Achilles was created in 1990 in Norway and today has offices in 22 countries with headquarters in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

The company works to "identify, qualify, evaluate, and monitor suppliers on behalf of major organisations worldwide."

"Achilles partners with more than 650 of the world's largest companies across a range of industry sectors to promote and ensure sustainable procurement," the company says. More than 45,000 suppliers are currently registered on Achilles' databases of pre-qualified suppliers.

Paul McNeillis is the company's, Director of Corporate Responsibility. He launched the Electronics Industry's Tool for Accountable Supply Chains (E-TASC) in 2007 on behalf of the global electronics industry and the Achilles carbonReduction program in 2008 with the backing of leading UK Utilities companies. He has 10 years experience in developing sustainability standards, best practices and tools.

How do you define 'sustainable procurement'?

"The conventional definitions emphasise procurement that looks beyond price to the extrinsic social, economic and environmental costs which of course describes key external characteristics.

"But for me the heart of sustainable procurement rests on transformed and productive relationships with suppliers embedded in a stakeholder view of business."

And how do you monitor it?

"Together. Isolated efforts to monitor or manage sustainability issues are futile - given the enormous scale of the challenges and the rapidly evolving nature of the field. We need to act in co-ordinated and large scale programs.

"That's why community is at the heart of how we work. And yes within those communities we monitor and share accurate and objective data, we track progress over time; we develop benchmarks, share best practices and share knowledge of solutions and innovations."

What are the benefits for your clients?

"We make it easy to identify and manage the sustainability risks in their supply chains, and to engage constructively with their suppliers. We provide dynamic communities of practice where all this can be achieved more effectively and efficiently."

And for your suppliers?

"We make generating and sharing high quality credible validated data simple and cost-efficient for suppliers. One standard. One channel of communication. That leaves organisations time and money to focus on improvements and solutions."

Please tell us about CEMARS Certification

"The CEMARS certification is the result of a partnership with Landcare Research a crown research institute in New Zealand that is a world leader on climate change and carbon reduction. They adapted their already successful carbonzero program to the needs of our global communities and CEMARS was the result.

"The program has three basic steps: measure manage and reduce carbon emissions and it provides a prestigious certification."

What is your link with Oxford's Said Business School?

"Our CEO Colin Maund realised over two years ago that there was very little objective research in the field of corporate responsibility and sustainability practice, particularly its implementation in supply chains. So he established a program of seminars, summits and research activity to shed light on this core business activity.

"We have just renewed our partnership with Oxford for the next two years at a summit for our clients in Geneva. We received a strong mandate to open this program up more widely and make the knowledge available to all of our 650 clients and their suppliers, so watch this space."

Are UK companies prepared for the Carbon Commitment and Carbon Trading?

"Only they really know that. Of course they can't afford to ignore them. But in the current economic climate businesses need a lean and effective response to regulation when it comes.

"Our role is to make sure that our program is kept aligned with the requirements of all the multiplying regulatory, standards based and stakeholder requirements so that companies have that lean and cost effective option through one channel."

What's top of your in-tray?

"The feedback from our recent responsible supply chain summit in Geneva. It seems to have been a great learning exercise for the procurement professionals involved and we're planning on adapting our program with Oxford-Said business school to continue to make that learning available to all our clients."

And your proudest carbon-reduction achievement?

"Our team, led by the CarbonReduction program manager Frances Darton, took Achilles through measuring our own carbon footprint and establishing our own reduction plan. I feel proud that we stand by our values in this way and are committed to the change we are asking of others."

Any advice for fellow carbon-reduction professionals?

"My door is always open and I'm always happy to learn from others."

Weathering The Storm – Investment In Cleantech

Start-ups and young companies in the cleantech sector hoping to secure funding face a tough task in 2009.

In the US, the world’s largest and most developed cleantech market, venture capitalists predict the flow of investment to slow significantly. Of 400 US venture capitalists surveyed in December 2008, some 61% believe that investment across all sectors will decline by at least 10% in 2009.

The research, conducted by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), gives a detailed picture of the stifling effects of the “credit crunch” that descended on the US economy in the second half of 2008.

Over all industry sectors, US venture capitalists invested $28.3 billion in 3,808 deals in 2008, the first annual decline of total investments since 2003. This amounts to an 8% decrease in dollars and a 4% decrease in deal volume compared with 2007. The slowdown was clearly visible in Q4 of 2008, when a total of $5.4 billion was invested in 818 deals, the lowest dollar amount invested since Q1 of 2005 and a 26% drop from the $7.3 billion invested in the third quarter of 2008.

The research found the decline to be spread across industries and stages of development, with a notable exception. Investment in the cleantech sector grew more than 50% in 2008, while cleantech companies in the seed stage of development received more money than at any time since 2000. Cleantech may not have been hit as hard as other sectors, but is feeling the effects of the crunch nonetheless. In Q4 of 2008, US venture capitalists invested $909 million into 62 cleantech companies, a 14% drop in dollars and 19% drop in deals from the previous quarter when the sector attracted $1.1 billion in 77 deals.

Over the year, companies in Europe and Israel saw venture capital investment rise 43% compared with 2007 according to analysts at The Cleantech Group. The largest growth at a national level was seen in Germany, up 217% from 2007, and Israel, an increase of 224% on the previous year. Germany overtook the UK as the country receiving the most venture capital in 2008, with the UK seeing a drop of 11% from 2007, the Cleantech Group reports.

Back to the drawing board

Traditional venture capital funds aren’t the only source of investment for young companies, and cleantech companies in particular may find a sympathetic ear elsewhere. The ethical funds managed by institutional investors are already well publicised, but the corporate venture capital from the investment arms of large companies is an option that companies may not have considered until now.

An example of the latter is provided by Sweden’s furniture giant Ikea, which has set up a €50 million cleantech fund with an eye for opportunities to invest in consumer products such as solar panels that could be sold in its stores, as well as technology that would help the company reduce the footprint of its own operations. “We’re here to stay. The economic difficulties may make it harder for companies, but that could mean better deals for us!” says Senior Business Analyst Malin Nordgren.

In the UK, Onzo (http://www.onzo.co.uk/) is an example of a young company that benefitted from corporate investment. Founded in 2007, its core team draws on expertise in industrial design, sustainability and business consulting. Onzo has developed technology for monitoring and managing electricity use that could be deployed in the home. Whereas many “smart meters” are designed for technicians, Onzo has harnessed its design expertise to make the user interfaces of the system easy to understand and to use, so creating a product for the High Street.

The company secured backing from Scottish and Southern Energy (S&SE) and the Sigma Sustainable Energies Fund. Each invested £1 million for an equity share of 24.5% each. A benefit of this arrangement is that S&SE will be the first customer of the Onzo system when it begins production this summer. The agreement to supply S&SE with 300,000 units – an order worth £7 million – gives Onzo useful bargaining power in its negotiations with the companies who will manufacture the system.

There are constraints too. As part of the agreement, Onzo can’t enter the same arrangement with other UK utilities companies, but expansion overseas is part of its strategy in any case. “In some parts of the world there are problems with the supply and peak demand for electricity that won’t just go away – on the West Coast of the US, and in parts of Australia and New Zealand where drought has caused problems,” says Onzo spokesperson Robert Clark. “We can’t take anything for granted but we believe we can attract future investment if we need to,” he says.

Momentum from individuals

Another option is to raise investment from individuals, a route taken by engineering firm Flybrid Systems (http://www.flybridsystems.com/index.html). The company develops Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) for improving the efficiency of road vehicles.

Founders Jon Hilton and Doug Cross were previously engineers in the Renault Formula 1 team that won world titles in 2005 and 2006. “It paid well but you don’t have much chance to spend it because you’re always racing. So we invested our own money,” reflects Hilton. Flybrid was originally conceived as a developer of KERS technology for clients in Formula 1, but interest in the technology from manufacturers of road cars has opened up new opportunities, he says. The company has tested its technology with Jaguar, and says it is in discussions with other car makers that can’t be named at present.

We will start to see production road cars with KERS in around 2012 or 2013, Hilton thinks. Exploiting the opportunities will require Flybrid to have access to the manufacturing capacity needed to produce thousands of KERS units, and because Flybrid is committed to building the systems as well as designing them, fresh investment will be needed. “We will certainly have to sell equity, so it’s a priority for us to keep the value of the company as high as we can,” Hilton says.

Prepare for a bumpy ride

Shifts in public opinion can affect the chances of winning investment, and nowhere is this more clearly seen than with biofuels. Reputable companies in the sector such as Regenatec (http://www.regenatec.com/) saw the reputation of biofuels being overhyped initially, and then nose-dive when environmentally damaging practices by some players in the sector were exposed.

The company, which was founded in 2005, designs conversion systems enabling conventional diesel engines to run on vegetable-based oils. “The reputation of biofuels went from one extreme to another, from hero to zero in the space of about five years,” says Business Development Manager Ben Mayo.

Compounding the ups and downs of public opinion has been the recent crash in oil prices. “When oil hit $135 a barrel the phone was ringing off the hook, but then it dropped to below $45. A biofuel company would be very lucky to get venture capital to support R&D work now. We managed to develop the products before all this and were lucky in that respect,” Mayo says.

Key questions:

• What skills, technologies, and products would complement our business?

• Could investment in cleantech companies benefit our low carbon strategy?

• What are the risks of losing out on investment opportunities to competitors?