TECHNOLOGY
54 reducing its environmental impact with greater efficiencies and larger profits . “ We ’ re very mindful of helping our clients manage the internal story . We want them to start out where there is the greatest opportunity ,” Franco says . “ Sustainability is top of mind for lots of folks , but the degree to which you can integrate it with something they ’ re already familiar with like hedging , or efficiency makes it an easier sell for them .”
Kinect also deals with clients across different industries that work in different ways . As examples , Franco picks out agriculture - where Kinect consults for several ethanol producers – and universities . “ We work up a lot of companies that make ethanol ,” says Franco . “ We ’ ll have them look at how to lower their carbon footprint , because the lower the carbon footprint of the ethanol production , the more premium they can get for their product … But the challenge with them is they ’ re very price sensitive , so we help them manage through that .” Moving on to universities , he notes that “ they ’ re much more forward thinking on sustainability . Not only do they have
a sustainability plan , but many of them have targets for when they ’ re going to be carbon neutral .” Then , speaking of the challenges inherent to the industry , he says “ a large university is sometimes bigger than a small city . We have to help them figure out how to become carbon neutral in a way that isn ’ t huge cost for the university because they obviously don ’ t have a lot of money .” Overcoming diverse challenges
APRIL 2019