Pineapple Partnerships: Collaboration Drives Sustainability
As companies work to reach sustainability goals, partnerships are emerging as a powerful tool to drive systemic change and accelerate the transition to a more sustainable future. As industries grapple with the complexities of decarbonisation and environmental protection, innovative collaborations are proving essential to overcome barriers and scale impactful solutions.
Pineapple Partnerships' paper The Partnership Era: Scaling Impact and Accelerating the Transition to a Sustainable Future, explores how we are now entering the partnership era.
The paper says: “We are now entering The Partnership Era, enabled by platform technology, in which organisations are increasingly interdependent and success means collaboration and system thinking. ‘Good business’ means working across value chains for system-wide impact.”
Adam Swash, Co-Founder and COO of Pineapple Partnerships says: “Pineapple Partnerships is a think tank, consultancy and venture builder that creates partnerships to solve system-level sustainability problems across entire value chains, delivering transformative business models at a scale that unlocks market opportunity in ways that are very hard for a single organisation to do alone.
“And the best part? We go beyond for people, planet and purpose.”
Decarbonising the built environment
The built environment, responsible for a significant portion of global emissions, exemplifies the potential of partnerships to catalyse transformation.
In the UK, where approximately 87% of offices have medium or poor energy efficiency ratings, the need for rapid improvement is clear.
The Pineapple CoRE consortium, bringing together industry leaders like Schneider Electric and Signify, aims to simplify the decarbonisation process for commercial real estate owners.
The approach not only makes retrofitting more accessible but also accelerates the pace of decarbonisation, reducing credit risk for banks with significant exposure to the real estate sector. The consortium's goal is ambitious – to retrofit more than 500 million square feet of commercial space by 2028, demonstrating the scalable impact of well-structured partnerships.
In the social housing sector, similar collaborative efforts are underway. The Pineapple Homes consortium, involving Places for People, NatWest and British Gas, is piloting an alternative financial model to expedite the retrofit of thousands of homes.
Dan Rosenfield, Managing Director for Net Zero at British Gas, says: "As part of our ambition to energise a greener fairer future, we are committed to helping households to decarbonise in a way that is simple and affordable.
“We are pleased to be part of this collaboration which is set to implement best practices, learnings and technology."
Partnering for sustainable agriculture
Agriculture, responsible for 21% of global emissions, presents another arena where partnerships are proving crucial. The sector faces unique challenges, from the need to adopt regenerative practices to the financial strain on farmers.
Bringing together supply chain owners, financial institutions, energy companies and regenerative agriculture specialists can develop strategies that enhance agricultural resilience, improve biodiversity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring farmers can thrive economically.
‘Good business’ means working across value chains for system-wide impact
The potential of such partnerships extends beyond traditional sectors. Even the humble pineapple is being reimagined as a source of sustainable solutions through collaborative efforts. From biofuel production using pineapple waste to the creation of eco-friendly textiles from pineapple fibres, partnerships are unlocking new possibilities for circular economies and waste reduction.
Financing the future of sustainability
The financial sector plays a crucial role in enabling these partnerships. Innovative financing models, such as blended finance and energy-as-a-service contracts, are helping to overcome the upfront cost barriers that have historically hindered sustainable initiatives. By distributing risks and rewards among partners, these models create incentives for all parties to achieve successful outcomes.
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