Bringing ‘eco’ into the economy
Startups turn reducing, reusing and recycling into revenue
When corporations renovate their offices, they pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to junk old furniture and equipment — 85 per cent ends up in the landfill.
That’s a waste, according to Richard Beaumont, vice-president of strategic accounts for Torontobased Green Standards. The company finds new homes for old office furniture and equipment at nonprofit organizations that welcome used phones and chairs.
Unlike many environmental organizations, Green Standards has found a way to turn “reduce, reuse, recycle” into a workable business model. It focuses on a “triple bottom line,” meaning performance is measured by profit, as well as the social and environmental benefits produced.
The company was originally a non-profit operating out of the U.K., which donated old office furniture to organizations in Africa. But when it almost collapsed, Beaumont, the lone remaining employee, realized a new approach was needed.
The for-profit model added resale, recycling valuable metals and a removal charge to make the premise scalable and cost-effective.
Now, Beaumont believes socially conscious forprofit businesses like his are catching on among a new generation of entrepreneurs.
“When the concept clicks, you kind of have an ‘aha’ moment of like: ‘oh of course, that makes so much sense,’ and it’s really the implementation that’s the real trick,” Beaumont said.
Green Standards is one of a small but growing number of Canadian businesses operating in the “circular economy,” a system that aims for zero waste and no greenhouse gas emissions by using products to their maximum potential.
“It’s actually just the way that people used to do things making a comeback,” said Warren Mabee, director of the Queen’s University’s Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy, pointing to his mother’s penchant to save and reuse everything from string to wrapping paper.
“We started to move toward a throwaway society — and industry really embraced it because of course it meant vast growth in their bottom line because people now need to purchase something every couple years.”
Globally, a circular economy could save as much as $700 million (U.S.) per year, according to a 2011report by the McKinsey Global Institute. It calls the circular economy “a trillion-dollar opportunity,” estimating that it could address up to 80 per cent of the growth in energy demand, 60 per cent of growth in water demand and 25 per cent of growth in demand for steel. The Ontario government — along with China, the EU and municipalities across Canada — is getting on board with alternatives to the “linear” produce-use-dispose economic model.
Ontario released a draft strategy for the transition to a circular economy last year, touting benefits including reduced greenhouse gas emissions, job opportunities and savings to consumers and taxpayers through better waste reduction, improved design and increased reuse.
Cities and corporations across the country have also formed the National Zero Waste Council (NZWC), which in turn has a circular economy working group focusing on waste reduction beyond municipal recycling efforts.
“We hear stories all the time that businesses that adopt circular economy concepts are actually improving their bottom line,” said Malcolm Brodie, mayor of Richmond, B.C., and NZWC chair.
“I think more and more that will be the expectation in the future and that businesses have reason to embrace it.”
However, Beaumont said he learned the hard way that for the “economy” part of the idea to work, environmental organizations need to shed the idea that “profit” is a dirty word.
“We want to have a real impact on this issue North America-wide and potentially globally, and that’s only possible by being able to implement it in a cost-effective and profitable fashion.”
In order to appeal to clients, Green Standards’ services had to be comparably convenient and priced similarly to conventional junk removal, but offer a more appealing story for companies increasingly concerned with corporate social responsibility.
Those social and environmental benefits are some of the reasons that big companies such as Rogers Communications are partnering with the startup. Rogers is using Green Standards in a multi-year program to overhaul offices across the country.
“The best part is, 98 per cent of what we no longer need is helping others,” said Doug Jeoffroy, Rogers vice-president of corporate real estate.
But real change will need increased government pressure; big corporations can’t be expected to upend their familiar profitable business models simply out of the goodness of their hearts, Mabee cautioned.
“The best way to do it is a combination of the carrot and the stick,” he said.
“The stick is the fact that governments are restricting the ability of large-scale landfills and easy wastedisposal options. The carrot is that companies now can fill the need to take this material away and use it in more effective ways.”