Jessie Frahm, founder of Planet One Point Five and a dedicated advocate for sustainable supply chains, shared her insights with Team Reblue in an exclusive interview for our ‘Nine Questions With’ series. Her deep-rooted passion and practical expertise in environmental change are inspiring businesses to embrace responsible practices and make a meaningful impact. 

Jessie Frahm’s passion for sustainability was sparked by her early experiences growing up in Greenland, where she saw the harsh realities of climate change up close. This personal connection to the natural world drove her to establish Planet One Point Five.

Through her organization, Jessie empowers businesses to build sustainable supply chains, offering them the education, tools, and resources they need to lower their environmental impact, boost social responsibility, and enhance their overall sustainability. Her deep expertise and unwavering commitment to the cause have made her a prominent advocate in the field of sustainability. Read excerpts from the exclusive interview below: 

Team Reblue: Jessie, your journey into sustainability began with a passion for creating positive change. Can you share the pivotal moment that inspired you to found Planet One Point Five and how your background has shaped your approach to sustainable supply chain management?

Jessie Frahm: I was born in Denmark, but my family moved to the beautiful, snowy Greenland when I was young. Growing up in a culture where locals hunted for their dinner instilled in me a deep understanding of living in harmony with nature—nothing went to waste, whether food or materials.

Witnessing the environmental changes in my homeland has become my life’s mission. We have only one Earth, and our survival is intertwined with its well-being.

Years later, while living in Indonesia, I visited Lombok Island. A colleague took me around, showing me the local schools and craftsmanship. The community depended heavily on water, especially for gold mining, but illegal logging was devastating the local ecosystems. Deforestation made it hard to drain water, affecting everything from garment production to basic sanitation.

I remember sitting on a concrete floor with children playing around me, feeling like the 'white person' expected to have answers. Overwhelmed by helplessness, I realized I wanted to dedicate my life to making a difference. It became clear how interconnected our systems are—one link in the chain affects another.

"The role of AI is undoubtedly going to have an incredible impact on how we understand our environmental footprint.”

Team Reblue: At Planet One Point Five, you emphasize the importance of sustainable supply chains. Can you walk us through a specific project where your strategies significantly reduced environmental impact for a client?

Jessie Frahm: When we talk about minimizing the environmental impact in supply chains, it's important to recognize that this impact has many facets. We can discuss water consumption, the implications our actions and business practices have on local biodiversity—it's all cause and effect. We consume, and it has an impact. We grow a crop, and it alters the ecosystem where it's planted. Over the years, we've undertaken numerous projects for clients, and it's a constant task to educate them on how they can influence their supply chains. One project that stands out involved a major client in the construction industry, which is known for its significant environmental impact. They were already exploring innovative solutions, but when we dug into their supply chains, we found they were sourcing wood from Brazil.

While I couldn’t confirm if it was from the Amazon Rain-forest, I knew we couldn’t take that risk. The environmental cost of transporting materials across the globe was another serious concern.

This experience reinforced how crucial it is to understand where your materials come from. Sourcing locally or from areas with strong environmental protections helps safeguard biodiversity and ensures fair treatment for workers. It’s essential for businesses to grasp the interconnectedness of their sourcing decisions and recognize that each choice can have profound implications for both the planet and the communities involved.

“It’s not the quantity of data, but the quality of insight... AI doesn’t just process data; it illuminates the path to better choices.”

Team Reblue: You've spoken extensively about the challenges of Scope 3 emissions in supply chains. What are some common misconceptions businesses have about these emissions, and how can they effectively address them?

Jessie Frahm: The biggest misconception is that Scope 3 emissions are someone else’s responsibility. In reality, businesses have a significant role in influencing these emissions. I recently spoke with a client who was unsure how to take greater responsibility for her suppliers. It’s true that Scope 3 emissions often lie outside direct control, but there’s a lot that can be done.

First, businesses must recognize the power of their purchasing decisions—putting money where their values are. It’s also crucial to engage with suppliers, clearly communicating expectations. Don’t underestimate your influence.

Another common misconception is the worry about double counting in emissions calculations. Double counting happens when both your business and your supplier tally the same emissions—your Scope 3 and their Scope 1 and 2.

However, we can't afford to get bogged down by double counting. Our focus should be on eliminating these emissions altogether, reducing what needs to be counted in the first place.

“I simply don't think we have the luxury of worrying about avoiding double counting... we should focus our efforts on eliminating these emissions altogether.”

Team Reblue: Your expertise has led you to develop the "5 Steps to a Sustainable Supply Chain." Can you elaborate on one of these steps and how it can transform a business’s sustainability practices?

Jessie Frahm: I believe that every step in the five-step process is important, and you can see this clearly in the video I’ve shared on our YouTube channel, so I highly recommend watching it. One of the steps focuses on a question I'm often asked: 'We have 10,000 suppliers—a lot of suppliers. We can't influence all of them, so how do we prioritise?'

There are different ways to approach this. First, identify your top percentage in terms of where you're spending a significant portion of your revenue. These are the businesses that have a strong incentive to listen to you, and naturally, this is also where a large part of your impact will lie. is just as important, involves conducting thorough material research to understand the specific impacts your business is having

That’s one approach. The other, which I believe within its Scope 3 emissions. You'll often discover that certain areas pose significant risks that have a tremendous impact, even if they aren't directly linked to how much you're spending. For example, this could involve areas where you’re consuming chemicals or affecting ecosystems in ways that simply cannot be ignored. These would be your second category: the businesses where you've identified specific impacts that could be challenging to mitigate in the long term or might even be irreversible.

“Witnessing the devastating changes in the environment... has made it my life’s mission to ensure that we take care of our planet.”

Team Reblue: Collaboration seems to be a key theme in your work. Can you share an example of a successful partnership you’ve formed with a supplier or organization that advanced sustainability goals?

Jessie Frahm: Collaboration and knowledge sharing are crucial in our industry. We need to achieve outcomes quickly, and we can't afford to be overly protective of our ideas. Within the Impact Accelerator, our training programme designed to help sustainability managers, consultants, and business leaders develop strategies that truly make a difference, we’re building a platform for knowledge sharing and collaboration. This effort extends beyond just me and our work—it’s where we’re seeing significant impact, and I'm really proud of that.

I also run a leadership round-table for C-suites of major corporations called “Net Positive”, often Danish businesses operating in the UK, given my background. We've had high-profile leaders come together. It’s an exceptional opportunity to learn and share experiences on common ground, and I’m honoured to be the moderator and front-runner of this network. Through this, I’ve seen how it provides a strong foundation for businesses to collaborate more broadly.

So, I encourage anyone to start networks where you engage with others in your field. It provides immense value.

“Growing up in a culture where the locals would hunt their dinner... instilled in me a deep understanding of what it means to live in harmony with nature.”

Team Reblue: As a sustainability educator, you deliver high-energy keynote presentations that challenge audiences to rethink their roles. What is one key message you consistently impart during your talks that resonates most with your audience? 

Jessie Frahm: One of the key messages I consistently impart is the importance of patience—both with ourselves and with others. We’re undoubtedly working against the clock, but just because we’ve figured out what needs to be done doesn't mean that everyone around us is there yet. “Change is a journey, not a sprint.” There’s a process of building up knowledge, understanding, and commitment along the way. Patience helps us avoid the frustration and burnout that can undermine our efforts.You can have all the data and arguments in the world, you can be the best scientist, but at the end of the day, this is about people. “To lead change, you must first understand the mind.” It’s essential to understand how people think, how they’ve arrived at their current beliefs, and what their journey has been. Instead of asking someone what they believe, ask them how they came to believe it. This tells you the story of their thought process, and with that knowledge, you can guide them onto a new path.“Lead with empathy, and the world will follow.” By being patient and understanding, we can truly connect with others and inspire the change we seek to create.

“We must acknowledge that supply chains are a significant part of our responsibility as a business. We choose who we work with.”

Team Reblue: As technology continues to evolve, how do you see the role of AI and other digital tools enhancing sustainability efforts within supply chains? Are there any innovative tech solutions you've encountered that have made a significant impact?

Jessie Frahm: The role of AI is undoubtedly going to have an incredible impact on how we understand our environmental footprint. The true power of AI lies in its capability to process vast amounts of data and distill it into actionable insights. There are many startups and businesses already leveraging AI to their advantage, but I believe we've only scratched the surface of its potential. This is exciting.

One area where AI is particularly promising is in supply chain management. I’m especially interested in businesses that are leading the way in product-level life cycle assessments across supply chains. Consider something as simple as a chocolate bar—it undergoes an incredible journey before it lands on your supermarket shelf. It’s grown as a crop, cared for by local farmers, harvested, processed, packaged, and transported through multiple destinations before you pick it up, consume it, and dispose of the packaging, which is then transported to its final destination. This chain of events is incredibly complex, but AI can help us better understand these impacts, enabling us to see where we can responsibly reduce our footprint and make better decisions.

One crucial point to remember about data is that it’s not about how much data we have—“It’s not the quantity of data, but the quality of insight.” The real value lies in our ability to understand the data we have so that we can make informed, impactful decisions. “AI doesn’t just process data; it illuminates the path to better choices.”

“Businesses need to recognize the power of purchasing—the power to put your money where your values lie.”

Team Reblue: For Chief Sustainability Officers and professionals working in this field, what advice would you give them to effectively drive sustainability initiatives within their organizations?

Jessie Frahm: Start today, and start scrappy. It’s not about getting it right the first time; it’s about learning and being ready to improve as you go along. One thing I’d stress is that it's not enough to hire a single sustainability manager and expect them to solve everything. Becoming truly sustainable is a company-wide effort. Your sustainability manager's role is to lead—it’s a leadership role meant to help you build a strategy where everyone can leverage their specific expertise to improve how your business operates.

So, give your sustainability leaders the opportunity to continue upskilling and join networks like the Impact Accelerator, where they can bring back valuable knowledge to your organization. Empower them with the resources and support they need. “Their job is to lay the bricks in the road for others to walk on.” If you've hired good people, they’re there to help you build a business that is ethical, responsible, and profitable.

“Change is a journey, not a sprint... patience helps us avoid the frustration and burnout that can undermine our efforts.”

Team Reblue: Looking ahead, what legacy do you hope to create through your work at Planet One Point Five, and what changes do you envision in the sustainability landscape as businesses increasingly prioritize environmental responsibility?

Jessie Frahm: Our mission at Planet One Point Five is to “teach one million people how to deliver real, sustainable change in business, so that we can all keep living on the planet we love.” For every person we teach, they go on to change the world around them—that’s the multiplier effect. By empowering 1 million people to create planet-saving businesses, we’re transforming how sustainable progress is delivered across the globe. I highly encourage you to join us in this journey.

When it comes to the changes we’ll see, compliance is here to stay. We can’t avoid the fact that we all have to deliver progress, and compliance is forcing our hand. As a business, the best thing you can do is start today. While much of the current focus is on emissions, it’s essential to think more broadly—this is about both people and the planet.

If you want to succeed and stay relevant, you need to step back, assess your efforts, and figure out how you and your business are contributing to making the world a better place—and turn that into a viable business model. This is where we at Planet One Point Five can truly help you.

Photo courtesy of Jessie Frahm.