 Hi, I'm George Kau and I'm here with Nikki Paava one of the members of my master hard group coaching program She is a sustainability expert and consultant. I'm excited to have her share with you all some of the lessons She's learning in building her consulting business as well as some of the tips that we can walk away with in terms of greening the world making Especially companies more environmentally sustainable. Nikki. Thanks for being here. Thank you George Thanks for doing this. So Nikki I'm gonna just read to the audience your bio and then we'll get into some of the lessons you've learned in your business And we'll and then we'll talk about the sustainability stuff. So So let me actually pull up the notes here Nikki is the founder of Allegria partners a consulting firm that specializes in planning and executing sustainability initiatives for mission driven companies With over a decade of leadership in the sustainability movement Nikki's work adds value and efficiency to a business's operations helping it maximize its investments And Nikki just recently published a book called green wisdom a guide for anyone to start engage And energize a sustainability team and Nikki. I'll have you describe what that means later You view are wondering what you can do to inspire and lead a team To design regenerative strategies and systemic solutions while having fun Green wisdom provides answers that are relevant to any industry that you might be part of the book features companies such as dr. Bronner's who's soap I use every day. I love it Alaska Airlines Which now owns? Virgin Virgin, right? Yeah, okay. I was gonna say was it Sales force is also in your book and many more and shares how the leaders and those companies have led their teams To success and the website for the book is Nikki pava.com and I kki pava.com and also her business website is Allegria partners a l e GRI partners calm. I'll be sure to put the links in the notes of the video. So Nikki. Thanks for being here Thank you. Yeah, it's always fun. Yeah, so let's start. It's a lot of folks watching this are entrepreneurial So let's start with any of the lessons you've learned in the past couple years in terms of growing building your own Lively you're building your own consulting business One of the best lessons that I've learned over the last few years is from you and it's about just getting yourself out there and And and making sure and you know, we're not making sure everything's perfect because if you make sure every little thing is perfect You're gonna take forever to finish the blog post finish the video finish that page on your website If you just keep tweaking it, but if you get it out there There's so much momentum in the actions that you take that it just creates more action and it really hits a psychological spot in me where I Feel better about things in my life. I feel better about what I'm doing I feel more confident in my business just by taking action. I think that that's been a really Good lesson because I think for I could go years with just kind of doing a little bit just doing enough and Going to bed at night just feeling That I didn't you know I always felt like I did enough because my action item list was always long and I always crossed off a lot of things But there was always something missing until I really just started to just let go of The content and and get it out there. So that was a big lesson And I just want to jump in here. Thanks for mentioning the idea of momentum because I think I Often neglect to talk about the importance of that and what you I am, you know, when you take action Even if it's in one even if it seemed imperfect to you You kind of build the muscle and you build the well I guess the momentum to keep taking the actions which actually make things more perfect over time instead of preparing an isolation without the feedback of one's audience Very little momentum is done. So thanks for And doors open doors open and you start to go down different paths that you didn't know were there in the first place That might be more in your creative flow It could create a you know, bigger network effects you start meeting other people But if you're just in isolation, you don't have those opportunities and there's they're really important Especially because so many of us are solo entrepreneurs. We're doing a lot of this by ourselves at home and And so it's just easy to stay stuck in those little Spirals, but if you just get yourself out there and it's just for me, it's just I have to constantly remind myself It's not like I wake up every day and I'm just gonna oh, I'm gonna well do this. I'll do this. I'll do this It's like, okay I know that to be happier in my heart taking action is really one of the best steps In my face. So For this for the person who's thinking yeah, I want to take more action Many tips any suggestions. I mean whether it's something you've done or whether it's something you've seen other people do How do we so-called get ourselves out there? I think having a team of people or a group of advisors is really helpful You know, even if it's just two other people who you can share a newsletter with or share a blog post with Even because you know, you might be the a really amazing writer, but something about getting your blog post or Newsletter or something like that validated by someone else. I mean, I love having another pair of eyes look at something Even if it's pretty short before I put it out there So having a team of people even if it's to I mean if you can have maybe five people Look at things, you know, like for example my book I really it was really helpful to me to have a few people look at it through different steps of the way to give me a different creative input then then then what I Had in my head because you know, I was probably very focused in this specific way, but hearing other people's Input is it really opens up what I what I did and what I could do So that is I that's a tip I'd love to share with people is to just have a team of trusted people that you can bounce ideas off of and And I'm sure that they would appreciate having your input on their information too So if you can create a little little group to share share help and share time It's really valuable worthwhile. Yeah, that's that's great. That's great. Yeah I mean and everyone watching this probably already has a Colleague or a friend or a couple of people you can reach out to to say, hey, let's Supporting I mean and it doesn't have to be like, hey, let's let's do this forever But at least let's support each other on our current project, you know, exactly. Yeah, that's great So any any other tips or lesson you want to share and then we'll we'll get into some of the sustainability stuff that you do I I think early on I was really trying to do everything like the graphic design and the creating ads and Analyzing and all of the little pieces and there's so many other people who are out there who Specialized in all these different areas and if you can just even just use a little bit of your money to To invest in other people's expertise so you can focus on what you're really good at That is a really great investment in your business because where you spend your time is You can monetize that more than you know different little things like Graphic design that you may I mean for me sometimes it takes me a long time to move little things on these little graphics And I just spent two hours and someone else could have done that in three minutes And I that took away from something else that could have been more beneficial to business so Another tip would be just to ask for help Invest in other people who can do other things that you're not an expert at to save you time So you can put your time into the things that you really love to do. Yeah, absolutely great great tip So let's shift gears and talk about how we can make the world a better place through our work and especially if anybody works at a company or Yeah, friends or family members to work at companies What we're gonna share here in the next couple minutes is going to you know can really impact How what even the morale of the company, but also they be the influence that the company has in terms of their environment and Can I read out Nikki your core message because you you know we Preparation and you share with me what your core messages Your consulting business and I thought that was great. So I'll just read it out and then we'll kind of go from there So the Nikki's core message is anyone at a company From warehouse workers all the way the CEOs can start a Sustainability team so any level you're working at if you're you know You can enroll others to participate and have fun once it has started or To re-energize a current sustainability program to have a positive impact on employees and the company So that's great to hear. So it's not like you have to be the you know chief operations officer Of a company to make an impact anybody who's at any level can really make waves and start something that that has has that influence so First of all you mentioned Sustainability teams, what does that mean or in your book you sometimes mentioned climate action teams? So let's start there. What is that definition for you? It is the group of people who either informally or formally have banded together to Create initiatives for the company and it could be a tiny company of five people or a big company of 100,000 people or more To work on Environmental and social initiatives The actions that really make an impact on other people or the planet So that so this is the group of people who gets together to make that happen And they might be so some companies especially some bigger companies have it mandated by the structure of the business operation So they have an allotted amount of money that goes into this team And they they might have someone hired specifically to lead it and to be on it But in many teams, especially smaller smaller companies It's what volunteers is people who are just passionate about the planet and about caring for other people And they want to bring that personal passion passion to their office because it's important to them And they see the places in their business where they could possibly help help the business and so they Get together with other people and it might just be you know might just be this one person for a while That could be the sustainability team or the climate action team It's or you know a green team or environmental stewardship team and whatever the name is It's really just the person or the group of people who are working on on things to advance the social and Environmental mission of the company. Yeah, now this is really helpful and so So kind of maybe you could share with us a story or two I'd be curious if you have a story of a larger company And maybe if you have a story of a smaller company or you know an example of what a smaller company can do But just give us an example of how this actually looks in in real world Well in the book I I interviewed sustainability leaders of a little over 10 companies and different size companies And there are so many inspiring stories about what people were doing, which is you know really helpful You know because some days you know when we were getting this news about What is happening with new laws that are really impacting The forest and water and air And you know this is all coming in and I would be feel a little depressed some days And then I talked to these sustainability leaders who are doing all these great things and and I know that their products are also Really amazing like dr. Bronner's and badger bomb and Let's see some of the some of the things that some of these teams are doing I love the story of badger bomb. They make skincare like a lot of sunblock and a lot of other really High quality mostly organic skincare And one of the things they do is that they're all about education And so they're in the middle of nowhere up in In the northeast, you know pretty far out of a of a main town And so a lot of people have to drive there And so they're all taking their cars and they don't want them to drive away for lunch So they have these healthy organic lunches. They're prepared by a chef Which sound amazing and one of the things that their sustainability team did is they wanted to educate their team About how far all of the items on their lunch plate came from Because we don't not everyone thinks about that, you know You don't think that These bananas come from Costa Rica, which is really far away If you're in California, for example And you know that that is that has an impact on the planet So what they did is they measured exactly where proportionally from a main point Where the the lettuce came from so the lettuce came from You know this far away It wasn't it wasn't very far away because it was pretty local and they would do that for each of you know What about the the quinoa, you know much further away and for example, they they Had some sea bass and they chose to order sea bass from a man a place in in Thailand Instead of a place that was a little more local in the Atlantic coast You know to get a different type of fish that was on That they could procure from a closer area because they did a lot of research and they Found that the way that it was harvested at this place in Thailand Was much more sustainable than all of the places that were more local. So that was important to them So that was you know, so that so that's one of the stories that they wanted to tell and to share with their employees about Why they chose that and so they were able to Physically have a physical representation of where everything came from and then they were able to tell a story about Why they made the decisions every day throughout the the other days of the year that they weren't having this big event So people can get educated on On this this aspect that's really important food is a very important aspect of everyone's daily life And you know, and this is the end of this helped helped create a story and helped Encourage people to stay there for lunch because and keep people out of their cars So that was one of the stories that I love there's so many there were so many stories I mean dr. Brauners, you know, they had so many great stories Those are medium-sized companies and you know, I also interviewed Alaska Airlines and I mean that Their green team was started by flight attendants Through a sister their smaller sister airline called horizon airlines And who just started taking the cans off the planes themselves because the airline didn't have a structure for collecting them and recycling them So these flight attendants will go and take that take all the aluminum cans and put them in their car And take them themselves to recycling facilities And so that was kind of One of the first things that started the in-flight recycling program at Alaska Airlines And it's now an award-winning Program that they have that's so cool to hear that. Yeah, because I always I've always wondered, you know And I've taken the planes like hey, what are you putting in the thing bag? What's going on here? Exactly the thing bag So let's talk about somebody who is Maybe somebody watching this or maybe somebody has a friend who works at a company and they're like, yeah, I care about the planet I care about having my company Influenced society in a positive way. So somebody who cares at a company What's what's there maybe their first step or possible first step into Making this kind of change Well, and it all starts with the seed of an idea and then that grows it grows from there. So The first thing that someone can do is share their idea And you know, that might be a little more challenging for shy people um people who, you know May may or may not want to go and start talking to others because everyone is different But if they can partner up with someone who has That characteristic then they they there's a team right there two people And they can just start talking to people and to organize the first meeting All you need is the first meeting You can get just a few people in the same room to start brainstorming on What is the easiest thing you can do first and then let something grow from there And you know a great next step after that is if you're in a business with different levels of You know business structure Then you can start talking to people about different executives higher up executives who will help with with getting A budget for any initiatives and making the fun things helping to make the fun things happen Because that's what really helps is getting the executive support to get things started But really it just starts with one or two people to just start talking and sharing about what's important to them That's great and one of the One of the like initial challenges I can imagine is You know, especially when you want to get more buy-in from leadership Or even a budget is okay. So how does this align with our company's priorities? Right. So, um, do you have any tips on that or how do we make the case that The leadership should do something more than just the two of us can do Yeah, there's a few ways to approach that because I mean in reality a business needs to make money In order to operate in order for people to have jobs in order for them You know the company to pay for the people to be working there And so that is still a main concern, of course, and so if you can Show in You know a small proposal how your initiatives could help save money After a certain period of time You know by change, you know the easiest things we all hear about changing light bulbs or You know, I mean it it costs less money to compost in most unit in no cities than it does to take Trash to the landfill, but most people also don't know that and so if you can you know talk to people to get Your answers to these little questions and you put them into a piece of you know the short proposal to Demonstrate that to an executive that's really helpful. Another thing is that Initiatives like this that where people can go and connect their passions From their personal lives at work It also helps retain employees people want to stay in companies that Are also showing that they care about the communities that they're in and the environment So it's been I've seen that people stay longer and you know when people quit a company and They need to be rehired. It's actually quite expensive So if you can keep people there Because of this program, which may or may not even need that much money to operate It is a huge benefit and also a lot of people Is millennials are looking to work at companies that have programs like this And so it's a way to attract really smart people who care, which is what you want smart people who care Yeah, totally. I was thinking like gosh if I I was working at a company I care about an issue and I have a colleague in the company who cares about me Like you said two people forms a team like if we can infect other colleagues with with our care about the issue And it starts to go from two people three four five for example Then even just the fact that we care so much about the issue The leadership should pay attention that hey these people care about this And it's going to make their Working it's going to improve their morale. Basically, it's going to make them happier to work here And if if we show them that we respect their care about the issue Then of course, they're going to respect us more as well. And so it's it's just even Exactly we care. Please don't go away from this. We care about this, you know Exactly. Yeah, uh, and and of course, we haven't even mentioned this, but I think it's true and I think Well, I didn't you know the marketing the pr benefits of of of doing sustainability Read initiatives I I see sometimes we don't we don't want to say that's the main thing because then greenwashing or People could do it just for the image of it. But but it's true like hey, like, you know, all these stories that you're telling It's great for pr It's great for pr And so I'm so glad you've written your book The book will inspire people who are who care and are our companies or like, you know, or or their friends are our companies They can actually do something when they read the stories like wow, that's a great example That's another example and then they could start to see themselves Emulating these examples. So thank you so much for gathering all that research and putting it together in one book My pleasure. Thank you Thanks for all your help along the way. Yeah Absolutely, it's it's I'm I'm gonna help to spread the word about it. So Anyway, I hope folks who are watching this have been inspired by by these possibilities and one last question I'll ask you is let's now take the role of a consumer Or just a citizen like let's let's say we're let's say we don't work at a company What can we do as consumers or citizens to Do something for to, you know, help fuel the movement you might say The most important thing you can do is share your voice And speak out when you see things that don't look right I mean, I think so many of us are aware of greenwashing And what that is, you know, when it's when a company is saying they're that they're all eco and green But they're actually polluting rivers. So they're the they're not walking their talk We can point that out using social media You can even just go to the contact page of a website and And email Whoever you can to tell them that you see that and people companies can't hide anymore And we're seeing that more and more so they might have a really great forward facing declarations on their website, but We can really, you know, with the one minute of research, you know What's really going on and you can you can share that on your twitter account and your facebook page And more people will see that oh, this is probably not the company to buy something from But there's another company who's doing it right. So let's go over here So that's just sharing your voice and taking a even just a minute of action Right, right Yes, because that does influence the employees who are reading that message and who are saying, yeah, I work This really and the other the other side, of course is when you see a company doing good things Like you said, you know, point that out on social media. Hey Well, you've done a whole book about companies Initiatives that are doing it like point that out because then the the people who are in that initiative are like, I'm so proud You know, we're getting mentioned in social media and that makes the leadership more interested in future initiatives Like that. So yes as consumers everybody watching this Start to take notice of the environmental and social actions of the products of the companies of the products you use And then start pointing out the good stuff and start calling out the stuff. That's not so good. So Exactly. Yeah, thanks so much. Nikki. And one thing we didn't even mention is that you live in Costa Rica Full-time. I mean sometimes you come back to the Bay Area for things But you live in Costa Rica full-time and that itself is a cool story and You're able to work from where you are, build your business from there. So it's so great and Costa Rica is a much more Sustainable country than most countries Yeah, that's true. Awesome. Well, um, thanks Nikki. I'll I just encourage everyone watching this to follow up with Nikki and get the book support the book look at the links in the notes below the video and Any questions you have for Nikki, you know reach out to her on her website or even just comment below and I'll make sure She sees it. So thanks Nikki for doing your work and thank you George for all of your help and all of the mastermind people Yeah, absolutely. Your help has been invaluable. Oh, I'm so glad. Yeah, it's great to have you part of the part of the group So, all right, everybody. Thank you and uh, we'll look forward to following Nikki's journey. Thanks Nikki. Thank you