Sustainability over the last few decades has been defined by three distinct eras—each a product of their time:
1. The Green Era: Defined by NGOs, charity, and philanthropy, the Green Era ran until the early 2000s.
2. The Social Era: Defined by CSR, eco-friendly, and social impact, the Social Era ran until about 2020.
3. The Climate Tech Era: Defined by Entrepreneurship and Technology, the Climate Tech Era has just begun.
The pivotal difference in the Climate Tech Era is that entrepreneurship is key. And as Blackrock CEO Larry Fink puts it: "The next 1,000 billion-dollar start-ups will be in climate tech".
To thrive in this new era, Climate Tech founders need to shed their product-driven mindsets, become true entrepreneurs, and embrace the commercial side of their business. Because technology is not going to do the job by itself. Or as Katie Rae, chief executive of Climate Tech-focused VC says, “Technology is important but only if you understand how to bring it to market and make money to scale it”.
However, this transition has created three key problems for entrepreneurs in the Climate Tech Era:
• First, Climate tech founders give far more priority to their innovation than in their business's development.
• Second, business partners and investors aren't interested in founders or startups who don't prioritize growth.
• This leads to the third challenge: Too many Climate Tech founders still build their businesses using the outdated strategic playbook from the Social or the Green Era.
In this new era, it's simply not enough to be the "sustainable alternative". That's why Climate Tech founders need to ditch the outdated green/social narrative, embrace the commercial side of their business, and build new product categories. Essentially, Climate Tech businesses need to build a brand around their sustainable innovation.
A strong helps Climate Tech leaders go beyond "the facts" and aids their fundraising efforts and aligns sales, marketing, product development and recruiting around a common strategy. Whilst everyone else is playing by the "green" or "social" playbook, it can help leaders bring their business into the new era of sustainability.
In this book, I will teach you to build a strong Climate Tech brand, which consists of:
- Brand Foundations. Your mission, vision & strategic narrative.
- Target Audience. Market segmentation, targeting & positioning.
- Strategic Messaging. Value-driven, problem-solving messages.
- Brand Platform. Brand identity, digital assets & customer funnel.
- Thought Leadership. Personal branding for founders.
- Public Relations. Build authority with the press.
Tesla, Beyond Meat, Northvolt, Edge Tech, Lilium Aviation, Ynsect and Climeworks are all proof that this is not only possible, but possible at scale. Because to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable future, we first have to bridge the gap between sustainability and entrepreneurship.
That's why I wrote this book. Because too many Climate Tech entrepreneurs, who are building tomorrow’s sustainable economy and have world-changing products or services, don’t succeed because they fail to showcase their potential. In Climate Tech Branding, I am going to walk you through the exact steps to build a scalable Climate Tech brand that will attract investors and align stakeholders, so that you can realize your potential impact.
