Sustainable Nation

Andrew started his career working in public policy and communications. He served as Deputy Chief of Staff & Legislative Director for Congressman Peter Welch in the US House of Representatives when Congress passed the only sweeping climate legislation to date. Leaving public government, Andrew spent six years working in the solar energy, renewables, and transportation sectors. During this time, Andrew became increasingly interested in how shared electrified transportation could move the needle on carbon emissions. With a passion for urban mobility and sustainability, Andrew was a founding team member at Lime. He initially focused on new market development, government relations, and policy strategy for the company. Today, Andrew and Lime have grown tremendously. Lime has logged over 200 million trips and expanded globally. Andrew now serves as the Head of Sustainability, managing Lime's zero-emission commitments, sustainability goals, and climate-focused initiatives. Andrew Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Successful business growth while reducing carbon emissions Lime's circular economy and lifespan extension practices Considering scope 4 emissions Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Andrew's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?  To be humble. I tend to be fairly reluctant to be saying other companies should be doing as we do, or be doing X, Y or Z, or that we're setting an example for the industry, simply because every business is different. I'd much rather be in a more humble position of doing what we can, knowing that there's always more to do, and trying to walk the walk instead of talking the talk.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?  Back to circular economy. I really like some of the stuff that I'm seeing around technology driven circular economy innovations. Where I'm seeing the extraction of high value materials from things like motors, for example. I think that to be able to bring high value materials back into the economy without having to totally reprocess them or look at raw materials is incredibly exciting.  What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read?  A classic here, but The End of Nature by Bill McKibben. It was the foundational book on climate change and he was a New Yorker writer before penning that book, but he was the first person to write about climate change for the popular audience. It's just such an interesting perspective to see one, how long ago he wrote that, and two, the way he presented it to the public in a way that was truly innovative for its time, and obviously quite right in its foundation in terms of its science and what we're living through today.  What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?  One is tapping the expertise within our own organization. I think people often look fully externally as a resource, and they're often barraged by outside resources. I've found that looking within the team, whether it's our logistics team, our hardware team, our supply chain team, these are folks that are living day to day in the work, and if they're given the right tools and asked the right questions, they can be incredibly, incredibly helpful. The second, just the opposite of what I just shared from looking internally, looking externally towards folks that have an expertise in carbon is incredibly important. We've leveraged and used Opterra for our carbon services and our carbon inventory work. That's an example where they have an expertise and in many ways are an outsourced sustainability arm of the company where we just don't have the internal capacity. So, on one hand looking externally and the other hand looking internally, is incredibly valuable.  Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Lime?  One thing that I'm really excited about is we just released a carbon roadmap on Lime sustainability page. I'm also reasonably active on LinkedIn.

Meghan Weinman joined Carrix and SSA Marine in 2024 as Vice President of Sustainability. She is an industry leader across the sustainability, transportation, and environment sectors and has worked throughout North America and internationally, including Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.  Prior to joining Carrix and SSA Marine, Ms. Weinman was a Managing Director at Edison Energy, leading the Transportation Electrification and Clean Energy Practice. She has also served in roles in management, engineering, and consulting across sustainability and built infrastructure. Ms. Weinman has served as a mentor for the Clean Tech Alliance, an industry advisor at Kellogg School of Management, and is also a frequent speaker on topics relating to sustainability, transportation, clean energy transition, climate, and women in leadership. Meghan Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: The scope of sustainability at SSA Marine and 2030 targets Decarbonization strategies including renewable energy sourcing Renewable diesel and hydrogen fuel options Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Meghan's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give to other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Taking on different roles that strengthen understanding of the overall business is always something that would benefit sustainability. I started out in engineering, I went to business school, I'm now in my role today. That has been hugely helpful to understand different parts and wearing different hats and really being able to think cross functionally. With that, networking with other professionals not only in your industry, but adjacent industries. I always learn things when I talk to others in their roles. I had lunch with one of my colleagues who's at Alaska Airlines and we got to swap stories about how they're handling waste management. That was really helpful. Lastly, being a collaborative partner and really looking at how you can solve problems for stakeholders internally always is a way that can benefit not only sustainability, but the business overall.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?  I'll go back to the answer that I gave around doing things that are really good for the business, but that can be sustainability initiatives. I get really excited about doing things that can be mutual wins across an organization. I've been working in electric vehicles now for almost 10 years through a couple of different roles, and there's been so much progress that's been made in terms of technological advancement. The commitment from automakers and equipment makers and increasingly the technology is becoming more and more of a mainstay, and that makes it easier and easier to incorporate into operations. It also brings about cost parity. Those are the things that I'm really getting excited about because it really is at a tipping point.  What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read?  I'll give one book in two different categories. One that jump started my interest in sustainability over 20 years ago, and I'm sure this is probably known to most readers, was Natural Capitalism. That really helped me think about sustainability in a different way and really put into perspective the work that we're doing. But more recently I'm enjoying books that are at the intersection of business and can really help in a sustainability role, and so they're actually negotiation books, and you might wonder why negotiation. It's about coming up with solutions that may benefit many stakeholders across an organization and finding solutions that benefit potentially both sides. If you're thinking about how to convince your CFO or your commercial team, really think about it from a perspective of: how do I get what I want in sustainability, and also the finance team gets what they want. I'm going to give two books here, but one of them is Negotiate Without Fear by Victoria Medvec, and the other one is Getting to Yes, which is a classic by Roger Fisher and William Ury. Those are two that I would recommend any sustainability professional think about in terms of their own organization.  What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?  I really do like getting newsletters. I love reading and finding out what's happening across the industry. A couple that I like is ESG Dive from Industry Dive. That one I find to be really great information about what's happening across different companies, a blend of news and initiatives. I also really like Fortune's newsletters. Fortune has a number of newsletters, but one that has a lot of sustainability topics in there is the Trust Factor. They talk a lot about how sustainability and ESG is really paramount to businesses. But they also have other great newsletters too, like CEO Daily and CFO Daily, and they dabble into sustainability in those newsletters, too.  Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at SSA Marine?  You can connect with me on my LinkedIn, Megan Weinman. You can also go to SSA Marine's LinkedIn page or visit our website, ssamarine.com to learn more about our work. Our sustainability report is on there. You can read more stories about things that we've been doing across the company, and our 2024 report will be in there too later on in 2025. 

Jeff Yorzyk has over 20 years of experience in sustainability across a broad range of sectors, and has held leadership roles in both commercial and consulting companies spanning program development, strategic management systems, product sustainability and life cycle assessment. Based in Berlin, Germany, HelloFresh is the leading meal kit provider in the world, operating in 14 markets. As director of sustainability for HelloFresh US, Jeff oversees packaging lifecycle management, operational and supply chain sustainability and regulatory compliance and permitting. Jeff also has participated in building the profession of sustainability, leading sustainability nonprofits such as the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP) in the development of the first professional credential for sustainability practitioners, and strategic partnering with GBCI for its independent delivery. Jeff Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: How HelloFresh addresses packaging impacts Life cycle emissions of HelloFresh compare to restaurant or supermarket trips Addressing food waste in production Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Jeff's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?  I have two here. Number one is be ready to do anything, get dirty. In my own professional journey, I found that if I took the tasks or the projects that people didn't want to do because they looked boring or hard or just not exciting to people, they led me to some of the most exciting work that I ever did. So sometimes something that looks boring or just kind of a grind at the beginning actually turns into something really incredible. Never be afraid to take those things and, in fact, seek them out. Number two is keep a journal and ask yourself if you're making the impact you want through your career. It's a really broad field, and that's a good question to be asking ourselves regularly. I started my career in environmental consulting in the 1990s. That's really what we had available to us. We didn't have this thing called sustainability, but as I moved forward in my career, I noticed this thing called sustainability evolving and really was able to direct myself into it. So pay attention, keep a journal, and then take the jobs that people don't want because they don't have to be dirty jobs.Those things will usually lead you to some of your greatest successes.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?  In a word, it's mainstream. To put a little more color behind that, we're in a fascinating period right now where companies are being asked to make ambitious goals, and they're also being really held accountable to achieve them. We've moved beyond this period of lofty goals and even, to some extent, talking about moonshots. I think for some of us in the field that has been a little bit confusing because the moonshot was this inspiring thing that we were looking to gather people around, and I think there's still room for that. But we're being held accountable as companies to have realistic plans underneath them and to convince people that they're achievable. These high expectations are coming together with these enhanced greenwashing laws to really create this interesting space for companies. I know this has created side effects like what they call green hushing and companies talking less about what they're doing, but I think it's pushing us in the right direction for us to really be a lot more realistic, but still quite ambitious.  What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read?  I'm currently reading a book called the Customer is the Planet. It's quite new and really it has a nice mapping of environmental and social issues against the European ESRs standards. Anything that makes the European ESRs easier to digest and actually put in my brain is welcome to me. If you haven't read Natural Capitalism or The Natural Step or even Our Stolen Future, which are books from a previous century, they're fantastic and they're really great foundational reading.  What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?  I got my MBA in 2002 and that was my pivot from environmental consulting into sustainability. Right about that time, this guy named Joel Makower was starting up this website called GreenBiz. It's now called Trellis. They pivoted into a really network based approach. That has always been one of the key sources that I turn to. That newsletter has been very useful for me to observe things. You watch these things over time, you start to see trends, patterns, you see how things transform. It's really been a fantastic resource. Then LinkedIn. It took me a while to get the algorithm working for me, but it feeds a lot of really good content to me these days. I highly recommend both of those.  Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at HelloFresh?  The HelloFresh website has a sustainability section. You can also go to our Instagram site @hellofresh. They really are great at putting some fun videos and reels in there and TikTok. They've done a great job, it actually gets quite funny. Then of course you can find me on LinkedIn under Jeff Yorzyk.

Ara Erickson is Vice President of Corporate Sustainability at Weyerhaeuser, where she is accountable for the development and implementation of the company's comprehensive sustainability strategy, including three areas where the company is in a unique position to participate: working forests contribution to climate change solutions, the role of sustainable products in ensuring housing for everyone, and support for thriving rural communities. She serves as a board member for American Forests, the oldest national nonprofit conservation organization in the United States, is a founding steering committee member for the Women's Forest Congress, and uses her voice to be an advocate for sustainable, working forests. Ara is an authentic, compassionate, and driven leader, best known for building partnerships through collaboration, transparency and honest communication. Prior to Weyerhaeuser, she served as Director of the Green City Partnerships program with a regional conservation organization, Forterra, and as a forest-based researcher, environmental consultant and educator. She received her M.S. in Forest Resources from the University of Washington and her B.S. in Resource Management from the University of California, Berkeley. Ara Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: The development of Weyerhaeuser's sustainability strategy How timber harvesting is done sustainability  Weyerhaeuser's forest carbon credit principles  Plans for achieving emissions reductions goals by 2030 Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Ara's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give to other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?  I think all of us in sustainability are here because we're passionate about sustainability, but primarily there's also something that drove us here. For me, I'm passionate about forestry and forest and these products that make our lives so much better. We get warm, cozy homes to live in, we hope, and I've been able to channel my passion for sustainability and forestry at the same time. So I always recommend finding the thing that you get excited about and want to be part of, whether that's outdoor recreation or literature, whatever it might be, and then channel sustainability through that passion.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?  I love that sustainability is finding its way into all the nooks and crannies inside companies, whether that's company level strategy or employee volunteering programs or community involvement. That it is so broad and that can make it really complex, but I just love that I'm seeing sustainability showing up in so many levels of companies now, and so many very important decision making levers and places where employees feel really connected to it and communities are directly impacted. To me, that feels like sustainability has reached the point where people are recognizing how important it is to help drive strategy and help drive outcomes for both their own employees and and their communities.  What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read?  I have one sitting on my desk right now that I just started to read. I'm about a quarter of the way through it and it's been wonderful so far. It's called Chief Sustainability Officers at Work: How CSOs Build Successful Sustainability and ESG Strategies and by Chrissa Pagitsas. It's a great compilation of an incredible amount of leadership from all different types of companies on how they've been able to drive these strategies in their companies.  What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?  I have a set of things that I rely on a lot. One of them is just the basic Strunk and White old book which has been around for a long time. But as sustainability professionals we really need to know how to write compelling pieces that are clear, so I always have that in my toolkit. I also think it's really important for us sustainability professionals to be able to take care of ourselves and make certain that we still have the energy to keep doing our work well, whatever that means for our daily practices of self care. I personally do a lot of meditation and journaling in the morning and tea drinking in order to really help settle me into a space where I can be really productive and impactful when I show up to my job. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Weyerhaeuser?  We have a full website at www.weyerhaeuser.com. At www.weyerhaeuser.com/sustainability we have tons of information and resources, great examples that we talked about today like the principles documents and our carbon record. There's some fun videos on there as well. Then there's a ton of information about forestry in general that's put out by some organizations like the National Alliance of Forest Owners, and there's a great tool that the American Wood Council has created that's about fiber sourcing and where your wood comes from. You can actually type in the grade stamp of the lumber if you happen to buy a piece of lumber and find out the region it comes from. Those are both sites that we've really helped generate a lot of the content for and fed materials to so that people can be learning about these incredible forests and the products that come from them.

Brian W. King joined ADS in September 2020 and serves as Executive Vice President, Product Management and Marketing. Mr. King came to the Company with over 25 years of product management and marketing experience in both consumer and commercial businesses. From 2013 to September 2020, Mr. King worked at Owens Corning, a Toledo, Ohio-based company that develops and produces insulation, roofing and fiberglass composites and related materials, serving as Vice President, Strategic Marketing from 2016 to 2020 and Director of Strategic Marketing from 2015 to 2016. Prior to Mr. King's role at Owens Corning, he held leadership positions at The Stanley Works, Elmer's Products Inc., and Avery Dennison Corporation. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McMaster University. He has received certifications in Marketing Management and Executive Education from York University and the University of North Carolina respectively. Brian Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: ADS' plastic recycling operations and achievements Strategic efforts at ADS to reduce GHG emissions and their recognition as one of America's climate leaders by USA Today Partnerships that advance recycling and sustainability initiatives Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Brian's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?  I think we tend to underestimate what change we can make over a decade, and so I think we need to look at change over a longer period. We overestimate what you can do in a year. We're always very aggressive about what you can do in a year, and then we underestimate what you can do over a decade. But if you look back, you find that we've made great change over decades. So I think we need to adjust how we look at how change. The change we make and the impact that we have needs to be longer term.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?  I get really excited when people say plastics recycling doesn't work, because it does. Even though there's no silver bullet in solving the plastics problem. Because plastics in the environment is a problem, and we need to work together to solve that. I get pretty excited because a lot of people tell us that plastics recycling doesn't work, and ADS is an example that, yes, it does. We can actually effectively create circular economies for plastics and we can help to solve the plastic problem. That excites me because that is a big deal.  What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read?  My favorite is Cradle to Cradle. It's remaking the way that we make things. As someone who's done product management for a lot of their career, sustainability is key to product management. We need to think about end of life. When you design a product, it shouldn't just be around the economic value or the features and benefits or the value proposition that the product's delivering. You need to think about what happens at the end of life. Cradle to Cradle is a great way to open your eyes to that.  What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?  We talked about one of them, being partners with groups like the Recycling Partnership. There's passionate individuals, people who are doing things across the country that you can hear from. The Ohio State Sustainability Institute being another one I talked about. Talking to those like minded companies, talking to those like minded people, people finding those like minded organizations out there that are aligned with what it is that you want to do from a sustainability perspective. Sustainability professionals listen to this. We have to make sure we make those connections because some of the best resources are talking to people about what they've learned, what failed, what worked. That gets me really excited.  Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at ADS?  If anyone wants to email me here at ADS, it's brian.king@adspipe.com. I'm on LinkedIn, Brian W. King. LinkedIn is the way to find me. If you want to go to our website, adspipe.com/sustainability we have an interactive version of our 2024 sustainability report that allows you to dig into some of the good work that we're doing.

Meredith Lindvall earned a BS in Environmental Science and a Master of Public Health in Environmental Health both from Emory University. She has a passion for the relationship between people's health and their environments that has led to a commitment to careers in the environment. An Atlanta native, she has worked in the health research, environmental and sustainability departments at Emory Pediatric Pulmonology, Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot and Cox Enterprises where she currently serves as the Assistant Vice President of Waste, Water, Nature & Biodiversity. Meredith joined Cox in 2011 and led Cox's recent industry leading achievement of Zero Waste to Landfill by 2024. She currently serves on the board of LiveThrive Atlanta, who operates the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials, and as Secretary of the Board of the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation. Meredith Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Steps to achieving 90% waste diversion rate Employee engagement strategies and initiatives, including translating zero waste to KPIs  Cost benefits of moving to zero waste Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Meredith's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? My advice is to meet people where they are. The reason that's important is because you are trying to gain buy-in. If you can put yourselves in their shoes, figure out why they should care, you can translate sustainability to a really wide range of audiences. Think about, when you're not talking to sustainability professionals, how can you translate what your mission is into a way that this person can be passionate about it? Whether that is a time savings, whether that's that they like to go out on the weekends with their grandkids and learn about the environment, they want to deliver financial savings, they want to have a different relationship with their supplier. I would encourage you to carve out time to think about your audience and meet them where they're at and then bring them on that journey with you. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I am excited that the sustainability world is really rapidly expanding past carbon to add things like biodiversity and nature that really, for me, connect our why back to nature and ecosystems and the planet. You heard me say up top that that's really where my passion has been. We're really interconnected, the environment, humans and the planet and species. I'm excited to see biodiversity goals and some of these other things that are really more closely connecting the dots between climate change, species, habitat, and traditional environmental work that, in my opinion, has been a little bit siloed. I'm excited about those coming together. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read? I'm guessing everyone's read Green to Gold, so for a more current one, I would say Drawdown, which builds on Paul Hawkins' work in the ecology of commerce and really breaks it into truly actionable steps that we as a society can take to combat climate change in the next 50 years. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? Knowing that your audience are experts in this field, some I'm sure they've been to themselves, but I would say GreenBiz, which is now Trellis, Sustainable Brands, Environment+Energy Leader, in-house tools. Big helpful things for us have been to gamify the actions that we want employees to take. Whether that is an in-house tool or an off the shelf tool, I would just encourage people to look at what can you do to amplify your work given that sustainability teams are often very small. One that I did want to throw out there that folks might not be as familiar with, but again where my passions intersect, is the National Association of Environmental Managers, which really, from my perspective is connecting the environmental health and safety and sustainability work together. As sustainability becomes more regulated and compliance based, I really see a lot of synergy there in that association. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Cox? Listeners can go to coxenterprises.com and look under the Our Impact tab and there you can see our impact report. You'll see a call out on all of our sustainability work where you'll be able to check out the zero waste to landfill achievement, our water work, our carbon work, and then you'll also be able to look at our social impact impact work there as well for 34 by 34. You can find me on LinkedIn, Meredith Lindvall.

Allison Berg is sustainability manager for DS Smith North America, where she manages the delivery of the company's Now & Next Sustainability Strategy, which focuses on closing the sustainability loop through better design, protecting natural resources by making the most of every fiber, reducing waste and pollution through circular solutions and equipping people to lead the transition to a circular economy. Allison is passionate about bringing positive change to communities who are underserved and are directly impacted by climate change. Allison Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Circularity and circular design metrics DS Smith's nature focus area and biodiversity targets Bundling low ROI projects like water with higher ROI projects for leadership buy-in Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Allison's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give to other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?  Get your hands on as much as possible. Sustainability is such an evolving large field ranging from reporting and regulations, carbon water waste projects, circularity, community engagement, safety, biodiversity, etc. The more that you can get your hands on, the better. My role at DS Smith, managing our sustainability strategy specifically for North America, has allowed me to get my hands on a lot of different topics that maybe you wouldn't if you're in a company that's a bit more siloed. If you have the opportunity to do something random, like you're focused on water and someone says, "do you want to pick this community piece up?" Go ahead. If you're open to it, you might as well try. Especially in the job markets, they're really looking for multifaceted people that could do a lot of different varieties of things. That'll put you one step ahead if you're doing all sorts of different things.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?  Scope 3, because it's such an evolving field that everybody is currently trying to sort through, us included. It'll be really interesting to see that legislation as well. I know the SEC and scope 3 conversation was around recently and didn't really happen here in the US, but it's happening in Europe, so it's only a matter of time before that'll make its way over here. That, and I would say 2030 sustainability goals. I'm really looking forward to when 2029, 2030 comes around. All these companies have these big 2030 goals. Are they going to hit them? And if they don't, what are the consequences that we're going to see from these companies if they do not hit their established targets? I'm definitely looking forward to the next six years or so. It should be interesting.  What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read?  I do a lot of different nonfiction reading at work between reports and standards and regulations and so on, so I'm typically a fiction reader. However, I highly recommend sustainability professionals if they haven't really done so already, to watch An Inconvenient Truth, which is the documentary by Al Gore back in 2006. That documentary in particular is what inspired me to do what I do now. I was hooked the second I watched it. It was really inspiring the way Al Gore presents, he's an amazing presenter. I highly recommend watching that. I know he's done an updated Inconvenient Truth in the last couple of years as well that's more with the times, but I highly recommend it for those who have not seen it yet.  What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?  Recently I joined the International Society of Sustainability Professionals, the ISSP. They have a lot of interesting resources as well as a new certification called the SEA and the SEP, the Sustainability Excellence Associate and Professional. They have a lot of interesting tools. I would also say relevant industry associations. For example, for me being in the pulp and paper industry, our main trade association, the American Forest and Paper Association, they have a large sustainability component as part of what they do. I assume other relevant industry associations will also have some sustainability component as everybody, including trade associations, have some sort of sustainability goals at this point. Those could be interesting resources as well.  Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at DS Smith?  I am on LinkedIn, Alison Berg, PMP if you'd like to find me. To learn more about DS Smith specifically, dssmith.com/sustainability is where you can find some updates on how we're doing on our sustainability strategy.

Lisen Wirén is a sustainable business leader with over 15 years of industry experience. Her extensive background includes tackling labour migration and human rights issues in South East Asia and advancing sustainability in product design and working with social entrepreneurship. Her leadership led IKEA to win the most sustainable retailer award and a nomination for Wirén for the prestigious Sustainability Manager of the Year award in the Netherlands. Key to her approach is the seamless integration of sustainability into every function and team to reach the set organizational goals. She is based in Helsingborg, Sweden. Pia Heidenmark Cook is a Senior Advisor with Teneo, working with the ESG and Sustainability team to advise clients on how to develop and operationalise sustainability strategies and the implications for reputation strategies. Prior to Teneo, Pia was the Chief Sustainability Officer for IKEA, where she led the development and implementation of the IKEA People and Planet Positive strategy. Her cross-functional team worked closely with the business on developing circular business models (including take back offers, leasing and second hand), launching new sustainable offers (such as selling solar panels across 14 markets) and helping customers to live more sustainable and healthier lives. During this time, IKEA ranked in the top three most sustainable brands and managed to decouple carbon dioxide emissions from its commercial growth across the value chain. Pia and Lisen Join Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Their co-authored book, Embedding Sustainability First steps for companies getting started with sustainability, including engaging stakeholders Tips for incorporating sustainability into each employee's day to day job and tying these actions to sustainability objectives Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Pia and Lisen's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?  Pia: I would start by saying understanding that sustainability and working with sustainability is as much about technical competence to understand the topic and all its facets as it is about change management and understanding how to work with people and change management.  Lisen: This field has become very much about reporting and that's something Pia and I have discussed quite a lot and of course that's very important and that's something that is driving sustainability and is also a wake up call for many businesses. But I would also encourage sustainability managers to try not to get too stuck in that, but to involve other relevant functions to support with the reporting so that they can still keep a strategic focus and lead the sustainability agenda. What we see is that the sustainability leader, manager, CSO, should be orchestrating the change, um, rather than getting too stuck in reporting. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? That  Pia: That it's becoming more and more mainstream. We're still not doing enough, but most people just know that it's here to stay, it's something we need to deal with. There's  levels of how deep the integration is and how far they come, but people are not questioning that the long-term direction is that companies need to deal with social and environmental issues to stay in business and be relevant.  Lisen: One of the persons that we interview is a designer and she talks about that 80% of the climate footprint sits in the design stage. For me that really triggers something for me to think about the real opportunity that sits within circularity. When designers and product developers and architects and so on, when they are opening up their eyes for the possibilities of circularity and getting excited about the creativity and innovation that that requires, I think there's unlimited possibilities.  What is one book you'd recommend sustainability professionals read?  Pia: I would say a mix of books that paint a picture of 'why' to more CSO handbooks. Books that are more hands-on, painting the picture of the environmental challenges or the social challenges so you build that knowledge, to those where where you get practical, concrete examples from others that have done the work. I think it's a lot about recognizing different situations and learning from them to get tools to keep doing the change journey yourself. I would also recommend one of the many books by Berne Brown about leadership and personal leadership and being your authentic self.  Lisen: I would go for a more action oriented solution-focused book, and that one is called Exponential Climate Solutions by Rebecka Carlsson. She's a Swedish author and she started at Singularity University and focused on different solutions that can have an exponential development. That's a very interesting, practical hands-on book with loads of examples.  What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?  Pia: Talking to people, meeting people, listening to people. Maybe not a lot of newsletters, of course to stay updated, but really the dialogue when you listen and talk to people and learn from them.  Lisen: To compliment that answer, one of the advices or suggestions that we give in the last part of the book is actually to sometimes look at what you need for yourself to keep on going, since this is not a sprint, but it's rather a marathon. You need to be able to last long as a leader, and one tool to do so can also be to sometimes zoom out from negative news and practice basically a news detox, trying to focus on the long-term positive improvements that are happening and that might not be an phone alert. Balance the negative news with some positive long-term development.  Where can our listeners go to learn more about both of you and your book? Embeddingsustainability.com or our LinkedIn pages.  

Mary Jane currently serves as Chief Sustainability and Global Impact Officer at General Mills. She has reshaped global sustainability and philanthropy strategies unlocking unique value for multiple stakeholders. She was instrumental in the development of an innovative governance structure, establishing a new global impact corporate function, and building a long-range investment/accountability strategy to drive business and planetary impact. She engages deeply with the investor community and provides strategic updates to the Board and C-Suite. Mary Jane's accomplishments have been featured in many publications including Forbes, Greenbiz and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. She is an in-demand public speaker with global media experience. Her colleagues value her thought leadership, independent point of view and collaborative, values-driven leadership style. Committed to lending her expertise and leadership to support related professional and community organizations, she currently serves on the Executive Committee of The Conference Board's Sustainability Council, WRI's Corporate Consultative Group, and the Board of the St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation. Mary Jane Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: General Mills' key sustainability initiatives: Reducing GHG emissions, advancing regenerative agriculture, and recyclable/reusable packaging Strategies to engage with farmers to adopt regenerative agriculture  Getting leadership buy in for SBTI goals The importance of partnerships with key stakeholders and peer companies Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Mary Jane's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?  Give yourself a little grace and space. This work, it's not a quarter, it's not a year, it's many years. You need to be prepared for the marathon, not the sprint. The days can be really hard, but they can be really rewarding. So grace and space for yourself is really important.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?  I am most excited about the promising outcomes that regenerative agriculture is driving for the planet, for farm ecosystems, for communities, and for farmers, and what it's doing for nature. When I stand on a regenerative farm and I see these bugs and birds and so much life, it's really cup filling.  What is one book you'd recommend sustainability professionals read?  This is going to sound like a strange answer, but I would say The Alchemist, because there's something in there about the sustainability of the human soul that is really beautiful and worth reading.  What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?  My favorite Go-to resources would be the Corporate Eco Forum. They have a plethora of research and information and latest emerging ESG rules and regulations, and also have created a really closely connected group of chief sustainability officers and sustainability professionals that I just have found invaluable in the time I've been in this role.  Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at General Mills?  For General Mills, they can visit www.generalmills.com, that's our company website. There you can also see a global impact and sustainability page that will take you to the great work that the company's doing in regenerative ag, our sustainability report, our governance structure. For me, you can check me out on LinkedIn, Mary Jane Melendez.

Erik Distler is responsible for overseeing AEG Sustainability, the organization's corporate sustainability program. In this capacity, he focuses on global strategies and tactics that address operational impacts and capture and measure data across key environmental metrics, such as greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, and waste reduction. He also supports AEG's global business units in the implementation and execution of sustainability initiatives, manages external partnerships related to sustainability, facilitates the sharing of best practices, and ensures that sustainability is a source of value across the company. Distler has worked at the intersection of environmental and social responsibility in sports and entertainment for more than ten years. Before joining AEG, he built and led the sports-focused sustainability strategy and program at Nike. Prior to Nike, he was with the Green Sports Alliance where he oversaw relationships with corporate partners, live entertainment events, professional sports leagues and clubs, sports governing bodies, and collegiate schools and conferences, as well as working extensively with ESPN. He also spent time as a sustainability consultant with PwC. Distler began his career in accounting and finance, where he worked for Deloitte and The Siegfried Group LLP for the first seven years of his career. He received his Master of Public Administration (MPA) in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School and his Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance from Iowa State University, graduating with Honors and High Distinction.. Erik Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: How AEG manages sustainability at large events like music festivals Piloting initiatives at smaller events to apply learnings and replicate at larger events Incorporating reusable materials at events in partnership with Our World Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Erik's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I would say have as many conversations as you can. Sustainability departments are often departments and functions that are in service to the business. We tend to operate as internal consultants. So how can we be everywhere at the same time? How can we ensure that every part of the business has the opportunity to build sustainability into their work? How do we consult to provide subject matter expertise to the business? The work we do within the department is measurement and data and setting sustainability targets and all that kind of exists within our function. But it all starts with having conversations. I wouldn't be afraid to sit down with someone and ask them more questions than provide statements on how they feel, how they perceive sustainability, where they feel as though it's working, where it's not working, what can we do more of that really helped build out our sustainability strategy. Do a little bit of a needs assessment on what stakeholders and partners value. The only other thing I'd say too secondary is, don't be afraid to start somewhere. I think we often feel as though the challenges we're up against are audacious and global and all encompassing, and they are. It can sometimes feel like we're out at sea against a massive challenge on our own  when we think of climate issues. That can freeze one up. It can stifle movement. You can feel like, "well, what can I do? I can't possibly make a difference." It's amazing what just taking one small step can lead to. There's been this kind of backlash against incrementalism in the space, like we need big changes, not incremental changes, but I don't know that I agree with that. I think an incremental quick change that you can grow on and iterate from can turn into something very big. So don't be afraid to start somewhere. Start with something that you can measure, for sure. But have those conversations and turn those small steps into big steps. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? There's a lot to be excited about. When realizing the gravity of the issue that we're facing, I think it's important to find sources of encouragement and hopefulness. There's really no other way. There's a line by Walt Kelly from his pogo comic strip many years ago that says, “we are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.” I use that and refer to that a lot. Try to figure out what is the opportunity in front of us and be optimistic about it. I think there's an excitement around the external forces. They're becoming louder and more influential, and that's encouraging. Our fans, our partners, our sponsors, our artists and entertainers. There's more of a voice and more influence that is being laid upon us and expected from us. I think collaboration is increasing cross-sector research companies that are competitive coming together in a pre-competitive way. Higher education institutions are pulling us in to do research that will help us in our business. We're seeing a lot of that. There's also a healthy kind of push, pull and engagement among our partners and sponsors. There's that untapped space with partnerships and sponsorships where it's determining inventory and the assets and how sustainability can be valued and monetized, but the conversations that we're having with partners or potential partners around shared goals, targets, aspirations, and what we can do together to help achieve our individual sustainability goals, kind of matches up. There's a lot of energy and excitement around that. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? One is Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows. It's a book that'll retrain your brain to consider the interconnectedness of literally everything around you. And then Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins. It's that seminal book on environmental economics. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I read Green Bizz, 3BL and Triple Pundit. We get a lot of resources from our longtime partner, Schneider Electric. We've worked with them for many years and they have webinars and lots of sessions and thought leadership that we use a lot. I also keep up on the guidance from the GHG protocol, the EPA, the UN. In our space in particular, there are two organizations that are co- holding up the movement, Green Sports Alliance on the sports side and a more newly formed music sustainability alliance on the music side. We look to these two entities to hold and convene us, and there's a lot of good research and thinking coming out of those orgs as well. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at AEG? Our website, aegworldwide.com. There's an About Us dropdown at the top, and we have a somewhat newly revamped sustainability page and more changes coming. We're building out a microsite off that page when we have our next generation sustainability goals finalized. We'll have all that good stuff up there. We also have case studies or what we call sustainability stories up on that page. Also under About Us, you can read about our social impact and DEI functions as well. We have a Twitter account, we recently rebranded it from AEG One Earth to the handle, @AEGSustain or the account name, AEG sustainability. We're trying to get information up there. And of course, LinkedIn is a great place to reach out to myself or anyone from our sustainability team.

Ellen is spearheading the integration of Mastercard's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy into the organization. As part of this work, she is driving climate leadership for Mastercard-wide programs and commitments, such as reaching net-zero emissions by 2040, and helping accelerate the company's impact in climate action initiatives like Priceless Planet Coalition. Mastercard's ESG efforts, established more than a decade ago, are rooted in a belief of doing well by doing good in order to have true impact and enable both people and the planet to thrive. Previously, Ellen served as Chief Impact Officer and Head of Sustainable Impact at HP. Her global team developed and delivered a wide range of programs focused on climate action, human rights and digital equity. Earlier in her career, she served in several management and consulting roles. Ellen is part of the advisory board of the Ocean Plastics Leadership Network, is a deputy advisor on the World Economic Forum's Champions for Nature community and has served as a faculty member of The Prince of Wales's Business & Sustainability Programme at the University of Cambridge. Ellen Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Mastercard's net zero goals, sustainable consumption strategy, and inclusive climate action Decoupling emissions from growth through strategies like tying compensation to progress on ESG targets/supplier engagement  MasterCard's Priceless Planet Coalition  Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Ellen's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? The way I think about sustainability jobs now, every job is a sustainability job. Some people may have heard that before, but I truly believe that, especially as we're working across all the different areas of MasterCard to innovate in this space. I need marketing professionals to help us inspire more sustainable consumption in the messaging that they're creating and in the partnerships and the sponsorships that they're funding. I need engineering to be thinking about how energy efficient is the code they're creating, they need to be on board with this as well. I need our technology team to ensure that when we're expanding our data centers, they're choosing the most sustainable servers and partners who can help us innovate and achieve net zero. So no matter what role you're in, there really is a sustainability impact and an angle to that job. I just encourage people to think about what they can do to raise the bar to make more aggressive progress in this space. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? We're just seeing such a shift. There's never been so much positive energy in terms of tackling the climate crisis and it's coming from all different areas. The next generation is certainly being more vocal than ever before. I'm seeing innovation and inspiration come from different colleagues where maybe you didn't hear it so much in the past, but now, everybody wants to be on the sustainability team and they're bringing real ideas and solutions and innovation. I just feel like the energy that is focused on this issue right now is stronger than ever before, and I think that's really exciting. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read? I tend to be more of a podcaster or a newspaper reader, so I'm going to choose a book that's based on my favorite podcast, Outrage and Optimism. The book is The Future We Choose by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I mentioned Outrage and Optimism, that podcast, if you haven't listened to it, I think it's a fantastic resource. Project Drawdown continues to bring incredible tools as well to this space. In terms of staying on top of the latest news, the climate forward section of the New York Times I find is very valuable. The Guardian also reports quite a bit in this space. So lots of different resources, but I'll always go back to Outrage and Optimism. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at MasterCard? You can follow me on LinkedIn, Ellen Jackowski. If you want more information about what MasterCard is doing or to skim our EHG report, you can go to the MasterCard website, mastercard.com and search sustainability and you'll find lots of resources and information there.

Jonah Smith joined IBM in 2023 as Vice President, Environmental Social Governance Strategy and Programs.  In addition to leading global ESG strategy, goals, stakeholder engagement, reporting and governance, Jonah's responsibilities also entail the development and implementation of environmental social innovation programs such as the IBM Sustainability Accelerator.  Prior to IBM, Jonah led ESG at Kraft Heinz as its Global Head of Environmental Social Governance & President of the Kraft Heinz Foundation.  Prior to Kraft Heinz Jonah held similar roles at Grainger and MillerCoors, has done stints in socially responsible investing, teaching sustainability at the university level, and served as the Sustainable Business Director at a non-profit, the Alliance for the Great Lakes.  Jonah's career spans about two decades in sustainability, CSR/ESG. Jonah holds an MBA in Sustainable Business from Pinchot University (formerly Bainbridge Graduate Institute).  In addition, Jonah holds a MS in Conservation Biology & Ecosystem Management, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Latin American & Caribbean Studies, and finally a BA in English Literature, all from the University of Michigan.  While in graduate school at what is now SEAS (formerly SNRE), Jonah's 1.5 years Master's opus researched and prescribed proper valuation of water resources and sustainability in Brazil.   Jonah Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: IBM's study: Beyond Checking the Box Key characteristics of companies that effectively embed sustainability across the organization  Data useability as a key challenge to sustainable business value IBM's Sustainability Accelerator Program Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Jonah's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?  Figure out what your sweet spot is in terms of what's meaningful to you. What are your passions? What are you most passionate about? Really be honest with yourself about that. Don't just look at what's the biggest paycheck or whatever else it may be, but look at what you're most passionate about and what your day-to-day life will be like doing that work. We're all the most effective when we're doing things that are really meaningful to us, right? I love, love, love the work that I do. We're all gonna have challenges every day in our work, but if you really love and feel passionate about that work, it's easier to get over those challenges. Have an honest self-reflection with yourself on that. And then envision yourself how you're going to retire and build a pathway backwards from that retirement space. Talk to people who are in a similar role at a similar company that you'd like to be at, or a nonprofit, if it's a nonprofit or if it's with the government, whatever it may be. Do that networking. Then walk yourself all the way back and then take a stair step ladder in order to achieve what you just walked out of.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?  I'm really excited about the potential of AI to really help accelerate our ability to mitigate the impacts of climate change, both in terms of tracking, reporting it, as well as actually helping through initiatives like I just mentioned with our Sustainability Accelerator Program, for example. We're past the tipping point. The time is yesterday in terms of how we need to act on this stuff. We all need to do our part. So it really excites me. That's why I'm at IBM. It really excites me when I think about IBM's ability to really help the world achieve this. If everyone can get as excited as I am about that, and we start acting on that excitement, I think we will be in a much better space.  What is one book you'd recommend Sustainability Leaders Read?  If I had to just pick out one, I might go back to my roots a little bit on this one. The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawkin was a book when I was in grad school that was often referred to. There's so many different books we're always learning new things and it's always good to keep your finger on the pulse of whatever's going on and present time. But also sometimes it's good to look back at where we were. That book does a great job of making connections in a way that I think takes us back to the roots of our planet's ecosystem services, the connection between biodiversity and nature and ecosystem. I think it really would help build a foundation for folks to then really be able to apply with better intention in today's modern world, what's going on and all the impacts and where we need to get back to or where we need to go to.  What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?  Our IBM Envizi tool. It's super powerful, super comprehensive. I wish I had it throughout my career at other companies that I've worked at as we struggled with data and on all sorts of different automating and definition parameters and transparency and scope, and being able to connect to different platforms and disclosure reporting and so forth. So I would say our Envizi software. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you, Jonah, and the work being done at IBM?  You could go to my LinkedIn profile, Jonah Smith. For IBM, it's really simple: ibm.com/impact. There's so much great information on our website. You can find our most recent impact report as well as previous impact reports. You can find ESG policies and links to other parts of our website if you want to do a deep dive into our environmental goals, or our upskilling and technology. IBM has goals to skill 30 million people by 2030. All of our different areas that we're operating in, that's a great initial place to scope it out.

Allison Jordan joined Wine Institute and the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA) in 2003, shortly after the publication of the California Code of Sustainable Winegrowing. Since 2007, she has served as the Executive Director of the Alliance and Vice President, Environmental Affairs for Wine Institute. Previously, she was a Senior Associate at SureHarvest and Vice President and Executive Director of Resource Renewal Institute. Jordan holds a master of Public Policy from the Goldman School at UC Berkeley and a Psychology bachelor's degree from Allegheny College, a Certificate in Wine Business Management from Sonoma State University and WSET Level 2 from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. Allison Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Keys to successful adoption of California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance's certification program Interest from buyers in third party verification CSWA's Green Medal Award program How wineries are engaging with suppliers to pursue certification Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Allison's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their career? To take time to think creatively about partnerships. One of the ways that we've made big advances is by just getting really creative and reaching out to people that we know are working in the space, whether it's in winegrowing or something tangential that maybe could be really beneficial to our industry. We've been able to make incredible progress, get experts involved, get new resources that can really help match our industry support for our efforts. Really thinking about how we can support each other in this very complex, comprehensive area of sustainability. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? That there's so much awareness now about climate change, that it's bringing new energy, new ideas, technology. I don't think technology is the full solution, but there's certainly exciting things happening that will help us leapfrog and make progress. There's a lot of positive energy in finding solutions. Interestingly, my daughter is currently a junior in a program at our local high school called the Marin School of Environmental Leadership and their curriculum is all around climate and environmental solutions. Seeing her class and some of the products they had to come up with as juniors, sustainable products that they're currently marketing, it's just incredibly inspiring because you can see that it's just the way that the next generation thinks. I'm inspired by that. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? I'd have to recommend a book that I use. I'm teaching a sustainable enterprise course for the Sonoma State Executive Wine MBA program right now. I have them read Andrew Savits, the Triple Bottom Line. It's just a really great basic understanding of what sustainability means for business and how it's evolved over time and the trajectory that we're on that basically shows that this is an imperative, not a nice to have. I just think it does a great job of introducing all of the key concepts for those who may be newer to the sustainability world. Even for those who've been in it for a long time, it's a good reminder of the basic framework and concepts that are really key. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? The first thing that pops into my mind is people. I go to so many experts, Josh, you're one of them, on issues that I know they have more expertise than I have. The other resource that I turn to time and time again, which is kind of funny because I've been involved in helping to develop a lot of the resources in it, but it's still a really great repository of information. That's our resources library on sustainablewinegrowing.org. I can always stand to be refreshed on certain topics and it's a great way to point people to resources that they might need as well. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance? The website that is the most core to what we do as an organization is sustainablewinegrowing.org. That's where you'll find the resources library about the organization, ways to get involved, etc.

Marissa is responsible for overseeing the continued evolution and implementation of Verizon's Sustainability Strategy as well as its enterprise wide relationships across its sustainability portfolio. ​She focuses on operationalizing Verizon's internal and external commitments while tracking its progress across the enterprise to ensure holistic management in the areas of sustainability and driving profitable growth. ​ Prior to joining Verizon, Marissa was with the Department of Defense in Washington DC, leading Climate Policy and Interagency engagement. She served as the climate policy advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations and Environment. ​She has held a number of progressive roles within the White House and Pentagon, including Director for Climate Adaptation and Resilience, Climate Program Director for the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Navy.​ From 2006-2014, Marissa served in various leadership roles at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, including the Office of the CFO and the Tribal Affairs Office. Marissa McInnis Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: How to institutionalize sustainability at a large global organization Verizon's approach to ESG reporting and highlights from the latest report  Verizon's renewable energy goals  Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Marissa's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I always advise people who ask me to think outside your circle. A lot of sustainability and climate educated professionals tend to stay within that bubble or that circle. I encourage you to talk to your facilities lead. I encourage you to talk to your supply chain lead. Think about the areas within the organization where you may be already doing that sustainability work and you're not counting it, or you're not communicating it across or replicating it. Think outside your circle. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? When you think about sustainability and climate from the climate perspective, you have mitigation where you're reducing emissions and then you also have adaptation and resilience where you're really looking to climate-proof your business. The lifting up of that adaptation and resilience side, especially given my background, that's what I worked on predominantly over the last 17 years, it's that side of it. I really am excited about how people are paying attention to it and businesses are paying attention to it. Alongside that, thinking about the co-benefits. That's kind of a buzzword that's happening right now, but what also reduces emissions plus helps with that adaptation resilience problem. Then finally the biggest one is just thinking about sustainability from this cross-cutting lens like I was talking about. Talking to folks that you wouldn't normally talk to. Sometimes it's hard. At the Pentagon, for a long time I was one of the younger people there and there were a lot of grumpy older facilities folks that I had to talk to. But it ended up being such a valuable conversation. We ended up working together to update building codes according to new climate projections. So you never know where you're going to find that value.That's why you have to keep reaching out. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? I just finished Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono, and it's all about how you can think about a problem and think about framing it. It takes any type of negative association or emotion off of one individual person and allows for really brilliant group think. You think about the white hat, it's neutral and objective. So you could say to someone in your group during your brainstorm, “Hey, put on a white hat,” and it takes away the personal and brings it up to a group level so that folks can think about it from that front. Yellow Hat is sunny and positive. The one hat that I try to use that I don't normally put on first is the Black hat, which is careful and cautious, the devil's advocate hat. I've really used it a lot and encourage folks to read it. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? Anything by Tensie Whelan, read it, absorb it. And I'm a little bit biased here because I helped develop a lot of this material, but I also l use a lot of the US government federal climate resources. If you go to climate.gov and use the Climate Resilience Toolkit, a lot of the work that I've done over the past 15 years is there. Looking at the maps, seeing where you can, especially with a company with a global footprint, think about where your biggest risks are from climate related hazards, it's really easy to do using public verified peer reviewed data. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at Verizon and check out the new ESG report? If you go to verizon.com there's a search box at the top. You can search sustainability and it goes into a resource page specifically for climate sustainability related goals. We also have our ESG report up there and you can see what we're doing from water conservation, renewable energy, our net zero goals, and also how to get involved within your community.

Todd Brady is the Chief Sustainability Officer for Intel Corporation, and Vice President of Community Relations & Sustainable Operations. As Chief Sustainability Officer, he leads Intel's global sustainability initiatives including climate, energy, water, green buildings and circular economy. Currently, Todd's organization is focused on achieving Intel's ambitious 2030 sustainability goals and commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions in Intel's global operations by 2040. Todd's Community Relations teams oversee local stakeholder engagement, community relations, corporate volunteerism, and sustainability at the company's major manufacturing and office locations around the globe. These locations include Arizona, California, New Mexico, Ohio, and Oregon in the United States, as well as China, Costa Rica, Germany, India, Israel, Ireland, Malaysia, and Vietnam. During his 25+ year career at Intel, Todd has represented the company in numerous public forums and led industry-wide initiatives in national and international committees. He has authored several papers in scientific journals and conference proceedings on a variety of sustainability topics. He was recognized with a lifetime achievement award by the National Association for Environmental Management (NAEM) and has been named by Scientific American as one of ten outstanding leaders involved in research, business or policy pursuits that have advanced science and technology and one of the world's top 20 sustainability leaders by Sustainability Magazine. Todd holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He lives in Gilbert Arizona with his family, and in his spare time can be found running or biking the streets and trails of the Grand Canyon state. Todd Brady Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Advice for approaching leadership about pre-competitive collaboration The challenges and opportunities of AI on sustainability Intel's progress toward 100% renewable electricity by 2030 Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Todd's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Read as much as you can. Become knowledgeable, not only with your niche area, but broaden your horizons as much as you can. Learn as much as you can. Not only about sustainability, but across the business. Sometimes I've seen sustainability professionals be so passionate about whatever it is that they're working on, but they've lost sight of what the business imperatives are. So you always want to keep those two hand in hand, your sustainability focus along with the business imperative. When you can pull those two together, you're going to be the most successful. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I'm super excited that sustainability is mainstream. I'm blown away, being in this field for almost 30 years. When I started, it was only us nerd sustainability people we're talking about. Now it's mainstream. Everyone's talking about it. Your kids are interested in it, your wife is interested in it, your book club is interested in it, as well the customers, the general public. I think we have to take full advantage of that and really drive our work with that in mind. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? I just reread Bill Gates' book on Climate (How to Avoid a Climate Disaster). If you haven't read that, I highly recommend it. It's apolitical. He's not taking a political stance. Instead he approaches it kind of like an engineer, maybe that's why I like it. I'm an engineer and it's just: here's the problem, here's the vastness of the problem. It's super challenging, we've got to get through these different areas, but here are some solutions that we can go do. I always like those very practical approaches. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? Several come to mind. One would be, read anything that you can get your hands on. Nowadays the various search engines are so good. As soon as you click on a few articles around sustainability, all of a sudden you're getting other recommendations. That's a simple way. Other industry associations: I do think it's important to pop your head out of your day-to-day within your own business to understand what others are doing. So join an association within your sphere, whatever that is. We have many within the semiconductor industry, SIA and others that are important to be a part of. I'm also a member of a group called Sustainability 50 with other leaders like myself. It's great to be able to benchmark and bounce ideas off. I'll put a plug in for GreenBiz. I think Green Bizz is a great forum as well that pulls a bunch of sustainability professionals together. They were the first kind to really do that on scale and they do a great job year over year with their conferences and newsletters as well. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Intel? They can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'm happy to connect and you can follow me there. Then at Intel, go to intel.com/csr and you'll get to our corporate responsibility report. There's a number of pages you can follow there. I'll put a plugin for water. We're doing some really innovative things in water. Go to intel.com/water and see some of the restoration projects we're working on. By the way, we would love to partner with other companies in that area as well.

Erin is the lead for RILA's ESG and corporate responsibility portfolio, encompassing its Diversity Equity & Inclusion, Sustainability, and Responsible Sourcing Committees, and ESG engagement activities. She organizes educational content and convenes and facilitates benchmarking discussions, resource development, and stakeholder engagement for corporate retail issue leads in each of these areas. Erin has been with RILA since 2012, serving in a variety of roles supporting and leading the association's CSR communities. Erin serves on the International Sustainable Standards Board's (ISSB) Technical Reference Group. Prior to joining RILA, Erin interned for two years with the Progress Energy as their EnergyWise (smart grid) Change Management and Business Processes Intern while finishing her undergraduate degrees. Erin holds Bachelors of Arts in Public Policy with Honors and French from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was the recipient of both the Edward Kidder Graham Chancellor's Award and Michael A. Stegman Award for Policy Research and Advocacy as well as an inductee of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Erin Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: How sustainability was embedded into the work at RILA as a trade association RILA's climate action blueprint for member companies The development of RILAs new tool to help measure scope 3 emissions in collaboration with Optera Engaging members in advocacy for climate related initiatives Erin's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?  Invest in being a really good listener. I think that a lot of folks go into sustainability because they have a major passion for it, and they want to help other folks see the world and things as they do. But at the end of the day, the best communicators, the best collaborators are really good listeners, really good empathizers.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?  I am probably biased working for a trade association, but I feel like we are entering this era of creative and widespread collaboration. We're recognizing which of these challenges are too big for an individual company to take on on their own, any individual player in the space. So it's some of the projects like the DPED database with Optera, that sort of thing where we're hearing creative ideas, we're seeing them and trying to make sure that we're elevating them and giving them space so that as many companies can collaborate in them as one. So this era of collaboration has been really exciting to see,  What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read?  I would say first and foremost to read whatever gives you energy and be creative first and foremost. I think that's a big part of staying sane in this space, and I see reading as an outlet to really relax and again, think creatively. I like reading Sci-Fi.  I will say I think that Alison Taylor's Higher Ground that just came out, I haven't finished it yet, but to the point about being a good communicator, there's such a focus on people and such a focus on trust in that book. I think it gets back to that communicator role and us remembering at the at the end of the day that we're trying to collaborate and work with and understand how others think and feel.  What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?  Two structural frameworks that have helped guide my thinking a lot are some of the pillars around design thinking and systems thinking and that question of how might we that a lot of those leverage. I think it's a really good process for again, empathizing with your user so to speak, your end consumer. What do we really want to get to? Who needs to be involved? Who can we ask? And the value of quick iteration on an idea. It's easy to come up with something that we think is going to fix everything or be a silver bullet, and it's really about being willing to adjust so that it gets to where everyone needs it to be. I also think another one that's been interesting for me to learn more about is that my partner is actually a product manager and I've started to find myself adopting some of his processes around how you set up stakeholder engagement and how you really reflect on a project and break down the needs there. So I think borrowing from those other frameworks that well serve any issue set  that structures your thinking to to empathize, think creatively, but also be something that's pretty intuitive when you read about it, it clicks pretty quickly.  Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at RILA?  I would definitely say to check out our website, as you discovered. I love how much we're able to post publicly because we know it'll be beneficial beyond just the retail industry. So certainly the holistic sustainability ESG content that we have on the site and then on LinkedIn as well. I always like to talk about what we're doing there, and that's certainly my favorite way for connecting with folks.

Derek Young is an ESG, CSR, sustainability, and communications professional with over 25 years of experience. He is recognized as a thought leader capable of working across industries, analyzing and determining needs and opportunities for risk reduction, value creation, and building and delivering strategic ESG, CSR, Sustainability programs, messaging and branding campaigns, and community and stakeholder engagement efforts. Derek has led ESG consulting for Summit Strategy Group as well as served as the in-house CSR/Sustainability leader for a number of companies, including TGI Fridays, FedEx Office and Invista Performance Surfaces & Materials. He currently leads ESG for CBL Properties, a real estate investment trust in the retail sector. CBL owns malls, lifestyle centers and outlets in 22 states with more than 59,000,000 sq feet under management.  Derek lives in Chattanooga, TN with his wife and his dog Hank. Derek Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Engagement with tenants in sustainability initiatives Best practices for sharing data and fostering communication between landlord and tenant Whether the politicalization of ESG has impacted the approach to ESG at CBL or in the industry at large Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Derek's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability or ESG professionals that might help them in their careers? Learn how to speak in the language of the businesses that you operate in. In this space, it can be very easy to get sucked into the bubble of acronyms and terminology and to lose track that it has to connect to something of substance and value, and it has to be relevant to the business in which it's being delivered. If you do that efficiently and if you do that effectively, it's much easier to secure the support of the broader business and to get integrated and embedded faster and more effectively. As anybody coming into a role, particularly an in-house role, spend the time, learn how that company talks about things, learn how that business operates independent of your ESG or sustainability role, and then look for ways to merge those two things together. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I'm really enjoying the work on climate risk. I really think that this is a window to much more robust climate action. I think that we're seeing where risk and opportunity intersect because of it, and I think it's producing more knowledgeable businesses who are able to take more substantive action. As we continue to break that risk down, whether it's physical risk or transitional risk, and look for mitigation opportunities, it's going to produce more effective companies who have better carbon management planning and decarbonization initiatives as a result. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? I just finished a book by Solitaire Townsend called The Solutionists that is absolutely outstanding. It's a really great book that really looks at and focuses on how businesses can fix the future and how the business world can be a driver of change. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I love listening to podcasts like this one. I find that hearing it from people directly is a really efficient and effective way to pick up ideas and understand what's happening out in the world. I spend a little bit of every morning going through several of the key news sites. So whether that be GreenBiz or ESG today or the Sustainable Brands website or some of the others that are out there, just to make sure that I have a fairly well-rounded point of view on what's happening in the space. Then I look very strongly towards one-on-one interactions with colleagues and friends who I trust to make sure that we have opportunities to converse and share ideas and learn from each other on a regular basis. I have a core cohort of colleagues that I turn to on a regular basis for that as well. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at CBL properties? Our website is cblproperties.com and there is plenty of information on our website to find out about the work that's being done at a corporate level. You can look me up on LinkedIn and I've got plenty of information on that site as well. I'm happy to connect with anybody who's interested in connecting with me.

Norman Vossschulte is originally from Berlin, Germany. His culturally rich background included ten years living abroad in Africa, Iraq and Spain before moving back to Germany to finish High School and College. He studied Biology and Physical Science before deciding to move to New York City in 1996 to attend the Herbert Berghof Institute for Fine Theatre Arts and Drama. Norman's work experience is as eclectic as his upbringing. He has worked in the hotel industry, the non-profit industry, as well as both sports and entertainment industries. 25 years of practicing customer and client relations, has given him an overview of which techniques consistently enhance guest experiences. Norman has over 16 years of staff training and team leadership experience working with The Walt Disney Company and currently the Philadelphia Eagles. In 2014, Norman became the official GO GREEN spokesperson and began leading the green team for the Philadelphia Eagles. During his tenure the Eagles obtained LEED Gold certification and were the first sports team in the world to obtain ISO20121 certification. He organized and re-branded the initiative as the GO GREEN ECO Committee (Engagement, Communication, Operations) to involve the entire organization. One of the main missions of the ECO Committee is to Innovate & Sustain. The Eagles are now the first sports team to actively invest in the ocean by offsetting carbon emissions from player travel by planting sea grass. Norman Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: How the strong sustainability program for the Eagles began and evolved Material issues and initiatives of the Eagles' sustainability program How the Eagles have achieved 99.9% of waste diversion The approach to engaging fans in sustainability  Utilization of the hydrogen refueling station  Ideas for making sustainability more mainstream across sports  Norman's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I love this question. Sustainability professionals are at heart, a lot of the ones I meet at least, scientists. They're folks that have either studied this or are really in tune with some of the data and some of the science behind sustainability. A lot of those folks that really live and breathe sustainability every day, their language doesn't necessarily easily translate into sports because we speak the language of fans and teams. So in the sustainability sector, you have to find people that can bridge that gap and literally put into very simple terms some of these sustainability practices that you are trying to bring to a sports team. Every one of us has to figure out how we can translate a lot of this incredible sustainability language into an everyday language so that everyone will understand it and actions. Because actions have to be taken. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I'm excited that finally it seems like everyone is talking about it. We have some of our mainstream partners that come to us now and say, “Hey, we want to work with you on sustainability.” That's exciting to me because before that, if you had a sustainability partner that was already working in the sustainability space, of course they would talk about sustainability with you, but mainstream partners necessarily didn't. My biggest excitement is Gen Z, the new generation who are now the majority in the workplace and are the ones that are really pushing this agenda. I don't want them to stop because it's important, and because it's their kids who are going to inherit this planet when a lot of these predictions about climate change are going to come true. Gen Z is really pushing this agenda because they're the consumers, they're the clients now, they're the fans. It's important to us and it's important to them and their generation. They're the information generation that loves to post on social media, and it excites me. I think there's a real movement happening, and I don't want it to stop. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read? The Routledge Handbook of Sport and Sustainable Development. It basically dives into the United Nations climate pledge document that was written a few years ago that we actually were part of and that a lot of sports leagues and sports teams in the world have signed onto now. It addresses pretty much every area of sustainability, like waste and climate. We wrote one of those chapters in that book. Anthony Bonagura, one of our directors, actually wrote it and I helped a little bit. It was used in college education, but it's now available for purchase. It dives into a lot of the science and the data, the United Nations force for climate change pledge program that's out there, and that a lot of leagues in the world, including FIFA and the NFL have signed on to. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? Our sustainability consultant! We have an amazing sustainability consultant, Lindsay Arell. She was the CEO of Honeycomb Strategies that was recently sold to SMG,, a huge global venue operator. She now helps us with FIFA 26. The World Cup is coming to Philadelphia, and there's quite a few sustainability initiatives that we're working on with FIFA, and she's helping us work through that. She helped us with our LEED certification and she's in the middle of helping us to be recertified. I'm not an expert, we're no expert, she is. We always go to her for all the advice. I think it's really important to find someone who lives and breathes this stuff, but who can translate like I said that earlier, that language to us so we can understand it. What should we, what shouldn't we invest in? What should we spend time on, what should we bring to our partners? We really run everything by her. It's really important to have partners and to have folks in your corner who know what they're talking about and who you trust, because again, we don't know what we should and shouldn't be doing. It's really important to ask professionals in this space. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at the Philadelphia Eagles? Philadelphiaeagles.com. If you go there and you click on community, there is a page called Go Green, pun intended. We call our sustainability program Go Green. We are all about innovating and sustaining and the website is a really good source of information.

Thomas Stanchak is a seasoned Commercial Real Estate professional with over 20 years of diverse experience. He began his career with his current employer, Stoneweg US in 2017 as an Asset Manager, where he was responsible for overseeing operations, maximizing occupancy, and maintaining budgets for 17 assets in the Midwest region. In 2019, he was promoted to Senior Asset Manager assuming operational responsibility for more than 50% of total AUMs; where his operational leadership was hugely impactful in Stoneweg US' ability to deliver healthy returns to its investors that year. In 2020, Tom began focusing his efforts on implementing various energy-efficient and innovative practices to his portfolio by introducing water conservation, LED lighting retrofits, and effective recycling methods that would not only incorporate sustainability, but also provide key value-add for residents. Thomas Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Key material ESG issues Stoneweg focuses on Stoneweg's approach to collecting quality data Evaluation of climate risks and opportunities including climate transition modeling How Stoneweg is preparing for electrification in the industry Thomas' Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Not everybody is going to agree with you, and not everybody is going to like you, but over time, I've found that if you really work hard and you really do the math around the data and reporting and linking it to finding opportunity, that's the wedge to do things at scale. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? Real time energy monitoring and being able to get responsive feedback from these sorts of technologies as we make improvements. The simple example is, as I change HVAC systems, I can actually see the difference in how the property is functioning. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? I'm thinking more about multifamily and ESG and that place because I'm sort of responsible for encompassing all of those, as many people in my place are. I bought a book called Safe and Sound, it's by a trans woman named Mercury Stardust. The reason I bought this book is that I read in an article that she is a maintenance professional at an apartment community. She wrote this book because people like her or LBGT people often have to overcome an anxiety or a fear of having people come into their homes to even do minor repairs or do services and that sort of thing. It's a great book because it opened my mind. I have hundreds of people working in our communities. We have tens of thousands of residents. It kind of opened my mind to a perspective that some people, just to ask for their dripping faucet to be fixed, have to overcome an anxiety; will they be accepted? Will they be treated with dignity? I really found a great affinity with this. I felt like I learned something from the article when I bought the book. I think that more people should be more in tune and more focused on the people that they're trying to serve, the people that lease from you and occupy your real estate. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? If everyone is not using Energy Star Portfolio Manager is nuts, because they should be using it. It's something that the DOE and the EPA are really investing in bringing to the next level. We use several softwares for physical climate risk. We use separate softwares for modeling transition risk and finding opportunities to model how our investments are going to change our carbon intensity over time. We use different software for warehousing the enormous amount of data when it comes to having a large real estate portfolio with separate funds and strategies and that sort of thing. In putting all this data together for measuring the success or the shortfall of how we're investing, how it impacts the stated goals in terms of decarbonization or energy efficiency, it's a number of technologies that we're employing. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at Stoneweg US? I'm really proud that we've relaunched our website, https://www.stoneweg.us, and there's an ESG optimization section. This is something that I really worked really hard to provide a deep dive into how we're approaching all the material subjects around ESG and how we're making it tactical, going beyond good intentions. It's something that I'll maintain and share our progress and what we learn over time. Part of that is there's no point in me having a Net Zero portfolio, we all need to do it. That's part of the collaboration and that's why our company makes it front facing on our website.

Camille Richard is Head of Sustainability at Back Market, the leading marketplace dedicated to refurbished devices and reducing electronics' negative impact on the environment. She has led the company to become a Mission-Driven Company in 2022 and a B Corp-certified company in 2023. Working in the environmental sector for 10 years, prior to Back Market Camille was Sustainable Performance Manager for Suez, a waste and water recycling company, in Brazil, Mexico, and France. She received in 2021 the Hub35 Sustainable Award from the Hub Institute. Camille Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: How Back Market ensures quality of refurbishers How Back Market communicates and advocates for the Right to Repair movement Efforts to engage suppliers in advancing their sustainability efforts Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Camille's Final Five Question Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Be pragmatic and patient. When you work in the sustainability department of a company, you may understand that not everybody in the company is as mature as you wish on this topic. Sometimes you need to be ready to take one step backward today to be able to take two steps forward in a year. So it's something that you have to have in mind all the time, and it's not because you have to compromise at some point or that your project is not going to come out at some point. I would say as well to push sustainability strategy as an efficiency factor in the company. As a sustainability professional, working corporate, you are the defender of a long-term vision and it's not always the easy way, but nine times out of ten adopting sustainable practices leads to reduced cost and risks in the company. So you have to be patient and pragmatic and keep pushing it like it's actually what it is, a way to be more efficient and to last longer as a company. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? It's almost like a rising movement around the recognition of the contributions of certain companies like us to the fight against climate change. The recognition of scope four to avoid emissions like we mentioned a bit earlier today. There is more and more investor interest in it, saying that the value of the company is not only about money, but it's also about the impact it's actually generating. So I am very excited to see what is going to happen in the next month and years about that. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? I would say Grow the Pie from Alex Edmond. The idea of the book is to say that creating value is not only about choosing between financial value and the planet and the people, and that a successful company is the one that actually manages to grow the pie for all its stakeholders. A responsible business is actually one that innovates to last longer. I really liked this idea about this book. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? A tool that has helped me a lot and I wish I had known about it when I started at Back Market it's a B Corp self-assessment. It's not a resource per se, but it's a really good tool to run a diagnosis of where you are at in terms of sustainability in your company. What are your strengths? What are your actual weaknesses and what are your progress margins? I would recommend to anyone that wants to start a sustainability approach in their company to run a self-assessment on B Corp. I would say as well, I read a lot of the strategy from the French Agency for Environment that I was mentioning before, because recently they had made a really good one about carbon neutrality that was super interesting. And I look very closely as well as a UN report on waste because of course it's very close to our topic, but I would say mostly the better source of information and good practices for me is to talk with my peers in other companies. Sustainability teams are never huge teams. So it's always very interesting to talk about what you are doing, what are the best practices with people doing your job, but in other companies. So you can actually grab a lot of information and it's super interesting. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Back Market? We are about to launch our corporate website which we are going to feed with a lot of information, but it's not online yet. So I would recommend to follow me on LinkedIn. I'm trying to post regularly. And you can go on our website backmarket.com where we have some information about the company as well.

Rachel Kaufman is the Senior Director, Global Sustainability at Avantor, a leading global provider of mission-critical products and services to customers in the life sciences and technology industries. In this role, Rachel is responsible for establishing the company's environmental sustainability strategies and targets related to operations and products. She also oversees Avantor's broader Science for Goodness Sustainability Program and leads ESG reporting and customer and investor ESG engagement. Rachel's sustainability industry experience spans over 20 years. Before joining Avantor, she served as the Global Director of Environmental Sustainability for Johnson & Johnson's Consumer Health and Vision Care segments and managed communications and environmental policy for non-profit and government agencies in Washington, DC. Rachel holds a B.S. in NaturalResources from Cornell University and an MBA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Rachel Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Avantor's internal sustainability program: Science for Goodness Achieving consistent GHG reductions year over year How Avantor is addressing product use Avantor's responsible supplier program Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Rachel's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?  Hopefully this doesn't come across as something that is obvious, but I would say, I view corporate sustainability quite differently than I view nonprofit work, environmental, conservation work. There is a business side of it. I decided to go back and get my MBA. I'm not saying that's what you need to do, but somehow really beef up that understanding of: what are the challenges that your functional and cross-functional partners are facing. What is it like to be the CFO? What might be their barriers to being able to approve the investment that you need to achieve your sustainability goals? Getting an understanding of the Head of Sales and HR and where their challenges are I think is really key to being able to have those conversations and progress quickly on sustainability goals.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?  It's the spotlight, the debate and the day-to-day. The fact that in mass media right now, when you hear about these severe weather events, there's a mention of climate. When there's talk of the economy, there's a discussion of equity. It's really encouraging to see these topics get into the mainstream conversations on the related topics because they are so integral and so interrelated.  What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read?  I actually am not a huge reader of books. I get a lot of my information from reading articles, current events and podcasts. I would recommend folks follow some of the newsletters such as GreenBiz, Corporate Eco Forum, Sustainable Brands, and a top one I really like is actually the New York Stock Exchange. They do a top five ESG weekly roundup. I find that that's just a really great quick summary of what's happening in this space, particularly from that investor perspective. So I'm going to actually do a surprising plug for some of those email newsletters  What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?  One answer is the newsletters and the distributors that I just mentioned, but actually the sustainability network. We all have it, but I've joined a couple of sustainability groups of peers where we've been able to have these honest conversations of the challenges in a safe space. It is so helpful to hear that you are not alone in these challenges, and to be able to share learnings you have and be able to share confidentially and hear from others on how they have overcome some of the challenges. Find that network. Some are more structured than others where you can ask for those honest conversations. There's a few that I'm a part of that other folks you've had on the phone are a part of and we have spoken to about achieving these targets together.  Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Avantor? Our corporate website, which is avantorsciences.com. It's actually getting an overhaul soon, but it has a bunch of sustainability information under the “About Us.” Then of course you can follow myself or Avantor on LinkedIn. We do post quite a bit about our sustainability, DEI, and the work that we're doing in this space on LinkedIn.

Jamie joined Traditional Medicinals in 2019 as the Chief Purpose Officer. She manages Traditional Medicinals sustainability efforts including risk assessment, Zero Waste Project, regenerative and carbon strategy, and supply chain data management. Jamie is a recognized leader with expertise in corporate responsibility, sustainability, shared value creation and employee and community engagement. In January 2022, Jamie's role officially expanded to include the Human Resources team. Previously, Jamie was the Senior Director of Corporate Responsibility at McKesson, a Fortune 6 healthcare company. Prior to that she was the Senior Director, Employee Engagement and Corporate Responsibility at Visa and served as the Director of Community Engagement at the Alcoa Foundation for 10 years. Jamie earned a MS, Leadership for Sustainability, from University of Vermont, an Executive Certificate in Strategic Reputation Management from Dartmouth College, and MBA, Strategic Management, Organization Behavior from The University of British Columbia and a BS in Business Administration, IT, Finance and Accounting from Duquesne University. Jamie Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: How the B Corp community has helped Traditional Medicinals advance its sustainability efforts The FairWild Certification Transitioning to biodegradable packaging Challenges and processes for quantifying scope 3 emissions Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Jamie's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?  Understanding communication skills and influence skills really matter. What I found, especially working in large companies, is that most leaders are not ill-intentioned, but they may be preoccupied and they may be out of their depth on some of these sustainability topics. So the more you can meet them where they are, think about the scope of responsibility they have as well as their personal values and the company values, and then help move them in the direction of the change that you want to see, the easier it will be for everyone.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?  This might be specific to me, but I think we're probably seeing it across the board as hiring managers, is that environmental courses and topics are much more prevalent today than they were when we were in school. What I find now is that many people have degrees or minors in environmental sustainability. They may be working in marketing or R&D or procurement, but they have a real passion for environmental sustainability. We used to have to convince people, we had to do a lot of selling internally to get our initiatives bumped to the top of the priority list. Now we have ready allies across the organization who are really agitating for change. I think that's great, but it does require us as sustainability leaders to change our skills from leading from the front to coordinating and collaborating across departments. But I'm excited to see how many people have skill and passion.  What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read?  I love The Shareholder Value Myth by Lynn Stout. We can't talk about the future health of the planet without talking about the way that our capital markets work. There's a real case to be made for long-term thinking, and I think she does a really good job discussing that.  What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?  The Fair Wild Foundation. If you care about conservation or plants, it's a great one to learn from. They produce really great, thought leadership pieces. For those in the food industry, we use a tool called HowGood that allows us to understand the environmental footprint and impact of our products. That helps us when we're innovating as well. We want to deliver specific impact to our consumers, but if we can do that in a lower environmentally impactful way, that's great. So HowGood is another great tool. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Traditional Medicinals? Our website is https://www.traditionalmedicinals.com/. If you go to the impact section, you can find our impact report. You can find lots of stories about what we're doing in the world and our approach to business, and I hope you enjoy it. I think it's a beautiful site. It also teaches a lot about plants.

Amelia DeLuca serves as Chief Sustainability Officer at Delta Air Lines, leading the airline on its journey to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and deliver a more sustainable and elevated travel experience along the way. Prior to her appointment as Chief Sustainability Officer, DeLuca served as Vice President, International Customer Experience and Partner Sustainability. In that role, DeLuca led cross-divisional efforts to deliver a consistent premium customer experience across Delta's partners. She also supported the development of Delta's partner sustainability strategy across Delta's global partner network to enhance and accelerate the alliance's leading sustainability position and provide greater collective impact across the Delta network. During her 17-year career with Delta, DeLuca has held varied leadership positions within the Sustainability, Global Sales, Revenue Management and Network Planning teams and has been based in Mexico City, Minneapolis, Amsterdam, New York City and Atlanta. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and has her M.B.A. from the University of Amsterdam. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband and two daughters.   Amelia Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Delta's decarbonization efforts and strategies  What sustainable aviation fuel is and challenges to scale it How corporations can purchase sustainable aviation fueled flights from Delta Delta's social and environmental sustainability strategies  Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Amelia's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give to other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?  I have two for this. I think first and foremost, take care of yourselves. I think that goes for anyone who is alive today, but especially those that are working. Obviously we've all been through a lot. I love that the world has shifted into talking about mental wellbeing more frequently. I think sustainability professionals need to really double down and think about that, because while optimism and passion takes us forward in what we do every single day, this is one of the most daunting things that I've ever been a part of. You open the news, or you go outside and you see a climate catastrophe. Some days it just feels really sad and depressing. So first off, take care of yourself. Make sure you have all the tools you need to feel good, and then secondly, lean into your peers and your sustainability friends. The incredible partners that I've made from my airline counterparts, extending beyond just the airlines, all sustainability counterparts that I've met, there's not a greater group of people than those in the sustainability profession. I've never reached out to someone and asked for advice or asked for their time and they've said no. Find a couple of people that you just really enjoy in this space, whether in your industry or something else, and build a relationship with them and it will stand the test of time.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?  One of the things I struggle with the most in sustainability is when I feel like we make it really difficult for consumers to know what is right, what is up, what is correct. The news provides different viewpoints, which I think is super helpful, there shouldn't just be a “yes, this is the answer,” and no one disputes it. I love that there are people out there that challenge every part of sustainability from “what's the best product in terms of what to put on board? Is it a plastic water bottle because it's lighter weight or is it aluminum?” There's a fierce debate and I love debate, but the theme I like the most right now in sustainability is transparency. I don't mean transparency in the way that we think about it through the SEC climate rules, for example. I think about it as, not only are we taking time, and this podcast is such a great example, to educate consumers on how to think about sustainability trends. We're all walking towards a world where consumers are essentially empowered to make choices because brands and products and activities, you name it, offer information and transparency about the impact that consumers can make and the choice that feels most right to them personally. I'm personally really excited about the transparency that we're building as a community.  What is one book you'd recommend sustainability Leaders read?  I have two. The more common one, which is one of the first books I read when I moved into sustainability, was Drawdown. My guess is, if you're listening to this, you probably already read that by Paul Hawken, but I liked Drawdown because it really helped me take what felt like a really daunting subject that I was starting in and it broke it down into concepts, and it had a lot of numbers. It really was focused not on what the problems were, but what the climate solutions were. I'm a big fan of drawdown. Separately though, I'm a big fiction reader, and I do always encourage people, including our sustainability professionals, to make sure you continue to read fiction. Not only can it be uplifting if you've had a daunting day, but I think it also challenges our brain to think about things just more broadly, in different terms or from different angles. So another book that I am in the midst of reading right now, which is one of the top books from last year, is called The Candy House. It's a really trippy book. It's essentially this concept of social media that could allow us to upload and share our memories with each other. That just seems really weird. But the reason I say that is I like to read books that make me think about the world and where society is going from a different lens. Candy House is a really great example, it seems like the craziest idea ever. But then you're also like, well, with AI and where we're going, we could be there before we know it. I like to read books that just challenge me to think about the world a little differently.  What are your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?  Podcasts, and that's not just a plug for this one, but I typically listen to a sustainability or climate podcast coming into work and leaving work. I'm a big fan of just kind of diving in topically on things that are interesting to me. Or if I've had something I've come across from a work perspective that I'm like, “Hey, I don't know that much about X,” I'll just listen to a podcast about it. It's such a great way to get a little bit deeper. My second thing of course is my team. I have an amazing team who all know so much more about this space than probably I ever will because many of them have come through college focusing on the environment or sustainability, or they have masters in the topics, or they've worked in the oil and gas industry. We have a woman who's come from Nike and stood up a big portion of their sustainability work a number of years ago. I rely upon them a lot on all things. I think that's what any good leader should do, build a team that knows more than they do and make sure that you're tapping into them as they go.  Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at Delta?  I hope that you will learn more about Delta's sustainable journey and also look out for some of these sustainability enhancements that you're going to see on board going forward. You can also learn more about our path to sustainability and the progress we're making by going to https://news.delta.com/path-to-sustainability. You can also follow me on LinkedIn. I would love it if you follow me on LinkedIn and engage with me there. I always want to hear your thoughts and opinions on what Delta is doing.

Scott Tew is the leader of the Center for Energy Efficiency & Sustainability at Trane Technologies (CEES) and is responsible for forward-looking sustainability initiatives aimed at transitioning to more efficient and climate-friendly solutions and minimizing resource use within company facilities. He serves as a thought leader in linking public policy, economic impacts and a value-stream approach to sustainability. His efforts have led to the development of world-class initiatives, including introduction of the company's comprehensive 2030 Sustainability Commitments with the largest customer-facing corporate commitment to combat climate change with the Gigaton Challenge; and as a pioneer in integrated reporting. Scott holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in environmental science and ecology from Livingston University. He serves on the Advisory Council of the Corporate Eco Forum; as the board chair of the World Environment Center; and as the chair of the US Business Council for Sustainable Development (USBCSD). Scott Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: The scope of work at Trane Technologies Untapped opportunities to reduce emissions though the built environment and food systems Smart buildings and using technology to improve efficiencies  Trane Technologies value stream-focused 2030 commitments  Working with external advisors on science-based targets Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Scott's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? The power of commitments and the power of public goals; I can never underestimate the power of that. Helping leadership get behind a public commitment is a huge game changer. If you're with a company where that hasn't happened yet, that needs to be the front and center of your focus. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I believe we're about to move into a new era of regenerative thinking. I think attaching sustainability to a company's purpose like we did at Trane Technologies was what was needed to get us to where we are today. There are some great companies out there thinking “how do we actually have a regenerative mantra so that we actually can redo anything bad from the past and think very differently about solutions in the future?” That means that we are more open to innovation and partnerships than ever before, so that has me very excited. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability professionals read? I have to be selfish on this one; After Cooling is one by Eric Dean Wilson. That is a really interesting one because it talks about the cost of comfort to the world, which is exactly the problem that my company is trying to solve. In a world where we have an increasing number of heat waves and heat domes, it might be time for us all to step back and think about how cooling is delivered and what we should do differently in the future. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? There are a few outside organizations that I get a lot of value out of hearing from other practitioners. For your listeners out there, I think you really should explore groups where you can be amongst your peers to find out how they're accomplishing whatever they're accomplishing. I get a lot of value from chatting either one-on-one or hearing a presentation of practitioners of how something worked in their company. Those are the things that I bring back to apply within my company, and I can point to lots of examples of that through the years. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Trane Technologies? You can go to tranetechnologies.com and the opening page will have a link to our sustainability progress. My group is featured with its own section of the website including my email address. I'm always happy to engage with anyone who might have questions or want to follow up.

Tara is Senior Director of Corporate Responsibility at Jack Henry. She leads the strategy and execution of the organization's corporate sustainability efforts, including corporate ethics, the transition to a low carbon future, philanthropy and sustainability related reporting. Prior to focusing on advancing Jack Henry's sustainability efforts, Tara launched Jack Henry's diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy, created an internal mobility program, led the learning and development team, revamped the performance management program, and developed Jack Henry's talent analytics approach. Tara Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: The transition from a role in HR to a role in sustainability  What it means for Jack Henry to be a purpose-driven company Preparing sustainbility reports and for SEC climate disclosures  Getting support to pursue science-based targets Business Innovation groups at Jack Henry Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Tara's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers Figure out how to make complex ideas simple. If you don't take the time to do it, your communications can fall flat. The world of sustainability is so complicated. You're spanning so many different topics from cybersecurity and information security to greenhouse gas emissions to philanthropy and so on. Really being able to distill all that complexity into simple statements, into communications that people can understand without needing to be experts in the field, and not only understand, but know what to do with that information- if you can figure that out, then you'll easily create impactful reporting and momentum internally within your organization. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? Particularly as a sustainability professional, I think we are so privileged to have a role in which we have the opportunity to impact every single person on this planet through our work. That may seem a little bit Pollyanna, but it's true. I think the work that we're doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to do work around philanthropy, to do work around corporate ethics, all of that really matters. I think that it's incredibly exciting to be in a field that can have that sort of large scale impact. That and the talent that is coming up. Two members of my team, they are new graduates and they are so passionate, so knowledgeable, and I know they're two of many that are coming out in the field. It's incredible to see what these folks are going to do and how they're going to take us to the next level. So I'm excited about that. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability professionals read? It's a classic, and it's not really a sustainability book, it's a book about leadership: Good to Great by Jim Collins. If you can't speak the language of business, and you will hear the concepts in these books spoken about constantly at the C-suite level and with executive leadership, you're not going to be taken seriously. You've got to be able to speak the language of business. In particular, I like Good to Great because of that concept of the flywheel; the idea that consistent action over time really can create momentum and that it's easily sustained and energizes people over time. I think that's so applicable to the world of sustainability. It's a slow roll in the beginning, but once you get things going, if you're thoughtful and consistent, it takes off, and your job is just to tap the rut or make sure you're on the right course over time. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I'm a big reader of ESG Today. They have a weekly summary email that gives you the highlights. I think it's important to know what's going on in the field. But the most helpful resource is networking. It's finding other people in this field that you can talk with and share ideas with. I've done that through conferences or through webinars. I'll reach out and say, “I like what you said about this. Could we have a quick conversation?” Just building those relationships so that you have thought partners to bring ideas to and help you make your work more impactful. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Jack Henry? You can find me on LinkedIn, Tara Brown at Jack Henry. If you go to jackhenry.com on our investor relations site, you'll find a link to our corporate sustainability reports and previous reports and highlights of our most recent initiatives.

Liliana joined Wendy's in June 2014 and has served as Chief Corporate Affairs & Sustainability Officer since February 2021 to reflect her range of responsibilities across Communications, Quality Assurance, Customer Care, Public Affairs and Corporate Responsibility. She previously served as our Chief Communications Officer from June 2014 to February 2021. Liliana sets the vision and strategy for all communications with franchisees and employees, public relations, government relations and corporate responsibility. Her work with the Quality Assurance function involves developing quality and safety procedures throughout our supply chain and restaurants to provide a safe and quality dining experience for all Wendy's customers. Liliana prides herself on building diverse teams and empowering them to find solutions – a leadership style that has produced notable results. Her team recently restructured Wendy's corporate responsibility efforts under one united banner, Good Done Right, and created our Supplier Code of Conduct. Under her direction, Wendy's also launched The Square Deal, Wendy's blog to provide a point of view on issues that are important to our Company and our customers. Prior to Wendy's, Liliana served as Vice President of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs at Dean Foods in Dallas, TX. Her previous experience includes tenure as Public Affairs Manager with Mars, Incorporated in New Jersey, and as a public relations consultant for eight years in New York City. Liliana Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Defining responsible sourcing and identifying criteria for responsibly sourcing food What consumers are looking for in the industry in regards to sustainability The process of starting GHG inventories, CDP reporting, and setting science-based targets Wendy's “Good done right” goals for food, people and footprint  Tying sustainability performance to incentives Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Liliana's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? The advice that I would give is just to be a sponge for learning and for relationships and networking with others in the field. I would not have considered myself a sustainability professional even 10 years ago. There is so much to learn. There is so much to absorb. I don't think anyone can be an expert in all of it. I think really broadening your aperture so that you have the benefit of expertise from others that are in different aspects of your field is something that I really value. Probably the most important resource that I see in the field is people. Hopefully you can provide some value to them in terms of the expertise and the knowledge that you have, but also continuing to build those relationships and reach out and network to increase your effectiveness. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? The biggest is just the awareness and the general knowledge and interest in this area. That takes a lot of different forms and different parts of the industry, different stakeholders are coming at it with different points of view. But I think that there's never been a better time to really be demonstrating the value and the importance of sustainability work within the business community. I feel like the conversation I'm not having anymore is around “why should we care about this?” Does this actually add to our business value? Is there a strong rationale for being focused on ESG or sustainability? Now the conversation is much more around, “where should we be putting our precious resources?” Where can our efforts be most successful and most effective?  What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? I'll go to the classics. There's certainly lots of more contemporary examples, but I think Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. I was in college when I read it. That really started to open my eyes around not just the importance of a focus on the environment and on sustainability, but a factual, well researched, analysis of what was happening and what we as a society could do to make a more positive impact. I know that's a classic, but I think it's still relevant today. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? To repeat myself, people. I really do collect and curate a great network of people that come from all different backgrounds and perspectives and areas of expertise. The more that I can connect and engage with people that do things that are very different than what I do professionally, I just grow and learn from that. And then a plug for you Josh and your colleagues for podcasts like this one. I usually go for a run every day and I've got a collection of podcasts and other things that, that that's the soundtrack to my daily runs because I feel like there's always something new coming out to help us just learn and get better. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at Wendy's? We would love for you to hop over to wendys.com and click on the what we value segment of our website. You can find our corporate responsibility reports for 2022 and the years in the past, and then certainly a wealth of information about the company and our commitments overall.

Pamela Klyn was named Senior Vice President, Corporate Relations and Sustainability, on January 1, 2022. Klyn was most recently a Vice President in Whirlpool Corporation's Global Product Organization. During her time with the company, Klyn has held advancing roles in engineering, product development, global innovation, and marketing. From 2013 to 2015, she lived in Italy and served as the Vice President of Products & Brands for Whirlpool EMEA.  Klyn was hired into the company's Technical Excellence Program in 1993 after graduating from Michigan Technological University with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. She earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1995 and has an Executive MBA from Bowling Green State University. Klyn is currently a Board member for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton Harbor and a Trustee for the Whirlpool Foundation. She serves on the Michigan Technological University External Advisory Board for the Dean of Engineering and on the Board of Directors for Patrick Industries. Pam Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: How Whirpool established themselves as a leader in sustainability  The importance of consumer education for best product usage practices Whirlpool's 2022 sustainability report Whirlpool's partnership with Habitat for Humanity including Build Better with Whirlpool Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Pam's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give to other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I think it's always important to look at all the data and information you have. Don't get analysis paralysis, but create a roadmap. Understand what kind of traditional problem solving you can apply. Where do you need innovation? Where do you need partnerships? Where do you need a different way to solve it? Think about who else has this problem or this accountability and how you could jointly solve it together. Anytime there's an inflection point, like the focus on sustainability, that breeds opportunity, in my opinion. Use the skills you have, the problem solving skills, the experience you have, but be open to how this can be a completely new opportunity for you and your organization. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? Opportunity for partnerships. If you look at our 111 year history as a company, it's been about key partnerships at the right time in a continued evolution of doing the right thing, keeping the consumer at the center of it, and finding ways to reinvent for the future. What's outstanding is we have such a strong base to start from, but we know we can do better and we can make a huge impact and really lead the way here. I'm really excited to see what comes out of it, especially as you start to look at recycling and partnering with consumers in their homes. How do we get the message across that if you run this dishwasher at night, if that is workable for you and your lifestyle, you save 30% energy? How do we enable consumers to use appliances in the smartest way possible that doesn't compromise their lifestyle? What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? I don't know if it only applies to sustainability professionals, but I recently read Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, which is about the Nike journey. I'm very proud of Whirlpool's 111 year history and the reinvention that it's taken, as I mentioned. But a company like Nike, which is such a powerhouse, came so close so many times to not making it, despite amazing orders and all the business they could handle. It really points to: sustainability means so many different things, but it really centers all around ensuring the longevity of a company. It points to the tenacity that it takes and the belief in doing the right thing for the customer, and keeping the customer and quality at the center of it all. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? It's the team, the cross-functional effort. It's our people here and the fact that people want to do the right thing. It's my team's job, the sustainability team's job to guide them and say, overall, here's our targets as a company. Manufacturing, we need this from you, procurement, we need your help here partnering with suppliers. What are our suppliers doing to think about the next level? Are there new suppliers to partner with? For example, information technology, we need systems to measure our emissions in a reportable way. Legal, how do we make sure we're managing the governance aspect? Product, our engineering organization, how do we continue to evolve our product in new and different innovative ways? It really is that aspect that we get to partner with every part of the organization, and our people come through time and time again. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and your work and check out your new 2022 sustainability report? You can find our sustainability report on whirlpoolcorp.com, and we have a lot of great tips and tricks on how to use your appliances more efficiently. We have a consumer facing website called improvinglife@home.com and that talks about making sure you don't open your refrigerator too often, run certain appliances at night, don't hand wash, use your dishwasher, etc. It really gives a lot of those things that people haven't been told and so they're not doing routinely, but that can really make a difference in your water and energy bill.

Emilio Tenuta is senior vice president of Corporate Sustainability and chief sustainability officer for Ecolab. For the past 11 years, he has led Ecolab's strategic sustainability journey and is actively involved in advancing global sustainability practices, with a significant focus on water stewardship and climate action. In recent years, he's become a leader in environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices and reporting. Partnering with investor relations and Ecolab's Chief Executive Officer, Tenuta has advanced Ecolab's reputation as an ESG leading company. He is chair of the board of directors of the World Environment Center, a global non-profit, non-advocacy organization. Emilio is also on the leadership council of the Corporate Eco Forum.  Emilio Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Prioritizing sustainability work between customers and internal operations Ecolab establishing themselves as a corporate leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, CDP, and in other rankings Water and climate; the Ecolab Water for Climate strategy and The Water Resilience Coalition Closing the ‘say-do' sustainability gap Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals  Emilio's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? If you really want to make a difference from a sustainability impact, work in the private sector. I believe there is this myth that the only place people can make a difference is by working for an environmental nonprofit. I think today in our discussion we've proven that Ecolab is living proof that more and more companies can deliver a positive impact in the world while driving profitable growth and helping communities thrive. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? The rise of ESG over the last five years. I'm most excited about the tremendous investment in sustainability, climate and water by the capital markets and investors to help the world decarbonize. I think mobilizing finance is a huge catalyst to driving the change we need to see in the world. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? I'm a big fan of Thomas Friedman, the author of The World is Flat. His latest book is really good called Thank You For Being Late. It's an interesting perspective on the convergence of technology, climate, and geopolitical challenges facing the world; something that is obviously very relevant today. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I'm a big fan of The World Resources Institute, which is a think tank out of Washington DC. I'm also a big fan of CDP, the Carbon Disclosure Project and the Water Resilience Coalition. After two and a half/three years now, there are a plethora of resources available if you go to the Water Resilience Coalition website that support not only the actions we need to take for a water constrained world, but also driving climate resilience. Where can people go to learn more about you and the work being done at Ecolab? Ecolab.com. It's a tremendous resource and I really commend our global communications team and our digital enablement team. They've done a great job of providing some tremendous resources there. I would encourage folks to follow me on LinkedIn. I'm very passionate about sharing the incredible things going on in the world not only with Ecolab, but with all of our partners, and then Twitter as well. Then I'll shout out to a publicly available tool called the Smartwater Navigator, which is available on smartwaternavigator.com, which is another great place to really learn more about the work that we're doing. 

Josh Raglin has dedicated over 25 years in the fields of conservation, forestry, and environmental stewardship. As chief sustainability officer at Norfolk Southern, he leads efforts to transform the company's sustainability strategy. He champions initiatives that integrate sustainability practices into daily operations to achieve efficiencies, control costs, generate revenue, and reduce environmental impacts. These efforts include close collaboration with department leaders company-wide, along with external stakeholders such as customers, investors, regulators, and communities. Josh Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Advancing efficiency of rails including the Locomotive Modernization program The economic and environmental benefits of shipping by rail, and the feasibility of making the switch to rail Benefits to customers from Norfolk Southern's carbon calculator  Norfolk Southern's five pillars of sustainability, specifically nature-based solutions Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Josh's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I would say network. You can't know too many people. The more you network, the more connections you make. Not only internally within your company but externally as well. That's going to increase your knowledge base. Many of our customers have just started their sustainability programs in the last three or four years, and so I can be a resource for them in helping them start their journey, and I really enjoy doing that. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I think it's the excitement, the corporate commitment that you're seeing, and where we've gone in such a short period of time. And it's voluntary. We're getting the support of all of our stakeholders. It's important to our customers, our investors, our regulators, and it's important to our employees as well. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability professionals read? It's actually one I just completed. It's called How the World Really Works, and it's by an energy scientist Vaclav Smil. He's written a number of books over the years, and he's not a pessimist, he's not an optimist, he's a scientist. He really does a great way of explaining the science, particularly when it comes to energy. I really highly recommend that to anyone. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I would say probably my engagement with outside groups. I really enjoy engaging with conservation related groups or environmental groups and understanding our natural environment more and how Norfolk Southern can be a part of that. Whether it's employee engagement, whether it's financial support, or volunteering. A number of our employees, we volunteer on boards, we attend events, and it's not just about doing railroading, but it's also about how we can engage with the community to really make a difference. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at Norfolk Southern? I'm on LinkedIn, so if you look up Josh Raglin Norfolk Southern, you'll find me pretty easily. And our website is http://www.nscorp.com/betterplanet.

Yogesh Chauhan is director of ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) at HubSpot. His brief is to develop a new and impactful ESG strategy covering all HubSpot's operations. He oversees a range of environmental, community engagement, reporting, innovation and thought leadership initiatives designed to embed sustainability and responsible business across the company. Prior to HubSpot, Yogesh Chauhan was director of corporate sustainability at Tata Consultancy Services for nine years. He was also the BBC's chief adviser on corporate responsibility and environment and worked for the corporation for 12 years. Yogesh Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Upstream and downstream supply chain challenges to reducing emissions as a SAS company Getting buy-in from leadership for SBTI or sustainability goals Activating the workforce around sustainability strategy Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Yogesh's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Authenticity. My advice to all sustainability professionals is don't get tempted to say and do things that really are not authentic and genuine in terms of how you are driving the sustainability agenda, because you will get caught in the greenwashing mill. Authenticity would be my key advice. Be authentic as much as you possibly can. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I would say sustainable innovation is something that I'm really getting excited about. Whether that's things like green aviation fuel, more sustainable building materials that are coming on stream, scaling renewable energy and the dramatic reduction in costs for renewable infrastructure, and what we see visibly now amongst most populations is the change in lifestyles that people are beginning to adopt and consumers making individual choices. Those are the things that really excite me. As part of that innovation, there's obviously a whole leap of technology that is being built to drive a more sustainable future, whether that's digital technology or engineering technology, and those are the bits that really do excite me. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? Just looking at my bookshelf at the moment, what caught my eye is the Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom. It's just a tiny little book with a few quotes on each page, and it isn't about sustainability. It's rather about the broader concepts that drive sustainability, the essence of being. What does contentment mean? What does joy mean? What does the art of giving and receiving mean? I think once you get that into your system and start to live and breathe those core beliefs that are ingrained in us as human beings, from that flows a sustainability mindset. I would recommend people have that by their side and consult that now just to get a sense of realism about what life is all about. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? Well, actually HubSpot has a number of publications that are part of independent publications but are owned by HubSpot. There's something called The Daily Hustle and the Weekly Trends, again not directly about sustainability, but actually very much about innovation, new ideas, and really capturing the essence of the energy behind startups and small and medium-sized businesses, and all the creative ideas and innovations that are coming out from that. That always gives me a huge amount of inspiration, because nearly always there are things that are going on that people are inventing, developing new business models, new business ideas that have a sustainability focus. At the professional end for the sustainability practitioners, I would say McKinsey's website and podcasts tend to be my go-to on a regular basis. Finally, friends and colleagues that I've kind of nurtured and developed over the years and the opportunity to bounce ideas off and have conversations all things sustainability with. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at HubSpot? HubSpot has a website which is engaging, lively, and has lots and lots of information. I would encourage everyone who's interested to go there. We have a sustainability section that's got lots of information about what we are doing, including the current report as well. If anyone wants to connect with me directly, then LinkedIn would be the place I would recommend.

Bridgette McAdoo leads the Global Sustainability practice at Genesys. She is responsible for sustainability as a management approach that holistically optimizes our economic, social, and environmental impact. In her role leading sustainability at Genesys, Bridgette drives our stakeholder engagement, education, and the evolution of the sustainable strategy and programs across Genesys. She also leverages sustainability metrics to track our non-financial performance and deliver integrated reports to our stakeholders Bridgette has over 20 years of experience in sustainability leadership roles across multiple sectors, including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), where she most recently led corporate strategy and engagement for WWF's Freshwater and Food goals, Global Director of Sustainability for KFC, where she headed all sustainability issues for the brand, internally within Yum! Brands and externally with various sustainability stakeholders, and operations roles that were part of NASA's Space Shuttle and Mars Rover programs. She holds a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and an MBA in Strategy from the Drucker School of Management. Bridgette Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Creating the foundation of sustainability at Genesys Advice for finding and hiring good sustainability talent Quantifying product use emissions Strategies to align sustainability with work from home Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Bridgette's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Don't underestimate the power of two words: value and differentiation. Value, because one, it's usually not a group that has P&L responsibility, but you need to show that you can drive pipeline, help with attrition and retention. You have to show all the value that sustainability brings to the business so that it's a value proposition, not just a buzzword. Differentiation is how do you use it to set you apart from your competitors? Use it as a way to help put the company in a different lens than it usually would, and show that value. Show all the intangible values of sustainability, not just the tangible ones, all the qualifiable values, not just the quantifiable ones. That will help you to really get it elevated versus it sitting in the middle of the organizations as some people struggle with. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I'm excited that I'm starting to see a lot of emphasis on intersectionality. For so long I felt that people felt like they could only talk about one pillar at a time. It's either an environmental conversation or a diversity conversation or a governance conversation. But those should be integrated. There should be an integrated, holistic approach to how we look at sustainability, because when those things are looked at in tandem, when we integrate it, we get the real wins. I'm glad to see that even organizations are starting to restructure to be that way and not silo out the work. When that happens I just feel like the work is really not as impactful as it should be. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? Because of all the time reading all these white papers and case studies, I like to read things that are way more inspiring and motivating and so far away from sustainability. However, I just started reading Net Positive by Paul Polman and Andrew Winston. I'm enjoying that book. It highlights the way we look at traditional CSR or philanthropy or impact, however your organization refers to it, is just not adequate for where we are today. That we, as leaders in this space, really need to rethink about how we drive the business differently and how we can be the change that we want to see. Another book that has been extremely impactful is Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X Kendi. It talks about and it details how racist ideas were created, spread and deeply rooted in society. It's thought-provoking and intense, but it's a fantastic read. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I have a few different distribution lists that I'm on like GreebBiz Weekly. I get a lot of things where I can see a lot of articles. Our marketing team also does a fantastic job of scouring the industry or all the latest sustainability news to make sure that we can have a pulse on what's happening. So that's been extremely useful for me as having that inside outlook and then getting it from different shareholders or key stakeholders across sustainability when I get to see different articles. The climate pledge also being a part of that; you get to see what's happening across different signatories. It's always good to be able to benchmark and look how you're trending against all the different other companies that have the same commitments. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Genesys? You can always go to our website and you can visit genesys.com/sustainability to learn more about our sustainability initiatives, read our latest report, and stay up to date on our progress.

Michael Cooke has held senior EHS positions in various industries ranging from pharmaceuticals and chemicals to inks and coatings and engineering. In these roles he has led businesses to world-class performance against industry peers and the top centile when benchmarked against all industries.   Michael has also held senior positions outside of EHS – as business director for a pharma division and Strategy, Mergers and Acquisition director for EMEA/Asia regions. Currently, Michael is the Vice President of Social and Environmental Responsibility for Jabil, based in Zurich, heading EHS and Sustainability globally. In this role, he balances various functional activities, from site and people, social responsibility and human rights, HSE, health and wellbeing — linking this to a clear and effective sustainability strategy creating business value.  Michael earned his BSc (Joint Hons) in Chemistry and MSc in Environmental and Pollution Control from the University of Manchester and his MBA from Henley Management College.  Michael Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: The history of sustainability at Jabil How to engage employees with sustainability goals across a large number of sites and employees Jabil's strategy to achieving reduction in emissions without purchasing carbon credits: reduce, produce, procure  The challenges to achieving scope 3 emissions reductions a large number of suppliers  The importance and incorporation of health and wellness into Jabil's strategy  Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Michael's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give to sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Make it real. If it's window dressing or something like that, you will very soon lose traction within the employees or your other stakeholders. So make it real. Understand what your stakeholders want. Not that you can always do things for all of the stakeholders, but you can prioritize the ones where you can do that. By doing that, look to create some real value, both in terms of the companies that you work for, but also in the communities and the people in and outside of the business which will also be impacted by what you do. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? You might find this actually a bit strange; greenwashing, or the fact that greenwashing is now being looked at more closely. Right now, as I said earlier, we really are doing things in a way that is having a positive impact. We want to continue doing that. It is also important that people who make big announcements about things but aren't really delivering anything are called out. You see in the SEC in the USA that's already happened. There has been some falling out in terms of greenwashing. I also think that the way that legislation is changing in the EU, the European Union Corporate Sustainability Reporting Director, for instance, and link to the taxonomy, means that you can't make claims as easily as you could do before without actually backing them up better. For me that's a really good thing. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? This is something actually when I was doing my master's degree I was referred to and read and that is Small is Beautiful. It's a book by E. F. Schumacher. He entitled it Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered. I love that part because if people matter in what we do, then we generally respect the social dimension of things and the environmental and the financial aspects of what we do. Within that book, he talks about the use of natural resources and how we actually value those things, along with how people contribute negatively or positively to those things. What reminded me a bit of it was, I was actually at a conference on putting people into sustainability in London last week. What I thought was quite an interesting point: on the balance sheet, a robot is seen as an asset, but on the balance sheet, a person or people are seen as costs. That seems a bit strange that people are seen as a negative and a robot is seen as a positive. Looking at how we put people into sustainability discussion is a very important thing. And hence, I like that book. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? There's lots on the internet that you can use, but I get most of my inspiration from other companies and other people and listening to what they're doing. I think networking and that respect is probably the most beneficial way of actually being challenged and seeing how we can do things better. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Jabil? The best thing is to go to our sustainability pages on our website. You'll see we have some great resources there. We've got some blocks from my team and other members on circular economy, on how to create a strategy for carbon reduction. We really would like some feedback on that and to see if other people are finding the same challenges, and also, I think our solutions may be helpful.

Fawn Bergen leads Intel Corporation's Global Water Stewardship program. Using her 21 years of experience as an environmental engineer, she manages Intel's global water strategy and their commitment to achieve net positive water use by conserving water in operations and restoring more than 100% of their global water use by 2030. Under her leadership Intel has been honored with the 2018 US Water Prize by the US Water Alliance, 2019 Sustainability Champion by Arizona Forward, and 2019 Innovative Partnerships in Philanthropic Giving by the Portland Business Journal, for their achievements in water stewardship. Fawn is a graduate of the University of Florida. Fawn Leads Sustainable Nation to Discuss: How Intel set their RISE 2030 Goals on climate, water and waste  Carbon neutral computing The critical importance of water in manufacturing semiconductors and Intel's water goals Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Fawn's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I would say: keep an open mind. I've known so many people that I went to school with; they had their career path set and of course, things changed. A lot of people would have no idea who they would be working for. That's been a fun part of my journey, the unexpected changes. The sustainability field itself is changing and growing so rapidly as the world realizes that sustainability is not a nice to-do, it's critical. Keeping yourself agile and learning new things is really important in this field. Just keep fighting the good fight. Sometimes it feels like you're only moving the needle a tiny bit, but then when you look back at what you've done, you realize that it really was a big impact. It can be daunting when you're just making that incremental change because sometimes it's one step forward, two steps back, but you have to keep trying to make just that little step forward and you will make progress over time. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? Other than our net positive water goal, our net zero greenhouse gas bill. That is going to be an immense challenge, not just for Intel, but our whole industry. What excites me is thinking about the huge impact it's going to have by getting Intel there and working with other companies as well to get everyone there. It's a huge hill to climb, but I think once we get there, it's going to have a profound impact. That potential has me very excited to work through all of these challenges. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? I think my favorite sustainability book is called Let There Be Water by Seth Siegel. It was a fantastic book, very well written, and I just kind of flew through it. The book is all about how Israel built one of the best (probably along with Singapore) role models of what a country can do to value water. It's a really fascinating story about how Israel did that and how they're in a desert now, but they're a very water secure country. They can even at times share water with neighboring countries. Really fascinating; it just opens your eyes to what countries can do. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? Our resources that I love are our partners; our external partners, our nonprofit environmental groups like the Nature Conservancy, the National Forest Foundation. Why I consider them a resource is because they're experts in building and supporting natural resilience of our watersheds, reforestation after wildfires. We really look to them as the experts and they shape a lot of the projects that we fund. I take back what I learned from them as far as water challenges and what companies like Intel can do from a broader sustainability standpoint. Water is so connected to climate, so a lot of our investments in water projects also have a climate benefit, they have biodiversity benefits. I learn so much from all of them. They're just a tremendous resource. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at intel. Intel.com/responsibility is where you can get our corporate responsibility report and a lot of other details, and intel.com/water where you can read all about the projects that we funded.

Amanda Cimaglia is currently serving as our Vice President, ESG and Corporate Affairs. Prior to joining us in January 2021, Ms. Cimaglia served as the Managing Director of Solebury Trout's ESG 360 platform, where she advised private and public companies on the development and communication of ESG strategies, including investor relations and corporate communications initiatives. Prior to that, Amanda served as the head of investor relations and ESG at Hannon Armstrong (NYSE: HASI), the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investments in climate solutions, providing capital to leading companies in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other sustainable infrastructure markets. During her seven-year tenure at Hannon Armstrong, Amanda built an award-winning investor relations program, garnering the Best Overall Investor Relations (Small Cap) Award by IR Magazine, as well as being named a finalist for both Best ESG Reporting and Rising Star of investor relations. She has served as a member of the ESG working groups for both the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Amanda Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: How a background in investor relations helps with managing ESG The history of sustainability as AZEK Creating recycled material and sourcing at AZEK Advice on zero waste events including the TimberTech Championship  AZEK's process of widening emission accounting  The importance of leadership in integrating ESG into the business strategy at AZEK Amanda's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I would again say ESG is a journey and not a destination. Focus on what's impactful and prioritize your ESG initiatives accordingly. We will always have the opportunity to evolve. Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? Having been in this space for the last decade of my career, the momentum that we've experienced over the last two years alone is remarkable. ESG and ESG stewardship is no longer optional. It's table stakes for everyone. I would add to that, that I am constantly encouraged and inspired by what innovations are being brought to the market, what partnerships are being created to drive circularity, drive sustainability, and the conversations that are being had across companies from the senior level of the organization to the manager level, to other employees and even hourly employees across the organization. It is a point of empowerment and a point of conversation and a point of inspiration for all of us. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? I just finished a brand new book written by the Harvard Business School professor and ESG rockstar I like to call him, George Serafeim, who I had the opportunity to host for a fireside chat a couple of years ago. The book is called Purpose and Profit: How Business Can Lift Up the World, and it offers a roadmap really for people at any stage of their career who seek to align their professional aspirations with their personal values. It's relatable no matter where you are in the organization, and no matter what level you are in the organization, it's relevant to both corporates and investors alike. George really discusses how the purpose of business has changed over time, how we can implement more purpose-driven strategies, and how companies can capture value. I think my favorite part of the book is how he highlights that we all have choices on what we buy, how we invest, and where we work. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I like to keep up to date on ESG issues by reading the many newsletters that are published in the ESG space such as Bloomberg Green and Harvard Law School's Forum on Corporate Governance and ESG. I would also say, being an NYSE listed company, the ESG team at the New York Stock Exchange, they do a great job on ESG programming and best practices. And finally, LinkedIn. I find a lot of inspiration from LinkedIn and I seem to wake up every day to find out something new and exciting that is happening in the field of sustainability. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and your work? I'm on LinkedIn, so your listeners are welcome to find me and follow me there. Then, of course, our website, azekco.com. We have our full circle ESG report on there and a lot of additional resources to learn more about the AZEK company and how we are revolutionizing outdoor living to create a more sustainable future.

Clarke Murphy is a leadership expert who advises the world's top companies on leadership strategies that fuel profitable growth and value for all stakeholders. He has particular expertise helping boards include sustainable competencies and track record into multi-year CEO succession processes. As the former CEO of Russell Reynolds from 2011-2021, he spearheaded a purpose-driven approach to business and led the firm through its greatest period of growth. In his new book, "Sustainable Leadership: Lessons of vision, Courage, and Grit from the CEOs Who Dared to Build a Better World," Clarke tells the stories of dynamic business executives who are using their position to solve the most complex social and economic challenges of our time. Since 2021, Clarke has co-hosted the Redefiners podcast, interviewing courageous leaders who are redefining their organizations—and themselves—to deliver extraordinary results. Clarke Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Commercial Leadership vs. Sustainable Leadership The mindset and four competencies of sustainable pioneers Insight on companies using sustainability to recruit/retain top talent How companies are preparing for potential SEC regulations Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Clarke's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Start the action. Don't be a hundred percenter. Hundred percenters want all the answers. They wanna manage all the risk. They want to know all the answers. That doesn't work. Perfection slows down progress and sustainability. Just take the first step. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I think the energy around several younger generations, not just the Gen Zs and millennials, but thousands and tens of thousands of young executives who want to be involved or are getting involved. That will accelerate the pace of change.  What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? Well, I hope they read mine! Sustainable Leadership by Clark Murphy. But there's another one that Henry Timms wrote called New Power. It talks about the dynamics of these generations and kind of the way companies are run. Henry Timm's New Power is a great book. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I read a lot of the research by BCG, McKinsey and the World Economic Forum, which I think are really at the moment around processes, marketing and data that's real information, not anecdotes or popularity. I like having real time data as it happens. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and your work and maybe find your book? They could go to the website russellreynolds.com or they also could listen to our podcast Redefiners on wherever you get your podcasts.

Stacy joined Shopify in January 2020 where she is the Head of Sustainability and oversees and leads the company's sustainability initiatives. She also serves on the advisory board of the Carbon Management Research Initiative (CaMRI) at Columbia University. Prior to joining Shopify, Stacy was Head of the Ozone Layer Protection Program at Environment and Climate Change Canada. Stacy has worked on several chemicals management regulatory initiatives and represented Canada as a member of delegations for the Stockholm Convention and Montreal Protocol. Stacy Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: How Shopify began and continues to evaluate quality carbon offsets for investment Shopify acting as a customer and a demand signal for high quality investments; especially for startups  How is shopify engaging customers in the fight against climate change Shopify's carbon removal playbook Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Stacy's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I started this off by talking about how I came to the job that I'm at and I'm not a typical sustainability professional. What I have done is prioritized impact over everything else. That's clear in how we're trying to set up our sustainability fund and the companies that we choose, but it's also in how I've made my career choices. I've always wanted to make sure I'm in the best position at the right time to use my specific skill sets to have the most positive impact possible. I think everyone knows in the pit of their stomach when they're not playing for the right team. I think it's really important to act on that and to be strong in the skills that you do have, and to find ways to apply those to a career in sustainability or climate. There's a lot of people who are transitioning from accounting or marketing or communications and want to use their skills in sustainability or in climate. I think that it's really important to find your spot and use those skills for good. I think that's the most impactful way to drive change. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? This isn't something to be excited about, but I'll get to why I'm bringing it up. This past year we've seen a lot more of the negative effects of climate change, and they're not just being felt by populations around the equator or populations that live on the coastline. We're starting to see mainland Europe experiencing very intense heat waves, we're seeing these things become more and more commonplace in a larger swath of the planet. I'm not excited about that, but what that brings me to is the fact that a larger component of the world's population is now experiencing the negative effects of climate change that other countries and other populations have been experiencing for decades. I'm hopeful that this is going to bring this topic to the forefront and we're no longer going to be seeing the effects of climate change as somebody else's problem and we don't need to change our day to day existence or how we're operating our businesses. I think we're seeing early signs of people taking notice, because we're getting a lot of momentum in terms of funding commitments from government and the private sector to really start addressing climate change in a meaningful way. I'm hopeful that these unfortunate events are going to catalyze an acceleration in action. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability professionals read? I thought a little bit about this one because you've had a lot of guests and I don't want to pick the same book. I really loved The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson. He's an American biologist known for speaking a lot about how behavior in the natural world combined with natural selection can alter biology through evolution. The book describes the the breadth and depth of the planet's biodiversity, but then also talks about the effects that we're seeing on biodiversity worldwide and how this is going to be detrimental to the planet. It also offers some solutions. What I get most from this book is that our natural systems are very complex and the interconnectedness of an ecosystem is super complex. That complex system to me is almost analogous to how complex the system is that we need to drive change in to solve climate change. When we're thinking about biodiversity, the effects of one small action can have an immense impact on an ecosystem, but it's only because of its second, third and fourth order effects. It's not that one action that causes the problem. It's everything that happens after it. I think about that when I think about how to solve climate change, because it's not one action that's going to solve climate change. It's the knock-on effects of that single effort that drives more change and gets momentum. Then that complex system starts to shift and adapt. I like to hold both together. That's a great book I'd recommend it if you're wanting to think about systems and also learn more about biodiversity. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I love reading research papers and reviews specifically related to carbon removal technology; I'm a bit of a tech nerd when it comes to things like that, being an engineer. I get a lot of my information from the AirMiners community and that's a little play on words about mining the atmosphere for carbon dioxide. They have a great community that they've set up where everybody working on carbon removal can come together and they put on all sorts of excellent webinar programming and there's publications and things like that. One of the things that works really well for me that's really basic is a list serve mailing list, almost like a Google group. It's run by professor Greg Roe who is one of the leading experts worldwide in ocean alkalinity enhancement. Again it's that connectivity that's provided. Everybody shares new journal articles or new findings from different research projects, so it's a great way to stay up to date. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Shopify. We mentioned this earlier, but I'd recommend hitting up Shopify's website www.shopify.com/climate. You'll see what we offer in terms of services for our merchants and how we're building sustainable commerce. You'll also be able to click through and see our playbook and read up on the 22 companies in our fund. If you want to get the play by play and stay up to date, I'd recommend following myself on Twitter and you can get up to date news and announcements there as well.

Bérénice Lasfargues is Sustainability Integration Lead at BNP Paribas Asset Management. In this role, she is in charge of the implementation of the firm's ESG integration policy, working closely with portfolio managers across all asset classes to more purposefully integrate ESG criteria in their portfolios; and manages the internal firm-wide network of ESG Champions in investment teams. The changing regulatory environment is placing increasing importance on ESG data, and in her role, Bérenice works on the evolution of the firm's ESG research platform (including development of BNPP AM proprietary ESG rating and SDG data models) and provides strategic guidance on the optimal flow of ESG data through the company. She also coordinates the firm's approach to impact investment, and leads on its ESG analysis in the ICT sector.  She is the representative for BNPP AM's sustainable investment capabilities across the Americas, promoting the firm's expertise with clients and externally across the region. Previously, she worked at the OECD, undertaking economic research on green and blended finance. She was also a legislative fellow in the U.S. House of Representatives and conducted fieldwork on climate change and development in emerging markets. Bérénice holds masters' degrees in engineering and environmental management from Ecole Centrale Paris (now CentraleSupelec) and the National University of Singapore, respectively. She is an EFFAS CESGA (Certified ESG Analyst) certificate holder. Bérénice joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Why asset managers are looking so closely at sustainability and ESG goals BNP Pams sustainability investment beliefs and four standard pillars Challenges with ESG rating systems How ESG data could become more valuable Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals  Bérénice's Final Five Questions Responses What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? One piece of advice would be to get involved or keep up as much as you can with collaborative working groups and networks. Depending on your focus area or sector, there are so many. For example, if you are within the investment management industry, you could get involved with Principles for Responsible Investment, the Global Impact Investing network, or the Initial Investors Group on Climate Change, just to name a few. I was collectively marched towards mainstreaming sustainability for more cognitive diversity to solve common challenges and raise the bar across the board. So number one is get involved. Number two would be to put in the work into the training and knowing your stuff on sustainability. It may seem from the outside, the ESG landscape is a bit fuzzy. We just talked about the fact that the market is fragmented. But ESG is now part of a firm's license to operate. Therefore there is a need to engage and upscale your workforce on this topic. There are great trainings that exist, the CFA Institute, the Fundamentals for Sustainability Accounting from SASB, the European Federation of Financial Society also has a training. Within BNP Pam we have a network of ESG champions. Each client and investment facing team has one, and they're required to get some formal certification on ESG. So it starts with people and upscaling your people so they have expertise to make the right judgment calls. Maybe a final one would be: develop your leadership skills as they relate to change management. All ESG jobs at the moment, unless you're working at a pure player firm, and even then, involve some element of persuasion and winning hearts and minds. ESG is a journey, and along the journey you will need people and you will need to be able to convince people in other parts of the firm on the foundation of ESG. That is what change management is all about.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? The momentum of the space, but also the increased scrutiny from a new set of stakeholders- regulators, retail, investors, consumers- clearly they shine the light on the fact that we have made so much progress. But there is still so much progress that we still need to make. In the current environment, there is a strong and very important push against greenwashing and that is welcome. I think it will make us only better as practitioners. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? One short book, which is really a call to action, would be On Impact: A Guide to the Impact Revolution by Sir Ronald Cohen. This book is kind of a prelude of sorts to this much longer book titled Impact: Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change. So you can either read the short manifesto or the longer book depending on your bandwidth. But both books talk about the advent of the impact entrepreneurs and the potential paradigm shift from the risk return equation to a risk return impact equation in investment analysis, and also from measuring activities and inputs to measuring outcomes. Also how at each level as consumers; citizens, employers, we can facilitate this transition in thinking on impact investing. Another book, I have to confess I'm only halfway through, but another book which I find very interesting is Moving Beyond Portfolio Theory by Jon Lukomnik James Hawley. We truly look at how modern portfolio theory has been instrumental in shaping traditional investment but also how it falls short in terms of including a consideration of systemic risk and market ecosystem impact. So that's a very tall order, tackling modern portfolio theory. That's what you're trying to do in this book. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? In terms of resources, keeping up with market developments related to ESG investing. There are a few newsletters and resources that I would say most of us in the industry tend to read. There is Responsible Investors, Environmental Finance, Bloomberg Green, the Financial Times Moral Money newsletter just to name a few. Another resource for us is academia as well as looking at work done by international organizations, such as the IEA, the OCE or the World Bank Group. We at BMP Pam are a founding supporter of GRAFSI, which is the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investments. It is a global network of leading research universities founded in 2017 that aims to develop academic collaboration on the topic and they have aan annual conference. The next one is in September at the University of Zurich and next year will be at Yale university in September 2023. I think one of the reasons we are very keen to support academia is that as sustainable investment practitioners in such a growing and emerging field, we really need to rely on high quality academic research to make sense of this ESG alphabet to support development of new methodologies, as well as inform development of our new policies in a way that is transparent. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and your work being done at BNP? They can find information regarding our approach to sustainability on our corporate website https://group.bnpparibas/en/. On it you can find global sustainability strategy, all our policies on integration, stewardship, regulatory documentation. We have a sustainability report but also have profiled members of our firm on what it means for them in the day to day sustainable investor for a changing world. I can also be reached out to directly on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Clare Doyle has served as Masonite's Senior Vice President, Chief Sustainability Officer since August 2021. Previously, Clare held the roles of Senior Vice President and General Manager – UK Business from 2018 to 2021, and Senior Vice President, Business Leader – Components from 2016 to 2018. Prior to joining Masonite, Clare was with Elementis plc from 2010 to 2016 most recently as Vice President of Marketing. Prior to joining Elementis plc, she spent 11 years with Rohm and Haas Company in various roles in Corporate Development, Electronic Materials and in Architectural and Functional Coatings. Clare Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Her tips from her transition into a sustainability role The roots of sustainability at Masonite Masonite's plans for setting targets regarding emissions Collaboration on sustainability both up and down the supply chain Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Clare's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?  I would tell them to focus, focus, focus on developing your leadership skills. What the world needs from us right now is absolutely leadership. Focus on developing your leadership skills each and every day because that is what I see as being in really, really short supply in the sustainability world.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?  I'm really excited about the innovation that's coming, the emerging innovation. We are in a climate crisis right now, and times of crisis can be the catalyst that we need for great innovation. There's so many things where the answer is just not there yet, but I have to believe. I'm so optimistic that in this time of crisis we are going to see great innovation that's going to allow us to make the world a better place.  What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read?  I'd almost rather tell you what I'm reading now versus what has made the great impact. Only because every time I read something new, it puts what I did read in a better light, a new light; maybe puts together more understanding. I'm currently working my way through Decolonizing Wealth by Edgar Villanueva, which I highly recommend to everybody. Earlier this year I had read Net Positive by Paul Polman and Andrew Winston. Every time I read another book, it really does add some strength or new insights to what I read before. So I wouldn't say that there was any one thing, it's just one of those current things I'm working on.  What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?  The network. The community of sustainability professionals who are out there, the community of corporate social responsibility people who are out there. It's just those dialogues and being able to reach out to everybody is just so powerful. Just keep working on your network, keep talking to people. There are so many people who are so willing to share their knowledge, their experiences. It just adds so much.  Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Masonite? They can read our sustainability report at masonite.com/esg, and I'm on LinkedIn.

Emma Stewart, Ph.D., is Netflix's first Sustainability Officer, where together with teams from across the company, she seeks to bring Netflix's carbon footprint to net zero, raise environmental awareness through film and television series, and spur conversation on climate action among our hundreds of millions of members in 190 countries.  She previously led World Resources Institute's global work on urban efficiency, climate, and finance. She served on the Board of the U.S. Green Building Council and software company Ecomedes.  She has been a member of the professional faculty at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and Stanford Graduate School of Business where she taught “Intrapreneurship for Sustainability”. Emma was rated a “Badass Woman in Sustainability” by GreenBiz, a "top 3 speaker" by The Economist Summits, and has been named a “one of the most powerful women under 45” and an “urban pioneer” by FORTUNE Magazine, a “sustainability insurgent” by MIT Sloan Management Review, and one of the “Top 10 Women in Sustainability” by American Builders. Her work has been featured in The Economist, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Financial Times, Reuters, L.A. Times, and Environmental Law Journal, among others. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Management from Stanford University and a B.A. with Honors in Human Sciences from Oxford University. Emma Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Netflix's Net Zero + Nature strategy Balancing reduction of emissions with offsets Netflix's 5 step screening process for carbon credits Netflix's greatest sources of emissions are strategies to address them Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Emma's Final Five Questions Responses What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Always look for ways to become a profit center. I remember in a past company I worked for, and also those that I've had the privilege of advising, there's often an assumption that this is a cost center. It's maybe a cost of doing business, it helps the company maintain its license to operate. But I think that's often a lack of creativity. When you look at the product portfolio of most companies, there's a way to make money, to delight your customers, and to align with environmental needs. My advice is always find that journey from cost center to profit center. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? There's been a real global awakening as to how this touches every living thing, humans of course, as well as non-human species. It's now front page news in every region of the world. Unfortunately, often because it's taking the lives of the most vulnerable with a heat wave or a climate fueled natural disaster or grid outages or sea level rise. But it's not just the impacts that are making headlines. It's now also the fact that companies are mainstreaming this as a way of doing business. The largest financial institutions in the world are setting targets and starting to align their investment portfolios with climate science, and it has become a political dealbreaker. In many parts of the world. You see elections hinge on this topic in many countries. So for better or for worse, it has become front page news, which means there are many more voices in the room. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? My team and I just finished a book called Generation Dread, which I can highly recommend. It's written by Dr. Britt Wray. It's a survey of the latest research on how climate is manifesting as anxiety among the majority of the population, with the most vocal being gen z and the millennials, but it turns out they're not alone in feeling this dread. On the flip side, they are harnessing that anxiety and that helplessness into action as voters, as consumers, as employees. We found it very helpful and we actually had a team meeting with the author to unpack what it means for us as individuals and how we can better serve our consumers and members. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I am an avid reader of Bloomberg News. They cover the intersection of business technology and climate with real sophistication, and they also had the wherewithal to acquire new energy finance. The BNEF outlooks as they're called, on electric vehicles on the energy sector on carbon pricing, you name it, those are excellent. On a more regular basis, I read updates from Fortune. They have a CFO Daily that often touches on sustainability and ESG topics. Carbon Brief is very good. Ceres and NRDC are strong on policy related developments. Energy Weekly and Climate Tech Weekly are really good on the clean tech side. The Hill I find to be quite useful also in terms of the politics, at least in the United States. And lastly, Project Drawdown's work, which was so seminal in a multi-year multi-scholar model of the top climate solutions and how they could be executed. Project Drawdown continues to produce research that we rely upon. Where can and our listeners go to learn more about you and your work at Netflix? Sustainability.netflix.com and also LinkedIn.

Passionate about creating a better world and enabling growth among Anheuser-Busch employees and business, John is responsible for leading teams to deliver a more sustainable future and a resilient, dynamic and efficient supply chain. John joined Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2012, and has since held various positions across Europe and Africa focusing on agricultural development, procurement, technology and business operations.   John led the design and launch of Anheuser-Busch's SmartBarley program, a global platform supporting farmers across the world, and most recently was responsible for leading the business operations and digital transformation agenda in Africa before stepping into the role of U.S. Chief Sustainability and Procurement Officer. Prior to his time with Anheuser-Busch, he worked with Root Capital, providing business and investment support. John holds a Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from NC State University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. John Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Anheuser-Busch's main sustainability focuses: renewable energy, water, agriculture, and packaging Sourcing ingredients and how sustainability is incorporated into the supply chain Anheuser-Busch's SmartBarley program How Anheuser-Busch reached 100% renewable electricity with the Budweiser Wind Farm and Anheuser-Busch solar farm Reducing emissions in transportation/distribution Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders John's Final Five Questions Responses What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? For me it would be to really learn the business. To my last thoughts on our sustainability team, I think it's so important to learn the business, to understand the different elements of our strategy, of how we're connecting with consumers, to customers, to all the aspects of our value chain. I think this integration is really relevant to driving change and to ensure that we understand the intensions and we understand the value propositions, we understand how we can bring innovation into sustainability. Sustainability is not on the side. It's totally integrated within and it's a part of our management system. It's a part of our strategy, it's a part of our actions. I think as a sustainability professional, having that knowledge and experience is really important. My last role before coming back to the United States was in Africa leading technology in our business operation. There was nothing in my title that was sustainability, but that experience for me was so meaningful to learn different parts of the business. Obviously in a different market like Africa that has different challenges and different opportunities. Learning technology by leading the technology team in Africa— super relevant now to come back to a more formal sustainability role incorporating that knowledge and applying that to the impact and the acceleration of our agenda. Think of sustainability broadly, don't think of it as a narrow niche, think of it as something that really needs to be enabled across the entire business that requires that business experience and understanding. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I think the energy. Ten years ago when I joined Anheuser-Busch and we were talking about agriculture, we were talking about it in a very different way. We were talking about how meaningful it was and how important it was, where now it's fundamental. Sustainability is our foundation. It's gone from important to fundamental. I think the energy within our business is represented in many other organizations that are really leaning in and integrating this into their core strategy. For me that's incredibly exciting. I think we see it in the ambitions set forward by many around net zero and taking the risk, knowing that there's a lot to learn, there's a lot that we don't understand, but we all know that that's such an important mission. Seeing that energy is incredibly exciting. Seeing the evolution of the work of sustainability, something that was maybe niche a decade ago, that's now core, fundamental, and at our heart is awesome. We've got to make sure that deliver on that opportunity. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? A book that was really meaningful in my life was The Blue Sweater written by Jacqueline Novogratz. This was personally at a really formative period when I was transitioning from being a design engineer to get back into agricultural development. I was thinking about what that would look like and what that would mean. That book opened my eyes and mind to thinking about business in a very different way - social enterprise and the role of business and society solving really meaningful societal challenges. Ultimately that's at the core of sustainability- how as a business do we solve the problems and the needs of our consumers and our customers so that our business can sustain and grow and achieve all of our missions and goals. That book really brought that to life through really relevant innovation and pushing a frontier on how do we bring finance to the missing middle especially in markets such as Africa where those institutional voids are so relevant and pressing, and the role that business can play in funding and investments, taking the right risks with a triple bottom line mindset. That would be one book I'd recommend. It meant a lot to me and certainly shaped the last 12 years of my life and career. What are some of your favorite resources or that really help you in your work? The power of networks is so important. I've had the opportunity to stay connected to different sustainability networks and colleagues. I have a learning group of sustainability professionals that I met many years ago. I think those types of networks are just so important. There's always so much to learn in this space as it evolves. Having people that are close to us that are in a different company, in a different industry, but connected to this ever growing and broadening topic around sustainability has continued to be where I really find a lot of inspiration and learning. I would recommend strengthening those networks if you have them. If you don't have them find them and contribute to them, and certainly you'll value from those networks. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Anheuser-Busch? Our website anheuserbusch.com. That'll also link you to our global websites as well. You'll find some good information around our sustainability goals and some of our use cases and stories of progress. Certainly feel free to follow me on LinkedIn. I always try to share some of the interesting work that we're doing and what we think can be an inspiration to others.

IRA Pearl is the Vice President of Environmental Sustainability at Cox Enterprises. Ira is responsible for leading Cox's sustainability strategy, including driving ambitious goals to achieve zero waste to landfill by 2024 and to become water and carbon neutral by 2034. IRA has more than 25 years of experience, both in consulting and leading environmental departments at large Fortune 500 companies, as well as in operational leadership roles. He spent most of his career developing and executing strategies in the areas of renewable energy, sustainability, climate change, and environmental compliance. Ira Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: How being a private company impacts the way sustainability is handled How Cox establishes sustainability goals and targets - ground up process Cox's approach to employee engagement and the benefits of having top down support Sustainability reporting at Cox and the emphasis on transparency Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Ira's Final Five Question Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Understand the business side of things. Having a passion for sustainability is great, but you need to make your work economically sustainable as well. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? So many companies are now coming to the table and seeking to reduce their footprint. The accompanying level of investment is driving innovation and cost reduction and it helps all of us get there faster. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read? I would recommend Confessions of a Radical Industrialist by Ray Anderson, who was the CEO of interface. It talks about how running your company sustainably is just good business. I think Cox has proven this by delivering double digit returns on our sustainability investments. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? There's so many it's difficult to list them all. My web browser has so many bookmarks, but one of the ones I use a lot is the EIA website, the Environmental Administration website, because it is such a credible source of truth and data that helps identify trends and lends credibility to the analyses behind these resources. I also listen to a lot of business news, which more and more is covering ESG. I keep abreast of a lot trends and what other companies are doing and evolving technology by subscribing to a bunch of email list servers that that give me that data and feed it to my inbox every day. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Cox? They can go to coxenterprises.com/cox-conserves where they can learn more about our programs. If you want to learn about the investments we're making in Cleantech, you can go to https://coxnewinvestments.com. Our vision there is to take the problems facing the world and transform them into business opportunities. At Cox, we want to run a business that gives employees a better life, gets the return on investment and has a positive impact on society.

Ellen has worked at the intersection of sustainability and human resources as a recruiter and consultant for 20+ years. A super connector, Ellen's passion for sustainability and ESG was sparked while obtaining her MBA from Yale and interning at L.L.Bean. Ellen is a regular speaker at industry events, as well as a contributor to Forbes, Huffington Post, and has her own column with GreenBiz entitled “Talent Show.” Ellen Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: The background and future of the CSO role  ESG vs. Sustainability  The future of supply and demand for sustainability professionals  How to address the great resignation and keep people in the field DEI in sustainability  Ellen's Final Five Question Responses What is one piece of advice you would give to other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Network. Especially in this covid pandemic period where we're getting out of the house/office less often, it's important to keep your network going and those relationships with great other sustainability professionals alive. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? The investment and energy that's going into building sustainability programs from the corporate side and from the investment sector is very exciting. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? Profession and Purpose by Katie Kross. It's a guide for sustainability professionals wanting MBAs/wanting to go into sustainability. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? The GreenBiz conference and the Sustainable Brands conference. Certainly conferences are good opportunity to get out and see a great deal of people. And also LinkedIn as a resource, especially as a recruiter. We use LinkedIn for all of our searches. So even if we have resumes or we know people, we're still looking at their LinkedIn profiles. Also the feed- to see who's got a new job or what they're doing, who's speaking, who has some accolade. It's a valuable tool so we're on LinkedIn a lot. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and your work? Www.weinrebgroup.com, our website. We're also on Twitter at Sustainable Jobs and also on LinkedIn.

Kristen B. Sullivan is a partner with Deloitte & Touche LLP and leads Sustainability and ESG Services, working with clients to help address their sustainability and non-financial disclosure strategy needs. Kristen also serves as the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited's Global Audit & Assurance Climate and Sustainability Services Leader and the Integrated Reporting Community of Practice Leader. Kristen brings extensive experience in delivering sustainability risk assessment, governance, strategy alignment, measurement, reporting, and assurance services.   Given the growing market emphasis on the importance of ESG standards and frameworks, Kristen serves as a member of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Community, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Assurance Task Force, the Sustainable Stock Exchange (SSE) Initiative Corporate Working Group, and as Chair of the AICPA Sustainability Task Force. She previously served on the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) Working Group.  Kristen has authored a number of publications around the value of sustainability and ESG disclosure and assurance. She was #10 on the 2020 Top 100 Corporate Social Responsibility Influence Leaders list. Kristen has more than 25 years of experience with Deloitte, beginning her career in Deloitte's Audit and Advisory Services, working in Deloitte's National Office in several capacities, and working with the deputy CEO of Deloitte LLP focused on regulatory and public policy matters. Kristen is a CPA (CT, MO) and CGMA and earned SASB's Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting (FSA) Credential. Kristen completed the Berkeley Law Executive Education Certification: ESG: Navigating the Board's Role.  Kristen also serves as a member of the Eureka College Board of Trustees and the Financial Women's Association. Kristen lives in Greenwich, CT, with her three year old daughter. Kristen Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: The role of assurance professionals in ESG The future of comparability of data across the industry - a building blocks approach The shift in approach to ESG toward integration Where we are in transformational change in business Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals  Kristen's Final Five Questions Responses What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I love this question. As I reflect on my journey and the fact that I didn't come to this space with an expertise or an ESG education, I always encourage professionals no matter where they are in their career to really look at, in a traditional corporate context as an example, where is that discipline that you align with? For me it was accounting. Whether it's marketing or operations, finance or legal, complementing a traditional discipline within an organization to really bring that depth and a perspective of the way ESG or sustainability overlays to bring a differentiated perspective to that discipline. We've seen that this “ESG expert” doesn't really exist per se, because we know that ESG performance and priority areas are so broad and diverse. So, bringing that perspective to an existing discipline within an organization is that tool, that effective way to help an organization drive integration within all parts of the business.  What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? The momentum, the energy, the passion that we're seeing by not the usual suspects in the market. For those of us who have been working in this space for a long time, the commitment and energy that we're seeing from within organizations. It's not just the sustainability team; it's the finance teams, operations, the supply chain, the talent teams that are all really engaging and driving this momentum. And then naturally, it's a reflection of where the market is headed more broadly, but I would say very simply that the momentum and the recognition that ESG is not a fading movement; it's really here to stay and it's going to become increasingly central to companies. It's the license to operate and the license to grow. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability professionals read? It's hard to choose, but the first is Accountable: The Rise of Citizen Capitalism. It's a great book that came out not too long ago. Michael O'Leary creates and provides some practical examples of the way that the capital markets are evolving and the way in which ESG is so central to strategy. I've also always been a fan of John Mackey. Conscious Capitalism and Conscious Leadership are two of his books that provide great perspective and examples for those participating in this space at different levels of maturity. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? This will likely come as no surprise. While it's not super sexy, looking to the developments in the whole standards landscape. The largely voluntary standards today - standards and frameworks - there's a tremendous amount of guidance and practical tools that are provided for public use that really help translate these concepts into actionable business priorities, and really help guide companies along this journey toward preparedness for greater scrutiny. The work that that we do is naturally grounded in standards, and the value of a number of these resources is somewhat underplayed given that there's a wealth of accessible information out there. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Deloitte? Visit our website, deloitte.com. We have information about our sustainability ESG services, our thought leadership, and the way in which we engage as a professional services firm. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter and search #deloitteESGnow. I'm very active in sharing our thought leadership, our perspectives, and the role that we feel is so critical that we play in contributing to this market momentum and ultimately our public interest role.

Braden Kay is the director of sustainability for the City of Tempe. He was recently the sustainability project manager for the City of Orlando, where he led sustainability implementation in waste diversion, urban forestry, and urban agriculture programs. He received a PhD from Arizona State's School of Sustainability for his dissertation work on stakeholder engagement and strategy building within the City of Phoenix. Previously, Braden managed community engagement, sustainability assessment and strategy building for the City of Phoenix's Reinvent Phoenix grant, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Sustainable Communities program. Braden's academic and professional experience in urban planning, sustainability assessment, and sustainability implementation make him an asset for innovative urban sustainability efforts.  Braden Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Tip for starting sustainability programs in cities Learning from indigenous people and incorporating their ideas into sustainability strategies Developing a climate action plan Trade-offs between focusing on climate adaptation vs. mitigation when faced with limited resources Ensuring water security in dry regions like Tempe Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Braden's Final Five Question Responses What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?  The power of networking to me is so important. I derive so much value from the Sustainable Cities Network, the Western Adaptation Alliance and the Urban Sustainability Director's Network. I know that if I need something, I can call Chris Castro in Orlando or Dan and Melissa and Jill and the team in DC, or Kizzy in New York or Leah and Providence. It's so great to be able to rely on the fact that we are a network of professionals. I think the worst thing that our profession does sometimes is say, "Well, this has never been done before. We're just building the plane as we fly it." I think we hear that in cities all the time, and I think that's a terrible perspective to have. There is something along the lines of what you want to do somewhere out there. Really having conversations with the people that have gone through that and learning from them as to how they handled that change and what they did is so valuable. Recently, we've been struggling through how we incorporate the International Green Construction Code into our city. Scottsdale, on the private development side, and Boise, on the city building side, have been so great. They've been willing to come in and have meetings with our senior management. They've been willing to have more technical meetings with our technical staff and be willing to actually meet with our consultants. We just had a meeting of 40 people listen in to Boise, Idaho and learn what they've learned from building their first three buildings with the International Green Construction Code. That kind of network, the importance of having the network and then using the network - not just new using the network for yourself, but using the network for all the other people in your city, so that your city engineer has tapped into the network, so that your city manager and mayor are tapped into to the network. I think it's a huge part of us being successful. Our profession is still only about 20 years old, and most of us have been in our positions for five years or less. It makes that networking piece such an important part of what we do. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?  I'm most excited sustainability professionals are finally understanding that the sustainability movement exists out in community. Community-based organizations, activists, young people, students, they're making sustainability happen on the ground. It's up to us as sustainably professionals to help local government, state government meet the movement. Ten years ago, a lot of people that were sustainability professionals thought they were the movement. Now I think there's a lot more of us that are understanding that government should not be at the center of climate action and climate change work. Government plays an incredibly important convening and supporting role, but it's really about government being more accessible to people, and sustainability professionals need to be those guides. We need to help people understand how to navigate government and how to make change happen efficiently and effectively instead of thinking that we alone can fix it. I'm really excited seeing those examples out there from Fort Collins, Colorado, and from the Bay area, and from Portland, Oregon, and from Orlando, Florida, where people are doing these authentic city community-based partnerships, making change happen where it's really community led and government supported. That's how we're building our cool kids work with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It's designed to be youth-centered with the university and city supporting in the background. This work with the NEA, our town grant is meant to have the artists and tribal members lead the work with the city in support. This is a really exciting model for how we do climate action in cities an I can't wait to see what our colleagues around the country and their community-based partners are able to do. It also seems like both the federal government and national philanthropy like the Bloombergs and Bezos's of the world are starting to understand, "Hey, we need to really support community-based organizations in this work. We still should support cities, but we need to also support community-based organizations in working together with cities so that the movement happens." Then the cities can come behind with the infrastructure, with the policy, with the programs that support what community members are asking for. Another great example of that is the work that's been happening with the climate action work in Denver. They have their new climate tax that was city led and government followed. The work in Portland where they now have a green new deal fund that was done in that same community-forward government second kind of way too. It's a really exciting trend. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? Right now I'm reading Braiding Sweetgrass. It's a book about indigenous knowledge specifically around plants. I'm finding that book to be very inspiring and helping me understand more around how indigenous perspectives and indigenous concepts of resilience and indigenous knowledge of plants and ecology can inform our collective work to save the planet. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? Well, like I said, the network work I find very, very useful. The other thing I want to pitch to all the sustainably directors out there, we're trying to do this with the Western Adaptation Alliance, we have federal agencies that we need to be working more closely with - your EPA region and with your FEMA region and with DOT and DOE. We went through a phase where the federal government was not as interested in climate action and now it is. Right now is a time to make sure that we're really strengthening our relationships with federal agencies and with our local regions for each of those agencies. They have a lot of great tools. We're constantly hearing about new tools and new opportunities from our federal agencies. We've gotten some small grants from FEMA and EPA in the past. DOE is funding some really exciting stuff. Tempe would not be where it is now without some of the partnerships we've had with the Department of Transportation. Those federal agency relationships, that's one tool I'm really focused in right now. Especially with the infrastructure bill coming and the potential for a reconciliation package, it's really important that all of us are tapped in to our relationship with federal agencies making sure that as those programs are coming out. We're really thinking about how to make sure that those programs are getting tied to community-based organizations as quickly as possible, and that we're getting more federal resources out into our community. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and your work at Tempe? You can check us out at tempe.gov/sustainability. You can go to our annual report which reviews what we've been doing at the city as well as our first Climate Action Plan. That's up there now, and then this winter we'll have our Climate Action Plan update, and that's what we're working on right now. Please stay out and look for our new update. I think it's a new way of thinking about how to create climate action planning that is really people-centered and centering the agendas of specific stakeholders, as opposed to just being a government document that sits on the shelf and kind of waffles around the politics of who cares about what. We've really come up with a way of presenting to our mayor and council the broad diversity of work that's happening in the city and the broad diversity of perspectives and actions that our business community and our residents want to see. That should be coming out in February. 

Chris serves as Global Senior Principal for Sustainability and ESG where he is responsible for leading Cardno's corporate sustainability initiative and in particular, providing ESG support to institutional investors. In addition, Chris supports Cardno's Science and Environment division by delivering great project outcomes for our clients, developing new  business, growing existing client relationships, fostering staff development, and aiding in strategy and planning. Chris also chairs Carno's Sustainability Task Force and has over 30 years of experience in both the public and private sectors working on environmental and sustainability issues.  Chris Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Cardno's services and clientelle Internal vs. external ESG work at Cardo ESG challenges and opportunities facing the solar and natural gas industries Defining sustainability vs. ESG Institutional investors' focus on EGS and sustainability  Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Chris' Final Five Question Responses What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Some advice that I got when I was getting started in this game from a Congressman named Jim Cooper who's a centrist from Tennessee. I was a general generalist coming out of college and he said "That's okay, it's okay to be a generalist. But get really good at one topic or one thing. Become an expert to the extent that you can in one topic and become indispensable." That I think can apply to ESG. It's very much potentially a generalist field because you need to be able to think broadly. But there also is that element that you need to be able to dive in pretty deep so that you're not just a mile wide and an inch deep. So that's my advice: get really good at one thing where people can count on you to know how to navigate that one thing. Then obviously keep your eyes open for other changes in the industry. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? We kind of touched on it. It's this investor shift into ESG factors. I think that has fundamentally altered the landscape. The fact that now these investors are looking for solid advice, science-based advice. That's where I think the opportunity is for not only for Cardno but for lots of other companies as well. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? A lot of this is about communication, and a book that really changed the way that I think about how to interact with people is a book called Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. The people that were awarded the Nobel Prize for economics earlier this week are students of Kahneman. This idea of behavioral economics and how people make decisions in the real world is essentially what behavioral economics is all about. Kahneman was the foundation of that. It's a fantastic book; it will change the way you look at the world. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? In terms of resources, the newspapers of record are part of my daily reading; The Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post. Axios and their various newsletters are also becoming part of that regular daily read for me. Industry specific; the Canary Media's a fairly new entity out there. I find them really interesting on energy issues. Corporate Eco Forum, GreenBiz, Cypher; there's a number of ESG specific streams that are out there that I really depend on. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and your work at Cardno? I have a LinkedIn page course, but certainly go to cardo.com and there's a sustainability link there. I'm happy to talk to anybody about it. I enjoy talking with colleagues and other professionals with people who are just getting started in this space; I think it's exciting.

Cecilia is the Sustainability Strategy Director at Electrolux in Sweden. Her role includes supporting the continued development of the company's sustainability strategy. She is responsible for implementing the strategy in the various Electrolux organizations, including defining ways of working and establishing relationships. Cecilia is also responsible for governance development and coordination, coordinating development of KPIs and other activities, as well as continuous improvement, assessment and development of the scope of the sustainability framework. Cecilia Joins Sustainable Nation To Discuss: Empowering customers to lead better and more sustainable lives through offering the right products Integrating a sustainability strategy to the point it becomes the strategy Electrolux's approach to circular design: closing the loop in materials, product as a service Electrolux's climate-neutral value chain goal The 50 Liter home Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Cecilia's Final Five Question Responses What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? For a younger person, I would say that an important thing is not to lock on having a career in sustainability, but really to decide what field you want to be active in. Get a good degree in the field that you're interested in and then combine it with sustainability. I think the era of sustainability generalists might be coming to an end. I think the future will need more really good experts in the different fields. We need good industrial engineers to set super energy efficient operations. We need great designers to design products for refurbishment and recycling and for this new circular society we're working in. We need financial experts to work on sustainable finance. Make that combination; that will give you a faster career and I think stronger results in your work. For a person that's sort of come a little further in their career, I think be really true to the materiality analysis that you've done in your company. Even if things are hard or seem hard to solve or will take a long time. There is no way around really focusing on what makes most sense and what is needed to be addressed from a sustainability perspective. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? After 25 years in this business, I'm really excited; it really seems to be crunch time right now. I see it in my own company. We were the geeks, trying to knock on doors and bring our message to everyone. But now everyone's talking sustainability and we're struggling to keep up with everything with all the activities that are going on and all the interest. I hear the same things from my friends working in sustainability and from other companies. I see it in the news, I hear from my neighbors, and in policymaking. Above all I see it in the financial world, which is the real game changer. Just take an example: Electrolux this year is renewing its long-term incentive program. For the first time, the top two, three hundred managers and key people within Electrolux will be incentivized based on our SBT roadmap. There will not be a full long-term incentive payout for our top management unless we fulfill our science-based targets. That will be a game changer. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? I'm reading two books in parallel. Right now we're realizing that we won't just have to change our products and tweak our business. We're going to have to rethink our whole society. There is a book by Kate Raworth called Doughnut Economics, and another book called A Finer Future by among others Hunter Lovens and Stuart Wallace and John Fullerton. They're both talking about a new economic concept: the way we value materials, the way we value work. We will have to make new economic models, we'll have to rethink our business models and how we calculate investments. We'll have to redo it all. I think these two books give me a lot of happy thoughts that actually it's going to be possible before we run out of time. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? By now you've understood that I I'm a stickler for science, so I tend to go to the sources. We have a lot of good resources in Scandinavia; Stockholm Environments Institute, Stockholm International Water Institutes, the Stockholm Resilience Center. They publish a lot of stuff that is really good and front edge thinking. I read a lot of IPPC stuff, WWF stuff and from the Potsdam Institute as well. The other is creativity and turning it into what fits your business, but you really have to stick with the science. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Electrolux? You'll just have to go to our webpage www.electroluxgroup.com/sustainability. We'll be launching a new sustainability report in just a few weeks covering the 2020 work that we've done, so look out for that. For the Better Living Program: www.betterlivingprogram.com. For the 50 Liter Home: 50Lhome.org. There hopefully will be lots for you to read in the year to come.

As Managing Director, Global Environmental Affairs and Sustainability at United Airlines, Lauren is responsible for leading United's efforts in environmental compliance, waste, water and energy management, sustainable aviation fuel, and overall environmental sustainability strategy. These initiatives are designed to support United's goal of achieving a 50% reduction of carbon emissions by 2050.   Lauren is a business leader focused on the relationship between innovation and environmental sustainability. With 20 years consulting experience, Lauren has led a variety of initiatives addressing business and digital transformation, strategic planning, and change management that yield environmental and operational benefit.  Lauren Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: United's GHG reduction goals and its commitment to realizing net zero without carbon offsets Direct air capture technology to sequester carbon and United's investment in 1point5 The advantages and challenges of sustainable aviation fuel Eco-Skies Alliance United's partnership with Archer Aviation  Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Lauren's Final Five Question Responses What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Please start with your passion place. I have talked to so many folks that have said to me, "but I'm not an environmental engineer, but I didn't grow up in the ESG space, well I don't quite understand greenhouse gas accounting protocols." That is fine. If you have a passion and desire to learn and a willingness to really affect the conversation and make change happen around climate change, you have a role in this world right now. This whole space is just blossoming, so don't stand down, stand up and lean in because it's a really great time to be considering a professional career around sustainability. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I'm excited because what used to be a single group of folks having almost singular conversation in isolation of business and in isolation of broader economic discussions is now becoming mainstream. We're hearing not just from the environmental community who has always cared about this issue. We're actually hearing from the C-suite and we're hearing from our corporate customers and we're hearing from our investors and we have a government that is really leaning into all things de-carbonization and net zero. There's a huge opportunity for us to come together and really find pathways forward that enable us to realize the goals that were set out with the Paris Agreement. That's exciting. I'm an optimist; I see a ton of potential through technology as well as the nature based solutions. I think we're going to solve for this, but I've never seen this kind of momentum and passion and focus before. Now all of a sudden what used to be the folks hugging the tree in the corner has become really about business strategy and changing the economy. That is just wildly exciting to me. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? I just finished Bill Gates book. I do recommend anybody who wants to learn about the challenges facing us in the next couple of decades take a look at that book. It breaks down quite frankly and simply the opportunities facing us in the next couple of years. But it also conveys a bit of urgency. We do need to work together to address some of these hard to abate industries, including aviation. We do need to work together to assert to goals that makes sense and are measurable and we can actually commit to. We do need to work together to figure out the infrastructure around accounting and making sure that there's integrity in what we're trying to accomplish. The last thing we want to do is think we're on the path to success and then find out a couple of decades too late that our numbers are wrong and the way we're approaching it is inaccurate. I believe there's a ton of opportunity for us to get over that threshold and really get on the positive path to address climate change through a variety of solutions. Bill Gates book was really clear and crisp in defining the Green Premium and those industries that we really need to laser focus on and the roles that not just you and I, but government and corporations and everyone can play in really facilitating this change. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? Quite frankly, and this is probably going to sound quite lean, but conversations like this and conversations across a variety of audiences where you learn about the barriers, you learn about the challenges that each industry and each sector is uniquely facing. Quite honestly, it probably isn't unique to that industry. It probably isn't something that another group has not overcome before. I spend a lot of time talking; I spend more time listening. That's really important because this whole issue around climate change and the science and the solutions evolves every single day. It's an opportunity for those of you out there that are passionate learners, but then also enthusiasts for the climate and this beautiful planet we live on to reach out to one another and find the right communities and conversations to engage in. It is equally balanced between listening and learning and acting and doing right now. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at United? I encourage everyone to go to united.com/sustainability. You can learn about engaging our corporate customers in their quest to reduce their scope three emissions. You can learn about all of our fun and amazing investments in electric aircraft, as well as sustainable aviation fuel and direct air capture. You can hear from our CEO, Scott Kirby about his vision and his commitment to combatting climate change and United as a leader in this space. If anyone wants to reach out to me I encourage you to reach out through that website as well.

With over 3 decades of experience at Procter & Gamble in Brand Management and Innovation, Virginie has a broad experience across multiple categories and global to local brand management expertise. Virginie has worked across several of P&G's multi-billion dollar brands, including Pantene, Ariel/Tide, and Pampers, and has extensive international experience having been based in France, UK, Switzerland and the United States throughout her career. Since 2011, Virginie's focus has been on sustainability and corporate citizenship, with a global remit covering all brands and business units, in all regions. Her mission was to embed sustainability into the innovation, brand-building and everyday business practices at P&G. In 2016, she was promoted to Vice President of Global Sustainability, in recognition of the work she has led to make sustainability a core business strategy, an innovation driver and a catalyst for a more resilient organisation. Even though Virginie recommended the creation of this new position, her vision has always been for the role to become obsolete, with sustainability embedded in everything P&G does as second nature. As she puts it: “Innovation and communication will not be conceived without sustainable groundings.” Prior to her current position, Virginie was the Western Europe Franchise Leader for Ariel, one of P&G's largest brands, where she turned Ariel into the leader in sustainability through the launch of the highly successful “Cool Clean/Turn to 30” campaign and the most sustainable laundry product (Excel Gel). Beyond her brand and innovation expertise, she is a certified coach and widely recognised for her vision, change management and leadership development skills. Virginie Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Making sustainability irresistible - change management and motivation P&G's process for prioritizing and developing sustainability goals Getting executive leadership on board with aspirational goals P&G's role in the 50 Liter Home coalition Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders  Virginie's Final Five Questions Responses What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Depending on where they are on their journey, it will be different advice. For the beginners, I would say understand the science so that you can define your strategy based on where you can have the greatest impact. For the most advanced, which have probably exhausted all the programs that they can directly control and do on their own, I would encourage them to go and join others in collaboration and coalition and choose the ones that are committed to action. You have some that are more about think tank- I think here it's about action, and also those who have the greatest scale. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? It forces you to ask questions that you would not ask in business otherwise. What is the role of your business or your brand in society? That's our program on basis core brand 2030 - that each brand needs to have a commitment which is societal, environmental and social. It forces you to ask you those big questions. It also forces you to ask, how can you do more with less - sustainability as a key driver of innovation. How can you do what was deemed impossible; when you come together to do things like with the 50 Liter Home coalition. It's an amazing catalyst for widening the screen, opening the box, and really big transformations of systems. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? I would recommend books that are actually not on sustainability but on leadership. It's all about great leadership and leading change. One that I really like, it's called Building the Bridge As You Walk On It, it's from Rob Quinn. And the one I mentioned which is Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard from Dan and Chip Heath. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I would mention collaboration organizations that are member based. I would mention two of them because for me personally they have been ones that have been the most enriching and the most actionable as well. One is called Sustainable Brands. It's the leading organization of brands and sustainability to help brands really on the journey of becoming sustainable and now even regenerative in business. The other one is called The World Business Council for Sustainable Development. It's an organization of 200 CEOs who are getting together to tackle the big global challenges, and they're also very inspiring; very bias to action and making a difference. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work that you are leading at Procter and Gamble? Go to our website, we actually just refreshed it. We have added a big section section with our new goals on forestry. There is the website and there is the citizenship report that we issue every year. The latest one is from November of last year. Lots of brand stories and fascinating partnerships that we described there. Follow me on LinkedIn; I share regularly all our best stories.  

Erin gives voice to Interface's conscience, ensuring that strategy and goals are in sync with its aggressive sustainability vision established more than 20 years ago. Today, Interface has evolved its thinking to go beyond doing less harm to creating positive impacts, not just for Interface and the flooring industry, but for the world at large. Erin led the company to unveil a new mission in 2016 – Climate Take Back, tackling the single biggest threat facing humanity: global climate change. This mission is focused on creating a path for Interface and others to reverse global warming, not just reduce carbon emissions. As CSO, Erin leads a global team that provides technical assistance and support to this audacious goal and the company's global business, addressing sustainability at all levels – from operations and management, to employees and customers, and in policy forums. Erin and her team also develop industry-leading approaches to measurement, driving transparency and innovation in the field of sustainability. Erin Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Creating carbon negative products (without offsets) and this impact on the built environment How to balance the sustainability of a product with performance and cost Expanding carbon negativity throughout not only products, but within Interface's own buildings and operations Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) as a tool for making better choices in building A dive into Interface's Net-Works Program and other innovative waste diversion programs Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Erin's Final Five Question Responses What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I would say building on the idea of networks. I always say to people starting out in the profession: pilot projects are your friend. We really have an opportunity as sustainability professionals. Every day we're innovating, we're trying to help our businesses do something new and different often in opposition to what has been a traditional business model. So I've really had success in my career and sort of de-risked that for partners by saying, let's try out this innovative, new idea that flies in the face of how we've normally done it and delivers value for more stakeholders than just investors. Let's enter into that with a pilot project approach. You'd be surprised how much that de-risks what's about to happen and makes people feel more comfortable entering in. At the same time, it sets a tone for this as a place where we're going to learn about how we do things differently. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I'm most excited about the carbon revolution happening in buildings. I really feel very optimistic that we can make progress on decarbonizing the economy and really come up with removal solutions in the next decade. I see it happening here. I see it happening in the built environment. I think over the last two years, the conversation around carbon removal and the technologies- whether it be on the regenerative agriculture end or on the opposite end of that spectrum, the really high-tech carbon removal- I feel like every day there's some new announcement about a new technology or a new way that we can harvest a nature based systems to remove carbon from the atmosphere in really innovative ways. I really believe it's going to be a very exciting next 10 years on carbon. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? You can tell that I'm in sustainability because I obviously appreciate the natural world and I find a lot of value and connection in that in my personal life. So I would say one of the best books I've ever read is Biomimicry by Janine Benyus. You don't have to be a sustainability person, but understanding how to look at nature as an innovator and seeing those examples of where designers and others have tapped into nature's genius to solve design challenges, organizational challenges, it's a really inspiring, interesting book. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I like to listen to Nori's podcasts and read things from Nori. I follow Carbon180 and I think they have really fantastic resources. Project Drawdown has just released something really exciting called Climate Solutions 101. It's a fantastic series of six new videos that tell stories of how we are working every day to reverse global warming. Project Drawdown and Drawdown- fantastic resources, and they have a whole bunch of new things coming out. I would say those three are the things that I probably look at, use, refer people to on a weekly basis.  Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Interface? There's a fantastic place that they can visit, which is just the Interface website www.interface.com. You can learn more about Interface's mission, you can learn more about carbon negative products. You can follow Interface on LinkedIn, and you can also find me on LinkedIn - Erin Meezan, and you can find me on Twitter @Erinmeez.

As Senior Director of Brand, Reputation & Impact, Tabitha Upshaw leads NI’s global Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy, where purpose and social impact meet brand.  A seasoned marketing and nonprofit leader, Tabitha has worked at the intersection of brand and corporate citizenship for more than 10 years, helping organizations use their strengths and innovative spirit to be a powerful force for good.  Prior to NI, Tabitha was the first chief marketing officer of Global Wildlife Conservation. She also created and led Dell's corporate social responsibility (CSR) marketing function and did the same for SunPower. Pulling from these experiences, Tabitha built and led the development of NI’s first Corporate Impact strategy, a series of goals and commitments to realize a vision of a more sustainable and equitable world where diversity is embraced to drive innovation.   Tabitha and her family volunteer with Generation SERVE, an organization focused on developing generations of community-minded leaders. She earned her bachelor’s at Texas Tech, her MBA from St. Edward's University and lives in Austin, Texas, with her two beloved children Meredith and William. When they are not at sports practices or games, her family enjoys camping and being in nature.  Tabitha Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Transitioning into a career in CSR The history of corporate impact at NI NI's STEM education initiatives Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Tabitha's Final Five Question Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Speak the language of the business. Know what the different functions of your company really care about and how sustainability can help them achieve their goals. Know that the CMO and what they care about is going to be different than the CFO, as well as the general counsel. General counsel largely is reducing risk. Make sure you're able to to speak their language. What are you most excited about right now in the world of corporate impact or sustainability? Having most recently come from an environmental NGO that was focused on biodiversity and wildlife protection, I will say the overall growing awareness of the importance of biodiversity; it's a twin issue to climate change. Biodiversity is basically our planet's life support system. I get excited when I see more companies talk about what they are doing specifically about protecting ecosystems. CDP has added their forest risk disclosure to to their models; so really seeing things like that. This has been enabled by the SDG goals specifically, like life on land and in life in the oceans. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? Bill Gates new book: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. Full transparency, I'm not all the way through yet. I'm on chapter three, I just got it last week. I love it. It's an easy read, it's very accessible, it's interesting. It's a candid look at what we're doing today, but it does offer optimism and solutions as well. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? The tools are things like exercise, taking breaks. I recently got into meditation and mindfulness. It's things like that. I find exercise is really paramount to my overall mental health and wellbeing. If I'm taking care of my own mental health and my body, that means I can better be of value and service to other people, and I'm just better at my job. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work that you're leading at NI? LinkedIn is the best place. I'm trying to be more active on, on LinkedIn, so do a search for me there.

Ratish Namboothiry is the Director for Innovation for Good and Sustainability at Kohler Co. Innovation for Good (IfG) is Kohler’s internal volunteer think tank created to incubate new ideas for social impact products that deliver positive solutions. Namboothiry was appointed as the business leader for this team when it was formed in 2018. Namboothiry is responsible for both strategic and operational leadership for IfG. This includes driving sales and distribution of social impact products, such as the KOHLER Clarity water filtration system, and converting ideas into successful products, technologies and business concepts. Ratish’s passion lies in innovation and solving social problems through the power of business and creative capitalism. Namboothiry earned his Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from University of Mumbai and Master of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Ratish Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: The importance of transparency in meeting sustainability goals Consumer demand for sustainable products/environmental declare labels Net Zero environmental impact at Kohler The Gates Foundation and Safe Water for All initiative The 50 liter home The Kohler waste lab - converting manufacturing waste into useful products Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Ratish's Final Five Question Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? As a practitioner and a follower of sustainability myself, and I've seen so many people around me who are that way; one thing I've noticed is a lot of us are passionate about the topic and with a lot of passion could come this idealism to a certain degree. There could be frustration that we're trying to drive our projects or goals or initiatives forward, and if we're not successful in implementing them, the word of advice I would offer is don't get frustrated. Always think about how can you move the needle in the right direction, even if it's a really small step. As they say, don't make perfect the enemy of good. If something big cannot be accomplished, don't be disappointed. Instead, think about what are the little things you can do to progress in the right direction. Then over time, some of the bigger steps can be taken. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? This is just an exciting time to be in the business of sustainability or driving sustainability into businesses, I should say. We're finally seeing sustainability emerge as a real business priority. Not only are companies responding to increased customer demand for sustainable products, but we're also seeing a really remarkable shift in their strategies to integrate it as part of their core operating model. That to me is probably the best place to be as a sustainability practitioner in an organization to be able to drive that sustainability thinking and sustainability practices into the day-to-day of how we make decisions in our companies. From that standpoint, it's no longer about saying that we have a suite of sustainable products. It really is about saying: here's how we're actually integrating sustainability into everything that we do. This is becoming second nature for us. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? I'll go back to the passion on innovation topic. This has been something that has inspired me along the way. I read a lot of innovation books and one of the books that has truly stayed with me along the years is this one called The Innovator's Dilemma, written by late Professor Clay Christensen. He was a professor at Harvard Business School. He wrote this book back in 1997. It's amazing how forward-thinking his ideology was. He offered such usable framework for how large corporations can plan for disruptive market forces and stay ahead of it, and really stay out of some of those external forces that you don't see coming. He coined the phrase of "disruptive innovation." Till this day, I think about it almost on a daily basis as we think about innovation for good and designing our next product and business strategy, and think about how some of those principles from that book can be applied. I really recommend that book to anyone who's interested in reading about how innovation can actually solve some real problems in the world.  What are some of your favorite resources or tools they really help you in your work?  We live in such a resource heavy world today. It's very decentralized to be honest. I go to many different resources. When it comes to specifically sustainability and innovation, I listen to a lot of podcasts. Bill Gates is a tremendous resource. If you look at podcasts offered by Bill and the one with Rashida Jones that he's hosting recently; amazing resource. All of the things they talk about in terms of what has inspired Bill; how he grew up, how it led to what he's doing today. All of that is amazing. I think that's really inspirational. When it comes to other topics like leadership, one person I really follow and admire is Simon Sinek. I follow his talks, I read a lot about his work. Very inspiring, but also very practical and actionable in the environment that we live in today. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and your work at Kohler? They can find me on LinkedIn. I'd love to connect with your listeners and understand how they're driving sustainability into their strategies and their organizations. To learn more about Kohler, our website is full of stories and updates on our environmental sustainability and social impact initiatives. You could go to our main webpage, which is kohlercompany.com/social-impact. You'll see a lot of really good resources in terms of our annual report that we referenced earlier; our projects and key initiatives there, and our Safe Water For All initiative, which is our signature initiative. You could go to safewaterforall.com to understand what we're doing today and our future projects coming up.