MBA#20 Jason Drew. 'Environmental capitalism' as a force of good works when you let nature do the hard work. When you nailed down how nature would do it nobody will be able to outcompete you.

Masters of Beautiful Achievements

With 'environmental capitalist' Jason Drew we explored his journey on how he as an investor and entrepreneur is seeking out business opportunities that do good for the (eco)logy and business. For Jason it is just the smart thing to do as it turns out nature is so smart. From a business perspective if you operate a natural organic business that is in-tune with nature it is robuust and resilient. There is nothing smarter than nature, so you nailed down how nature would do it and nobody will be able to outcompete you.

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In retrospect Jason argues, "we humans have lost so much (ancient) knowledge about how nature operates and how it can benefit us. It is the understanding of the natural cycles of matter that is providing so much opportunities to close loops and restore the imbalances we have created. The industrial revolution has created a lineair education system, which lies at the root of many of our system problems. We need to get out and stay out, we are living large part of our lives inside buildings so we are losing our connection to nature. We need to take more time to be outside and be amazed how nature does things."

Jason calls it "sustainable retreat", as we need to do more with less. The challenge is to create a business that fundamentally repairs the environment and leave everything better behind, not just damage it less. The more the business grows, the more impact and the better it is for everybody. To undo what is broken, one needs to be an environmentalist to understand how to restore it. And with capital one can decide where to invest in. So the business needs have a sound cashflow and profit margin to actually make it happen and when the business does more good, the better the return become. As such his needs to work on both sides, because the business and ecology needs to sustain themselves. The biggest opportunities lie not in apps or platforms, it lies in better understanding how nature operates and to integrate it in our daily lives.

As for the (innovative) mindset, he as an optimists always need to justify himself as to why he does what he does. It requires you listen more than speaking, asking a lot of questions until he understands it. And using the natural logic one must be convinced it must be possible. The rest is just doing and make it work.

Over the years Jason has seen the potential of what nature has to offer, here are some of his insights.

⁠⁠read more here⁠

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The Masters of Beautiful Achievements podcast series is where Alexander Prinsen explores natural science, innovation, systems thinking and leadership. In daily life he is an systemic innovation consulting at ⁠https://scopematters.com/⁠ where he helps organizations accelerate to save costs, do good and operate within the planetary boundaries.