Future Forests: Selling a Climate-Friendlier Lifestyle
SustainAbility's Matt Loose on the company that's working to bring carbon sequestration to the masses.
As consumers, most of us are determined to have our cake and eat it. We want to travel by car but also -- when we think of it -- want a stable climate. A growing number of products and services are providing climate-friendlier lifestyles, with one of the most well known in the U.K. being Future Forests.
Future Forests has a business model which is highly unusual for an organization concerned with climate change. It could be described either as a for-profit NGO or as a campaigning business. Formed as a for-profit limited company in 1997, Future Forests is backed by venture capital. The linked needs for growth and consumer understanding have driven the development of a strong brand and a diverse range of partnerships with some well- known companies.
So what’s the product? Future Forests offers consumers the chance to measure, reduce and offset the climate change impacts of their lifestyle choices through .carbon sequestration. and investment in climate friendly technology projects around the world. Its central achievement has been to make this message accessible to ordinary consumers. However, fears have been raised that its success in simplification has also led to confusion about what the business actually does.
Given its entrepreneurial zeal, it was perhaps inevitable that Future Forests would trigger scrutiny from some areas of the green movement, particularly when it managed to scoop up a series of celebrity backers and succulent contracts, for example rendering the U.K. leg of the last Rolling Stones tour -- CarbonNeutral.
Earlier this year concerns came to a head when one NGO, Trees for Cities, made a complaint to Camden Trading Standards Office, claiming that consumers were being misled into thinking that all of the money they spend with Future Forests would lead directly to the planting of saplings. Although this complaint was subsequently rejected, for a high-profile brand aiming to appeal to hearts and minds, such challenges pose real risks, and Future Forests was quick to act in order to defend its business.
Jonathan Shopley, chief executive, recognizes that achieving a high profile has made Future Forests a potential lightning rod for wider concerns. In response, Future Forests is looking at ways in which it can be even more explicit and transparent. Under review: clarifying its offering; increasing the transparency of its governance; and examining ways to draw stakeholders into its business decision-making. Learning from the inevitable travails of early pioneers like Future Forests may prove to be a valuable skill for social enterprises. In fact, the long march toward mainstream markets and consumers will probably demand it.
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This column has been reprinted courtesy of SustainAbility Radar. It first appeared in the December 2004/January 2005 edition of that publication.
Future Forests has a business model which is highly unusual for an organization concerned with climate change. It could be described either as a for-profit NGO or as a campaigning business. Formed as a for-profit limited company in 1997, Future Forests is backed by venture capital. The linked needs for growth and consumer understanding have driven the development of a strong brand and a diverse range of partnerships with some well- known companies.
So what’s the product? Future Forests offers consumers the chance to measure, reduce and offset the climate change impacts of their lifestyle choices through .carbon sequestration. and investment in climate friendly technology projects around the world. Its central achievement has been to make this message accessible to ordinary consumers. However, fears have been raised that its success in simplification has also led to confusion about what the business actually does.
Given its entrepreneurial zeal, it was perhaps inevitable that Future Forests would trigger scrutiny from some areas of the green movement, particularly when it managed to scoop up a series of celebrity backers and succulent contracts, for example rendering the U.K. leg of the last Rolling Stones tour -- CarbonNeutral.
Earlier this year concerns came to a head when one NGO, Trees for Cities, made a complaint to Camden Trading Standards Office, claiming that consumers were being misled into thinking that all of the money they spend with Future Forests would lead directly to the planting of saplings. Although this complaint was subsequently rejected, for a high-profile brand aiming to appeal to hearts and minds, such challenges pose real risks, and Future Forests was quick to act in order to defend its business.
Jonathan Shopley, chief executive, recognizes that achieving a high profile has made Future Forests a potential lightning rod for wider concerns. In response, Future Forests is looking at ways in which it can be even more explicit and transparent. Under review: clarifying its offering; increasing the transparency of its governance; and examining ways to draw stakeholders into its business decision-making. Learning from the inevitable travails of early pioneers like Future Forests may prove to be a valuable skill for social enterprises. In fact, the long march toward mainstream markets and consumers will probably demand it.
------
This column has been reprinted courtesy of SustainAbility Radar. It first appeared in the December 2004/January 2005 edition of that publication.