My one biggest lesson since starting 103 Ventures
You’d think it would be hard to drill 2.5 years into one big lesson, wouldn’t you?
I thought so too. But standing in the beautifully ornate Woolworth Building in the midst of the New York Climate Week, it hit me like a tonne of bricks — and I’d go so far as to say I think it will be my guiding light for working across multiple industries for the remainder of my career.
Since starting to test a 103 ventures theory of change in our systems intervention point programmes two years ago, we have been fortunate enough to take a birds eye view on a plethora of public and private sector initiatives. Both at an industry scale and across entire regions.
In this time, we have mapped every stakeholder group in the built environment across Europe and their role in supporting the transition to Net Zero. We have looked again at a global scale and uncovered an even more complex picture of excellent intentions and action.
From multi-stakeholder roadmaps, to unlocking sustainable finance; and from developing new business models to drafting new guidelines and standards. We have loved diving deep into this industry and charting how each initiative is contributing to the whole.
The very best of these initiatives are meaningfully pushing the industry forward. The right people are in the right rooms. And many (if not all) of the right problems are, largely, being identified and addressed.
Why then, are we almost four years into the critical decade for climate action and most definitely not on track?
This is my one biggest learning.
The transition to net zero requires a level of transformation never seen before by most industries. To achieve this, it requires deep change within AND beyond the sphere of our control.
This starts at the core of our businesses, with eminently solvable challenges like effective governance and remuneration, moves out past the blurred boundaries of our scope 3 responsibilities and deep into the fabric of the wider system that is either enabling or holding us back.
And this is the clincher: We not only need all these things, but we need them simultaneously.
Interestingly, This is something we wrote about for companies in the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership Net Zero Transformation Report in 2022, but only now am I seeing it come to life at an industry scale.
But what could this mean on the ground?
For me, the work to overcome the systemic barriers of an industry needs to be driven by what — specifically — is holding the industry back from making progress. For example, WLC accounting standards, integrating transition risks and an industry approach to carbon pricing.
And the results from overcoming these barriers should not only speak to, but feed directly into, initiatives that are either calling for or enabling the industry action on the ground. For example climate commitments which ask for whole life carbon measurements or consultancies readying companies for the transition.
Importantly, with every barrier that is systemically identified and overcome, we would need to hold it together in a cohesive picture. And make it easy to navigate, understand and engage with for any industry player making (or indeed avoiding) the transition.
Holding the picture together is important.
Because for every barrier that is overcome, we would be one step closer to our collective goals and we could make an easy, reciprocal ask to industry to step forward with us.
In fact, we would ask for nothing less.
Because, if we listen intently to the real barriers to progress on our doorsteps today. If we tackle each one of them in turn to systematically clear the path for both investors and industry, then with every coordinated step we take, we WILL ask for the industry to take one step forward with us.
It’s empathetic but precise accountability.
Now, this may not feel like a big shift — but it is — and for me it’s an important one.
It’s a move from the classic climate action narrative of “you must do this, by this date”, to “we hear you, there’s a whole sea of barriers holding back progress. Let’s prioritise them, unpick them, and overcome them, together.”
Now, of course, writing something like this up is infinitely easier than delivering on it. But I wouldn’t be writing it if I hadn’t already seen this emerging and could wrap my head and my hands around what this could look like.
My mission in the next few months is to see if we can bring a framework for this insight into fruition. Whether we achieve it for the built environment or not, is yet to be seen. But one things for sure, I’m going to try.
As always, welcome thoughts and feedback. you can reach me on: kate@103.ventures