May Al-Karooni
While working for an investment banking
firm in 2014, she discovered that it was costing the U.K.-based company around
$65,000 to, in effect, relocate people and move them to the building across the
road — including the office furniture and other items disposed of and replaced
in the process.
“It just got me thinking, that’s commercial
madness,” says Al-Karooni. “Why is no one connecting these corporate companies
to charities and small businesses to redistribute all these unneeded items and
provide a real social impact at the same time?”
Looking deeper at the supply chain, she
figured out a way to digitize waste that made financial and business sense to
all parties involved, and thus Globechain was born. Officially launched in
2015, Globechain is a fast-growing marketplace that connects businesses,
charities, and people that want to reuse unwanted items, the majority of which
are typically disposed of or recycled by businesses. To date, over 11.2 million
pounds of items have been kept out of landfills and put back to use. Moreover,
Globechain has aided 14,000 communities in the U.K., Africa, Ukraine, and
Libya, and saved charities more than $2.6 million.
Companies pay a fee to use the service,
which allows them to list everything from furniture and fixtures to concrete
blocks and even soil. Al-Karooni notes that listings are typically claimed or
reserved within 24 hours.
The list of 10,000 members currently
utilizing the Globechain platform includes heavyweights from all property
sectors and industries: ISG, Skanska, Google Campus, Invesco Perpetual, Bank of
America Merrill Lynch, CBRE, Marriott, IHG, H&M, and Chanel.
While Al-Karooni estimates that 40 percent
of her business comes from retail and 40 percent from construction, this
sustainable circular economy model affords everyone the same savings and
benefits. For one, the approach is actually cheaper and faster than disposing
of or recycling unneeded items.
“REITs and private equity [firms] have
found some real value,” shares Al-Karooni. “Their portfolios involve a lot of
store closures, openings, construction, and other real estate projects where it
has a lot to do with cost cutting or budgeting to keep them lean.”
In addition, distinct tax and
environmental-social-governance perks are attached. “You can in the U.K., in
some cases, offset VAT on the cost of goods because of the charitable component
of the program,” she says. Al-Karooni also provides ESG reports on the impact
of every member’s listings. Some companies have even leveraged the program to
help earn LEED certification or a Green Key Point Eco-Rating.
But the reports were something she had to
create from scratch. “When I went for investments at the beginning, the
investors were asking what my market cap was. And there wasn’t one,” she
recalls. “I was so convinced there was a market for this type of business and
supply chain sustainability and circular economy, whatever you want to call it.
So, I started presenting the data from all the transactions on the site — where
it was going and how it helped them. And just over the period of a year, I
broke it down to social, economic, and environmental impact data. It was raw
data at the beginning, then we created reports and infographics based on that
data for the corporate companies to download. Now it’s real time, so they can
see it whenever they like.”
While Globechain is leading the charge, she
recognizes infinite possibilities for the future of this growing industry.
“It’s a commercial decision because it’s
money saved on waste disposal incineration, predominately,” Al-Karooni states.
“It’s a speed benefit because it’s a virtual platform where items are taken
within 24 hours. Plus, the ESG data is very valuable from a social impact
perspective to show how they’re helping communities.
“For instance, Heathrow Airport listed
concrete pallets that were stuck in a warehouse for a year costing them money.
The only option really was to pay a haulage firm to take them away. And then a
charity from Sierra Leone in Africa requested them, and they’re building an
orphanage and a school with these concrete blocks. It’s one of my personal
favorite stories to share.”
Globechain
recently expanded into Spain and United Arab Emirates last year along with
three very quiet trials in Atlanta, Houston, and Milwaukee. A New York launch
is set for February with Intercontinental Hotel in Asia planned for late 2020
or early 2021.