focusing primarily on properties in the Netherlands and Belgium. Wereldhave’s challenge involved coming up with a plan to make its roofs more sustainable in a short space of time and with limited resources. Options include solar panels and the construction of green roofs (with vegetation). “The times we’re living in demand collaboration. Meeting environmental and social challenges in a bubble just isn’t good enough any more,” says Tim van der Weide, who works for Wereldhave. “We’ve now joined forces with Sobolt and Impact Nation to carry out a pilot project to analyse two big rooftops in the towns of Arnhem and Hoofddorp. We’ve also developed a business case for a greener roof.”

“Impact Nation was like a shot in the arm for us,” Tim continues. “They really helped us focus on our challenge, plus they provided us with a platform to find a partner and introduced us to a network of other businesses.”

“Our main aims are to be recognised experts in this area, always be in the loop and know what all the options are,” Menno adds. “That’s the only way we’ll be able to serve our clients in making their sustainability initiatives a reality.”

Shaking things up

“It’s been very gratifying to see that even SMEs can take positive steps in a short amount of time,” he continues. “At first, I thought bigger companies would have an easier time of it, since they’ve got a bigger workforce and more resources. But Vrijdag Premium Printing, an SME active in the packaging industry, placed five employees in sustainability projects just like that. It’s great to see Impact Nation shaking things up.”

Participants have shared their experiences and lessons learned, resulting in new partnerships. “Businesses visited each other and started thinking about ways they could help one another. The principles behind the sustainable packaging material produced by one of them could also be applied by another. That’s great because sustainability can be commercial, too. It’s not a quick fix – you don’t just rush to become sustainable and then forget about it. It’s about investing and collaborating with others. Sustainability is hard work. But at the end of the day, it also has to deliver – not just in terms of the world around us but also in terms of revenue. After all, that’s what being an entrepreneur is all about!”

How would you like to speed up sustainability at your business in the short term? Why not check out www.impactnation.nl and sign