Green Entrepreneurs Assemble—The newsletter for green entrepreneurs and professionals.

A rising tide lifts all boats 🙂 

Hi, I am Akhoy, all the way from North-eastern India.

I put in 100s of hours every month to reach out and interview business people around the world, who are working towards creating a more sustainable future for the planet. Some of them are just starting, while others are generating millions in revenue. There are invaluable lessons you can learn from people at different stages of growing green businesses.

I live in a biodiversity hotspot myself that is undergoing rapid urbanization and deforestation (these two are BFF, to be honest). I understand the importance of successfully monetizing activities that are meant to protect the earth’s ecosystems.

Interestingly, there is very little first-hand content online on green entrepreneurship, which is why I decided to create this newsletter.

Podcasts demand a good deal of time to listen to, but the written format is easier to consume. I have also highlighted important words and phrases to make each interview a quick read.

Without further ado, let’s welcome today’s guest—

Table of Contents

1. Backstory

2. Carbon Accounting Metrics

3. Benefits of Carbon Accounting for Clients

4. Service Availability

5. Nuances of Carbon Accounting

6. Risks and Malpractices in Carbon Accounting

7. First Client and Investor

8. Business Model

9. Biggest Success and Biggest Challenge

10. Carbon Accounting Nuances with Different-sized Businesses

11. Carbon Accounting Trends

12. Team Members' Contribution

13. Day In Life

14. Advice to Fellow Green Entrepreneurs

15. Future Plans

16. Collaboration

17. “1 Minute Summary” of the Interview

(Note: I have preserved Ilea’s voice, but made slight edits for readability)

🟢 Please tell me about your backstory and how you got started in this field.

I knew when I finished school that I wanted to use business as a tool to address climate change. So, I thought the best way to do that was by learning about business. So, I bought a business when I finished school, and was then an angel investor in a company that built the first carbon credit and carbon accounting platform in the world.

They expanded globally, and I started a Canberra office for them. Then, after the repeal of the carbon price in Australia and the GFC globally, they collapsed. Then I bought the software from them in 2019 from the administrator and started Evalue8 Sustainability.

We just want to make it easy for businesses to reduce their emissions. With the other business that I had bought, I went through a carbon audit back in 2005, and the process was painful and torturous. It was three months of data collection, $20,000 in consulting fees, and you end up with this big report that then sits on your shelf. You haven't actually done anything to reduce your emissions.

So, I really wanted to change that. I wanted to be able to see what I was doing was having an impact. So, our platform aims to be a live data feed for your carbon dashboard, so that you can see if what you're doing is having an impact or not. The energy cannot be on the reporting of your carbon emissions but on the reduction and making sure that that's where you're spending your time and money.

🟢How is carbon accounting done? What kind of metrics is it based on?

The original method was that you pull out invoices and look at the actual activity data. This could be liters of petrol, and hotel nights, kilometers of flights travelled— all your expenditure as a business, and as a person too. But we focus on businesses.

We automate this by taking the average prices that people pay for something, and we take the location where it was purchased, and the time that it was purchased in. With those three things together, we can take that effort out of the process and make it all automated straight from your financial accounts.

🟢What are the benefits of carbon accounting for your clients?

One is that they can see their emissions reduction and focus on things they can do to reduce them. There are often financial savings for the energy reduction as well as carbon savings.

Two is a lot of their customers, suppliers and stakeholders are asking for carbon data now. So, they will lose work if they can't provide accurate carbon accounts and aren’t able to communicate scope three effectively.

In Australia and globally, the International Sustainability Standards Board released a new standard last year. And it's coming into effect from the 1st of July this year in Australia. So, that will require large emitters to report on their full value chain.

If any company provides goods and services to a larger company, they need to be able to provide their carbon data.

🟢 Are your services only available in Australia or everywhere?

No, we're expanding globally, since last year and this year.

It is sort of a gradual process. But we'll have 160 countries' worth of emissions factors in our system and be able to track global supply chains.

🟢 Does carbon accounting vary from country to country or from industry to industry?

No, it's got a fantastic global framework that is consistent and standardized among all industries. There are however grey areas and different interpretations based on your industry and what should or shouldn't be included within your emissions boundary.

And that has a sort of more detailed methodology behind it that can be interpreted differently in different industries or different countries. But the new standard is looking to make that more and more consistent.

And they've gone down into different types of industries in the new standard to detail those nuances between the different industries. But ultimately, it's an excellent communication tool between companies in all industries and value chains.

🟢According to you, are there any kinds of risks or malpractices that might be involved in carbon accounting that people should be aware of?

Yeah, I think there's a tendency now to peg executives' remuneration based on environmental performance, which has good intentions. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing to do. But their carbon accounts aren't as robust as financial accounts in terms of how they're interpreted. And some of those grey areas and things like emissions factors changing can be applied retrospectively for that change.

And those vulnerabilities in the system can leave it open to exploitation from those executives who might have a financial benefit from showing reduced emissions. Then, there are carbon credits, which are a whole different kettle of fish in terms of how they're managed. And there needs to be a lot of tightening in terms of the regulations around carbon credits so that businesses can use them with trust in the system.

I think they're a great financial tool, but you have to have that trust in the whole system and know that there are safeguards in place that are ensuring the carbon abatement is actually happening. And there's been a lot of extreme markups and corrupt behaviour in some of the carbon credit markets, which gives the whole industry a bad name, which is disappointing.

And hopefully, some of those can be resolved as the regulations tighten. But everything's moving so quickly at the moment that we all just need to catch up and get the processes more and more robust and auditable.

🟢As a green entrepreneur, how did you find your first client and investor?

We've got a fantastic support system here in Canberra. So, I'm based in Australia's capital ACT (Australian Capital Territory). And we have an innovation network here called the Canberra Innovation Network. And that's been fantastic in terms of connecting with customers and investors and mentors and all sorts of things.

That's really what got me into it. I had this idea, and I knew I wanted to do it. And going from being a part of a bigger company to being my own entity was definitely a big learning curve. And I don't have a tech background, so figuring out how to run a tech company was a challenge. And yeah, the support network that I've had here has been fantastic.

🟢How do you generate revenues for your business?

It's a software-as-a-service, so we just charge a subscription for usage of our platform.

🟢As a green entrepreneur, what has been your biggest win so far and what has been the biggest challenge that you have faced?

The biggest win was probably that we were the first carbon accounting application on the Zero Marketplace and also on the Microsoft Marketplace. We were profiled as one of 20 businesses worldwide as a part of their Build for 2030 campaign. That was in our first year of operation. And we were getting inquiries from all around the world. We were definitely kind of leaders in that space, which was really exciting.

And in terms of challenges— raising capital. I think as a female founder and when I started in it, it was sort of a new industry. When I started, there weren't many competitors. There was one in the UK that was very small and not really a proper competitor. And the question I got from investors was, 'Is there even a market for this?' And then very quickly, within a couple of years, there are competitors popping up all over the place. And suddenly, it's like, 'Oh, well, how are you differentiated?'

And I'm like, 'Well, if you'd given me the money back then, we would have been able to invest in the differentiation that we needed now!’ Because I've got these big visions, but trying to get there quickly feels like it goes a lot slower than it needed to be. And I feel there are a lot of other players in the industry who don’t have the expertise. But they have been able to do more just because they've been handed lots and lots of money.

🟢You serve small, medium, and enterprise-level businesses, right? So, are there different nuances involved with each when it comes to carbon accounting?

Yeah, definitely. And that's one of the biggest struggles we have is trying to make the same platform suitable for all those different companies. And it really depends on their level of maturity.

We have small businesses with five staff who are measuring their little wastebins every week, knowing how many grams of waste they're contributing. And that's fantastic. But then, there are big manufacturers who have skips of waste, and they don't have a clue how much waste they're producing.

They're like, 'Oh, we've got an amount going, and we try and recycle what we can.' So, dealing with the level of maturity of the business and balancing that with the size of the business, that's our biggest area of nuance to try and make sure the platform caters to both of those.

🟢What kind of trends do you see in the carbon accounting industry?

What I see really exciting is the Partnership for Carbon Transparency, the PACT framework, and Product Carbon Footprints.

So, the dirty secret of carbon accounting is that it's all based on industry averages. And that's what we've had to work with. And a lot of carbon accounting has been data modeling exercises.

And the really exciting trend that I see is that this PACT framework utilises the same global carbon accounting standards and builds on that to give a product carbon footprint calculation. And then being able to share that globally and combine that with the global mandatory climate disclosures.

That is just going to unlock the potential of what we can do in the carbon accounting space to be able to share exact information and benchmark that against industry averages and get us so much more data.

It's a really exciting time for the industry. So, the individual product carbon footprint combined with the publicly available databases of climate disclosures, I think is just fantastic.

🟢How do your team members help you?

Oh, with everything! Yeah, I've got some fantastic data analysts. And you know, the tech team, I don't even know what's possible sometimes. And we all sort of figure it out together. So, yeah, couldn't do it without the team.

🟢What does a day in your life look like as a green entrepreneur?

Oh, I go for a morning run, and then I ride my bike to work. And I work from anywhere, but I come to the Canberra Innovation Network still because of the community.

And then most of my time is spent on Zoom calls like this, and responding to emails and managing the team. So, it's very similar to other businesses. But it's the exciting conversations with people about all the partnerships, especially that we get to build and the leading customers who want extra advice on their emissions reduction strategy, and to share what they've been doing and how to best demonstrate that to their stakeholders. That's the thing that's the most exciting for me.

🟢What would be your advice to fellow green entrepreneurs?

Maybe get some experience with other people that are doing it. I think that's crucial. Like, I've seen a lot of people that don't have the experience, and it really shows. Everyone wants to be involved, and that's great.

And I encourage everyone to get involved because we need all the hands we can get. But I think as someone who's been in the industry for 19 years, and then you see these people that are coming in with one year experience if you're lucky, or they just try to do something. Seeing the mistakes, the industry knowledge that they don't have is very obvious.

So, trying to sort of shadow and mentor, get involved, volunteer. We've got some staff who volunteer for us for a while, and see where they can fit in and learn as much as they can. And then we hire them. That's been really amazing. And interns and things like that.

So, I think interning, getting experience, doing something basic in the industry, and making sure you have that industry experience before you just dive in is crucial because it will save you a lot of heartache in terms of going down the wrong path, getting confused by what you're seeing.

It is a confusing and rapidly changing market. And so, having a bit of history and skills in that I think is crucial more so than other industries where it's very black and white whether you're in or you're out, you're a lawyer or you're not. It’s very clear cut there. It's much harder to put that differentiation in the carbon accounting environmental space because it's not only a university degree that gets you in.

There's a lot of experience and smaller courses that all sort of add up to form that bigger picture. But that picture is constantly changing and evolving and moving very quickly. And so, I think that's why having mentors and people who are in the industry who can really help guide you and check what you're doing is really important.

🟢What are your plans for the rest of the year for Evaluate?

More global expansion. So, yeah, just focusing on getting big supply chains around the world to be able to compare a standard lifecycle assessment, which is sort of a paper-based modelling exercise to our live product carbon footprint supply chain data, and doing that side-by-side comparison for a huge supply chain. That's my goal for this year.

🟢If you'd like any of our readers to help you and our company in anything, what would it be?

Referrals of clients. You know, supply chains that are interested in leading the way and being on the cutting edge. That are willing to be on the cutting edge, and are willing to go and do things that haven’t been done before. It’s always exciting to work with companies like that. So yeah, if they get in touch that would be amazing.

Connect with Ilea on Linkedin here: Ilea Buffier FAICD | LinkedIn

🟢“1 Minute Summary” of the Interview

• Background and Start in the Field: Ilea's journey began in 2005. Carbon audits at the time were painful and torturous and very expensive.

• Carbon Accounting Process: Original methods for carbon accounting involved manual data collection, but Evalue8 automates it using financial accounts, average prices, purchase locations, and timestamps.

• Benefits of Carbon Accounting: Allows businesses to track emissions reduction, focus on cost-saving measures, meet stakeholder demands for carbon data, and comply with emerging standards.

• Global Expansion: Evalue8 is expanding globally, aiming to cover 160 countries and track global supply chains.

• Uniformity of Carbon Accounting: While there are some nuances based on industry and country, global standards provide a consistent framework for carbon accounting.

• Risks and Challenges: Potential risks include exploitation of carbon accounting for executive remuneration and issues with carbon credit markets.

• Revenue Model: Evalue8 operates on a subscription-based revenue model for its software-as-a-service platform.

• Biggest Win and Challenge: Evalue8 was recognized globally for its carbon accounting application but faced challenges in raising capital and differentiation in a rapidly growing market.

• Nuances in Serving Different Business Sizes: Small businesses and enterprises have different levels of maturity in carbon accounting, requiring nuanced solutions.

• Trends in Carbon Accounting: Emerging trends include the PACT framework for product carbon footprints, which enhances transparency and accuracy in carbon accounting.

• Role of Team Members: Ilea's team plays a crucial role in various aspects of the business, from data analysis to tech development.

• Advice for Green Entrepreneurs: She advises newbies to gain experience in the field, seek mentorship, and understand the nuances of the industry before diving in.

• Plans for the Future: Evalue8 aims for further global expansion and enhancing product offerings to compare carbon footprints in supply chains.

• Ways Readers Can Help: Referrals of clients interested in leading the way in carbon accounting and supply chain transparency.

The next interview is with Benjamin Rombaut, the co-founder of Sand to Green. As the name of his company suggests, he is doing the impossible— Greening the desert. Do not miss out on his interview!