On March 15, 2022, we were honoured to speak with Venkatesh Kini, an entrepreneur, environmentalist, coach, and mentor. He is a global business leader with over 30 years of experience in marketing, sales and general management across industries in emerging and developed markets, a strong grounding in finance and operations. He has launched products in 45 countries, participated in M&A deals worth over USD 5 billion from negotiation to integration, and led significant innovations from concept to execution.

Dr. Ash Pachauri asked Mr. Venkatesh Kini what leadership meant to him. He talked about the two sides of sustainability which include raising awareness about the problem, climate is changing, non-profits and activists amplify the message and added that eco-preneurs are creating tech and innovation to solve the problem. Mr. Kin put emphasis by saying “You can choose to be a leader in any of these three fields. What you choose depends on your skills, passion, and financial situation”.

Alejandra Fragoso from Mexico asked about Ubuntoo and what motivated the foundation of the company to which a response was given. Ubuntoo is an environmental problems’ solution as they understand problems that large corporations face and they help create solutions for them by partnering with eco-preneurs across the world.

Ana Hanhausen from Mexico shared about how she felt about how Ubuntoo can really propel companies into adopting sustainable solutions which is an important aspect and asked about how Ubuntoo promotes this to which Mr. Kini answered. He emphasized on how often the solution is not a perfect answer to what the company is looking for. He asked; How do solution owners make themselves visible to solution seekers? We need to make sure that when I’m looking for a solution, I find the right solution at the right time. For matchmaking between solution makers and solution seekers, we need a very clear summary of the solution for the solution seekers to find out if it will work for the company and relate the situation to creating a profile on LinkedIn.

Michelle Whiting from the USA asked about how smaller companies can be motivated  to grow with sustainability concepts embedded in their values. Key points taken from his response included that early adopters need to help others make the solutions viable, smaller companies have to follow the bigger companies who are the ones who are taking the bigger risks, Smaller companies should focus on proven technologies.

Edgar Martinez from Mexico asked about how society can promote all companies to adopt these behaviors and values and bring out the realization sustainable consumption is one of the main factors for making decisions to which Mr. Kini spoke of the the need to educate everyone about responsible consumption. We need to contemplate where our footprint comes from and how we can compensate it. We need to be willing to make choices that are not always the easiest or most comfortable. This will send a message on what is needed and in what contexts. This way companies will change to meet our needs.

Komal Mittal from India asked how sustainable innovative ideas should be encouraged through mentorship to which key responses were given and somehow the POP movement role play came in which includes; “For sustainable innovators we need money, a market, and talent. If there’s a way to post jobs through POP it would be great.”.

Ana Hanhausen from Mexico wanted to know about how how circular economy can be promoted at the global level to which key points were taken from his response which include “Circular economy will always have leakages. It’s a perfect model that will not work perfectly, Plastic has benefits in its carbon footprint. However, when littered it can damage ecosystems especially in developing economies. When you recycle plastics you cannot do it eternally, Reverse logistics of recycling glass use a lot of energy. Aluminium saves 90% of energy when recycled and it depends on the country and the context”.

Ivan Ransom from Mexico asked Mr. Venkatesh for the most important lesson that he has learned through his  professional career to which a very key precise response was given which stated “There’s no substitute for hard work”.

Andres David Barragan from Mexico wanted to know how to motivate young people to become interested in sustainable development as well as the most effective tool for it to be attained. The responses included “The most powerful motivator for wanting to make a change is for them to experience it first hand. Organize trips and make them all fall in love with your country”.

Drishya Pathak from India shared her concern about the market of (plastic) bottled drinks and bottled water and wanted to know about  how difficult Mr. Venkatesh thinks this is to reverse it as well as his stand on how long it would take and how much cost could be incurred in order for this to happen. The highlighted responses to her question included; “The price of reusable glass bottles was 50% less than plastic but consumers kept switching to plastic because of the convenience of throwing it away. Companies can only take consumers to make a choice. Consumers need to provide the correct options for companies to have even better solutions”.

Alejandra Fragoso once again asked for Mr. Venkatesh’s opinion about those who still don’t believe in the need to make the change and do something. Key notes from the response included; “You can’t preach to people if they believe that life is perfect and they don’t want to make a change. Change has to come from within. It has to come from experiences that people have. Make people go through experiences that make people change”.

The last question was asked by Samuel Chijoke Okorie from Nigeria in Africa which was based on green washing especially in the fashion industry to which Mr. Venkatesh responded saying “Sometimes greenwashing is unfair. Many companies are being forced to make announcements of sustainability. A few of those companies that are making big announcements are not making great changes. This will change because more and more transparency measurements and metrics are coming. Eventually it will be as easy to track a company’s carbon footprint as their finances and to see if they’re on track with Net zero as well as realizing that by 2030, whoever doesn’t adopt this will not be able to survive”.