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Business is an unlikely hero: a force for good working to solve society's most pressing challenges, while boosting bottom line. This is social purpose at work. And it's a dynamic journey. Purpose 360 is a masterclass in unlocking the power of social purpose to ignite business and social impact. Host Carol Cone brings decades of social impact expertise and a 360-degree view of integrating social purpose into an organization into unfiltered conversations that illuminate today's big challenges and bigger ideas.
Carol Cone:
I'm Carol Cone and welcome to Purpose 360, the podcast that unlocks the power of purpose to ignite business and social impact.
The next series of Purpose 360 episodes were taped in person on site at the One Young World Summit that was held in Montreal this year. For those of you who are not familiar with One Young World, I hope that these conversations will get you very, very excited to follow them online because they are making terrific impact around the globe. At the conference, there were nearly 2,000 changemakers. And you have to apply to get accepted to this amazing event. And some leaders at the conference say, "You know, it's harder to get into this conference than it is to get into Harvard." Wow. The young ambassadors represented 190 countries, and you should think of this like the Olympics for changemaking. Also in attendance were leaders across the board, around the world. Think older individuals like myself, who have worked in the field for so many years helping to make change.
I have yet another fabulous person at One Young World, Annie Lu, and she is the CEO and co-founder of H2Ok based in Somerville, Massachusetts. So welcome to the show, Annie.
Annie Lu:
Thank you so much for having me.
Carol Cone:
I am thrilled to have you here. And Annie and her brother, who's the co-founder of the company, they were on the main stage yesterday talking to over 2,000 young change makers. And I think that the cheering and the clapping, it was really intense.
Annie Lu:
Wow. It was such an incredible opportunity and the atmosphere was out of this world. It was everyone here for, I feel like, a common mission and purpose, and it's just so special to be part of a stage like this. So it was certainly.
Carol Cone:
It was great. It was really impressive. And so Annie, why don't we just give our listeners background on what is H2Ok and let's just start there?
Annie Lu:
Yeah, absolutely. So a little bit more about H2Ok Innovations. We're based in Boston, Massachusetts, Somerville, Massachusetts specifically. Our mission is very simple, and it's basically using AI in sensor technology to enable digital manufacturing. What that actually looks like is, how do we run these large manufacturing plants in a more sustainable, a smarter, and also more efficient manner through really utilizing AI. We work with best in class manufacturers across the board from partners like AB InBev, for example, in their breweries, to Unilever, to Coca-Cola, Danone, Nestle, to even some of the world's largest tech companies across our data centers to allow them to run more efficient and also more sustainably, especially when it comes to the use of water and also reduction of waste. We're pioneering this term we coined called precision automation.
Carol Cone:
I really like that. Very sharp.
Annie Lu:
Precision automation inside manufacturing industrials. Really when you look at the sector and what you should know is that it's fundamental to society. It makes everything we eat, we use, we wear, right? Manufacturing plants, whether it's brewing beer or making food for instance, or making clothes for us, or data centers that power our world's internet or power AI, all of these infrastructure is so foundational to society, yet the way that it's run is oftentimes we say static automation where there's a lot of inefficiencies, challenges, and operations, especially with encountering challenges like the global climate crisis, risk to access to key natural resources, the water shortage, workforce competency, workforce sustainability challenges as well. It really provides a ripe space for AI and technology to see, "Hey, how do we complement our current operations and really allow resilience inside our critical global supply chains?" And so that's really the work that we focus here at H2Ok Innovations.
Carol Cone:
So who is your client in a company, in AB InBev? Is it someone in engineering? Is it someone in product innovation, plant management? Who's the client?
Annie Lu:
It's very much across the board, across the entire organization. So from the top level, it's global supply, global engineering, right? Sustainability is also very much tied into this as well too. Then there's also very important for us is the operators on also the brewery floor or the shop floor as well. And so these are brewing managers or plant managers.
Carol Cone:
I want you to mention the results because I want to grab the attention of our listeners. So let's see, Ben & Jerry's on your website saved 14 hours per month of what? Downtime? Give us some background on that.
Annie Lu:
Totally. So every single time Ben & Jerry's or really AB InBev or Hellmann's mayonnaise, all of these, when they change their product, change their flavor, it's called changeovers, they need to shut down their production, clean out all of their equipment and then start up again, make this new product or this new flavor. And that's one of the biggest areas of losses and inefficiencies, challenges when it comes to manufacturing, is time you're starting and stopping and changing.
Right now this cleaning process and this changeover process is highly static. So you basically code a recipe. You say, "Hey, I clean this. I just clean with water. And then chemicals and water for four hours and just run the same way all the time." And what we're doing is we're doing this precision changeover process and precision cleaning process. So our sensors are detecting, "Hey, we're done cleaning, we can move on to the next step." Or, "Hey, we're reaching good quality now in this new flavor that we're making. We can send this to the filler or the next equipment instead of sending this to waste." And so what we're doing is we're reducing the time spent and the inefficiencies spent in this cleaning and changeover process, and also the waste that is created from this cleaning and changeover process.
And so when you think about time, time is greater capacity, right? Time is better asset utilization. Time means that you can have more flexibility in our production schedules. You can have more output. And so these are the different value that we're driving for our partners. And also time is a reduction in water usage, energy usage as well, chemical usage. And so for example, we're reducing the time spent in the water spent in cleaning by 35% for example. We're saving 3.4 million liters in just one factory in Unilever for example.
Carol Cone:
That's a lot. Do you translate the time saved or the waste saved into dollars?
Annie Lu:
Absolutely. What's actually really interesting is in our technology, we have something called H2Ok Insights, and it is a factory analytics software that also tracks all these key KPIs as well automatically for our partners. And so we're tracking as well. This is the amount of water you save, energy you save, time you save, like dollars that you saved as well, product loss and waste reduced, for example.
Carol Cone:
So for a large customer, what kind of dollars can they save?
Annie Lu:
One of our plants is saving $2.4 million per year.
Carol Cone:
Amazing. Okay, so your co-founder is your brother.
Annie Lu:
Yes.
Carol Cone:
And you come from a manufacturing family. So where did the idea come from? It was probably all in your DNA, but you're amazing. So where'd it come from, the idea?
Annie Lu:
Look, my brother David and I co-founded this company. He's also my CTO. He is a genius and a visionary when it comes to manufacturing and technology and science. We grew up in a generational manufacturing family. So growing up, going to the factory floor shop floor, seeing firsthand how these large manufacturing plants are operated, but frankly also a lot of the areas of inefficiencies, a lot of the opportunities for innovation that exist in this industry, in the sector.
And so really what incited us to get started, and we've been developing this technology for a couple of years already prior to even founding H2Ok Innovations, but really what incited us was Covid revealing a lot of the gaps when it comes to supply chain and manufacturing in the face of our global climate crisis. And I mentioned earlier, causing risk to access to key natural resources, Covid making traditional manual work more difficult to be done. Now is a time right for disruption. And now with industry 4.0, AI, and industrial IoT, how do you really combine these technologies to truly, again, drive value in a solutions-focus for these large players that are major contributors to our global environmental footprint, but also foundational to human society and providing critical common goods needed for every single day life.
Carol Cone:
So I want to know. So okay, this is a Covid baby, isn't it?
Annie Lu:
You know what? Yes. We were actually part of this program called Techstars Farm to Fork. And so from there, we had access and were able to be connected with 200 leaders across the food and beverage space. And so there was really, as mentioned earlier, uncovering these unobvious problems.
That piece of empathy is really important, not just when I just say this, but I mean it in a way that when we come into every single conversation, no matter who you are, in what level you are in an organization, saying, "Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. I'm really excited to be here today and learn from you." And I think when you come in with that approach and that appreciation again for people's real lived experiences, and we started off just asking, "What are your biggest line items? What keeps you up at night? What are your headaches? What causes your headaches? And tell me about what are your biggest inefficiencies, what are your biggest costs?" And that was really when we started to uncover a lot of these challenges, which then incited us to refine our technology to really solve those problems and drive value for people.
Carol Cone:
And perhaps these individuals had not been asked that.
Annie Lu:
Exactly.
Carol Cone:
Good for you. Good for you. When you were on stage, you had, again, phenomenal response, and then you were probably swamped by people afterwards. What kind of questions were they asking you?
Annie Lu:
I loved questions. Firstly, there were so many technical questions and just learning more about the work that we do, which is always something that I'm passionate about. But something that was particularly interesting was people asking me about, "Hey, what is the role of youth when it comes to sustainability and also climate, and how can youth play a role in this space?"
Look, as a younger founder or a younger technologist in this space, and I always said this earlier, I said this earlier to my panel as well, "Honestly, there is no space that's designated for youth in this industry." And I am 99% of the time the only person who looks like me in the room. I think that element is actually quite special in a way that we really use... We look very different. We come from very different demographics backgrounds than a lot of the people we work with in this industry, a lot of our peers in this industry as well. That element of authenticity of that's what makes us who we are, and that's what gives us this perspective and this approach we have in this industry to create, again, solutions to problems that have been plaguing our industries for decades, that ingenuity and that creativity stems from also our background of just being different. And that empathy and that humility as well that we bring to the table stems from our background of being different in who we are.
And so there is no designated space for youth in this industry or at the table. And so instead of being pushed down or intimidated by that, we should own who we are and realize that that's our asset. That's what makes us who we are and that's what allows us to bring a fresh perspective to the space.
Carol Cone:
I'm going to say fresh perspective, absolutely. What advice do you give to them?
Annie Lu:
I think what advice I would give to everyone here at One Young World and the listeners of this podcast, is this immense amount of relentlessness and hunger that you have to bring when it comes to solving hard problems. Hard problems are hard for a reason. I mentioned earlier, customer obsession, right? This value, customer obsession. Customer obsession is not easy. That is also why not everyone has customer obsession. And so you must have this level of doing whatever it takes and that relentlessness to get something done or to deliver this value.
I think that we're here today at One Young World in Montreal because we want to pioneer a vision of this world that we want to see. And doing that is not easy. And so we need to come in with collaboration, with innovation, with partnerships to bring different people of different perspectives to the table, but have this underlying relentlessness of doing whatever it takes to achieve that vision.
And so we can have here at H2Ok, and what we bring to the table when we work with our partners, that's why we're able to work with our partners. And we need to collaborate together to see, "Okay, how do we bring non-traditional voices with this level of hunger to create a vision of this world that we want to see."
Carol Cone:
That's great. So Annie Lu, congratulations on your Covid baby. It's incredibly successful. I know you're going to be wildly successful in the future, and we can't wait to follow you. And thank you for being on Purpose 360.
Annie Lu:
Thank you so much. This is such a good time. So thanks so much for the interview.
[5-7 seconds of transition music]
Carol Cone:
Today is day two of an amazing experience at One Young World Summit. And with me is Rebecca Daniel. So Rebecca, welcome to the show.
Rebecca Daniel:
Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to meet you and be on the show.
Carol Cone:
So Rebecca, why did you come to One Young World?
Rebecca Daniel:
So I've been running an organization, a nonprofit organization for the last six, seven years. And it is part-time and voluntary and has been for that whole period. And now I'm really at the point at which I really want to scale it, make it something sustainable that I could work on full time. I think One Young World is an incredible opportunity to meet potential mentors, advisors, funders, and also just learn from others who are a bit further along in their journey or even in business and just really connect with people from all over the world.
Carol Cone:
So talk to me about your professional passion and your education and also the name of your not-for-profit too.
Rebecca Daniel:
Yeah, so my background is in biological sciences and marine biology, specifically tropical marine biology. So those are the two degrees that I studied. I'm just super passionate about ocean conservation and actually just kind of sharing ocean knowledge with people and trying to connect people with the ocean. And the non-profit that I run is called the Marine Diaries.
Carol Cone:
And love the name Marine Diaries. Where did that come from?
Rebecca Daniel:
So it's kind of, I guess, from the origins of where we started, which was back in 2017. There was three of us studying marine biology at the time. And we were just students and we really saw this disconnect between the scientific community and the general public in terms of knowledge. There was things that we were learning in our lectures, so for example, about plastic pollution in the ocean. And we were being told scientists have known about this for the last 50 years, but there was no real public understanding of plastic pollution at that time. And then there was this Blue Planet II effect where David Attenborough in this amazing natural history storytelling documentary has a very powerful message about plastic pollution. And obviously, there were loads of campaigns and work being done by hundreds of organizations and people as well, but that was kind of a tipping point for public understanding.
So we really saw the power of storytelling as a method of communicating ocean science in a way that is really engaging, connects with people's emotions. And so that's really, I guess, where the name came from because it's diaries from the ocean, stories from the ocean. And originally, we actually just started as an Instagram channel and a blog, so it was very much written content. So yeah, that's kind of where it came from.
Carol Cone:
And so what are the top two issues that you want our listeners to understand about the challenges to our oceans?
Rebecca Daniel:
So I would say definitely number one is climate change. And I would say secondly is over exploitation of the ocean. And that encompasses things like whaling, overfishing, but also resource extraction and things like cutting down mangrove forests to create aquaculture.
Carol Cone:
Okay. And so let's talk about I know one of the other issues that you're really passionate about is coral bleaching and that that's happening all around the world. Our oceans are getting warmer. So share with our listeners what is the status of coral bleaching and is there any hope to reverse it?
Rebecca Daniel:
I wouldn't say I'm a coral expert, but from my understanding, essentially to explain a bit about what coral bleaching actually is and why it's happening, the ocean absorbs 90% of the excess heat that we are generating through our emissions. So that's a lot. It is really heating up on a global scale, particularly in the tropics because they are already quite hot. Corals themselves actually have a very narrow heat tolerance. So they can only really withstand a small amount of change before they basically expel the algae that is inside them. And that helps them photosynthesize, helps them make energy, and that's what the actual bleaching is.
And what we're seeing is in recent years as ocean temperatures are rapidly increasing, bleaching events are happening more and more frequently, and bleaching does happen naturally. Sometimes we have the El Ni�o effect, which creates these big hotspots of heat in the ocean. But usually there is a long period of time before another bleaching event, which allows corals to recover. So they reabsorb that algae from the surrounding water, they can survive for a short period of time with no algae if temperatures decrease again and then they can recover. But with the increasing frequency of bleaching, what happens is the corals die off. These are structures that have taken hundreds, thousands, millennia, so many years to accumulate to create that reef foundation. And there is also a kind of tipping point of, if too many corals die off, it becomes quite algae-dominated in certain areas. And then new corals like baby corals, planula larvae, they can't then settle because they need a specific kind of surface to settle. So it becomes this kind of self-perpetuating loop.
Carol Cone:
And you said you didn't know much, I think you know a lot. Because I'm from Florida, and we hear constantly, especially in the keys, that the coral is just bleaching and dying off. But I've heard about grafting and I know that Mote, which is down in Florida, is a great organization, great not-for-profit, gets lots of great funding. And so they're beginning to learn how to graft and they're actually asking some... They've been thinking about creating these amateur scuba force, the amateur scuba divers that go in that they can add some of the grafts in there. So interesting sort of idea.
What else do you want to share with our listeners about the real challenges to our oceans and ultimately to our ability to survive?
Rebecca Daniel:
Yeah, I mean, so I guess just to touch on your point about coral and coral grafting, Mote actually pioneered I think the micro fragmentation technique, which is incredible. That basically allows corals to grow superfast. And I think that's super incredible, and there's loads of work being done in the coral restoration space.
But yeah, to answer your question, I think we don't really as a society understand the importance of the ocean and the fact that it impacts us day to day. It actually produces more than half of the oxygen that we breathe. Like I said, it absorbs a lot of the carbon dioxide, 25%, and also 90% of the excess heat. So it is really our biggest ally in the fight against climate change. But we do not have this deep connection to it in Western cultures that we are just not protecting it. We are constantly exploiting it. We are overfishing to the point where fish stocks aren't recovering. We are drilling for oil. There's also the threat of deep sea mining at the moment, which is really scary. And we're just taking so much and not giving enough back. I think that is the real simplicity of the simple message.
Carol Cone:
And you've won a huge amount of awards at such a young age. I know that you're very honored, but was there one award that really made you feel, "Wow, I'm being recognized. It's going to help perpetuate know to propel the work I'm doing"?
Rebecca Daniel:
Yeah, so last year I was a finalist, a regional finalist in the Commonwealth Youth Awards. I wasn't a winner, but it was incredible to go to the award ceremony and be a regional finalist and meet some other incredible young people from across the Commonwealth doing amazing development work and working on the SDGs. And that, I think, like I said at the beginning, I've been doing this voluntarily part-time for six to seven years. I think obviously it's always nice to receive an award, but that I think really made me quite proud of everything that we've done with our volunteer team and all of the volunteers we've had over the years and just receive that quite high level recognition and just the opportunity to then connect with other NGOs and people across the Commonwealth. I'm actually now having conversations with the Commonwealth Blue Charter. So hopefully there will be some projects in the future. So yeah, it's been amazing.
Carol Cone:
Have you ever met Sylvia Earle?
Rebecca Daniel:
I have once.
Carol Cone:
Now isn't she amazing?
Rebecca Daniel:
Yes. So I went to the UN Ocean conference in Lisbon a couple of years ago and met her there. But yeah, she's incredible. The fact that she is still going and really making a big effort to attend all of these events in person, she has so much energy in life and yet obviously super inspiring.
Carol Cone:
Great. So you're talking about mentors and inspiration. How have the meetings gone here? Have you been set up with some like-minded individuals that you can begin to accelerate your efforts?
Rebecca Daniel:
I'm actually here on a scholarship with the Brandtech Group, the AI Scholarship. So through that, we've met lots of people like our delegate dinner last night, which was really great. And also just reaching out and meeting other young people and seeing what potential collaborations there are. So yeah, it's been really incredible.
With the Brandtech Group, they are specialists in generative AI. And already I mentioned to one of their team that I really want to actually work towards creating immersive ocean experiences. And we run expeditions at the moment, so kind of taking people to the ocean, but I also want to work on how we can bring the ocean to people because there's a big accessibility problem with, there's so many barriers to getting to the ocean. You need to know how to swim, you need to use a snorkel, maybe you need to know how to scuba dive. It's really expensive. And if we're going to really connect the whole world with the ocean and make them understand the importance of it, we need to bring it to them. So yeah, we've been chatting about VR/AR, how we can use gen AI to create really incredible content and immersive experiences.
Carol Cone:
And do you have any sponsors yet?
Rebecca Daniel:
We are sponsored by a brand called Aluna Coconut through 1% for the Planet. They supported us last year, but currently we are looking for sponsors.
Carol Cone:
What sort of advice would you give to colleagues that are thinking about, they want to start their own not-for-profit, they're really passionate about a social or environmental issue. What advice would you give them?
Rebecca Daniel:
So I think the one thing I would say to start, if you are looking to get involved in marine conservation, you don't have to be a scientist. I think there's this big myth or misunderstanding that to be involved in conservation efforts, you need to have studied marine biology or biology and you need to have an understanding of science, and that is completely not true. There are so many skills that you can apply to help an NGO or even a business that's working in conservation. And I would say get involved in local volunteering efforts. There is a big lack of funding in marine conservation. And unfortunately, the kind of status quo at the moment is to volunteer, which is something that I really hope will change. But there are ways to volunteer at low cost or no cost. So you can volunteer online, you can do kind citizen science online, which is awesome. And you can find things on your doorstep. Or even just start initiatives like doing a litter cleanup can also help the ocean.
Carol Cone:
And how do people reach you?
Rebecca Daniel:
So LinkedIn is definitely my personal biggest channel. So just Rebecca Daniel on LinkedIn. We also have a website, www.marinediaries.com. And yeah, we have some great films on YouTube that if people want to watch and learn about different marine ecosystems, we are just about to launch an e-learning course.
Carol Cone:
Oh, nice. You say that we need more sponsorship. So what would you like to say? Because we have a lot of potential companies and brands that listen to Purpose 360. So what kind of message would you like to give to them about potentially working in your social and environmental issue?
Rebecca Daniel:
So I think what we're really looking for is people that want to invest in our mission long term and who really buy into the need for education around the ocean. We'd love to have specifically project sponsors for things that we're looking to do. And also kind of long-term sponsorship. And beyond just financial support, people that might want to mentor or provide advice, sit on our advisory board and things like that. So beyond just financial commitment, but actually really investing in our next stage of our growth.
Carol Cone:
Super. So I always like to give the last word to my guest to say anything, fill in anything that you'd like.
Rebecca Daniel:
Well, thank you very much for having me, obviously. I think I would say my one message would be please just educate yourself around the ocean's importance and how we actually affect it day to day, and also what it gives us, because it gives us so much.
Carol Cone:
It gives us our life.
Rebecca Daniel:
Exactly.
Carol Cone:
Absolutely. Well, thank you Rebecca Daniel, it's been a pleasure talking with you.
Rebecca Daniel:
Thank you so much.
Carol Cone:
This podcast was brought to you by some amazing people and I'd love to thank them. Ann Hundertmark and Kristin Kenney and Carol Cone On Purpose, Pete Wright and Andy Nelson, Our Crack production team at TruStory FM, and you, our listener. Please rate and rank us because we really want to be as high as possible as one of the top business podcasts available so that we can continue exploring together the importance and the activation of authentic purpose. Thanks so much for listening.
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