Environmental Regulation made Easy – An Interview with Jonathan Brun of Nimonik

The fifth installment in our on-going Leaders of Sustainability series of interviews with executives and entrepreneurs of sustainability-minded business is with Mr. Jonathan Brun, Partner at Nimonik (www.nimonik.ca), an on-line service than helps businesses track and understand environmental regulations.

As always, our hope is that entrepreneurs and business leaders of sustainability-focused businesses will find this series helpful and instructive in growing their businesses and dealing with both the challenges and opportunities facing small business trying to make a profit while reducing their impact on the environment.

Here now is my interview with Jonathan Brun.

Justin – Thank you Jonathan for joining us today via conference call from Montreal. Firstly, please tell us a little bit about Nimonik.

Jonathan – Nimonik was originally developed by an environmental consulting firm called EEM (www.eem.ca). They had an increasing number of requests from their clients for a database of the environmental regulations in Canada. Several large companies with operations in all Canadian provinces were having trouble keeping up to date and understanding their obligations, so Nimonik was born. Originally the firm planned to resell access to the site, but the sales cycle and business model proved a difficult sell.

So, in 2008, we decided to separate the site (www.nimonik.ca) and re-develop it as a lower cost, software-as-a-service (SaaS) site. Now, the service is much more interactive and easier to use, and the price is more affordable for small and medium sized businesses.

Nimonik is different from the competition in many ways: it provides guidance of environmental law – no one else does that online; it allows companies to manage their environmental legal register online and tie it to their business, and lastly it is well designed – something we don’t value enough today.

A big problem we try to tackle is legal registers. A company that is ISO 14001 certified needs to maintain a legal register, which is essentially a list of the laws and regulations that apply to their facility. You are supposed to tie this to your operations and keep it up to date. That rarely happens. These registers are usually done by a consultant in word or excel and 3 months after the project, they are already out of date. We suggest that the companies put their register in our system and we automatically keep it up to date – saving them the hassle of updating it come audit time.

EEM and Nimonik still work together. EEM does “in-person” environmental consulting while Nimonik provides a day-to-day, web-based service that combines fresh information with useful management tools. After EEM completes a consulting mandate, the client will usually sign-up with us and use our site as a resource to stay green efficiently on a day-to-day basis.

Justin – How has the market response been to Nimonik?

Jonathan – The market is difficult to judge, we are trying to create a new market between options that already exist from companies. I believe there is significant growth potential for Nimonik and other services like it. Our aim is to undercut consultants and lawyers while providing much more than traditional newsletters and books. Some people are still not comfortable with online tools and there is a bit of a learning curve, but the move online is inevitable, it’s just a matter of when and how.

Justin – Are most of your clients large manufacturers, or does environmental regulation also affect smaller, service based clients? What type of clients benefit most from Nimonik?

Jonathan – In theory, all companies need to respect the law. In practice, larger companies have more internal resources to deal with this and have management systems and corporate standards to adhere to – so they tend to be the first to sign-up. That being said, many companies are now pushing green standards on their supply chain, forcing the suppliers to get help from companies like ours. We have lowered the price enough so most small companies should be able to afford our services, and at the end of the day we should save them both time and money.

Justin – Nimonik, the service offering, has been around since 2005 with Nimonik, the company, being established in 2008. What valuable lessons have you learned over the past 4 years or so that you could pass along to other entrepreneurs/business owners working in the areas of the environment and sustainability?

Jonathan – Patience, it takes time to build something noteworthy.

Justin – What has been your strategy for growing Nimonik?

Jonathan – We are still working on our marketing campaign; we have a lively blog where we discuss environmental issues; we also run ads on Google and go to the relevant tradeshows. We are trying to reach out to industrial associations to help them serve their members better. Lastly, we are reaching out to environmental consultants to encourage them to have their clients sign-up. Not sure which initiative will have the highest pay-off, only time will tell.

Justin – Today, ethical consumption remains a small percentage of all goods and services consumed in Western countries and it doesn’t appear that the majority of corporations are making sustainability a core element of their business strategy. What are you hearing from your clients? Are your clients primarily concerned with meeting environmental regulations, or are you seeing more and more companies looking towards meeting the requirements of ISO 14001 and minimizing how their operations adversely affect the environment?

Jonathan – At the end of the day, companies are bottom-line focused and set in their ways. ISO 14001 companies need our services, so they are usually keen. Most of the old guard still view the environment as a nuisance, not an opportunity. Recently, I even had someone say, “I only spend money on the environment when the government catches me” – very encouraging!

Justin – Do you see a time where more and more businesses will view the environment and sustainability as an opportunity rather than a challenge? What do you think has to happen to make this a reality; where businesses are rushing to meet standards like 14001 in order to differentiate themselves and create a competitive advantage?

Jonathan – Achieving and maintaining ISO 14001 is a significant undertaking; small and medium businesses are unlikely to embrace it. That being said, people are more aware of the environment and are starting to realize there is money to be made. It is difficult to say how this economic downturn will affect sustainability initiatives, but I think the initiatives that make sense on their own without the propaganda will come out on top.

Things like voluntary carbon credits, ethanol, and other over-hyped items will die. 80% of your competitive advantage of your product is the quality, so that should be any business’ focus. Quality means little waste, streamlined operations, beautiful design and excellent customer service. So, at the end of the day, quality and sustainability will meet.

Justin – What do you consider to be the biggest challenge (or opportunity) facing environmental / sustainably minded business in general, and your business in particular, over the next few years?

Jonathan – Just do not get caught up in the hype, stick to the basics and focus on the important parts of your product offering.

Justin – What is your favorite business book of all time?

Jonathan – Hard to say, I probably draw more inspiration from outside the business world, “Good to Great” was interesting. But, “The Ecology of Commerce” was fantastic. Anything about Apple and Amazon are very inspiring.

Justin – What book are you currently reading?

Jonathan – A collection of letters from Albert Einstein to various groups and people.

Justin – What music CD do you currently have in your car?

Jonathan – No CDs! That is as wasteful a product as I have ever seen. My iPhone is full of Opera these days, but I tend to go on binges, so it might be hard rock or jazz next.

Justin – Which business, political or other figure do you consider to be the most inspirational?

Jonathan – Gandhi is definitely an inspiration for me, he led a life of devotion to his fellow man, inspired others by example and opposed violence in all its forms. On the business side, Steve Jobs (Apple) and Jeff  Bezzos (Amazon) are amazing visionaries who have built sustainable empires of creativity and wealth.

© 2009, Justin. All rights reserved.