Sustainability is in a difficult space where you have to make sure (your product or service) is scalable. Sustainability and scalability have an inverse relationship. There has been a lot of sustainability, corporate social responsibility movements, but they are only one-time events because there is no scalable business model. Due to Covid-19 impacts, cost is the first topic investors bring up. It’s so easy for the brand owner to say, “I want a cost-neutral model where I don’t spend more.” The big players are not going to bite if you don’t push down the cost. We need the customers, and in this case, the business owners, to commit to it too. In 2020, funders were really having difficulty in commiting. But the food packaging industry today really has a very low profit margin, which is also a reason why there hasn’t been a lot of innovation, let alone to address sustainability. When you see the food packaging concepts students come out with, compared to the products you see on the market—it’s a stark difference between aspiration and reality.... Continue Reading