Innovative, Thought-Leading Organizations Advance the Monetization Working Group

MONTERREY, Mexico and ST. PAUL, Minn., August 31, 2015 /3BL Media/ – Over the past 18 months, Antea Group in partnership with Fundación FEMSA has coalesced a number of thought-leading organizations to form the Monetization Working Group (MWG). This group aims to accelerate progress via removing obstacles to better, more sustainable business decisions by making key elements of sustainability more tangible and helping to build a better case for investment. Presently, the MWG is concentrating on creating a curriculum/tools that improve the monetization and business case development skills of those proposing and deciding on investments in sustainability.

Today we are pleased to formally introduce the Group and its participants which include: Diageo plc, FEMSA, Fundación FEMSA, Kellogg Company, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Newell Rubbermaid Inc., SABMiller plc, Antea Group, The Nature Conservancy, and Thermo Fisher Scientific, all of which have come together to help those challenged with proposing and deciding on investments in sustainability.

“The MWG tackles, in a very pragmatic way, a pressing need that sustainability professionals face every day: how to be more effective, and provide relevant information in the business decision making process to advance sustainability topics,” says MWG co-founder Carlos Hurtado, Manager of Sustainable Development for Fundación FEMSA. “The collective knowledge and experience represented by these global leaders has been an incredible engine for the group’s effort.”  

John Platko, Vice President with Antea Group notes, “We are privileged and excited to have co-founded the Monetization Working Group with Fundación FEMSA and to engage with so many leading organizations on this important effort. The thought leadership and solution-oriented approach of this Group lends innovation and practicality…and that is exactly what is necessary to tackle this challenge.”

To date, the Monetization Working Group has completed work on a curriculum and set of tools to train business leaders on monetization principles and business case development. The curriculum was recently piloted with FEMSA and 25 members of The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) Latin American Water Fund team. “This curriculum and tools will strengthen the way in which we relate to relevant actors, whether authorities, donors, and/or society in general,” says Hugo Contreras, TNC’s Latin America Water Security Director. “The work products from this effort will facilitate conversations with critical stakeholders, opening options of financing based on the value and not the cost and help us improve the design of our value proposition based on a better understanding of what the market considers valuable.”

Moving forward, the Group will continue to build, test and refine its curriculum and associated tools with The Nature Conservancy and other like-minded organizations.

If you have further interest in the Monetization Group, please contact:

Fundación FEMSA
Carlos Hurtado
+52 (81) 8328 6142
carlos.hurtado@femsa.com.mx

Antea Group
John Platko
+1 941 650 2523
john.platko@anteagroup.com

Tod Christenson
+1 612 850 8609
tod.christenson@anteagroup.com

About Our Founders

Fundación FEMSA
FEMSA Foundation is a social investment instrument that supports both the conservation and sustainable use of water and the improvement of the quality of life of the community through the application of education, science, and technology. Its area of Sustainable Development of Hydric Resources channels resources towards projects focusing on the conservation and sustainable use of water for the protection of ecosystems not only in the present but for future generations too. It has three programs, Conservation of Watersheds, Water and Sanitation, and Construction of Capacities and Applied Research.  Fundación FEMSA is supported by FEMSA.  FEMSA is a leading company that participates in the beverage industry with Coca-Cola FEMSA, the largest franchise bottler of Coca-Cola products in the world; and in the beer industry, through its ownership of the second largest equity stake in Heineken, one of the world's leading brewers. FEMSA participates in the retail sector with FEMSA Comercio, which operates various small-format chain stores including OXXO, the largest and fastest growing in the Americas. Through FEMSA Negocios Estrategicos, the company offers logistic services, point-of-sales cooling solutions, and plastic solutions for FEMSA’s companies and external customers. Learn more at www.fundacionfemsa.org  and http://www.femsa.com/en.

Antea Group
Antea Group is an international engineering and environmental consulting firm specializing in full-service solutions in the fields of environment, infrastructure, urban planning and water. By combining strategic thinking and multidisciplinary perspectives with technical expertise and pragmatic action, we do more than effectively solve client challenges; we deliver sustainable results for a better future. With more than 3,500 employees in over 75 offices around the world, we serve clients ranging from global energy companies and manufacturers to national governments and local municipalities. Learn more at http://us.anteagroup.com.