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President Joe Biden’s allies in business have helped the White House persuade the private sector to support the government’s climate change agenda.

Several business leaders working with the White House told CNBC that the effort is a huge departure from what they saw during the Trump administration.

For example, executives say they are less concerned about a tweet from the president when trying to push a new climate policy. Former President Donald Trump was known for targeting companies that appeared to oppose him on key issues.

“There is no longer any fear of the tweet, which I believe was a legitimate fear for many business leaders to speak up on these issues,” said Hugh Welsh, president of DSM North America, of which the group is CEO Climate Dialogue, said CNBC on Monday.

Biden has proposed a more aggressive climate policy than his predecessor. Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017 and, among other things, repealed the Obama-era regulations for methane gas, which could ultimately harm the environment. Biden reintroduced the US to the Paris Climate Agreement on his inauguration day.

Biden has also made tackling climate change a key part of his $ 2 trillion infrastructure plan. Biden’s proposal calls for a $ 174 billion investment in the electric vehicle market. It’s all part of the president’s goal to bring the country to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Tom Steyer, a billionaire who ran for president during the Democratic primary, is among several business leaders who have actively involved the White House and government leaders in their climate proposals.

Steyer spoke with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and White House climate advisor Gina McCarthy about the need to work with the private sector on what is likely to be one of the president’s most expensive initiatives, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

Steyer spent millions to defeat Trump and has invested in climate change initiatives. He has a net worth of $ 1.4 billion, according to Forbes.

Steyer was also a speaker at Morgan Stanley’s annual climate change conference. Steyer told executives and investors at the meeting that they shouldn’t invest in fossil fuel companies to fight climate change.

This person declined to be called to discuss private matters. Morgan Stanley representatives have not returned requests for comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment prior to publication.

The Chamber of Commerce and the CEO Climate Dialogue have also engaged the White House in climate initiatives. The chamber rejects Biden’s plan to increase corporate taxes, but supports an infrastructure overhaul.

The CEO Climate Dialogue has nearly two dozen members, including companies from Wall Street and the energy sector. The organization aims to promote private sector use and a more market-oriented approach to secure net zero emissions by 2050.

Climate Dialogue’s CEO Welsh told CNBC that the group had contacted the White House in Biden to improve relationships with corporate executives.

“The group was involved with Gina McCarthy and a few others to rebuild relationships with the White House after the last four years,” said Welsh.

Marty Durbin, president of the US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute, told CNBC the group had contacted McCarthy and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

Durbin said the chamber was trying to encourage Granholm and members of Congress to fully fund climate-based research and development projects. The group has also tried to encourage the new administration to work with the private sector on green policy proposals.

“We need to figure out how we can enable the private sector to fund, use and commercialize these technologies. That is how we will see emissions reductions at the end of the day,” said Durbin.

Members of a fundraising group called Clean Energy for Biden also act as a bridge to the private sector. Dan Reicher, co-chair of the organization, told CNBC that he had prepared a spending proposal to increase energy production from the country’s dams.

The document, which was sent to the White House and approved by nearly a dozen organizations and trade associations, states that only 2,500 of the roughly 90,000 dams in the US generate electricity. The proposal is valued at over $ 60 billion over 10 years.

“If this $ 63.07 billion proposal is fully implemented over a 10-year period, around 500,000 well-paying jobs will be created, more than 32,000 kilometers of rivers restored to improve climate resilience, and more than 80 gigawatts of existing ones secure renewable hydropower and 23 gigawatts. ” Electricity storage “, it says in the proposal.

It also called on Biden to order the establishment of a committee to vote on dam improvements and regulatory issues.

According to Reicher, the draft was sent to Phil Giudice and David Hayes, two of Biden’s climate policy advisors and members of Congress, among others.

The Clean Energy for Biden group is evolving into 501 (c) (3) and 501 (c) (4) nonprofits, both of which are referred to as Clean Energy for America, Reicher added.

The Clean Energy for America website states that while Biden’s climate change agenda is supported, it will also “support candidates at the federal, state and local levels by fundraising, mobilizing the workforce for clean energy, and providing early resource availability.”

Cure Hydration founder and CEO Lauren Picasso had to find creative ways to get the company’s fruit-flavored products into shoppers’ baskets due to the pandemic.

Source: Cure Hydration

The happy break from Cure Hydration came at an odd time.

Amazon-owned Walmart, CVS, and Whole Foods carried the startup’s fruit-flavored hydration powder during the pandemic. However, boxes and packets of the electrolyte drink were often left in the back of stores as busy workers tried to replenish the shelves with high-demand items like hand sanitizer and paper towels. The main seller, offering free samples at sporting events like triathlons or after class in gyms, stalled. Customers didn’t discover the brand when shopping online or didn’t see the brand as they raced down the aisles on trips to the store.

Instead, Lauren Picasso, founder and CEO of Cure Hydration, decided to try a different strategy to get their products into the shopping baskets: free samples tucked away in Walmart’s roadside pick-up orders.

“As an emerging brand, we wanted to find a way to reach customers who knew they weren’t browsing stores as often as they used to,” she said.

She said the samples increased sales, cost less, and were easier to scale in about 1,000 stores.

Add a sample to the list of pandemic-related changes that may persist. As more grocery shoppers use roadside pickup and delivery, consumer goods companies have had to experiment with new ways to get their products in front of people. Large retailers are trying to capitalize on rising demand by charging brands for access to their customers and data they’ve gathered about their preferences – while delighting customers with freebies.

The Walmart + home screen on a laptop in Brooklyn, New York on Wednesday, November 18, 2020.

Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images

One way to make money

For years, consumer goods companies have been paying retailers for prime real estate in stores that help them grab customer attention – like end caps, a product display at the end of an aisle. That equation has changed as more shoppers check their boxed purchases in a store’s parking lot after ordering them online.

Online grocery sales in the US rose 54% in 2020 and are projected to exceed $ 100 billion for the first time this year, according to eMarketer. The research firm said these habits will last the pandemic as shoppers see it as a more convenient way to shop even after vaccination. By next year, eMarketer expects more than half of the US population to be online grocery shoppers. It is estimated that online grocery sales will account for 11.2% of total U.S. grocery sales by 2023.

Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce sales increased 79% year over year in the past fiscal year. This is due to food orders but has not yet made a profit.

Sampling is a way of making money for Walmart. The retailer started a collection and delivery sampling program in 2014, but it’s gaining attention as more customer traffic shifts to the parking lot. The retailer charges businesses when their product is added to a curb or delivery order.

Walmart is looking for new sources of income as it creates additional costs associated with online ordering, such as buying and selling items online. B. Picking grocery orders from the shelves and shipping purchases to customers. At a recent investor meeting, Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, said he wanted to use his reach as the world’s largest retailer to grow other businesses, including advertising. He said it wants to monetize the data it collects on buyers.

Brands of all sizes

Even the big brands are taking note. General Mills has increased the number of samples paid for roadside collection at retailers like Walmart, Kroger and Target.

Jay Picconatto, director of brand commerce marketing at General Mills, said sampling at grocery collection was “something we wouldn’t even have touched two years ago or 18 months ago.” But when retail traffic collapsed last spring and retailers restricted the in-store demos, he said the company had sneaked in aggressively.

For example, some Walmart shoppers may have received a sample of Old El Paso taco seasoning with recipe cards all about Cinco de Mayo. Walmart handed out its Annie’s Fruit Snacks and Bunny Grahams at a Walmart drive-in movie event.

“Then we found, hey, it works and we actually like what happens,” he said. As more shoppers pick up groceries from the roadside, he said, “It’s a place where we want to keep playing.”

Alvis Washington, Walmart’s vice president of marketing, store design, innovation and experience, said its sampling program can help brands connect with the right customers. Personalization of the samples a customer receives is an important goal.

It can also be used to build customer loyalty with Walmart, Washington said. Some of its store parking lots have been turned into drive-in theaters and trick-or-treating sites. A special Mother’s Day event was held at a store near headquarters in Arkansas. It lit the sky above several stores for a drone show while on vacation.

At each event, the participants were surprised with a bag of samples. Washington said the company plans to roll this out to other Walmart and Sam’s Club stores. He described it as a “triple win” – making Walmart a more attractive shopping destination, providing a fun activity for customers, and enabling suppliers to “bring their new and innovative products to customers”.

He said Walmart could start charging an insertion fee for the pouch bags, as it does with its roadside sample collection business model, and the companies would cover the cost of the products.

Walmart also tested a welcome box for customers who join Walmart +, the subscription service that launched this fall. Each contains a Walmart + branded shopping bag and product samples. He said the retailer is expanding the program and plans to tailor the box more closely to customer preferences in the future.

A worker delivers groceries to a customer’s vehicle outside of a Walmart Inc. store in Amsterdam, New York on Friday, May 15, 2020.

Angus Mordant | Bloomberg via Getty Images

More for the money

Picasso said the new approaches to product discovery are simpler and cheaper. On a good day, she said, an in-store demo handed out about 300 samples – which cost about 50 cents per sample, including the fee for reserving space in a store and filling it. She said the cost of including a sample in a roadside pick-up order or a pouch bag varies by retailer, but is typically between 10 and 30 cents each.

“It’s much more economical to get into people’s hands in other ways,” she said.

Picasso said the company is retesting demo stations in some Whole Foods stores with a pandemic. Each pack of powder is individually wrapped, and users can take a cane and branded bottled water with them to safely try the product at home.

For other foods and beverages, however, she said the “ick” factor could outlast the pandemic as shoppers remain germ-conscious and don’t want to eat a chopped up granola bar.

Additionally, retailers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, allowing companies to add samples to some roadside pick-up orders, rather than others, based on a customer’s purchase history – a more focused approach than relying on the right strangers to come over and pick up a sample.

General Mills will continue to pay for shop displays, Picconatto said. However, he said the pandemic has changed “how we think about the balance between in-store levers and online levers” – especially as e-commerce accounts for a higher percentage of total sales.

“Ultimately, what is really important to us is getting on that shopping list,” he said.