Welcome to the Iceberg, Will. Tell us a bit about yourself and where you're coming from.
Hello there! My name is Willy-Andreas - a unique name that my parents created. My dad picked “Willy," which is also his name, but my mum preferred “Andreas" - and there you have it, a true relationship compromise. But you may call me Will. I'm Swiss, from Zurich, and I'm still here, although I have also lived in Sydney, Bangkok and Singapore.
Before joining South Pole, I was most recently with Swiss Re, one of the world's leading reinsurers, where I was a Senior Global Spokesperson and Vice President Communications. Prior to that, I lived the life of a lonely freelancer, worked for a startup accelerator as Head of PR, and was Editor-in-Chief of a c-suite magazine that I co-created.
At South Pole, in my role as Head of Communications for the DACH region, my goal is to raise our brand awareness in order to proactively influence our stakeholders' perception of and public conversations about South Pole. This includes placing exciting stories, expertise and leadership in relevant news outlets.
What did your role involve at Swiss Re? What are some of the main things you are taking away from it?
I was primarily responsible for media relations at a group level, meaning managing the company's relationship with key journalists, reputation management, thought leadership and crisis communications… and much more of course.
Swiss Re is a large, global and complex organisation. In such an environment, and when dealing with challenging situations like the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative to rapidly develop a thorough understanding of complicated issues - and to communicate them in ways suitable for your different audiences.
There are certainly parallels between my previous job and working for South Pole. South Pole is a truly global company with rapid growth - we are at the forefront of climate change issues as a provider of innovative solutions that enable real impact. Even when you get down to the nitty gritty details, re/insurance relies on modelling, which includes historic data. Certain events or outcomes, however, can't be modelled accurately as they are simply unpredictable. While you can price in many aspects of a pandemic, you can't always predict government policy such as mandated lookdowns.
Similarly, the modelled deforestation rate for a REDD+ project can't be an exact figure - it is meant as a project baseline and to be reevaluated after a defined period. No one can perfectly predict, for example, political changes and their impact on a country's forests. And recently, we have seen a fair bit of misinformation circulating in the media around REDD+ projects.
So there are some parallels with the voluntary carbon market, a system that is rooted in the idea of continuous improvement and multisectoral collaboration, where methodologies evolve along with climate science, new technologies, and, of course, lessons learned.
During my first few weeks at South Pole, I had to learn a lot of things incredibly fast, and I realised again how vital it is to ensure our partners, clients, and even critics benefit from concise, fact-based and - in some cases - bold communications.
You'll be focusing on working with our clients in German-speaking Europe. What do you think makes this region stand out when it comes to climate action?
The DACH region is South Pole's oldest market, and also among the most important. Switzerland and central Europe have progressed in their thinking when it comes to climate change. People and companies tend to be fairly well-informed about climate topics. That's why I believe moving from messages like “climate neutrality" or “offsetting" towards talking about “paying for emissions" will resonate… Because at the end of the day, that's what it is. Being clear about this will also remove some of the confusion that we have seen around such terms.
You're also a fashion and design enthusiast if I'm not mistaken. Any initial ideas on how to make climate action cool?
I'm probably too late for that, climate action is already cool - or hot. No global warming pun intended.
Like anything, making climate action “cool" depends on the market and the audience. In the DACH region, climate change awareness, and sustainability in general, are rather front of mind. No matter what type of lifestyle people have, many are into recycling - it's almost a competitive sport in Switzerland - and pay for the emissions their online purchases or flights create. And that goes for many companies also… climate action is en vogue for corporate closets. Do you see what I did there?
Joking aside, a heightened climate change awareness and sense of sustainability is great, but it's not enough. Besides reducing the emissions we have control over and choosing to use sustainable energy, it simply has to become the norm to also pay for the emissions you're responsible for. This does not make you innocent when it comes to climate change, but it makes you someone who takes responsibility for your actions. In the end, that is what we need both on an individual as well as on a company level.
