Social Impact Heroes Helping Our Planet: Why & How Jackson Wyatt of CABN Is Helping To Change Our World
An Interview With Martita Mestey
You can never raise enough money starting out. This is akin to saving for a rainy day– in a startup, it is vital to take a longer range view, particularly as it relates to finances. We’re always looking at the next strategic partner that can support us as we aim for the next level of growth.
As a part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jackson Wyatt.
Jackson Wyatt is the founder and CEO of CABN, a company offering net-zero housing for everyone to live anywhere, live sustainably, and live connected. He builds upon immense success as founder and previous head of design and manufacturing for a global sustainable products company, Greenlid, for which he built 50+ innovative products distributed in 10,000+ stores across North America and 25 countries worldwide.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I grew up in Brockville a small town in Eastern Ontario, Canada. My mother was a full-time volunteer committing thousands of hours of work to supporting causes in the community and my father was a physician. We lived in a small home that allowed us to spend time together and participate in community sports and activities.
My family also spent many summers (four of us and pets) living on a small sailboat with limited power and no traditional refrigeration– it was quite a learning experience, as you had to be really conscious of what possessions you brought on board, as well as keeping a constant observation of the batteries/power available as well as the weather forecast, probably a likely inspiration for CABN in later years!
You are currently leading a social impact organization that is making a difference for our planet. Can you tell us a bit about what you and your organization are trying to change in our world today?
CABN is net-zero housing for everyone to live anywhere, live sustainably, and live connected. Our goal is to integrate sustainability and attainability in housing through the use of new and high-performance technologies in all aspects of the design, manufacturing, assembly and experience of living in the home. We’ve achieved this through the creation of a housing system that allows us to use the inherent building design to lower costs and energy usage.
From there, we have focused on sharing the core tenets of CABN with more people, expanding our reach to organizations, communities, and regions through our not-for-profit, the CABN Foundation. To make a dent in climate change while positively impacting the housing crisis, we believe in drastic changes– CABN facilitates that.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
After the sale of my previous company Greenlid, whose mission was to replace single use plastics with compostable alternatives, I found myself in the same position as many Canadians during covid. I did not own my own home and I was looking for ways to live and work in a different way remotely. I couldn’t believe that even with all the luck and success, access to homes available to people 40 years ago was barely within my means.
I assembled a team to complement my area of expertise in manufacturing and sustainability and take into consideration innovative renewable energy technology strategies to develop a home that could be prefabricated, delivered efficiently and assembled easily in difficult to build and remote environments. This led to our unique Energy Informed Design process that allows CABN units to use minimal energy to maintain temperature and plug loads for the appliances all year round. Using energy conservation, prefabrication and easy assembly as the foundation of design it unlocks new and beautiful places to live without extreme costs.
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest them. They don’t get up and just do it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and do it? What was that final trigger?
My trigger was the realization that even with everything in your favour, existing construction strategies are insufficient for people my age to own a home, let alone a sustainable one.
I believe the “aha” moment stemmed from setting our goal of being able to design, manufacture, and assemble sustainable homes in difficult to build locations for a niche amount of Canadians. At the same time, we realized that this same strategy, when deployed en-masse, significantly addresses housing supply and through that, a rapid addressment of how we all can live sustainably net-zero in the next few years, not the next few decades.
Many people don’t know the steps to take to start a new organization. What are some of the things or steps you took to get your project started?
The first steps for me was analysis of the systems I am familiar with (manufacturing, shipping, marketing etc.) and working with a team that knows the rest. We researched the existing market and what was comparable or ground-breaking. I posed the question of this housing strategy to experts in various fields to understand if the hypothesis for the design and technology was sound, and if so, why had it not been pursued before.
Once we understood those key factors, it strengthened our business case. The newly assembled team then continued to push forward, setting our company standards of design and sustainability higher than the current market, surpassing existing benchmarks by years.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
Some of the most interesting things that happen are the applied use-cases of the buildings. At the beginning, we had a strong focus on key markets that we deemed would be very receptive: resorts, secondary homes & remote housing. After each article or release about the units we have communities and organizations that represent various different housing needs, from social housing non-profits to disaster relief response groups, identifying ways CABN can support entirely different societal issues.
My point of view, which is certainly biased, is to recognize the innovative energy profile of the units as well as how the designed home works with the solar energy systems. However, community organizations prioritize CABN’s rapid and non-invasive construction as a solution to immediate housing concerns.
Learning how CABN can be adapted to fulfill many critical needs in diverse communities, from city centers to rural and remote northern locations, is now what interests me the most.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson or take away you learned from that?
Usually, when you start a business you have to make decisions quickly with the understanding that through the process you will learn how to optimize and correct mistakes later. There are some mistakes that end up lingering far longer than expected and through that become a core piece of the business. The funniest mistake may be the name itself.
CABN represents the solitude and walden-eque pursuit of harmony with nature. To find the meaning of life through nature and a cabin in the woods. In reality CABN is not exclusive to a return to nature but a practical solution to two of the largest issues in the world right now, housing and climate change. The company is not penned into a box of exclusivity, through the attainability of the homes and the mass appeal to live sustainably we contradict the rejection of society for nature and aim to bring nature back to society at a community level.
None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?
The mechanism of momentum for CABN is its breadth of advisors and mentors. From technical experts in all fields of the buildings’ engineering and systems to business mentors in manufacturing and strategy. There are at minimum 10 advisors at all times from various forms of experience available to tell me candidly where there will be issues and help avoid future potential pitfalls, for which I’m extremely grateful.
There is absolutely no way in which you can be an expert in everything or have the time to build that experience which takes a lifetime to accrue. To have trusted advisors and mentors that have gone through their own errors and successes allows CABN to fast track our business to make a larger impact, sooner.
Are there three things the community, society, or politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve? Through innovating a system that is engrained in society and government the design technology and manufacturing is only one portion of the solution. Three things that we need help in to attain rapid sustainable housing are:
- Engagement at all levels of government to ignite planning for rapid sustainable housing strategies that meet or exceed traditional construction techniques, tied to removal of red tape to let us build faster and better.
- Recognition that 2050 net-zero goals are simply insufficient. Communities need to understand that through utilization of technology and design, we can achieve our housing and sustainability goals much faster, acknowledging that citizens and their communities can truly adapt as fast as the innovation in technology.
- Elimination of social divides in housing, particularly the separation between the “haves and have nots. If we can facilitate new housing technologies that are embraced by society, then we can create communities that support access points for housing for all people without discrimination.
How would you articulate how a business can become more profitable by being more sustainable and more environmentally conscious? Can you share a story or example?
The future is sustainable or there is no future. Profitability comes with that fact.
What are your “4 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
It will take 5 x longer than you think:
- My previous company, Greenlid, was meant to turn around profits in 1 year so we skipped farmers markets and went straight to selling at major retail. It still took 5+ years.
- Companies don’t fail because of bad ideas, they fail because they run out of money.
2. You can never raise enough money starting out. This is akin to saving for a rainy day– in a startup, it is vital to take a longer range view, particularly as it relates to finances. We’re always looking at the next strategic partner that can support us as we aim for the next level of growth.
- You will have to do everything in the company at some point and much of it won’t be related to the product.
3. This week I will be at site planning native plant layouts, meeting with government, discussing lender financing, reviewing designs for a home and the UI of the website, and working on a proposal with a First Nations community. None of this is related to my previous business expertise, but imperative to the success of CABN.
- The team you build and the partners and mentors you align with need to believe in the same vision you have
4. I’ve built a team of technical experts and advisors at CABN, and it’s always been critical that I’m as transparent as possible with everyone about the potential risks, outlining the best AND worst case scenarios. You can’t just speak to the opportunity. Rather, allow everyone to understand the potential pitfalls– creating a team that can collaborate while staying mindful of the risks. At CABN, that’s allowed us all to work together, avoiding the risks rather than be surprised and disappointed by them.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
The future is what we have to deal with as young people, anyone more successful or older is less motivated to make it a good one than we are. If we subscribe to what the previous generations have done, we will be doomed to live with the consequences they don’t have to.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My grandfather always said that “no matter what happens, you can always move to Rio and open a bar.”
I think that’s relevant in two ways– initially, it was motivating for me to take risks. However now, I think the statement is fundamentally untrue.
We can’t just ignore what’s happening in the world, to our communities, to our planet. I doubt you can actually open a bar in Rio if there is no housing, safety and massive weather events due to climate change. We must never give up on our future, the only option is to work every day to make the world a better place and help people around you.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I would love to connect with individuals, like readers of Authority Magazine, that believe it’s worth the effort to protect our environment and make the necessary changes to preserve our future. We are tackling housing and sustainability from a different perspective, so collaborating with individuals as well as organizations that can strengthen that perspective is important, particularly if we are going to effect change at a global level.
How can our readers follow you online?
They can find us at www.cabn.co and @cabnco on Instagram!
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Social Impact Heroes Helping Our Planet: Why & How Jackson Wyatt of CABN Is Helping To Change Our… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.