Finding the « sweet spot » to Optimize Both Financial Viability and Impact

Optimizing performance along these two dimensions is precisely what impact-driven organizations aim to achieve, and what sustainable investing is all about. Even in the private sector, certain companies may decide to shift their focus toward prioritizing long-term sustainability and societal well-being over profit, if it makes sense from an economic standpoint. Over the past few years, a growing number of companies have thus integrated a sense of purpose into their core values as they strive to tackle complex, systemic challenges. This trend spans a wide range of sectors, from climate change to healthcare to education, and I am convinced that hearing about the various projects conducted by our classmates is a very valuable and inspiring facet of the SIRI Practicum in addition to the opportunity to dive into a specific topic by engaging in a semester-long consulting project.

Coming from a background in climate finance with a focus on renewable energy, I am thrilled to broaden my perspective and learn more about sustainability challenges within food systems. Indeed, my team works with a client that has developed a fermentation technology using filamentous fungi to transform side streams from the food industry (e.g. dairy, starch, sugar) into high-value, sustainable products such as mycoproteins in order to address the large amount of waste resulting in CO2 emissions and loss of useful nutrients. One of the main objectives is thus to identify potential partners, both on the supply side to secure access to raw materials, and on the offtake side to generate a revenue along with environmental and social benefits. The broad mission they gave us is to help them assess market opportunities and find that “sweet spot” mentioned above, optimizing impact and commercial viability. What I find particularly interesting in this case is that the key metric used by the company is the total deployed production capacity of the technology in tons of mycoproteins per year, so there is a directly proportional relationship between the two dimensions: a higher production capacity implies higher profitability and greater impact, which is not necessarily true with other business models.

After conducting some preliminary research on the alternative proteins market and existing decision-making tools, we had our first meeting with the client to discuss their vision and current position in the value chain. This helped clarify the project scope and align expectations to ensure that our deliverables would be as useful and actionable as possible, and we have agreed on the creation of an Excel file where users could input key parameters such as regional economic conditions, availability of resources and regulatory landscape, which would then be processed to generate key outputs, notably production capacity estimates, demand forecasts and deployment method recommendations (e.g. direct ownership of the facilities or technology licensing). Now we can thus move forward, starting with a more thorough market analysis and data collection, and looking ahead we plan to build the framework iteratively with the client, adjusting the relative weight of each attribute based on their preferences and ultimately refining our model with real-world examples. As I reflect on this first stage of the mission, I realize how important it is to establish a clear timeline and break down the tasks while always keeping in mind the big picture. Every aspect of this workplan promises to be interesting and I am especially looking forward to discussing how to navigate the road to commoditization, but beyond the thematic expertise I am also eager to develop my soft skills through teamwork.

Indeed, collaborating with the other group members for the past two weeks has already been very enriching. Thanks to our diverse academic and professional experiences, we can all bring unique perspectives to the table, which makes for a productive dynamic. In particular, I believe that the capacity to combine individual strengths and mitigate each other’s weaknesses is a great advantage when tackling complex, multifaceted challenges such as sustainability within global food systems, and it is important to remember this when allocating the tasks, so we not only deliver high-quality results to the client but also foster personal growth along the way. Another key lesson that I have learned from previous group projects and that I consider crucial in the context of this practicum is making sure not to work in silos. As we may need to individually focus on separate dimensions of the project, we have scheduled regular internal updates to share our findings. This should enhance consistency, avoid redundancies and so on, but also ensure that all team members are comfortable with their role and on track to meet the predetermined deadlines, ultimately contributing to the maintaining of good relationships.

In summary, the early stage of this SIRI practicum has prompted me to further reflect on the implications of considering impact as a primary objective in terms of business models or investment practices. By diving into this real-world consulting project, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of issues like nutrients loss in the upstream segment of the food industry and explore options to solve this issue while sharpening my ability to communicate effectively, be flexible and think critically.