Jean Oelwang: I really believe that business is one of the most important players in what we need to do to drive impact and change in the world right now across all kinds of issues but particularly on the planetary side.
Jane Goodland: Hello and a very warm welcome to the LSEG Sustainable Growth Podcast where we talk to leading experts about the big topics spanning sustainability, business and finance. I'm your host Jane Goodland and this week I'm joined by Jean Oelwang who is the founding CEO of Virgin Unite and the Planetary Guardians, which for over 20 years has been uniting people and entrepreneurial ideas to tackle some of the world's most challenging issues for people and planet. Well hello Jean. Thank you so much for joining us today. I can't wait to speak to you today.
Jean: Thank you Jane, thanks so much for having me. It's an honour to be here.
Jane Goodland: So let's start at the beginning, because I'm sure that our listeners and viewers will be very familiar with the Virgin brand and all the wonderful companies that sit within that group. But they probably are less familiar with Virgin Unite. So I'm interested to know, how was this thing born in the first place? Take me back to, I think it's over 20 years, isn't it? 20 years or so ago, perhaps longer. Tell me, how did it start? And really, what's it set up to do?
Jean: Yeah, so it started, it was almost 22 years ago, which is incredible. And I was actually working for Virgin Mobile in Australia at the time and Richard Branson came down, he was on our board and we, I overheard him having a conversation about wanting to do more philanthropically with the group and himself personally. And so I went home that night and put together a plan, put it forward to him. And about a year later, we launched Virgin Unite. And In the beginning Jane, it was really started to think about how can we take these, I think at that time it was 25 businesses and 15 industries, how do we take all those companies to have way more impact in the world? So it was centred around leveraging impact through the businesses in the beginning. And one example of that is the amazing Dan Schulman, who used to be the CEO of Virgin Mobile US. And he really took this on and embedded youth homelessness at the centre of Virgin Mobile in the US and did all these amazing things with the company. And it was amazing to see him in the trajectory of his career too, because then he went on to be the CEO of Amex, the CEO PayPal. And one of the things he did at PayPal was just extraordinary, which was really focused on financial wellness and looking at how he increased salaries for people, how he decreased health costs, and also how he did things like made them owners of the business. So that's what it was at the beginning, is how do we get all of our businesses to put impact at the centre? And now today what it's grown into is more like this little entrepreneurial engine that really goes out and focuses on how do we change unacceptable issues and systems for good? And that's what it has become today.
Jane Goodland: Amazing. Unsurprisingly, we know that Virgin like to do things differently. So you're not kind of a traditional grant making kind of body, are you, although I'm sure kind of grants are part parts of it. But tell me what are the main ways, what are the main channels that you really do kind of deliver on that impact mission?
Jean: Yeah, and you're right, Jane. I mean, I remember in the beginning, everyone was like, you have to just choose one thing. You have to put your brand on it. And we ignored that advice because we wanted to leverage what was great about the Virgin brand, which was turning things upside down, finding things that were broken and turning them upside down. And that's how we began Virgin Unite as well. And we didn't want to turn upside down to easy stuff. We wanted to go to the tougher places where others weren't going. Which has been amazing over the years. And we really, I guess, have done that, I think, in about four different ways. The first way is we built these collectives of leaders that would drive systemic change long-term. And that's things like The Elders, which is a group of global leaders that were brought together by Mandela and his wife, Graca, to work on peace and human rights. And we've never done anything alone. So in that one, for example, we got 10 incredible partners, many of whom are still there after 20 years. And then they launched The Elders with us into the world. And we've done about 21 of those over the years where we incubate, then we spin out so they're completely independent and we continue to support. Like the B team that's focused on business as a force for good or like the Carbon War Room, which was focused on market-based models to reduce climate change, which we merged with the Rocky Mountain Institute. So that's one way we drive change. The second thing is we wanted to use the power of the Virgin brand and Richard's voice to really tackle some of the tougher issues. So with that, we focus on, for example, ending the death penalty on a kind of global scale, but then also down to an individual case and supporting people that are on death row. The third way is we go out and we find amazing entrepreneurs that are already doing great work and back them, whether that's like in the UK with Virgin StartUp. I think they've supported 7,000 young entrepreneurs now. But also people, for example, like Raj Panjabi at Last Mile Health. And then the last thing we do is we really focus on how do we make this great wealth transfer in the next decade, which I think it's something like $38 trillion is going to change hands, a great impact transfer, and how do we work with families and foundations to change that? So those are some of the different modes that we use to drive change.
Jane Goodland: There's a whole array of things going on there. So I'm sure it keeps life very interesting for you. When we kind of think about kind of this year, for example, what are some of the priorities that you've got on your kind of roster right now? What are the things that you're really focused on?
Jean: I'm sure, Jane, as you're seeing, there's a tonne to do right now in the world. There's no shortage of impact that needs to happen. And I think all of us need to be responsible for thinking about how can we maximise the positive impact we can have in the word right now, especially businesses and business leaders. You know, the Edelman Trust Barometer, I know you interviewed Richard recently. And it's clear that businesses have that trust. And so we have a deep responsibility right now to drive change. And I think, you know, we have problems saying no, which is one of our biggest issues. What we've tried to do is kind of bucket it into a few buckets, like looking at driving long-term systemic change so we never lose sight of that. So things like the Elders, they're focusing on existential threats like nuclear threat, pandemics, planetary crisis, and then how AI and conflicts will overlay that. Whilst the B Team is very focused on how do we work towards a better way of doing business for the world right now. And so focused on a whole host of different things, like looking at how do we end environmentally harmful subsidies in the world, how do we change the underlying financial system to value nature at its core, and a whole host of other things. We need to also all keep focusing on the emergency situations and not let those go to the wayside. Like Ukraine, for example. And right now, Ukrainians, I believe, are fighting for global rule of law and for all of our freedom. Yet they have now, Ukrainians, I think there's 40,000 Ukrainians that have lost limbs because the size of Austria has been mined in Ukraine. So we're trying to focus on supporting great organisations like Superhumans that has basically created this amazing prosthetics hospital in the middle of a war zone. But I think the other priority that we always have as a foundation that we never lose sight of, is one that will impact absolutely everything that all of us are doing. Which is the planetary crisis and how we elevate that planetary science, which we feel is absolutely critical in the world right now.
Jane Goodland: That's fascinating. I think I can see why it's quite difficult for you to prioritise because, like you say, there's so many things that actually are really urgent and interconnected as well. So I can imagine your meetings where you're trying to prioritise and work out how to spend your resources are quite kind of feisty affairs. I'd like to focus on one of the collectives that you mentioned, and that's the one focused on planetary boundaries. Tell me a bit more about that one?
Jean: The Planetary Boundaries of Science, it was started by, I think it's like 28 incredible global scientists from all over the world with Johan Rockstrom at the helm. And really what it does is it takes a whole planet approach, because it's kind of absurd when you think about it, Jane, like we weren't looking at the health of the planet holistically at all. Sometimes we look at climate over here, we look biodiversity over here, but what this does is it brings that all together. And of course, you know, climate is a part of that, but what they created is these nine boundaries and they show how we need to stay within those boundaries to stay in a safe operating space for the survival of humanity. And of course again, climate is one of those nine, but then you have biodiversity, then you also have land use, you have water, you have chemical pollution, and they're all interconnected. And the reason we love this framework and have supported Johan is a fewfold; one is it allows us to understand the health of our planet so we can prioritise our actions. Because right now it always feels like the planet is having systems failure, rushed into the emergency room, there's a hundred people who aren't doctors putting band-aids on it. We're not working together to really understand the root cause. But the second thing is it allows us to collaborate and coordinate our response so we get out of that situation, emergency room where we're not working together. And I also believe, and this is going to sound odd, but I believe it's probably the greatest entrepreneurial opportunity of our time. And this framework allows us to understand where those opportunities are. And it's also just the most amazing story of hope because one of those nine boundaries was ozone, stratospheric ozone, and it was headed towards the red out of the green zone. And we as humanity came together and pulled it back into that green zone, so we know we've done it before and we can do it again. And alongside this, we started something called the Planetary Guardians, which is this group of global leaders of all different generations, cultures, religions, who came together really to elevate the science, to shift financial capital and policy, but also to figure out how we make everyone everywhere in this world really proud to be a Planetary Guardian. So those are some of the things that we're doing with this particular type of science. And we also just recently launched the Planetary Health Check.
Jane Goodland: Before we get into the Planetary Health Check, which I do want to talk to you about because it sounds super interesting, can you just give me a flavour of who some of the Guardians are? Because it sounds like a superhero movie or something, doesn't it? So who are these Guardians?
Jean: Yeah, and the beautiful thing about the Guardians is the power of their collective coming together, Jane, because it was amazing. Like, it's folks, we have people like Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, also President Santos, former President of Columbia. But then we have these amazing icons in the environmental world, like Jane Goodall, who we sadly just lost, also Sylvia Earle, who's a force, David Suzuki. And then we have this amazing group in the finance sector, like Naoko Ishii, Hiro Mizuno. But then we have this amazing group of fiery young leaders like Xiye Bastida from Columbia and Mexico, Ayisha Siddiqa from Pakistan, Hindou Ibrahim, who's the chair, from Chad. And they've all come together and you can imagine their conversations are fiery and feisty around how they work together, which is just this beautiful thing. They've all been learning from each other about how they elevate the science, how we value a living nature, which you know, is on the broad spectrum from the people that want to put it immediately on the balance sheets and how we do that, to people that feel like we can't value nature and everything in between and how move to solutions that make sure we're not continuing to build our wealth off of nature, but not valuing her services that have basically built all of our economies and our infrastructure.
Jane Goodland: So the Guardians themselves are a collective and they drive some programmes, and how does that relate to the sort of Virgin Unite organisation?
Jean: So what Virgin Unite does is we incubate these initiatives. So the Planetary Guardians has been incubated by Unite, but it's actually not owned by anyone. It's not branded by anyone, it's completely independent. And so we're in the process of spinning the Guardians out to be completely independent as its own charity, just like we did with the Elders or the B Team or the Carbon War Room. And it's actually this amazing group of advisory council members that fund it and that help scale the impact in the world. And that's people like the amazing Laurene Powell Jobs, who's been extraordinary, and a whole bunch of others, some family foundations, some entrepreneurs. And those folks come together and really help elevate the work of the Guardians too, and get behind and support them. And the Guardians themselves, an example of something that they're focused on is the Chief Planetary Scientist, for example of how do we get Chief Planetary Scientists in every nation around the world so that nations are tracking their planetary scientific data, they're sharing it, they're figuring out how they can work together and we're able then to look at how do we get down to a local level and all the way up to a global level with the scientific data. And it's super important that companies understand the scientific data, which we can speak about in a little bit too, but it's just again, building that awareness, because it is when you step back and think about it, these systems are the things that keep us alive every day, yet we really don't understand where we sit with things like land use and water and chemical pollution. We're starting to really understand some of them now, but we need to understand that picture holistically.
Jane Goodland: And this is a bit kind of where the health check comes in, doesn't it? Because this is an annual publication around about September, I think, if that's right? Tell me a bit more about that. What does it seek to do and share in terms of that annual event?
Jean: We wanted to have a moment every year where everyone in the world could understand what the health of our planet is. And so we launched it for the second time last September. And last September, sadly, one of the big things that we announced is that the seventh boundary is now breached, and that's the ocean boundary. So seven out of the nine boundaries are breached. And so when you step back and think about it, that's three quarters of our life support system has now breached beyond a safe operating space. And what we wanted also to get people to understand is that we can't look at them in isolation. There's no way we will reach our climate goals unless we're looking at the other boundaries like biodiversity and land use, etc, and prioritising what we need to do in each of those nine boundaries. And the other thing that they wanted to do is create this really simple symbol that shows where we are against a high red risk line. And we're nearing that line right now. And when we cross it, it could be irreversible damage for life as we know it right now. But the good news is that we still have a five year window. The science tells us we still have a five year window to change course. And that's why this framework is so important because it allows us to collaborate and understand how we should prioritise, how we should coordinate to get the most impact right now across all the boundaries.
Jane Goodland: If a business or an investor is listening to this, which I hope they are, why should they be interested and why should go and kind of look at the health check report when it comes out in September or look at last one? What should the business and finance community be reading into all of this research?
Jean: I really believe that business is one of the most important players in what we need to do to drive impact and change in the world right now, across all kinds of issues, but particularly on the planetary side. And why they would be interested, I think one thing is just getting a tonne of value by looking at risk and resilience and efficiency and cost, so even as a baseline. I mean, we're seeing what's playing out in the word right now how important energy independence is. But it's also broader, like if you look at the insurance industry right now, they're like the canary in the coal mine, because we're seeing their costs go through the roof. So we're seeing now the cost of insurance for consumers go through the roof. We're seeing insurance companies pull back from places like California, Louisiana, Florida, in the US. We are also seeing supply chain disruptions. And so having this tool so you can understand for your business across all the planetary boundaries, how they're going to be from a risk perspective, from an efficiency perspective, from a cost savings. So one of the most exciting things is the opportunities that this is for businesses because every one of these nine boundaries has business opportunities within it. Like if you look at nitrogen phosphorus, it sounds super scientific, but it's basically fertiliser runoff. And a third of that fertiliser right now passes through the straight of Hormuz. Yet there's a tonne of exciting new fertiliser businesses that are being created that are based on learnings from nature. One of them is Pivot Bio, another one is Holganix. And what they do, is they use these incredible microbes that basically mimic what nature's doing so that the plants can access the nitrogen naturally rather than have to get it from a synthetic fertiliser. So there's a tonne of these types of opportunities that we need to figure out how we go to scale. And we're seeing that on the energy side right now. We're seeing clean energy become unstoppable. Like 91%, I think, of the new renewable projects are cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives right now. We're also seeing, as you well know, clean energy investments exceeded fossil fuel investments. I think it was $1.7 trillion in clean energy investments that happened in 2023 for the first time. But also if you look at, when we look at new energy sources and power expansion, 90% of these right now are renewables. So this movement and this momentum is unstoppable and the boundaries can really help organisations understand where they can play within the different opportunities from a planetary perspective. And I think the fourth thing I'd say for companies that are out there listening to this right now, is that it's a competitive advantage. I can tell you Jane, I have never met one person in my life who wants to kill the planetary infrastructure that keeps economies alive that keeps companies alive. And the latest Gallup poll that showed that, I think 80% of people in companies are disengaged with the company. The planetary side is super important to customers, to employees, to people's children. And putting this at the centre of what we do as organisations and making sure we're living within those boundaries and playing a role in that is something bigger that everyone wants to be part of. And I think Patagonia is such a beautiful example of that, where they made the owner the planet.
Jane Goodland: Interesting. I mean, I think in terms of, like, when you look at the kind of the nine boundaries, I think simply you know, from a business perspective asking a question about for each boundary, you know what's our dependency on that, on that element? And what's the risk if actually there's a kind of deterioration in that element? And conversely, it's actually where's the commercial opportunity for us? Can we, can we innovate? Can we provide the solutions? So I think, you know, it doesn't surprise me that Virgin's at the heart of this kind of entrepreneurial kind of quest around the planetary boundary. So super interesting and I, for one, will watch with interest when the new report comes out later in the year.
Jean: Yeah and just to follow up from your point because you just said it so beautifully in terms of how business can look at the boundaries. We also worked with SystemiQ to build a tool so companies can see how if they make a decision like changing their supply chain for example, how that impacts all nine of the boundaries but also how it impacts their bottom line. So that you're looking at it from an efficiency cost perspective but then an impact perspective. So I think and we'd love to work with business leaders to figure out how do get this embedded in decision making. And learn from what companies are already doing.
Jane Goodland: So where is that tool? That sounds very interesting. I'm sure that many of our listeners will be like, hey, where do I see that? So is it a live thing or is it in beta?
Jean: So it's in beta right now, they did three deep dives. They did one in the dairy industry, they did one on the steel industry, and they did in the aviation industry. And they used a real company, each one of them's data, to look at mimicking that model. So we have this tool right now that we want to get out into the world. So we'd love, and we did it all obviously philanthropically with the Planetary Guardians, with SystemiQ, who's a consultancy. And so we'd love any companies that are interested, just pop us a note on the website or reach out to you guys and let us know whatever's easiest. And we'd love to work with organisations to pilot and beta this.
Jane Goodland: That's amazing. So that in terms of the website, is that a Planetary Guardians website?
Jean: Yeah, Planetary Guardian's website would be fantastic. Yeah, because the more companies, a lot of companies and nations that are excited about beta and piloting it now that are embedding in their budgeting process, they're embedding in their planning processes. So yeah, we'd love to work with companies practically on that.
Jane Goodland: Yeah, I think it sounds super interesting and really practical as well because I think oftentimes we have conversations about kind of driving systemic change or sustainability kind of at scale, but actually sometimes what people need is just a practical kind of what's the first step? How do I start this kind of journey of really understanding about kind of the risk and opportunity associated with sustainability and my business for example. And it sounds like a tool like that might be super practical to be able to apply. So yeah, listeners, viewers, go check it out, trial it, sounds super interesting. Let's finish up by, I wanted to kind of explore a little bit more about kind of why your fascination with collaboration is so pivotal to what you're doing because it runs through everything you do. So why are you still really focused on collaboration?
Jean: Over the last 21 years, we've been building these 21 collectives, but we've also been studying great collective human achievements, whether that's things like ending smallpox in India, the liberation struggle in South Africa, whether it's building the World Wide Web or the International Space Station. And at the centre of all these was a deep collaborative effort. There wasn't one of them that was a single superhero human being. We've almost been tricked into this mentality almost from the time we're in school, to think that it has to be a superhero that saves the day and it's one person or one company. And what we've found through this exploration and through building these collaborations is that that's a load of rubbish. It's all about how do we build these deep connections at the centre and then build out and collaborate from there. And you know the Planetary Boundary Science, one of the things we're super excited about right now, is Johan and the team are building this amazing collaborative effort because it is so bizarre that we have not, we don't have one place to go to to understand the planet's health. Not one place holistically. And so what they're doing is bringing together partners. This will be owned by the world. This will owned by generations to come, where scientific data comes into one place. So you'll be able to go into a dashboard just like you would, you know, in the stock exchange and understand like what is the planet's health at any point in time, not episodically every seven years. One of the stories that I absolutely love and I've become obsessed with, is the ozone community. We are all sitting here still because of them. And back in '74, when they found that there was a hole in the ozone layer because of CFCs, these scientists that discovered this, you know could have just published an article and stepped back, but they dedicated their whole lives and they gave up their whole lives because they got attacked for an entire decade there. Their character was attacked. Their fellow professors stopped including them in speaking engagements. Students stopped coming to their classes. But they kept on going. And that was because they built this, they built this deep group of friends at the centre. And then a decade later, the British Antarctic Survey proved that there was a hole in the ozone layer. But what was beautiful about that community, and what I think we need to learn as human beings right now in the world, is it was a community of difference, like it crossed all kinds of political divides. We would not have the Montreal Protocol, which was the protocol that 197 countries signed that allowed us to phase out the CFCs if it wasn't for Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. And it was also an amazing example of collective effort across competitive lines because companies came together to share IP, to help nations that hadn't caused the problems, to phase out CFCs. And this community is still going 40 years later. And that's the level of collaboration with this level of intoxicating purpose that keeps everyone mobilised. It's kept them mobilised for 40 years and focuses efforts in the right directions with the right priorities. And that's the type of collaborative effort that we need in the world today.
Jane Goodland: Amazing. It's not just a little bit of collaboration, it's intoxicating purpose. Yeah, I mean, fantastic. Jean, it has been lovely speaking to you. Thank you so much for giving us your time, your insights, your experience. It is fascinating and I can't wait to see what comes next. So, Thank you so much for joining us today.
Jean: Thank you Jane, and just a huge thank you for this podcast and what it puts out into the world. Thank you.
Jane Goodland: Well, I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Jean as much as I did. And if you did, don't forget to rate us and follow us on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or YouTube. And if want to get in touch with us, you can do so by email at
[email protected]. That's all from me, but watch out for the next episode very soon.
