The New Pet Industry Sustainability Coalition: An Interview With Founder Chris Bentley
By Carol Frank
As a fellow Boulder resident, I know Chris Bentley through his
many community activities, including serving with me on the
Board of Directors for the University of Colorado Deming
Center for Entrepreneurship. Chris heads up Deming’s
Sustainability Council, a topic that is also near and dear to my
heart. Chris has been working on increasing the focus on
sustainability in the pet industry for several years, so I was very
encouraged when he invited me to the inaugural meeting of
the Pet Industry Sustainability Coalition (PISC). I was impressed
with the turnout for a first-ever meeting and even more excited
when I heard details about their mission and vision.
1.
What is the mission and vision of the Pet Industry
Sustainability Coalition?
The Pet Industry Sustainability Coalition (PISC) is a playground
for manufacturers, distributors and retailers to collaboratively
navigate a clear pathway toward improved environmental
performance in the pet industry.
The approach is threefold. The formation of the Pet Industry
Sustainability Coalition directed by Harvard Sustainability and
Environmental Management Graduate Caitlyn Bolton, will
navigate the sustainability needs of businesses and serve as a
playing field for bottom-up and top-down innovation and
collaboration. The Coalition will provide a web-based Toolkit
that will serve as a roadmap to guide members toward greater
sustainability achievements. An Accreditation and Leadership
Award component based on voluntary action toward
implementation will create trust-worthy standards and a
universal sustainability language for the industry as a whole.
2.
What are your criteria for joining?
One of the most impressive components of the Coalition is its
mission driven focus as opposed to profit driven. “The
membership structure will always include a free option in order
to encourage collaborative participation from all interested
parties; we have a ‘more the merrier’ attitude and understand
that diverse perspectives accelerate innovation” (Caitlyn
Bolton, Executive Director, Sustainable Pet Coalition).
We want to collaborate with any company interested in
advancing sustainability in the pet industry regardless of their
size, location or current sustainability status. For those
Upon returning I moved to Aspen in the mid-80’s and soon met
companies interested in leadership opportunities we have two
paying membership levels: Founding and Gold Members, who
contribute financially and also receive a variety of additional
benefits including private consulting to help them integrate the
Toolkit, logo space and special access to restricted Toolkit
resources.
3.
Why would a company want to join the PISC?
Our collaborative approach leverages the knowledge and
resources available in the industry as a whole and transforms this
knowledge into the tools and resources companies need to
implement real change. By creating a new platform for businessto-business communication and prioritizing cost-savings
opportunities, we provide significant value for all members.
We believe that businesses have a unique opportunity to
transform their operations to improve their environmental
performance on a larger scale than we can as individuals. With the
expected growth rate of the industry and over 40 reports now
solidifying sustainability as a profitable pursuit for any business,
now is the time!
4.
What do you hope to accomplish in the next 3 years?
By partnering with the Outdoor Industry Association and others,
we are hoping to bypass the time and resource intensive beginning
stages that many Coalitions face by adopting already established
sustainability tools, like the Higg Index. In the next three years we
hope to have established the Coalition as the go-to-place for
companies looking to implement sustainability. We will continually
advance the Toolkit to reflect market and technology changes so
that our members are continually improving their systematic
sustainability strategies. Additionally we will have formed best
practices to act as a standard for the industry as well as
appropriate recognition for leading companies. Whether this is
through accreditation, benchmarking or awards will be up to our
members.
5. Why did you take the lead on founding this group?
I have been actively involved in environmental stuff my whole life.
My parents were keen on teaching us kids about appreciating
nature, and my Dad was an architect designing LEED type buildings
decades before that certification. After graduate school, I
hitchhiked around the world with my girlfriend for two full years.
We mainly went to Third World countries and we wrote a thick
journal chronicling the deforestation for firewood, dirtying of the
Earth’s great rivers, unbridled air pollution and lack of
understanding where this is taking us.
John Denver. I really admired and participated in his work at
Windstar and was awestruck by the great green strides that
Amory and Hunter Lovins were taking…and still are. I built a
Biodome by my cabin in the mountains and grew vegetables
and fruit year ‘round in it and fished. I also raised bees and
chickens, and guided over 50 pack trips on horses into the high
country with folks like the Trump family and movie stars to
show them the ‘real world’.
In Aspen I worked very hard for two years on creating a TV,
radio, concert and newspaper series called “EcoLogic” that John
Denver was going to host. But we were too early. ‘Climate
change’ was barely on the radar yet. So instead, 23 years ago, I
co-founded Aspen Pet Products and we built it into a pretty
good size business before selling to Petmate. The reason I came
back into the pet industry was specifically to help ‘green it up’. I
feel this is my ‘biggest lever’ to drive significant change that will
make my daughter…and her kids someday…proud of her Papa
and what we are doing here.
6. You recently hired an Executive Director, Caitlyn
Bolton. Tell us about her and how PISC is able to fund this
position?
Caitlyn happened to be in exactly the right place at exactly the
right time. When I met Caitlyn she was working with our Toolkit
partner Natural Capitalism Solutions as an Intern interested in
implementing corporate sustainability. Caitlyn had just moved
to Boulder after completing her Master’s Degree in
Environmental Management and Sustainability at Harvard and
spending five years in collaborative environmental project
management around the U.S. I immediately latched on to
Caitlyn because it was clear that she had business skills,
strategic management know-how and an awesomely positive
attitude. Because Caitlyn was already working part-time as an
intern, we were able to increase her to full-time at a relatively
low-cost. Knowing that forming a Coalition was going to require
extensive time and work, Only Natural Pet and “I and Love and
You” put in $20k to get this off the ground, and Natural
Capitalism joined in for 10k. Caitlyn helped us to develop the
foundations of the Coalition and our membership platform to
bring on early Rock-Star Founding Members KONG, Cardinal
Pet Care, and Planet Dog. The combined financial contributions
of our team have made it possible to support an Executive
Director, enabling us to take this from an idea to legitimate
action.
7. Sustainable business practices aren't strictly
philanthropic. What are some ways that companies save money
through this effort?
Companies have a variety of motivators for pursuing sustainability.
Some of our members pursue sustainability because they care
about the world we leave behind for our children and
grandchildren. Our members also implement sustainability
because reducing resource use and increasing efficiency can also
save money.
Sustainability isn’t just about protecting natural resources. It’s also
about protecting a company’s financial health. Though the
supportive evidence for this statement may have been lacking 10
years ago, recent reports solidify the trend of increasing market
value for those companies adopting sustainability into their
business model. According to a report by Goldman Sachs:
Companies addressing sustainability have higher share price
growth than those who are not. There has been a dramatic
increase in the number of investors seeking to incorporate
sustainability factors into their investment decisions. The bottom
line is simple: using resources more efficiently and using less
harmful materials saves businesses money. Deciding where, how
and when to use resources more efficiently is not quite as easy
however, and that’s where the Pet Industry Sustainability Coalition
and Toolkit comes in.
8. How can a company join the PISC?
Join PISC by visiting www.sustainablepet.org or email
cbolton@natcapsolutions.org for more information. Thank you!
Carol Frank of Boulder, CO, is the founder of four companies
in the pet industry. As a Managing Director at SDR Ventures
Investment Bank, she is a registered Investment Banker and
leads the team in executing pet industry transactions
including M&A, capital formation and strategic advisory
services. She is also the owner of BirdsEye Consulting, the
consummate source for pet sector consulting expertise in
licensing, executive recruiting, market research, and sales
channel strategy. She can be reached at
carol@carolfrank.com