The World of Possibilities and Hope

At the start of the course in September, I was skeptical about what the private sector could do to solve the world’s most complex social, economic, and environmental problems. After 10 years of experience working in the development sector as either a funder or as part of a non-profit, I was trained to take any contribution of the private sector to do some good in the world with a pinch of salt. I had also largely seen companies contribute to the problems while wishing them away through some donations/funding from their profits to nonprofits at the end of the year. But the last 4 months working with an investor client, who is pushing the bar higher for the private sector by making sustainability business as usual, has given me a beacon of hope. Not only are they choosing to invest in issues of key importance, but they are also actively engaging and supporting companies to weave sustainable practices into their businesses. 

The biggest surprise (and shock) has been getting to know about so many food and beverage companies who have not only made commitments to move to regenerative agriculture but have also created a comprehensive plan to do so. Many of these companies are beginning to recognize the role agriculture might have on their Scope 3 emissions (one of the largest contributors to GHG emissions in most of these companies) and invest in research to establish an evidenced-based effect of regenerative agriculture on carbon emissions. These companies are working extensively within their supply chains to support the transition to regenerative agriculture. Some companies are providing support through third-party vendors (mostly nonprofits) to farmers to shift to regenerative agriculture and are also trying to capture methodically the already existing knowledge of the practice. They are also willing to provide financial support to farmers to smooth out this transition, and a few have already made their investments public. Certain companies have also created metrics for measuring their progress and working with monitoring, measuring, and verification partners to collect data at the farm level and report it accordingly through their sustainability reports (some of them also have regenerative agriculture specific reports). These are all great efforts towards ensuring a just and sustainable transition to regenerative agriculture. 

The comprehensive research carried out for this project has fostered some optimism and assurance in me about the private sector. The private sector seems to be on the right track, atleast regarding sustainable food production. 

Apart from the research itself, I have had many other learnings throughout this course that include:

• Understanding impact and system-level investing – While I think it is very initial, but this course has helped me to start thinking about both impact and system-level investing. I think system-level investing is a powerful mechanism to solve many of our world’s problems and I would like to spend some time further diving into it through courses and internships in the coming months. 
• Importance of the market in solving the world’s most complex problems – While the market cannot provide solutions for everything, there is a lot more we can do to push the market to make a positive change in the world.
• Understanding the client and its requirements is essential – In the nonprofit work that I have done so far, the clients are participants of the program who do not, at times, have the same agency to weigh on the work we are doing. However, during this project, I experienced firsthand the need to understand the client’s work and requirements, keep them in the loop, and take regular feedback on the work being produced. This, I feel has helped us accomplish the requirements of the project. 
• Working with team members of different skills – At the start of the project, we were assigned team members as part of this project. While I have set up and worked in many teams, this was interesting because I had no say in who I would get to work with. I remember being told in one class that the win would be when every person on the team knows the project, its objective, findings, and recommendations equally. I kept that in mind as we worked through the project, and we all worked towards ensuring that every team member was equally well versed with everything happening on the project. While we all brought in different skills, I think we worked well as a team to capitalize on each one of them to make this project a success. 

This course has been both thematically and professionally enriching. It has deepened my understanding of regenerative agriculture and the private sector's role in it through a live project that has further strengthened my professional knowledge.