Leadership in Sustainability – Donal Daly, Future Planet

This is Techstrong tv. Hello and welcome to Techstrong tv. I'm Bonnie Schneider, and today we're pleased to welcome Donald Dally, who is the c e o and Fu Future Planet.

Donald is a serial entrepreneur with a remarkable history in founding successful global technology companies. His latest venture future planet focuses on helping corporations shape set their sustainability strategies. Well, uh, Donald, it's a pleasure to have you here.

Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for, thanks for asking me.

Alright, well, can you share a little bit more about your background, especially as a serial entrepreneur and what led you to focus on sustainability software? So, uh, happy to, um, yes, I've been in software for a long time. Some people say I've never had a proper job.

Uh, I've had five now, six software companies, and fortunately they've been, uh, uh, been fairly fortunate. Um, I actually started my first AI software company in 1986, which is you were head of, and AI was cool then. And then it wasn't cool for 25 years and now it's cool again.

But, uh, and I had various software companies, but largely it's been around using, uh, software to help companies improve their performance through various different domains over time. And, um, I had exited my fifth company, uh, about four years ago. Uh, I decided I'd done enough and I wasn't doing anymore, and I promised I'd stay at home and all those things.

I then my son, who is now 20, so right then he was kind of turning 16, he said, so, dad, should I be worried? And I said, about what? And he said, will the plan still be okay when I'm your age?

And I went, shucks, I'm going to need to go and take some of the experience I've had over the years and see if I can do something about it. Um, and I thought about it and I'm a, I'm a I'm an engineer and I'm a nerd and I try and solve problems and that's, that's kind of what I do. And I said, of course it'll be fine.

All we need to do is if we all stop consuming, it would be fine, right? If we all stop consuming, the earth will replenish and we won't exceed any of the planetary boundaries, that'll be good. But of course, that's not practical.

And from a corporate point of view, my perspective was, well, if we can buy stuff more sustainably, more creatively, more responsibly, then uh, that's what we could do. So I teamed up with my co-founder, a lady called Ingrid from Belgium, um, who knows more than anybody on the planet about, uh, sustainable supply chain and procurement. And we created a platform to make it easy for companies to go on their sustainability journey.

That's why we're here. Long answer to your question, That's wonderful. Well, climate change, obviously as you, uh, told us the story about your son, it's a pressing challenge.

So, so how does future planet assist, uh, business leaders in addressing sustainability issues, especially in the context of digitally digital transformation? So, so thanks. Yeah.

The, the, the challenge with sustainability is it's, it's so big, it's so broad. It touches every part of, of a business. And it is, in our opinion, it's a, it's a company transformation, a, a behavior change process.

And like any of those, it goes through the stages of I need to understand my strategy, I need to understand where I'm starting from, and then I need to go through my change process and measure what happens at the end. So what we've done from a digital point of view is, is we've tried to take some of the great practices that consultants do, uh, that that where if someone says, you know, what's your strategy, Bonnie? And you'll go, I don't know.

Let me, can you help me? And they'll go and look at other companies that look like you and what they do, and they'll see all those kind of things. And I'm kind of going, yeah, well, if that's the case, then it should be like when you go on Amazon and you buy something and Amazon says, companies who bought this also bought this, right?

So it should be like that from a sustainability point of view that says, companies that look like you in your industry of a similar size should have similar challenges. So we've done, from a digital point of view, as you said, you can tell us who you are and we will tell you in three seconds what it is you should focus on. So from a digital point of view.

And then with that, we help you assess where you're starting from. So for example, if you're in construction, you probably will need to focus on waste and water as well as energy, as well as some of the social aspects. We'll help you understand your baseline through an intelligent model, um, and then guide you to what you need to do at the end of that result.

The thing that people spend a lot of time on today, um, which is unfortunate because there's not a lot of value transacted in this, they spend a lot of time on their e s G report. So, uh, 'cause the investors want it and because the shareholders want it, people will spend a lot of time measuring what they did. Uh, so we try and take that pain away and say, if you have your information, then you should be able to generate that in minutes, not in weeks and months, so you can spend your time improving what you're doing.

So the digital transformation helps people on the journey from guiding them to what to do, report on what they need to do, improve, and then have the whole organization kind of, um, focused around those, those tasks. Well, I'm glad you brought up E S G, uh, something here in the states, a lot of people are talking about, um, for E S G initiatives, they are definitely gaining traction. Can you explain how E S G factors into future planet's approach to sustainability?

You were mentioning E S G reports that that's definitely in demand. So how does future planet come into play with that? Okay, so E S G as you know, is, is environmental, social and governance, right?

And when people think about sustainability, um, as, and it's new for many people, think about carbon and emissions, but of course it's much broader than that. That's the e piece. Uh, in the e piece you have carbon and emissions or water and waste and so on, which you also said the S piece, which is your social pieces and thinking about your employees and your workers in your community.

And then of course you have the governance piece. So that's your E, your SS, and your D. The, uh, E S G is really just a framework to implement sustainability.

So everything that you need to do to figure out what your strategy is, there are compliant processes you need to do. And in the US you have the, the, uh, I S SS B who determine what that is for the us and you have the s e C rules who determine what you need to report. So our platform knows all of those things and knows that if you use a lot of water, it, it knows A, what you need to measure, B, what you need to report, and C how you improve.

So all those things feed your sustainability journey, but also automagically if you like, feed into your e s G report. That's great. Um, so can you share some examples of companies that have embraced sustainability through future planet solutions and the impacts that's made on their, on their organization?

Yeah, so of course, so a construction company, uh, a multi-billion construction company. One of our first, um, one of the first clients we had came to us and said, they're in construction. It's a fairly dirty industry, right?

Construction. And the whole built environment they say represents maybe 37 to 40% of the emissions of, of the world's emissions, if you like. So one of the issues, they, they had many issues, but one of the issues they had was they said, how do we reduce single use plastic in the supply chain, right?

So, um, and that's fundamentally a supply chain sustainable procurement process and practice. And we, uh, our platform has a, a set of guides that figure out how you interact with all your stakeholders, your suppliers, your, your builders, your constructors, your subcontractors, and provide them guidance on how instead of using plastic, they use paper. Instead of buying products that have plastic embedded, they look for alternative solutions.

So we help them reduce the single use plastic. Um, and, and, and then they went, oh, well if we can do this, then we can do sustainable procurement across all of our products, if you like. So sustainable procurement means can I buy something from my supplier that is less damaging to the environment?

Um, and when you do that well, you also save an awful lot of money because you end up consolidating your purchases. You buy, you buy fewer items, you buy from fewer suppliers. And what they discovered is that sustainable procurement was how they would fund the rest of their sustainability, um, initiatives.

And having the platform made that much easier for 'em to do That. Makes sense. Um, well, climate goals and targets can vary widely among organizations.

So how does future planets software adapt to the unique needs and challenges of different industries and businesses? Yeah, so, so that's, that's, that's a great point. So the context matters.

So if, um, if I just construction, construction will have issues around waste and water and concrete, right? A professional services company probably doesn't care about any of those things. So the future plan and software has profiles of different industry types, different company types and lookalikes for each of those.

That helps you figure out where you should focus on how and, and how you get better. So depending on the context of the industry, the company, the maturity of the company, uh, 'cause some will be more advanced than others, uh, the software figures out what you should do next. Um, but bear in mind, I've been working on AI for 37 years, so I'm finally getting some of it right with respect to this, uh, important one.

So it's that kind of, uh, knowledge based application that kind of says from where I am, where do I need to go next to get to my journey. That's Great. Well, looking ahead, what trends do you see ahead coming for the realm of sustainability and digital transformation, and where do you see future planet in this mix?

So I think the, um, so it's only gonna get more urgent, right? So, so, um, so a lot of the reporting say in Europe, 'cause there's a, there's, there's quite a bit of a difference between what's happening in Europe and what's happening in the US Yeah. Uh, so a lot of the reporting in Europe becomes mandatory for many companies from the 1st of January, 2024, right?

Which is just around the corner, right? In the US a lot of the reporting right now is man is, excuse me, um, is voluntary. Um, so I see those two things, um, coming together.

Um, I see as there'd be a standard set of reports, I see a broader perspective on damage to the environment as well as damage to finances. So for example, in the US it focuses largely on the investor and the shareholder point of view. It says, what is the risk to my business as a concept of climate change?

That's the, that's a simplified version of what the US regular, uh, rules say in Europe. It says what damage does it do to the environment and as well as what damage it, it does to the business. I see those two things coming together.

That makes sense, I think. Yeah. So, and I think from future planner's point of view, we're we are, as we see that burden increase for companies, we see our role is to make it simple so that when someone says, if I use my water example, someone says they use X gallons of water in a manufacturing plant somewhere, right?

They should be able to measure that as they normally do through their financial systems. And then all the rest of the sustainability practices and reporting the software should be able to tell them what to do. So it should say, if you use X gallons of water, then under the various standards, here's what you need to report.

Here's your typical disclosures you have to do, and here's how you can improve. So as it gets harder, we're trying to make it easier, uh, because it's, it's, it's, it's putting pressures on companies to do it while they're still running their business. That's a good point.

Well, we have time for one more question. So what key message or advice would you like to lead for business leaders who are striving to lead their organizations through the challenges of climate change and sustainability? I'd say they need to start, right?

They need to start, they need to think about the future generations. They need. There's a, there's a, a Canadian tribe called the ROIs, which, which has a, a principle called the seven Generation Principle.

And it was said that they used to always, when making decisions, think about how that would impact seven generations hat, you know, so every action that I take now, we don't actually have seven generations currently based on where we are unless we take the right actions. So I think that people should start, measure what they're doing, think about what the outcome will be, and then make the decision for their children. Excellent.

Uh, thank you Donald Deley, C e o of Future Planet for sharing your valuable insights on sustainability, climate change, and the role of technology in shaping a better future. We really appreciate you joining us on Tech Drunk tv. Thanks, Bonnie.

It was great. All right, well stay with us. We're going to have a lot more of these terrific interviews coming up.