Efficient solution label: an analysis of the Solar Impulse Foundation's labelling scheme

Master

Reference

Efficient solution label: an analysis of the Solar Impulse Foundation's labelling scheme

FERREIRA FLORES FILHO, Ricardo

Abstract

Efficient Solution Label: an Analysis of the Solar Impulse Foundation's Labelling Scheme

FERREIRA FLORES FILHO, Ricardo. Efficient solution label: an analysis of the Solar Impulse Foundation's labelling scheme. Master : Univ. Genève, 2021

Available at:

http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:149851

Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version.

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E FFICIENT S OLUTION L ABEL : A N A NALY- SIS OF THE S OLAR I MPULSE F OUNDATION ’ S

L ABELLING S CHEME

Ricardo Ferreira Flores Filho

Internship report

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Standardization, Social Regulation and Sustainable Development

Under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Mathilde Bourrier

December 2020

University of Geneva – Department of Sociology www.unige.ch/sciences-societe/socio

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LIST OF FIGURES 5

LIST OF TABLES 6

ACRONYMS 7

ABSTRACT 9

INTRODUCTION 10

SOLAR IMPULSE FOUNDATION:HISTORY,VISION AND GOVERNANCE 12 SOLAR IMPULSE FOUNDATION:ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITIES 15 THE WORLD ALLIANCE FOR EFFICIENT SOLUTIONS 19

THE EFFICIENT SOLUTION LABEL SCHEME 23

INTERNSHIP’S CORE TASKS:MAXIMIZING EXPERTS ENGAGEMENT 31

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS 41

REFERENCES 43

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Figure 1 : World Alliance for Efficient Solutions – Overview 13 Figure 2 : Solar Impulse Foundation Organigram - Accountability and Major Decisions 16 Figure 3 : World Alliance for Efficient Solutions – Solutions & SDGs 20 Figure 4 : Efficient Solution Label – A Simplified Overview of the Process 28

Figure 5 : Professional & Organizational Background 32

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Table 1 : Solar Impulse Foundation – Departments 15

Table 2 : Main Characteristics of the Efficient Solution Label 24 Table 3 : Eligibility Scope for the Efficient Solution Label – Maturity 26

Table 4 : Expert Coordinator Assistant – Given Tasks 33

Table 5 : Expert Clean-up Campaign 37

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B2B: Business-to-Business B2C: Business-to-Consumer CAN: Climate Action Network CFO: Chief Financial Officer COP: Conference of the Parties EIC: European Innovation Council

ELIS: Environmental Labelling and Information Schemes EPFL: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

EVGPs: Employee Volunteering and Giving Programs ICCT: International Committee of Clean Technologies IGO: Intergovernmental Organization

ISO: International Organization for Standardization IUCN: International Union for Conservation of Nature KPIs: Key Performance Indicators

LCA: Life-Cycle Assessment

NGO: Non-Governmental Organization

OECD: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development SAF: Solution Assessment Form

SDGs: Sustainable Development Goals SIF: Solar Impulse Foundation

SME: Small and Medium Enterprise

SOGC: Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce SSF: Solution Submission Form

UN: United Nations

WAES: World Alliance for Efficient Solutions

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In the many processes surrounding environmental governance, many non-governmental organizations have emerged as advocates, creating spaces for action, negotiation of specific objectives and definition of standards. In this context, the Solar Impulse Foundation (SIF) plays an important role. In 2017, this organization created an association called the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions (WAES) and established a standard-setting body that re- sulted in the development of the Efficient Solution Label: an environmental label with eco- nomic performance.

Based on his professional experience as an intern (and employee), the author analyses how the SIF moved from a solar panel airplane project to the “1000 Solutions Portfolio” mis- sion. A deeper understanding of the Foundation, the stakeholders involved, and the Effi- cient Solution labelling scheme allows the reader to know more about the experts evaluating the solutions in the selection process as well as about their decision to contribute as volun- teers. Motivated by corporate employee volunteering programs, Bertrand’s adventure and inspirational speeches or the WAES networking opportunities, highly skilled professionals have become the brains behind the Foundation’s labelling scheme, helping to select the thousand clean and profitable solutions that the Foundation is looking into presenting to decision-makers next year. The methodology used in this paper is based on a series of in- terviews with SIF employees. For the conceptual and theoretical analysis, this paper relies on a targeted literature review of relevant books and peer-reviewed articles published on standards, labelling schemes and organization theories.

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Since the 1970s, social actors (NGOs, industry and government) have started to adopt var- ious labelling schemes for products and services that are claimed to be preferable from a sustainability point of view (Bratt et al., 2011). Several decades later, these schemes have evolved and spread worldwide, using more complex sets of environmental, social and eco- nomic criteria and being applicable to a larger scope of products and services. An example of a recently created labelling scheme is the one behind the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label.

This paper considers labelling schemes as forms of governance. At the global level, envi- ronmental governance has become a process that involves public, private and civil society organizations that together create spaces for action, cooperation and exchange in various areas of the globe. More specifically, it is a dynamic of formal and informal processes that allow the determination and negotiation of specific objectives, the definition of standards and the resolution of disputes between different voices to face challenges at the local, sub- national and national levels (COOLEY et al. 2014). In this context, many non-governmen- tal organizations have emerged as advocates for environmental causes, such as the Solar Impulse Foundation (SIF)¹.

Given that the SIF is an example of a civil society organization that plays a role in this dynamic of processes that allow the definition of standards, an analysis of this organization seems to be relevant and therefore is the purpose of this paper. Based on his professional experience² at the Foundation, the author conducts an exploratory research, seeking to un- derstand certain phenomena observed within the organization. In this sense, this paper is an attempt to address a few questions: a) What is this organization and how it works? b) What is the Efficient Solution Label? c) Who are the experts whose evaluation is determi- nant for the labelling scheme? d) Why do they volunteer to this organization’s project?

These last two questions are deeply related to the role the author played as an employee of the SIF and therefore will have a longer (and more detailed) section dedicated in this paper.

In order to answer the questions above, it is necessary to understand the context in which such organization emerged, its mission, its principles, its people, and, more importantly, its modus operandi. Firstly, this paper introduces the Solar Impulse Foundation – trying to un- derstand how it moved from a solar panel airplane project to the “1000 Solutions Portfolio”

mission. Secondly, a deeper analysis is made on the association called the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions (WAES)³ and the stakeholders involved in it. Thirdly, the paper dis- cusses the organization’s labelling scheme. Finally, a separated section is dedicated to

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1 For the sake of avoiding repetition, the acronym ‘SIF’ or the term ‘Foundation’ will be both used in refer- ence to the Solar Impulse Foundation in this paper.

2 This refers to a total period of 14 months, comprising a 6-month internship (September 2019 to February 2020) and 8 months under an Indefinite Duration Contract, signed in mid-January. By the end of his intern- ship, the author was promoted to Project Coordinator, Expert Community and Programme (Operations Team) and he remains working at the Foundation, in the same department, to this date.

3 The WAES is a non-profit association pursuant to articles 60 et seq. of the Swiss Civil Code governed by thesis articles of association (the "Articles of Association"). These articles are dedicated to associations with a political, scientific, social or other non-commercial purpose. For further information, please consult The Federal Assembly of the Swiss Confederation (1907).

present the Solar Impulse Expert Community and to analyze the motivation of such pro- fessionals to contribute to the Foundation’s work as volunteers.

In terms of the methodology used in this paper, most of the information provided here come from the organization’s private datasets, official media statements, formal interviews⁴ and personal communication with eight key SIF employees – including senior managers, project coordinators and the chief financial officer (CFO). For the conceptual and theoret- ical analysis, this paper relies on a targeted literature review of relevant books and peer- reviewed articles published on standards, labelling schemes and organization theories. Fur- thermore, this paper uses the definitions from the OECD reports on Environmental La- belling and Information Schemes (ELIS) and the ISO Standard N° 14024:2018 as an at- tempt to find a suitable categorization to the Efficient Solution Label.

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4 Unfortunately, only the Heads of Operations (E. van der Lande); Finance & Administration (P. Rathle);

and Partners & Corporate Affairs (J. Derain) were interviewed for this paper. The other employees were two Project Coordinators (B. Boissonneault; P. Majoux) and one Vice-President of Partnerships (A. Bar- raquand). The choice for these people was not arbitrary and based on their ability to help answering the questions addressed in this paper.

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The Solar Impulse Foundation (SIF) was created in 2004 in Ecublens, Switzerland, being established at EPFL’s Scientific Park in strong collaboration amongst swiss researchers and innovators.⁵ In total, a hundred different actors played a role in the initial project, which was centered on three main goals: a) developing clean technologies to build an airplane; b) making the first circumnavigation of the Earth by a piloted fixed-wing aircraft using only solar power and; b) bringing attention to clean technologies with an airplane that could fly with solar energy (P. Rathle⁶, personal communication, 16 October 2020).

More broadly, the initial aim of the Foundation was to finance research and development of new solutions within the framework of projects using renewable energies in the aero- nautical field and which ensure the promotion of sustainable development (P. Rathle, per- sonal communication, 16 October 2020). After almost ten years of its foundation, the pro- ject gained recognition worldwide when the flight around the world was completed by Ber- trand Piccard, a Swiss balloonist, and André Borschberg, a Swiss engineer. The former was already known in the aviation sector for having completed the first non-stop balloon flight around the globe with the ‘Breitling Orbiter 3’ (P. Rathle, personal communication, 16 Oc- tober 2020). In total, the Solar Impulse airplane project lasted 13 years and raised $170m in financial and technological contributions from corporate partners and other organizations (Piccard, 2016).

During the flight over the Atlantic, the pilots announced the intention to create the In- ternational Committee of Clean Technologies (ICCT)⁷, as a way of continuing Solar Im- pulse’s advocacy for energy efficient solutions (Solar Impulse Foundation, 2016). In this sense, less than four months after Bertrand and André completed the epic adventure of flying around the globe with no fuel, they launched the World Alliance for Clean Technol- ogies⁸. This happened at the COP22, in 11 November 2016 (Solar Impulse Foundation, 2016). On the occasion, international political leaders and activists were meeting in Marra- kech to set targets addressing climate change and to follow-up on the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Following the first official announcement in Marrakech, the Solar Impulse Foundation initiated the creation of the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions (WAES) as a non-

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5 In 2004, the first name given to this organization was ‘Sustainable Flight Foundation’ and it was created alongside the Solar Impulse S.A. by the same Council. The name ‘Solar Impulse Foundation’ came only in January 2017, when the flight around the world had already been completed.

6 Philippe Rathle is the CFO and also one of four members of the Solar Impulse Foundation’s Board. The other three are Bertrand Piccard, Patrick Preux and Stefan Catsicas. He was also one of founding members in 2004.

7 According to the Communications Team, there was a stiff opposition to this title at that time, especially due to the already existence of the International Council on Clean Transportation, which shared the same acronym – ICCT.

8 Inspired on the initial title, the ICCT, this was the given name of what would become, in 2017, the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions (A. Barraquand, personal communication, 15 October 2020).

governmental association under its presidency⁹. This happened in November 14^th, 2017, in Bonn, Germany. According to its Charter, the WAES should be recognized by its members as an independent group of global actors (i.e., not bound by the interests of any nation nor institution), which supports solutions that are logical more than ecological (World Alliance for Efficient Solutions, 2017). Its purpose would be to select a thousand solutions that can protect the environment in a profitable way and bring them to decision makers to help them adopt more ambitious environmental targets and energy policies. As Bertrand said upon the final landing in Abu Dhabi “if an airplane can fly around the world without a drop fuel, clean technologies can undoubtedly be implemented on the ground to make a cleaner, more efficient and richer world” (Piccard, 2016).

In 2018, in order to adjust to the new project, the SIF changed its status and became a not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to finance research and development of pro- jects promoting renewable energies and energy savings, which are pursuing a goal identical or similar to Solar Impulse (SOGC, 2018). As chairman of the Foundation, Bertrand Pic- card has been advocating for ecology through the lens of profitability, and that protection of the environment would become a reality only if it was perceived as economically viable and requiring no financial or behavioral sacrifice. With the creation of the WAES, the Foun- dation has brought together the main actors in the field of clean technologies to create synergies, facilitate matchmaking between solution providers and investors, and showcase clean and profitable solutions that have the potential to address today’s environmental chal- lenges. Since its establishment, the WAES has entered in close and impactful collaboration with several international institutions, states and cities around the world to facilitate the selection, funding and implementation of the 1000 solutions (Solar Impulse Foundation, 2020).

Members of the World Alliance are divided into three main categories: innovators (i.e., those developing clean and profitable technologies); investors, who are looking into oppor- tunities for investing; and seekers, who are looking for products, services or processes that can help them with their transition toward sustainability (see Figure 1). All entities interested in becoming Members may apply online, being membership to the WAES subjected to acceptance by the Foundation’s Outreach Team. In general, this takes into consideration several aspects, including evidence of real legal entity as well as organizational alignment with the Foundation’s vision on the economy and environment.¹⁰ One important aspect to mention here (and which seems to be a misconception for many innovators) is that not only startups or SMEs are eligible to join the World Alliance (P. Majoux¹¹, personal com- munication, 17 September 2020). In fact, several corporations have already joined the net- work and currently sixteen of them are official partners of the SIF, including Air Liquide, Breitling and Engie.

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9 This consists of a separate organization, which has been managed by the Solar Impulse Foundation and whose visibility has relied deeply on its communication platforms.

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Figure 1 : World Alliance for Efficient Solutions – Overview¹²

The other novelty of this third phase of the SIF was the creation of the Efficient Solution Label. Being one of the first labels for positive impact businesses, it brings together protec- tion of nature and financial viability. In collaboration with renowned institutions, technol- ogies applying to the Label go through a neutral and certified methodology, comprising a strict assessment process made by a pool of independent experts.¹³ Thanks to SIF’s Cor- porate partners financial support, the Efficient Solution Label is granted at no cost to the innovators, which is particularly important to small companies.

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11 Pierre Majoux works in the Outreach Team as an International Relations Coordinator. He has been in- terviewed on September 27^th, 2020, with the purpose of providing a better understanding of his role as well as his department’s dynamics and main functions.

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13 Such methodology and evaluation process, as well as the label standards, will be discussed in more details in a separate section of this paper.

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As of 2017, the SIF started hiring employees with specific skillsets in order to optimize the selection process to its labelling scheme and therefore get closer to achieving its original goals (i.e., the 1000 Solutions Portfolio and the implementation of the technologies in it).

In fact, achieving these goals would require recruiting new innovators to the World Alliance and promoting the Efficient Solution Label to them. Also, they needed members looking into investing in the solutions as well as companies willing to give funds to maintain the WAES. For such reason, they looked for professionals with several abilities such as sales, communication, operational, corporate relations and advocacy. In summary, the organiza- tion changed its human capital profile in order to adapt to the new mission (P. Rathle, personal communication, 16 October 2020). At present, the SIF is composed of eight de- partments and 42 employees, all guaranteeing the maintenance of a large scope of activities that range from communications to operations (see Table 1). Most of its employees are based at the headquarters, in Lausanne, Switzerland, with a few working remotely (e.g., Amsterdam, Brussels, Washington etc.).

Table 1 : Solar Impulse Foundation – Departments

Department Head Functions N° of Employees

Communications Michèle Piccard Coordinate Social Media, website con- tent and all media related to the Foun-

dation 6

Finance & Administra-

tion Philippe Rathle Budget management and Human Re-

sources 3

Digital Jeremy Lovey Website maintenance, digital campaigns and digital tools used by the Foundation

(CRM, SEO etc) 4

Partners & Corporate

Affairs Jonathan Derain Establish new partnerships with private companies and multinationals, making

sure they 6

Diplomatic & Public Af-

fairs Remy Kalter

Establishment of partnerships with public actors for the implementation of Efficient Solutions at the local, regional

and national level

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Office of the Chairman Bertrand Piccard Managing the Bertrand Piccard’s

agenda and commitments 4

Operations Sabrina Cipullo Managing all the steps of the Founda- tion’s labelling scheme from technical as-

pects to communications 9

Outreach Victoria Smaniotto

Contacting innovators in the cleantech sec- tor to propose the membership to the World Alliance and application to the

Efficient Solution Label

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Source: Flores Filho (2020).

Given its small size and being its work environment composed by relatively young pro- fessionals, the hierarchical structure of the Foundation cannot be defined as fully formal.

According to Weber (1966), a formal hierarchy is the basis of central planning and it exists when, in a bureaucratic organization, each level controls the level below it. In this sense, this type of structure has a centralized decision-making process. Instead, the SIF has its own hybrid structure, which assembles managerialism, teams and projects. As a small or- ganization, the work and effort are relatively transparent and fluid, being decision making power shared amongst heads of department and, sometimes, even project coordinators.

However, it is important to clarify that such structure does not mean that employees do not have superiors and are not accountable to them. Plus, there is no such a thing as col- lective ownership nor shared control over major decisions as these are still made by the Chairman (please see Figure 2). In summary, the Foundation has a hybrid structure (fluid and small clusters of formal project and team hierarchies) embedded in a formal hierarchy of line management. When it comes to practice, in the beginning of the internship, I could also identify a small network of informal lateral communications, information sharing and temporary collaboration based on reciprocity and trust (Diefenbach & Sillince, 2011).

By February 2020, a few changes were officially made in order to reduce such informal lateral communications and collaboration amongst teams. The main reasons for such changes were to avoid miscommunications and increase efficiency in the execution of

Figure 2 : Solar Impulse Foundation Organigram - Accountability and Major Deci- sions

interdepartmental activities. For instance, projects coordinated by one department that re- quire the involvement of employees from another would then need prior approval of the Head of the respective department. More autonomy was given to the Heads of Department, being them responsible for the major decisions within their respective team and being ac- countable only to the Chairman. This reduced the amount of redundant communications between two different departments, therefore improving efficiency in interdepartmental projects. Even with the new managerial changes, employees are still encouraged to give their opinions, share their ideas and even dedicate a few work hours per week to develop their own projects.

With the exception of the Finance & Administration and the Digital teams, all depart- ments of the Foundation are constantly in contact with externals (i.e., innovators, investors, partners and experts). The Outreach Team employees are essentially innovator recruiters and their ultimate goal is to increase membership to the World Alliance and, consequently, submissions to the Efficient Solution label. On a daily basis, they reach out to startups and SMEs, either directly or through established collaborations with clusters, accelerators and incubators. Their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are based on how many “deals”¹⁴ they can close with the companies they are in contact with (P. Majoux, personal communi- cation, 27 September 2020). Closed “deals” represent the input of the Efficient Solution’s labelling scheme. Likewise, the Operations Team has also its own indicators to measure performance and they are generally based on how much submissions the department can convert into labelled Solutions. This involves pre-screening the submissions properly, as- signing them to experts and making sure that their evaluations comply with the guidelines so they can be validated and generate an outcome on the Label.¹⁵

The Partners & Corporate Affairs Team works directly with members that provide fi- nancial support to the Foundation’s activities and/or are looking into investing in labelled solutions. Their work consists in finding new partners as well as maintaining and developing the existing partnerships (e.g., reporting activities, organizing pitch sessions and innovator challenges). This is vital to the organization as its financial situation is currently reliant on corporate donations. In practice, an important share of this department’s work is comple- mentary to the role played by the Chairman himself as an ambassador.¹⁶ Upon the signature of a partnership agreement, the partner commits to a monetary donation to the Foundation (which can be paid in full or in different installments) and, in certain cases, also to a contri- bution in kind (J. Derain¹⁷, personal communication, 18 October 2020). For instance, com- panies such as Air Liquide and the Michelin Group have contributed to the Efficient

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14 The term “deal” is used by the mentioned department based on the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool used internally in the Foundation. One of the tools from this CRM software tracks the com- munications with innovators that are eligible to apply to the Efficient Solution Label. For the Outreach Team, a “deal” is initiated with the first contact with the innovators (P. Majoux, personal communication, 27 September 2020). Such deal evolves as the innovator follows all the steps from WAES membership to the application for the Label. The KPIs are measured based on how many memberships result in Labelled Solutions.

15 This process is further explained in the Efficient Solution Label section.

16 Through his public speeches and intensive networking at the corporate level, Bertrand Piccard has been able to motivate several big companies to join the World Alliance as partners, contributing financially and enabling the Foundation’s activities and presidency. For instance, partners such as Breitling, Nestlé and Air France have been brought on board by him.

17 As shown in the Table 1, Jonathan Derain is the Head of Partners & Corporate Affairs. He joined the SIF team in January 2015.

Solution Label selection process by giving a certain number of working hours of their em- ployees with the purpose of assessing solutions. This kind of contribution will be discussed more in depth later in this paper.

Throughout my internship, I worked as an Expert Coordinator Assistant within the for- mer Expert Programme, which merged with the Solutions and Technical departments to become the current Operations Team in February 2020. As mentioned in Table 1, this team is in charge of the Efficient Solution Label selection process. It deals with all the services ranging from assisting the innovators’ application to issuing the label. With this in mind, the next two sections of this paper will focus on the two key aspects that were the most important to this department’s work: The World Alliance for Efficient Solutions and the Efficient Solution Labelling Scheme.

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As previously mentioned, the WAES was created in 2017 at the initiative of the Solar Impulse Foundation, following the success of the first solar airplane flight around the globe.

Since then, the World Alliance has become the raison d’être of the Foundation, as the core activities undertaken within the organisation seek its increase, maintenance and, most im- portantly, its legitimation. The goal of this non-profit association is to regroup the primary stakeholders in the field of sustainability and clean technologies and promote profitable solutions to protect the environment.

According to its Charter, the World Alliance is organized in three bodies: The General Assembly¹⁸; the Presidency; and the Committee¹⁹ (World Alliance for Efficient Solutions, 2017). As its first president, the SIF’s role involves lobbying²⁰ for the Efficient Solutions (P. Rathle, personal communication, 16 October 2020). In this sense, the World Alliance has engaged in the promotion of Efficient Solutions through the publication of independ- ent analysis and reports, in order to contribute to the work of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (signed in New York, USA, 1992) and help with the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (World Alliance for Efficient Solutions, 2017). In order to do that, its creators made a clear effort to align the network’s mission with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – adopted by all UN Member States in 2015 – as a global action for people, planet and pros- perity (United Nations, 2015). Given the broad scope of the current environmental chal- lenges, it is important to clarify that the World Alliance is primarily committed to help the implementation of five of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals: SDGs 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12. In this sense, its members are also engaged in promoting clean technologies in domains that are related to at least one of these SDGs (see Table 2).

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18 The General Assembly is the supreme authority of the WAES, being convened and chaired by the Presi- dency once a year. All resolutions require votes from members of the committee, having each one a single vote (World Alliance for Efficient Solutions, 2017).

19 The Committee is composed of at least three members, pointed by the Presidency, and its role is to support it with the WAES’s affairs (World Alliance for Efficient Solutions, 2017). The processing of select- ing such members is not fully transparent and there is no evidence that the committee is composed by representatives of each type of stakeholder in the World Alliance (i.e., innovators, investors, corporates, governments, IGOs etc).

20 According to the OECD (2010), lobbying is a channel that civil society uses for influencing public decision making.

Figure 3 : World Alliance for Efficient Solutions – Solutions & SDGs²¹

Since its creation, the World Alliance has benefited from the media, political and insti- tutional relations developed over the course of the previous Solar Impulse project (World Alliance for Efficient Solutions, 2017). By the end of the flight around the world, Solar Impulse already had a strong web presence and a sizeable social media footprint which was ideal for driving engagement of new actors. In this sense, a communications strategy was created to use such web presence to transform the Solar Impulse website into a content hub for clean technologies (A. Barraquand²², personal communication, 15 October 2020).

In other words, instead of creating a new virtual face for the World Alliance, the SIF just adapted its already existing pages and profiles. This is the reason why a new website or social media account was not specifically created for the WAES separately.²³ Also, most of the institutional relations are also based on the trust governments and corporations have on the Presidency (the Solar Impulse Foundation). In this sense, it would not be wrong to say that the World Alliance is heavily reliant on the SIF’s reputation. It is thanks to the Foundation that, in less than three years, the WAES has become a network of over three thousand members (Solar Impulse, n.d.).

Amongst the most evident reasons to join the WAES are credibility and visibility, espe- cially when it comes to startups and SMEs. For many members, being associated with the World Alliance makes it easier for them to attract investments and sell their technologies

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21 Flores Filho, R. (2020). Data Analysis of Solar Impulse Foundation’s Database (phpMyAdmin; x346u_founda- tion) [Private Dataset]. Unpublished.

22 Alexandra Barraquand is the current VP U.S. Development & Partnerships, being in charge of the expan- sion of the Foundation’s network in North America. More importantly, she was a key player on the design of the Efficient Solution Label scheme, helping with the organization of the standard-setting body and the elaboration of the selection criteria. She joined the SIF in February 2014.

23 According to Philippe Rathle, during this transition, there was a lot of discussion on creating new logos and social media profiles for the WAES in order to emphasize this new initiative. The ideas were quickly discarded, as they realized how much publicity and reputation, they would lose by abandoning the Solar Impulse brand.

to bigger players. More broadly, joining the network gives them legitimacy²⁴. According to Ashforth & Gibbs (1990), organizations interact with each other and build institutionalized forms of networked legitimacy that result from the interactive process of social construc- tion, negotiation and labelling that characterizes legitimation. Such networked legitimacy could also be defined as the outcome of the interaction and interdependence of the strategic legitimacy concerns of the members and the institutional legitimacy requirements of the World Alliance (Mele & Scheper, 2013). The former, as the name says, relates to the strategy behind the decision to become a member, which can be pragmatic and driven by self-inter- est (e.g., finding new consumers or investments) or moral (i.e., a member’s adherence to social norms). The institutional legitimacy of the WAES is a product of both the breadth of stakeholder membership and the strength of the rules. According to Mele & Scheper (2013), the better the Alliance can promote the strategic legitimacy objectives of its mem- bers, the higher is its institutional legitimacy.

The Efficient Solution labelling scheme, audited by EY and assessed by independent experts, awards the solutions meeting high standards of sustainability and profitability. This third-party validation helps innovations to stand out showcasing their positive impact on the environment as well as their strong business value. Furthermore, the SIF, through its communications team and public speaker (i.e., Bertrand Piccard) is actively promoting la- belled solutions to media, the public and decision-makers, highlighting the benefits of clean and profitable solutions. Working closely with dozens of venture capitals, both impact in- vestors and more traditional players, the Solar Impulse Foundation pushes the labelled ef- ficient solutions in their deal flow (Solar Impulse, n.d.). Amongst other things, invitations to numerous networking events are opportunities for companies to showcase their innova- tions.

Since 2019, the network has allowed encounters in which innovators were able to pitch their solutions to big companies such as LVMH, Air France, Adeo and Air Liquide – all members of the World Alliance. Even during the quarantine posed by the COVID-19 breakout, a series of E-pitches have been organized in partnership with investment banks and online match-making platforms for investors and companies, such as EuroQuity²⁵. For the innovators, these kinds of opportunities are a big part of the reason to join the WAES and apply for the Efficient Solution Label. For the investors is also a great opportunity to allocate money in innovations that have been previously selected by a legit process. For big corporations, it is a way to seek suppliers with sustainable and new technologies. Earlier this year, in collaboration with the Foundation, Air France launched an innovation chal- lenge with the purpose of finding more sustainable alternatives (within the WAES) to re- place the plastic cups they currently use in their flights (J. Derain, personal communication, 18 October 2020).

In summary, the World Alliance has been enabling the constitution of an ecosystem capable of playing a role in environmental global governance in the future. It encourages companies and other organizations to participate in a scheme that range from setting

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24 A broad definition of legitimacy would define it as a generalized perception that the actions of an entity are appropriate within a certain socially constructed system of norms, beliefs and definitions (Suchman, 1995).

25 EuroQuity is a powerful network with more than 1,500 investors. It has helped with over 500M in invest- ments since 2008. For further information, please visit their official website https://www.eu- roquity.com/en/home.

environmental standards to ensuring the selection and implementation of clean technolo- gies through the 1000 Efficient Solutions portfolio (Baccaro & Mele, 2011). Furthermore, through its Strategic Committee²⁶ meetings and many other events, the WAES encourages stakeholder dialogue and social learning, therefore enhancing the legitimacy of its members (Cashore, 2002; Pattberg, 2005; Utting, 2005).

In summary, the World Alliance has created a clean technologies network that helps legitimate its members and implement solutions to the current environmental challenges.

In fact, similar approach has been frequently used by other organizations. For instance, the Climate Action Network (CAN) is a worldwide network of over 1300 NGOs in more than 130 countries, promoting government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels. CAN members work to achieve this goal through information exchange and the coordinated development of NGO strategy on international, regional, and national climate issues (Climate Action Network, n.d.). Another example is the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which is actually the world's oldest and largest global environmental network boasting a democratic membership union involving more than 1,000 government and NGOs as members (IUCN, n.d.).

Since 2017, the World Alliance has been trying to show that joining forces can have a positive impact for the organizations involved and also for the world. This ever-expending network has helped to empower solutions and, with the Efficient Solution Label, has de- veloped a credible marker for future decision-making in business and governments. As this network grows, more players have invested in it, enabling the Foundation to maintain the labelling scheme and establish strategic partnerships for further implementation of clean technologies. The next section will discuss more about such scheme, explaining the char- acteristics of the Label.

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26 The Strategic Committee (SC) is composed by the SIF, corporate partners and elected members. Its main function is to support the Presidency with its strategies to carry out the mission of the World Alliance. The Members of the Strategic Committee are bound to secrecy in the context of all their activities and exchanges relating to actions carried out by the Foundation and by the World Alliance (P. Rathle, personal communi- cation, 16 October 2020).

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The Efficient Solution Label has been designed to shed light on existing solutions that are both clean and profitable and have a positive impact on quality of life. This label is awarded based on the innovator's ability to provide information that is judged sufficient by a majority of three independent experts in order to prove the solution’s positive logic. In other words, the label stands for solutions that combine credible environmental and eco- nomic performance, capable of improving the market's standards when compared to the mainstream options in one given scenario of implementation. Therefore, the Efficient So- lution is an environmental label that also stands for economic performance, representing the vision of its creators that “ecological also needs to be logical” (World Alliance for Effi- cient Solutions, 2017).

Before getting into a more detailed definition about environmental labelling schemes, it is important to emphasize that a label is different than a certificate, which can be defined as a written assurance that the product or service in question meets specific requirements (ISO, 2018). Certification processes are always carried out by independent bodies and demonstrate that a product or service meets the expectations of the targeted customers. It can also be seen as a form communicating credibility along the supply chain. Furthermore, certification bodies have to be accredited by an authoritative body, which evaluates com- pliance with voluntary or mandatory standards. Also, labelling schemes should neither be confused with accreditation schemes, which are the formal recognition by an independent body, generally known as an accreditation body, that a certification body operates according to national, regional or international standards (ISO, 2018). In summary, the label is mainly a symbol of compliance to standards/guidelines, which can be audited by a third-party (or not) but is not accredited by any authoritative agency as it is the case with the certification.

Besides, the label can also be awarded by a first-party or second party (ISO, 2018).

Voluntary environmental labelling schemes have a history of over 40 years, starting with the German Blue Angel²⁷ in the late 1970’s (Bratt et al., 2011). Since then, many new schemes have emerged at the national, regional and global level and, according to the In- ternational Organization for Standardization (2018), there are currently several approaches to environmental labelling. These can appear in three different types: I, II and III. Type I programs employ a third-party assessment to verify product or service compliance with a pre-selected set of criteria. They provide guidance on developing criteria, compliance, sys- tems, and operating procedures for awarding eco-logos for third-party verifiers. Type II defines commonly used environmental claims and suggests methodologies for tests to ver- ify such claims. Also, it specifies a format for reporting quantifiable life cycle data (e.g., environmental loads, emissions generated, etc.). Finally, Type III describes business-to- business (B2B) declarations and labels, which require independent verification of the data only, not third-party certification. These can be also used in business-to-consumer (B2C) declarations but requiring third-party certification in such cases (International Organization for Standardization, 2018).

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27 The Blue Angel is an ecolabel developed by the German federal government in 1978. This is granted to environmentally friendly products and services that comply with its high standards. For further information, please visit Blue Angel’s official website https://www.blauer-engel.de/en.

This section will mainly discuss the Type I environmental labelling programs²⁸, which are voluntary and can be operated by public, private and non-profit organizations (Interna- tional Organization for Standardization, 2018). These third-party verified labels, like the Efficient Solution Label, are awarded to products or services that meet a set of predeter- mined requirements. As per the OECD’s categorization, schemes are characterized by the type of communication they use and the nature of the standards on which they are based on (OECD, 2016). Following this, a more comprehensive picture of the label could be given as of the analysis of twelve important criteria, being eight focused on communication and four on the characteristics of the standard. Although no official statement has been made by the WAES on the Efficient Solution Label’s typology, both the ISO’s and OECD’s categorization mentioned above can be used to provide a better understanding of this label (please see Table 2).

Table 2 : Main Characteristics of the Efficient Solution Label ²⁹

Type of criteria Description

Modes of Communication

Channel

Business-to-Business (B2B); Business-to-Gov- ernment (B2G); Government-to-Consumer

(G2C)

Means Seal: Type I environmental label

Scope

Agriculture and food, textile products, buildings and furniture, energy, transportation, water sys-

tems etc.

Content SDGs 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12

Standard characteristics

Standard setter External certifier (Solar Impulse Foundation)

Leadership or ownership Non-profit (SIF)

Mode of governance Voluntary

Transparency Information on standard-setting process availa- ble

Environmental assessment method Based on simplified-LCA Monitoring and auditing Third-party (Ernst & Young, BNPP)

Focus Products, services and processes

Scope International

Source: OECD (2016) ; Gruère (2013) ; Flores Filho (2020).

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28 This typology is explained at the ISO 14024:2018. In this international standard, the principles and pro- cedures for developing Type I environmental labelling schemes are established. For a broader understanding of such typology, the other standards from the 14020 family should be analyzed (e.g., ISO 14021 and ISO 14025).

29 This table is based on selected criteria from the OECD categorization of environmental labelling and information schemes following the analysis of 544 schemes from 1970 to 2012. It seeks to provide a more comprehensive picture about these (OECD, 2016; Gruère, 2013).

The Efficient Solution Label aims to provide information to external users (and also decision makers) about aspects of the technical, environmental and economic performance of a product, process or service. According to Table 3, the Label does that by four modes of communication: channel, means, scope and content. First, the scheme provides commu- nication channels between businesses, governments and consumers – in particular, the B2B, B2G and G2C. Second, it is awarded by the Foundation as a seal that carries SIF’s branded image in it. Third, Labelled Solutions are communicated as innovations in water, energy, infrastructure, mobility, agriculture etc. Finally, the content of the information carried by the Label refers to its sustainability attributes, which are all helping for the implementation of specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12. In summary, the OECD typology visualized in Table 2, allows the understanding of the scheme in terms of how the Efficient Solution Label is communicated to different stakeholders (e.g., busi- nesses, consumers and governments). This table also defines a few standard characteristics to reply a few questions on the label: Who owns it? Who is behind the standard-setting? Is the process transparent or not? Are the standards mandatory or voluntary? (see Table 2).

The general objectives of the labelling schemes are to promote the design, production and use of specific products or services with specific characteristics in relation to quality, management, ethics, environment etc. In all cases, the idea is that label should stand for “a better alternative”. For environmental labels, it means that, as far as the ecological/envi- ronmental aspects are concerned, the labelled product/service is better than the one with- out it. According to van der Grijp & Brander (2002), labelling of products and services that meet certain standards can be used as a tool to achieve sustainable development. In this sense, developing a scheme aligns with one of the goals of the World Alliance, which is allowing for the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals via labelled solutions (World Alliance for Efficient Solutions, 2017).

In practical terms, the process of designing a labeling scheme usually starts with the establishment of a body, which will be responsible for developing the scheme. This process also includes key points such as the selection of products/services to be covered by the scheme; the choice of stakeholders involved; the standard revision and setting; choosing a system for assessment; and the decision of using (or not) a logo (Grijp & Brander, 2002).

As far as the Efficient Solution Label is concerned, all these steps were taken into consid- eration. According to the one of the members of the WAES standards setting committee, several informal and formal meetings were held with different private and public actors, which were extremely helpful to the design of the labelling scheme (A. Barraquand, personal communication, 15 October 2020). During these consultations, one of the references used was the Total Ecosolutions Label³⁰.

In the Efficient Solution Label selection process, the Solutions not only are judged to have a more positive environmental impact. In fact, there are two particularities when this is compared to a standard environmental labelling scheme Type I: the feasibility and

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30 This label was created by the French multinational, Total, in 2009. It allows customers to identify the most efficient solutions in terms of energy efficiency and/or environmental impact. Its labeling process has been developed in compliance with the requirements of the international standards ISO 14020 and 14021.

According to the ISO’s typology, this is an Environmental Label Type II (i.e., self-declared environmental claims made by manufacturers or retailers). For more information, please read Total Ecosolutions Guidelines (Total, 2016).

profitability assessment. This adds a technological and economic factor that goes beyond the environment, as the innovators need to prove a minimum technology readiness level and a solid business plan as well. According to one of the members of the WAES standard setting committee, this part of the selection process was based on one of the pillars of the biggest European funding programme for research and innovation: The Horizon 2020 (A.

Barraquand, personal communication, 15 October 2020).

More specifically, the Efficient Solution Label’s selection process is based on the Euro- pean Innovation Council’s SME Instrument, which is used to fund innovative projects of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that have a strong business case and are able to offer a sellable product or service to the market. This instrument selects innovation projects for funding in three different phases: concept and feasibility assessment (phase 1); innovation project (phase 2); and commercialization (phase 3). In particular, SME Phase 2 projects are eligible for a SIF/EC equivalence system, in which innovations that have been previously selected by the EIC can apply for the Efficient Solution Label using a fast-track selection process. This means that the Label will be awarded based only on the environmental as- sessment outcome, as the proof of concept, the scalability and the business plan had been already attested by the SME Instrument³¹.

According to its standard, the Efficient Solution Label is only applicable to technologies, physical products, services or processes developed and/or commercialized (at least par- tially) by the World Alliance members (Solar Impulse Foundation, 2019). Furthermore, its eligibility scope requires that the solution has a minimum maturity level (please see Table 3) and that it contributes to SDGs 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12 (or at least one of these). Besides defining the eligibility scope, the standards for the Efficient Solution Label also establish the selection criteria for the scheme. In this sense, its assessment methodology has been designed to evaluate candidate solutions against five criteria grouped in 3 different themes:

Feasibility, Environment and Profitability (Solar Impulse Foundation, 2019).

Table 3 : Eligibility Scope for the Efficient Solution Label – Maturity ³²

Maturity Stage Description

Prototype testing 1: 1 in a lab Solution has been conceptualized and validated / or in improvement in an experimental envi- ronment or “laboratory” at scale 1: 1. For a technology, it corresponds to TRL 6-7.

Prototype testing in the real world Solution has been tested in its “final” version with a pilot / demonstration project in real life conditions. For a technology, it corresponds to TRL 7-8.

Initial market commercialization Solution has been commercialized in an initial market. For a technology, it corresponds to TRL 9.

Small scale commercialization Solution has been commercialized in the market and started to test its scalability in real con- ditions with external supports and involved

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31 For further information, please visit/read the H2020 Online Manual.

32 The maturity stage here is defined in the standards set by the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions to support the Efficient Solution Label. This is based on the Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) method, developed at NASA during the 1970s and, since 2010, its utilization has been strongly advised by the Euro- pean Commission for innovation and research projects. Such method allows the uniformization of the anal- ysis on maturity across different types of technology. For further information, please read Héder (2017).

Medium and large-scale commercialization Solution is fully market ready and widely commercialized with clear outcomes of its impact measurable

Source: Héder (2017).

In a nutshell, the selection process starts with a member of the World Alliance submit- ting a solution via an online form. This contains several sections and aims to provide all the necessary information on its eligibility scope and its compliance to Solar Impulse standards.

If they fall within the scope, SIF Technical Specialists will prescreen their application to make sure that it contains the minimum requirements for the assessment phase, which will be done by three independent experts (see Figure 3). The present systems for evaluating the criteria in a specific labelling scheme can be roughly divided into "pass/fail" systems and "scoring" systems (van der Grijp & Brander, 2002). The assessment guidelines of solu- tions applying for the Efficient Solution Label follows the former, which means that, after the expert’s evaluation, the applicants that fail to obey to the criteria will have the label rejected. More specifically, out of the three evaluations, they need at least two “Yeses”

(“pass”) for each criterion for their application to be approved. During the evaluation, ex- perts are required to provide a written justification to endorse their judgement.

The experts base their assessment on the information provided by the solution's owner (i.e., the innovator) in the application form – officially called the Solution Submission Form (SSF) – and on their professional knowledge of the relevant market/sector. In this sense, it is important to emphasize that the final outcome is not a result of quantitative and evidence- based research assessment. While no third party verifies the information provided by the innovators in the SSF, the experts are encouraged to pose questions to and challenge di- rectly the innovator on claims or numbers which they require additional information on.

This is done by using an anonymous chat box, a tool available to both parties, so they can exchange anonymously throughout the assessment phase. Doubts over the credibility of claims in the SSF will result in a negative assessment of the corresponding criterion by the expert.

The first criterion assesses the credibility of concept (i.e., the technology behind the so- lution can be constructed and operated) and scalability (i.e., the manufacturing, if a product, or distribution, if a service, of the solution at scale is technically feasible). In their assess- ment, the experts will have a close look at the characteristics of the solution with corre- sponding added value and the description of how it will function technically with future barriers to overcome before reaching the desired Solution's characteristics (i.e., what it de- livers to one specific client and how) to judge if the solution is in a good way to become a reliable enough commercial product delivering such added value without any significant trade-off.

The third criterion evaluates the environmental impacts (i.e., the solution can deliver an incremental environmental benefit when compared to similar products or services). In this part of the application, there are two types of applications: innovators that have previously done a professional Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of their solutions and those who have not. The latter represents the large majority of applicants and such cases, they are required to fill in a simplified LCA elaborated by the Foundation’s Technical Specialists. Given that such document is not exhaustive, the criterion has to be taken as a very limited and contex- tualized view of a solution's environmental impact assessment. Therefore, the experts must

judge the solution's impact on the environment in a certain context of implementation re- lated to a specific client, place and scale (i.e., the case study). They will assess the environ- mental impact according to the case study, not considering the overall impact in any other markets or contexts. Currently, improving the LCA assessment tool is the focus of a task- force who gathers employees of the Foundation and also part of its community of inde- pendent experts.

Finally, the fourth and fifth criteria assess respectively the client’s economic benefits (i.e., the solution has the same/lower purchasing or creates return of investment over its life- time) and the seller’s profitability (i.e., the solution could be profitable for the seller within 5 years with a sale’s price at which clients would buy it). Once the assessment of the five criteria is completed and submitted by the experts, they are checked by the Operations Team to verify their compliance with the assessment guidelines. This phase of the selection process is called ‘Review and validation’ and if they do not comply, the Solution Assessment Form submitted by the experts is invalidated, and a new expert will be assigned to the respective Solution until 3 valid assessments are obtained.

Figure 4 : Efficient Solution Label – A Simplified Overview of the Process ³³

The whole process showed in Figure 3 is audited by an independent consulting firm, Ernst & Young (EY). Such auditing is an attempt to ensure that the process is appropriate and in good compliance with the principles of the above-mentioned standards. According to A. Barraquand (2020), the choice for the auditor was based on the Total Ecosolutions labelling scheme (already mentioned here). Furthermore, even after the Efficient Solution has been awarded, the decision may be revoked if the innovators behind the solution do not pass a compliance check executed by BNP Paribas. This consists in a verification whose objective is to check, via third-party compliance lawyers, the financial state of the compa- nies as well as the reputation of its shareholders (A. Barraquand, personal communication,

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33 Source: WAES (2020). The Assessment Summary Report is the official communication on the labelling process decision. It comprises the three experts’ evaluations and a summary of what the label stands for. In February 2020, this document has had its title changed to ‘Efficiency Assessment Report’.

15 October 2020). According to the interviews conducted for the elaboration of this paper, both auditing and compliance check do not seem to be well understood by the majority of the Operations Team. The former has been carried out only once (in September 2018), but, since then, the labelling scheme has suffered changes which have never been audited. On the other hand, the compliance check happens quite frequently, and it does help the Foun- dation to identify innovators and shareholders whose vision towards sustainability is con- troversial, but this serves also the interests of BNP Paribas. As a funder, the multinational would very likely not agree to give money to a scheme that labels innovations surrounded by controversy (A. Barraquand, personal communication, 15 October 2020). In this sense, it is possible to conclude that the compliance check was not initially part of the Labelling scheme, being added to it when the BNP Paribas signed the partnership agreement with the Foundation, in 2019.

The intended role and function of the environmental labelling can be analyzed from three different perspectives: a) policymaker; b) producer; and c) consumer. From a policy- maker perspective, environmental labelling may serve as a complementary instrument to create incentives for replacing products and services with high environmental impacts for others with lower impacts. Labelling also paves the way, through market mechanisms, to new governmental regulatory measures and new policy agenda. This is why is so important that, once the 1000 Efficient Solutions have been selected, the SIF brings them to policy- makers to help them adopt more ambitious environmental targets and energy policies. On the producer and consumer perspective, the Efficient Solution Label can help to raise awareness about the environmental impacts, which are in most cases asymmetrically allo- cated in the value chains. By presenting such solutions to important players, such asym- metry can be reduced, therefore increasing market efficiency.

At present, the forecast model used by the Operations Team envisions that, in late Feb- ruary 2021, the target of 1000 Efficient Solutions will be reached (L. Gondy³⁴, personal communication, 20 October 2020). In this sense, the next big challenge of the Operations Team is to rapidly shift from an operational mindset, in which Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were mainly quantitative and based on the number of labelled solutions, to a broader mindset that focus on their implementation. In this sense, instead of how many solutions, we will be looking into how many environmental problems we can solve with them. Need- less to say, this seems to be a much more complex mission and it will require the Operations Team and the whole Foundation looking into each one of these Labelled solutions and comparing them with each other to see how diverse and qualified our portfolio stands for public and private implementation.

As Bertrand Piccard once said, “the ‘1000 Solutions’ is just a number that came into my head five minutes before I introduced the World Alliance at COP22, in Marrakech. I just needed a number and I thought that a hundred was too few and ten thousand was too much. Our mission goes way beyond that” (B. Piccard, personal communication, 27 Octo- ber 2020). In this sense, the next projects of the Foundation will be focused on two main pillars: a) review of the current labelled Solutions and make sure that we have a high-quality portfolio; b) advocacy of clean technologies through such portfolio. The former will likely include providing the innovators with resources so they can be ready for the

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34 Louis Gondy is the current Data Analyst, working for the Operations Team of the Solar Impulse Foun- dation. He developed the forecast model that is based on our monthly and yearly labelling rates. Please note that this is merely close estimate and does not give any certainty.

implementation phase. For instance, the Foundation has started negotiations with investors of the WAES to create a fund for Labelled Solutions (P. Rathle, personal communication, 16 October 2020). Regarding the second pillar, this might require employees to migrate from the Outreach to the Public Affairs & Implementation Team. An official statement about the next steps of the Foundation is foreseen to the 18^th of December 2020.