GetGreen: Turning Sustainability Awareness into Action

Brian Ringer, a longtime advocate for sustainability, aims to inspire tangible action against climate change by closing the gap between awareness and implementation. Ringer and his co-founder, Jed Stafford, graduated from the Tampa Bay Innovation Center Climate Tech Cohort in spring 2023. Residing in Seattle, Ringer shares exciting news and updates on his climate-tech venture. 

Interviewee: Brian Ringer | Founder & CEO, GetGreen

September 2024

Q: Can you give a brief overview of GetGreen? 

A: GetGreen is dedicated to empowering organizations and their employees to combat the climate crisis. We help businesses reduce their carbon footprint and engage employees in sustainable practices. Our customizable mobile app guides users through various eco-friendly actions. We’ve recently expanded by collaborating with cities and universities, turning intentions into actions among students, and residents as well. Our goal is to turn awareness into action, ensuring a sustainable future for generations to come. 

Q:Who is your ideal user/customer? 

A: Our ideal customer is a sustainability-conscious company or institution that wants to empower their team with ideas and actions that will positively impact their community and our planet. They’re likely already taking steps toward a greener lifestyle and are looking for tools to further their efforts. We are focused on working with universities and cities that have specific sustainability goals. These organizations are committed to reducing their overall carbon footprint and want to engage their communities in sustainable practices. By driving significant behavioral changes, GetGreen is positioning itself as a unique and effective activation and engagement tool within the sustainability space, which is a unique solution for this industry. 

Q: What are the biggest challenges you faced in developing or launching your product/service? 

A: By engaging extensively with our stakeholders and users, using techniques learned from the TBIC program, we’ve incorporated valuable feedback to refine our app’s design. This collaborative product market fit approach has enabled us to understand user behavior and preferences, leading to a more customizable and effective platform. We realized the more we customize the application, the more effective and engaging it will be. Initially we only had one version of the app, but once we saw how customization improved engagement, we were able to make it more personalized for the user's experience. 

Q: Tell us about the growth of your product? 

A: GetGreen for Enterprises started with a pilot project in Duluth, Minnesota, through which we gained valuable insights into customer discovery and refined our product. This process led us to identify an unserved market opportunity, sustainability engagement for cities and universities. Within a year, we've expanded our partnerships and launched over twenty customer versions of our app. Our focus on customer needs and continuous adaptation has fueled significant growth, and we're confident in our ability to deliver tailored solutions for our clients. 

We moved beyond traditional carbon accounting tools, focusing on facilitating immediate climate action, which has resonated with our target audience. We’ve now expanded one step further, allowing companies to tell their sustainability story through sponsorships in our community app versions.  This has helped promote more sustainability initiatives as well as generate revenue. Inspired by TBIC's advice, we've identified opportunities to collaborate with large corporations seeking to enhance their sustainability branding and reach a wider audience. We are really listening to what our customers want to ensure we are building this in the right direction.

Q: What inspired you to start this company? 

A: Our team's long standing passion for sustainability stems from a shared concern about the climate crisis. Witnessing the growing impact of climate change, we recognized the urgent need for individual action. My experience as a CTO and sustainability leader led me to believe that empowering employees could be a powerful catalyst for positive change. I saw firsthand how excited our employees were when they were able to be engaged with, not just observers to, company sustainability initiatives and to take action. 

Q: How do you see your product/service fitting into the larger tech landscape? 

A:As a SaaS company, we offer a subscription-based platform that’s designed to be user-friendly and cost-effective. Our app is fun to use, sort of like a Duolingo for sustainability. We’ve been able to leverage the power of new AI tools to make the app even more personalized for our users. The timing has been really fortunate for us, there are great AI capabilities for our platform to remain at the forefront of technological advancements. My own background and degrees are in AI, so it's great to see how it's evolved and grown over the years and be able to plug in these solutions inside our app. The rate of change we are seeing with AI is huge and it will continue to accelerate. 

Q: How do you differentiate yourself from competitors? 

A: GetGreen differentiates itself by offering a comprehensive platform that empowers both individuals and organizations to reduce their carbon emissions. Our platform is designed to be accessible and engaging, providing tailored recommendations and fostering community involvement. While there are existing carbon footprint calculators and accounting tools, they don’t drive actual behavior change and emissions reductions, although we are seeing some emerge now, primarily in Europe. 

Q: What is your funding strategy? 

A: GetGreen has primarily grown through bootstrapping and early-stage angel investments. While we've benefited from grants, our revenue stream from satisfied customers has been instrumental in our development. We plan to explore further capital raising opportunities in the coming months to support our continued growth and expansion.

Q: What are some exciting trends you see in your industry and how are you capitalizing on them? 

A:We're closely monitoring emerging trends in AI and the potential applications in the climate space. One notable trend is the increasing integration of AI into sustainability solutions. This technology can enhance data analysis, optimize resource allocation, and personalize user experiences. As climate awareness continues to grow, we're witnessing a positive trend towards sustainable practices across various industries. We're proud to collaborate with like-minded organizations, including small thrift stores to larger companies like Coca-Cola, to create a more sustainable future. There are a lot more sustainable products and offerings now for customers, which is great to see.

Q:What is a surprising fact about your company or product? 

A: Our platform has garnered significant interest from green organizations on campus, particularly for its use in engaging students through contests and challenges. This high level of engagement has been great to see. Universities have been a great fit for us, reaching users who are both climate and mobile native. 

A lot of people don’t know our team resides all over the world. We have members across the United States, from Seattle to Minnesota to California, and in Argentina and Portugal. University interns have also been huge for us, working across everything from content creation to app design. As a virtual company with a global workforce, we're showcasing a successful model for remote collaboration and effective climate initiatives.

Q: What has been the biggest accomplishment for your team so far?

A: Overcoming the challenges of bootstrapping and successfully identifying our market niche has been a significant accomplishment. Our ability to rapidly develop and fully deploy new customers now, within days or weeks, is a result of the significant technology of our backend contest system. This system is a testament to our team's expertise and development experience.

Q:What advice would you give first time startup founders? 

A: I have hours of advice! First, prioritize customer discovery and validation early in your entrepreneurial journey. Focus on understanding your target market's needs, preferences, and willingness to pay before investing heavily in development. Second, defining your company's core values and vision will provide a strong foundation for making strategic decisions on who you work with to build your business.

Q: Do you have any upcoming milestones or announcements you would like to share? 

A: A lot is happening with GetGreen these days. This fall we are launching the second  largest single-county rollout to date with Arlington County in Virginia, along with an aquarium in California, a company in Chicago, and returning to the University of Miami and University of Washington for campus-wide rollouts in October for Campus Sustainability Month. And we have more University programs we’re working on, including the University of Tampa. We are also introducing our first version of GetGreen for high schools.

Q: Anything else you would like to share? 

A: We're actively seeking partnerships with the HR departments or sustainability officers of organizations that align with our mission and can leverage our platform to promote their sustainability initiatives. Our existing partnerships often stem from personal connections, such as our collaboration withUniversity of Tampa facilitated by TBIC. We’re actively looking for additional sustainability sponsors for the University of Tampa version in the Tampa Bay area right now.