GETTING TO KNOW YOU
Getting to Know
David McEwen
What inspired you to start your
business? What are your goals
and values?
I had been working in sustainability
for commercial property and was
keen to look at opportunities beyond
so-called green buildings. Given a
third straight year of record global
average temperatures in 2016 and
little hope of keeping global warming
within “safe” levels, I started looking at
climate change as a market disruptor:
how would it change demand for
the products and services produced
by today’s businesses, and what
new products and services might be
needed in the future? With that in
mind I teamed up with operational
risk specialist Rod Crowder and
strategic marketing expert Dr Paige
Carlyle to form Adaptive Capability, a
strategic consultancy aimed at helping
companies answer those sorts of
questions.
We’re about helping businesses
transition their products, services,
operations and supply chains
towards resilient and sustainable
outcomes, while also taking advantage
of increased demand for certain
products, or requirements for new
products that can be met by exploiting
their existing core competencies.
What was the driving force
behind your decision to
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November 2016
specialise in this area of
business?
Climate change as a business
opportunity has two sides to it:
mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation
is about reducing greenhouse gas
emissions in the hope that we can
prevent so-called dangerous levels
of warming and climate change.
That side includes investment
in renewables, energy efficiency,
electric vehicles, other clean tech and
emissions reporting.
Scientists tell us we’ve already locked
in significant levels of warming and we
are starting to see the effects, such
as this year’s dramatic coral bleaching
event on the Great Barrier Reef and
average snow levels rising up mountainsides. Given the lag between emissions
and climatic change and the lack of
global political will to take decisive
and rapid action, we’ve taken the view
that we’re going to need to adapt to the
effects of a changing climate. That’s
going to take a range of products and
services, and we want to help our
clients capture a slice of that demand.
We’re not just talking about sea walls
to deal with rising sea levels. We’re
also expecting there will be a bunch
of tipping points that cause shifts
in consumer sentiment towards
the environment, which in turn will
influence government policy.
What types of customers do you
help? What experience do you
have helping small business
customers?
While most of what we do is aimed
at medium to large corporates, our
message applies to all sizes of
business: think about how a changing
climate, and changing attitudes
towards environmental issues, will
affect the resilience of your business,
but particularly the demand for your
products and services. There are many
niche opportunities for small business,
such as those that are exploiting
emotive environmental causes such
as recovering plastic that winds up
as ocean rubbish and turning it into
recycled products. And if you run a
business that depends on a natural
asset that might be threatened by
climate change, think carefully about
the timing of your exit strategy: will
there be a “see it before it’s gone”
boom before a bust and what will that
imply for asset values?
What are the main reasons that
someone would choose you to
help grow/develop/improve
their business?
We’re the only consultancy in Australia
that’s looking at adaptation to climate
change as a business disruptor and
potential source of value. We look at
risk and resilience and environmentally
sustainable behaviour as part of the