00:02:07
how to put it, it's a democratized software as a service, where you have a lot of the information already in the software, and as opposed to an empty software where you need consultants and all the work to be done from the scratch, SAS 2.0, it's a platform that you can start and you have the starting point. Say you have 80% of your input, already in, and then you are customizing it, and you probably have to do as a consultant the other 20%, and it's the perfect fit for the small to medium organizations. I already learned something new today. That's right. So we are partners with a company called Digitopia, which offers strategy building, sustainability journey, where you take a diagnosis of where your company stays at, and then it gives you the recommendations, and it's all based on science and the latest regulations, and yeah, it benchmarks against the best in class.
00:03:39
Nice. So there's another platform which we work with called Ecovadas that offers sustainability certifications, and it's very holistic, they have a very holistic way of looking inside the company at absolutely everything in terms of, you know, environmental. Kind of like analysis and audit and then. The environmental, the social, the governance, but as well as the supply chain and the directives. It's analyzing absolutely all the corners of the company in order to give or not the certification. Nice. So who is Anna Kane?
00:04:39
I am Anna Kane. My background is in, my background is in the gambling industry. So I've been into anything that is, you know, the opposite of sustainability. And I worked in the gambling industry for over 10 years before I realized that, you know, everything has to come together and I need my, why? I need to work towards something that I care about. And I started to study and upscale, rescale, and so on until I decided that I'm gonna co-found Sustainable IT with my partner. And it's been a year and a half, nearly since we started the company and we are still developing it, but all is going very well and we are still learning. We are still developing. We are still signing partnerships. We are still, I think most importantly, we are still learning.
00:05:48
So in Sustainable IT, what services or clients you are focusing on? What is this company exactly doing? What clients do, for example, have or what kind of orders are you getting? There isn't a specific clientele. We can work with somebody that is in, say, service deliveries, like IT deliveries, or someone who is in, say, hotel industry or a crash or a school. There is no limitation on the specific of the organization that we work with. Very cool that you started the company with your partner. How's that going? It can be challenging at times because you need to be two different people, you know? You have to detach yourself from being the wife to being the business partner and the same, it's the same for him. So thankfully it worked out fine up until now.
00:07:05
And we love that we have a little bit of flexibility with our times. We have two small children and particularly the summer was, you know, it was intense. It was busy and tough because they did not have any school. Yes, this week is a happy week. School has restarted and it can be challenging, but I think it can be double rewarding. I don't know if you, at the end of the day. Your relationship is flourishing, but also your business. It's like, I'm always saying like a bit, I have it the more with the clients, like the more clients I have, the more, for example, happiness is coming, the more promotion and activities, but also more progress and more problems.
00:08:02
So because you are for each other a relationship where you, for example, need to tackle daily problems, like with all of the routine and these kinds of things, but then also you are a business partner. So it has both sides of the coin. It has the advantages, but also disadvantages. It can be rewarding the two times that you know each other pretty well, but then it can also have the disadvantage that yeah, like if you have problem in business, then you are also taking it with you to relationship. Exactly. And we sometimes never stop talking about work. So it's kind of, it can go on and on over the weekend, over the dinner, we can stop talking about work. And sometimes it's hard to give each other feedback.
00:08:48
So that's probably the hardest part, taking feedback at times. So who has it the hardest with taking the feedback? You or your husband? I have to be honest. I think it's me. That's nice. And regarding, so for example, if Innovatology would contact you as a sustainable IT, would there be, so what would be the first thing about like what we can, for example, make more sustainable? Like as like small medium company, what do you usually advise to the client to do first or? It doesn't go like this. Generally, you have to know, we can have a one hour discussion on what is going on within the organization before we decide if you actually want a strategy and a plan or just a report, you know, or just a carbon accounting, for instance.
00:09:49
So it all depends on where are you in your journey towards a more sustainable. I have a question here. Like you said, the carbon accounting or accounting, is it applicable for also small and medium companies? Because for me, still this kind of carbon phenomenon, I mean, I really believe in sustainability. I think that we have to do something. I think that we are already late, first of all. And this carbon accountancy, it seems to me really crucial, but not really relevant yet for small-medium companies, rather for corporations. Because as a small medium company, I really try to survive sometimes. And it's more about money for me. Like money is the heartbeat of my company. So how is it possible, or is it actually relevant to do just sustainability accounting or this carbon accounting for small-medium companies, or it's rather for corporations?
00:10:59
It is absolutely relevant to all organizations, small to medium to large, because say with the new regulation, the CSRD regulation that has come into place, and it will be relevant at the beginning of 2025, the big companies are required to show their compliance. But in general, the big organizations have suppliers that are smaller organizations. So in order for them to be in compliance, they need their suppliers to be compliant as well. So it doesn't matter how big or small they are. They may be requested to show what's their greenhouse gas emission, or what is their diversity and inclusion policy, or what is this, this all works in, it's interconnected really. It isn't relevant only for bigger organizations anymore. So not anymore only for the corporations, but it's also getting spread around in a smaller scales, let's say.
00:12:15
Absolutely, yes. It goes down in the supply chain. And you know that it's a big organization will have suppliers that are maybe medium size and the medium size, we have other suppliers that are of a smaller size. But when you as a big organization are asked to show your scope one, two, three emissions, in order to show your scope three emissions, you have to go on down on all of your supply chain. And that is where it becomes relevant. I've heard so many times like the different scope of the emissions. Can you give us some practical examples of what it is again? Like what's the scope one emission? What's the scope two emissions? Because I've heard about those, but I've never heard, I don't think I've ever heard about a scope three emission.
00:12:59
So how could we see that in like in a practical example? Yeah, so scope one emission is what you emitted directly in your office, say, you know, the rubbish, the what you directly are impacting. Scope two emissions is, say, for example, the employees commute, they are not travelling with maybe your company car, but they're travelling with their own car. That also counts as scope two. And scope three emissions is all your supply chain. What's coming from the outside. Okay, in scope two emissions, it's also your electricity supplier and say the company who is removing your rubbish. And that's sort of, I think that I hope you understood. Yeah, it's a good example. I think I can visualize something now with a different scope. So thank you for helping me visualize the scope one, two and three emissions.
00:14:10
Three, it's more, the most difficult to, the scope three is the most difficult to account for because it's what say I am supplying you with printing paper. It's about where do I take that printing paper for? Do I make it? How do I make it? You have to have that information from me. And if it's so difficult to account for, why should we care about it? Just because of CSR or is there something else behind it? Maybe because we are at the tipping point. I think that, yeah, we are at the tipping point of pollution. Probably we noticed that like the science are telling us, the scientists are telling us and showing us that we are in trouble.
00:15:07
And we can now see it more and more, you know, the temperatures are rising and there's more storms and there is more natural disasters, more wildfires and so on. And it's warmer. I even read in the news today that in the Sahara it's going to rain next week and this week, which is apparently really crazy. Can you imagine in the Sahara desert? That's a disruption because we need to fix it. I don't know how we're gonna fix it. You said earlier, Merida, that we are already too late. We can still fight and perhaps we won't manage to fix it, but maybe we can manage to delay the consequences. I mean, I don't want to spread some panic or really like kill the hope of people, et cetera, but definitely like climate changes were always part of our planet and part of our ages.
00:16:07
We had the ice age, we had the different evolution of our planet. So it's part of the evolution. It just speed up what we are actually doing. So usually it didn't take this amount of time as I am alive for almost 30 years and so many changes that I could be, that I am witnessing is not really normal. So this is the problem. I mean, the change is inevitable. How fast we are going to make this change is in our hands. So it's- This is the problem. And normally a natural change occurs more slowly. So humans have time to adapt to the change, whereas now it goes on, it happens really fast. We don't really have time to adapt. So we need to stop it or just slow it.
00:17:02
We need to give ourselves time to- Yes, that's right. And this is only the environmental sustainability concern, but there are so many other concerns in the world with inequalities, with, you know, yeah, but mostly inequalities, because if you are speaking about diversity inclusion, fair wages, so like female males ratio and all of that, we are aiming towards a free, all-inclusive world. And I suppose that's what we are encouraged to do with all of the sustainability implementation within organizations in our lives, because in your own life, your day-to-day routine, you can implement, you know, a more sustainable, let's say environment around you. And you can also, you know, work towards becoming more tolerant or towards becoming more observant and more kind.
00:18:13
And I think overall, this is what we speak about when we speak about a sustainable world, a world that is for everybody and, you know, less burning. I have a question about your experience because it's not really often that you meet people from the gambling industry to end up in IT. Was it that you always, how did it, how do, can you elaborate more on the transition? Like, how was it? How did you speak? Of course. When I was young, my whole, all I wanted to do is finish school and go travel. So I found a job that allowed me to go travel while, you know, earning a living. So that's how I got into the gambling industry. I became a croupier and then, you know, evolved into that world.
00:19:10
It's when you are 18 years old, 20 year old, it's all very exciting. But then it can be a very, it's a different lifestyle altogether. Sometimes, you know, you are in contact with people that tend to be a little bit more negative, you know, so all of that, it's affecting you and your day-by-day life. So I suppose it's unsustainable for, you know, for your mental health and physical health and everything. Even though in IT, you can meet also lots of bad people, I think that it could be like really good school of life, let's say that, because I did- Yes, that's true. And I lived in Romania, of course, I lived in Morocco and now in Ireland. And I like, I love that I have this experience of living in three different, absolutely completely different cultures.
00:20:18
And it is interesting to see how people interact with each other. It's so similar in some parts and so completely different in others. Because of the essence, we are mostly the same, you know, it's just the way we were brought up and educated that changes the whole demeanour of a person. But yeah, it's interesting. Nice, so Odessa, your experience from gambling helps you in some ways in IT because I can think about so many losing cases actually. I think it does at times, I think I probably have a sense of, I'm the head of partnership and my husband always says you are the head of partnership because you have a very good sense of people. So I'm guessing he's right because I was never wrong. I guess that's how life works.
00:21:28
Indeed. I think that what you learn, you can go to school and you can learn many things, but what you learn in life, like life experience can give you a lot of valuable lessons that you never will learn in any institute. And if you would have a power to actually advise something to even young people currently about like sustainability, what would be, you would advise them? Because we have, for example, different cultures in different countries, like Romania, Czechia, Belgium, all of these countries, they have really different cultures. And it seems to me that sometimes the policies in a country is they are not really unified from the sustainable perspective. Like what I was taught by my professors or in Czechia is definitely different than, for example, in Belgium, how the people would be behaving, et cetera.
00:22:33
So what would be one thing that you would advise to young people that they can change or that they can do from now on to help our planet with sustainable actions? It can be something simple. Yes, there's a lot. So I see a lot of resistance. I'm not sure if young people are so resistant. It comes with culture, as you said, it depends. It's different in every country that you go to. There isn't a goal to take our freedom, to make us suffer. This is happening. And all the sustainability goals and all the, you know, like the UN Sustainable Development Goals that we work towards, and they are all towards creating a better world overall. So we take, you know, we have to take climate action and we have to become more tolerant of each other.
00:23:35
We don't own the earth. We are here, but we don't own it. Nobody wants to take nobody's diesel car. It's just, it's better if they will switch to, you know, to something more sustainable because it isn't an evil plan. It's better, that's all. And yeah, I think Gen Z and the one after them will be the ones that will actually make the shift, the change because it affects them directly, I suppose. That's why there is so much resistance from the older, you know, not older, but from the government and so on. I think my last point will be that we need institutions. We need the government to jump in and become more serious towards implementation of the sustainable living worldwide because we need rules in order to, you know, to create something new.
00:24:44
That's how it works. Yeah, so your advice would be to be more tolerant towards the sustainable goals and the sustainability in a global scope because we are like, I would say that we are quite selfish that we just think like, yes, it's our country. We are sustainable. So for example. the French people, they have really good local products because they really like, you know, take care of their products and stuff, whereas, for example, in some other countries like America, the products are really bad, what people are eating, everything is full of pesticides, et cetera. So, it's, we are really selfish because we usually look at like our government only and then not apply it to other parts of the world, and indeed, it would be good if recognition and like to take responsibility of sustainability would be really something that everybody would take into their own hands.
00:25:53
Exactly. The overall goal is not to leave anybody behind, it's to, you know, the change to happen for everybody. And the change is aimed to be towards a better, more sustainable world and not the Here I have a thought-provoking question, like, and I've always wondered about it because it's, I mean, I understand sustainability, but it's like the topic that like developing countries like China and India are usually using as well. Like we, in the Western world, in the developed, let's say, world, as some might call it, made so much pollution to the stage where we're at right now, where we can think about the key sustainability. But some countries are not yet at the level that we are at, and in order to get them there, they would need to put in some investments.
00:26:48
But with the SDGs and like sustainability way of thinking, we might be limiting them. So what could, what would be like a way to convince them that they can still achieve growth through a sustainable way of thinking? That's the sustainable way of thinking is another way of, let's say, other countries suppressing others. Because I sometimes feel that certain, especially certain nations, certain organizations are against the sustainability goals because they feel like it's being imposed externally and they feel that it's limiting them in achieving what they want to achieve. Yes. So I suppose this answer a little bit to your question earlier, Mary, about, you know, being a small company, I want to have a profit. I don't want to invest in new things. But becoming sustainable, it's actually, it's very, it's more profitable in the long run for, for organizations.
00:27:44
And you can think about, you can think of a country as being a little organization, yeah, because they, you know, they run accordingly by having solar panels, you pay less, maybe you have an investment in the beginning, but then you're going to pay less electricity. And perhaps on the summer days, you'll have so much surplus that you will accumulate credit that will cover your bills over the winter. So yes, you have an initial investment, but then on the long run, it's going to save your money. And so I think once people will see that there is something in for them, they will probably give it a chance to say so. Yeah. I don't know if that answers your questions, Cedric, but it's like recycling your CapEx investments. That's it.
00:28:42
Like, sometimes you hear people being against sustainable changes, if you take something from them. Exactly. It's exactly that. But then even say a big company, maybe they, that extract oil, of course, they're going to be against the change because that's where they make their profits from. But if they take that money from oil, which is happening now, yeah, and they invest it in like power plants and, you know, such as, you know, solar panel camps and everything that it's there to generate sustainable electricity, because you can generate it with water, with wind turbines, with all of that. If they take some of that money and invest it and slowly, slowly stepping back from their initial product and, you know, transitioning to sustainable electricity, then that's a transition made slowly.
00:29:52
They still made a profit and they changed the way they did business because they are still doing business just differently. Once people understand that there is something in for them, they will accept it with more ease. All right. So I think that we had a really fruitful discussion about the sustainability. We took it a bit like beyond the IT even. We did, definitely. We were going out of the SaaS, et cetera, we were discussing even the transition from gambling to the IT. I even had a few slides prepared about all of the technologies that we work with. Another time, maybe another time we will definitely follow up with you because I'm now curious about this presentation and the slides, to be honest. So I hope that this was a really, really exciting point for our audience about reviewing sustainability, what they can do for their own organizations. What are the different scopes of sustainability? And thank you so much, Anna, for coming to the Innovatology episode. And we will be in touch with you for the follow-up because I want to now see the presentation slides. Thank you, Mary. And thank you, Cedric. I really appreciate you having me. And I hope that it was an informative discussion as opposed to opinionated. So thanks for having me.
