FLOOD OF OPPORTUNITIES
With climate change on the political and corporate radar, sustainable energy and water solutions loom as a major source of business innovation.
Melbourne-based company New Water is quickly filling a niche as a provider of domestic water solutions and won a best innovator award at the 2007 SmartCompany Awards.
Launched in 2004, New Water is the brainchild of chief executive Andrew Pearce and inventor Malcolm Gordon. Its key products – flexible bladder tanks that can be installed under a house or deck, and grey water treatment systems – are designed to cut household use of potable or drinking water.
Staff numbers have grown from seven to more than 40 in less than four years.
Drawing on the theme in Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Pearce says the momentum for water- and energy-saving devices in relatively affluent households has become unstoppable.
A marketing campaign through the internet and newspaper advertisements has helped drive growth. While the web has made it is easier for SMEs to build brand awareness, Pearce warns that it
is not a silver bullet.
“You still have to invest a fair bit of time and money to make sure you cut through the clutter,” he says.
That clutter refers to a raft of would-be rivals and copycats. To stay ahead
of competitors, New Water has imposed strict manufacturing and installation controls. Products have Smart Approved WaterMark status and meet relevant Australian manufacturing standards.
To ensure end-to-end quality and service for customers, the business manages its own installations.
In advising other SME owners, Pearce says they should follow a rule of thumb: everything takes twice as long to complete as expected and costs three times as much. And while he enjoys being part of a green industry, Pearce says the usual business rigour must apply. “All the awards and all the feel-goods don’t pay the bills.”
A NEW CLIMATE
Green is suddenly cool, yet that has not always been the case. When Esther Bailey set up Neco in 2003, her customers’ focus was on saving money, not the planet.
Neco is an eco store that sells a range of green products from books and electrical items to cleaning, garden and homeware goods. It also provides consulting advice to businesses that want to adopt sustainable practices.
Bailey says the sustainable market has changed irreversibly since former US presidential candidate Al Gore, through his feature film documentary
An Inconvenient Truth, put climate change on the mainstream agenda.
“The floodgates opened … It was quite phenomenal the sea-change that we saw and the service that he did to the debate really was in depoliticising it. Up to that point [many people thought] green equals left, green equals hippie, green equals subversive.”
Bailey has no doubt that entrepreneurial opportunities will continue to grow around sustainability for clever SMEs, even as larger corporations move into the space. As for the threat of competition from major corporations, she is philosophical: “This issue is here to stay and businesses are making significant investment, and if you move fast and play the game smart there are incredible opportunities.”
She argues that smaller companies are more nimble and can move faster to meet the needs of the market.
“Businesses like ours can simply whip in and out.”
The main challenge, according to Bailey, is to stay focused and not pursue too many disparate business leads.
“As a young business I have to say we’ve been slightly guilty of trying to chase too many of them.”
