Carl Olivier is the co-founder and CEO of tech start-up, Sustained, which helps individuals and companies make positive decisions to reduce impact on the environment using science backed data and frameworks. Having started his journey in product and engineering in Cape Town, Carl moved to London in 2006 and forged product-focused career at leading tech brands Skype, Microsoft and Twillo. Committed to driving the sustainability agenda and leaving things ‘better than how he found them’, Carl and the Sustained team are now focused on highlighting the power of sustainable choice for consumers and businesses relating to environmental impact reduction through its advanced tech platform.

Why are you on board Future Food Movement?

No one of us can make the changes our world needs, we are all a part of that journey. People like us, the business we work for, farmers that grow our food, the governments we look to for a societal framework to live and prosper in. The Future Food Movement shares that view, and I am glad to be a part of it, hopefully helping to catalyse and drive the changes we need in how we produce and consume our food which are so impactful.

How can Sustained drive change?

Sustained was founded to provide trustworthy, impartial and defensible information based on science and data. WIthout that, we are just guessing, or worse convincing ourselves that our choices are the right ones for our financial, personal and planetary health. Ignorance here is certainly not bliss, nor is it a justifiable excuse and position for any person or business.

Sustained wants to show businessess and people that sustainable, environmentally friendly choices are possible, and indeed are valuable. Sustained provides understandable and actionable information, tools and experiecnes to people and businesses to make this possible.

Do you have any thoughts around what impact do you think consumers can have on the transition to a sustainable food system?

Consumer choice is a demand signal that businesses will respond to. As consumers shift their wallet share to demonstrably more sustainable and environmentally friendly foods, brands and suppliers will follow. Industry and brands can help and derive value from this shift by being more transparent with their environmental impact, and indeed use more evidence based methods to improve their agricultural and manufacturing practises resulting in a reduction in the impact of their products.