Podcasts about sustridge

The fifth breakout session from the first day of our Future of Wine Americas 2021 conference   Speaker: Andrés Valero, leader of sustainability and CSR, Grupo Avinea Moderator: Josh Prigge, sustainability consultant and principal, Sustridge

Yalmaz Siddiqui is the Vice President of Corporate Sustainability at MGM Resorts International.  He started this role in May 2016 and is responsible for leading a range of environmental sustainability initiatives for the company, including green conventions, food waste reduction, waste management, sustainable sourcing and employee engagement. He is also developing an advanced sustainability strategy framework for MGM Resorts, including metrics and goals, project accountability and roles, and reporting strategy. Yalmaz has a Masters in Environment & Development from the University of Cambridge in England, and a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University in Canada. Yalmaz joins Sustainable Nation to discuss: Size and scale of impact of MGM Resorts Sustainable purchasing Food waste reduction and overall waste management strategies Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Yalmaz's Final Five Questions: 1. What is one piece of advice you'd give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Well, I'd say first, don't get stuck in false dichotomies and don't let others force you into false dichotomies around sustainability is always more expensive or sustainability means less luxury. Find proof that that is not true because it's not always true. In fact, it's often not true and persuade others using the help in persuading them by showing them politely that their predisposition might might be wrong. I'd also say pilot and scale new initiatives. Don't try and go comprehensive and too ambitious, too quick. 2. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I think this function has really matured and corporate America and corporate world in general is really interested in the value this functional area brings to the brands and to our companies more broadly. I think the excitement comes from maybe the emergence of this function as a very real and important thing that matters to major customers matters to employees and increasingly matters to investors. So it's the sort of arrival is a real thing in the corporate world that makes me excited. 3. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? So I read a lot and there's a lot of books that I could recommend, but I'm going recommend two, if that's okay. Number one is Influence by Robert Cialdini. It's not about environmental sustainability, it's not about corporate purpose, it's about how you influence others. It's got a whole series of lessons that have been extremely useful in my career because ultimately people in these roles or we in our roles have influenced, but we have no authority and so how do you learn from the best thinkers on influence? That's number one. The second would be Resonate by Nancy Duarte. Nancy Duarte's got a consultancy. It was the world's first and still foremost PowerPoint consultancy. She advises on how to craft great PowerPoints. Her message is that PowerPoint is the business world's communications tool, but no one knows how to use it or very few people know how to use it. If you read Resonate, you'll learn how to use it much more effectively than dense bullet points that no one wants to read or that you read when presenting. So read, Resonate and you will resonate more. 4. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I think HBR, Harvard Business Review, reading that magazine, reading Fast Company. I'm a member of GreenBiz Executive Network, being part of that and Sustainable Brands. Then thematically on food, I really like to focus on ReFED. In terms of materials, love Ellen MacArthur Foundation's work. Associations, I'll certainly advocate SPLC (Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council) as one. SPLC, Sustainable Brands, and GreenBiz those are my go to’s. 5. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work at MGM? Well, I'm the only Yalmaz Siddiqui on LinkedIn. I believe it makes it easy. And then MGMresorts.com/CSR. You can read all about our programs around focusing on what matters, embracing humanity and protecting the planet. About Sustridge  Sustridge is a sustainability consulting firm providing consulting in sustainability strategy development, sustainability reporting, GHG emissions calculating and management, zero waste planning and guidance in a TRUE Zero Waste, B Corp, LEED and Carbon Neutral certification.

Karissa Kruse is President of the Sonoma County Winegrowers. Sonoma County Winegrowers (SCW), was established in 2006 as a marketing and educational organization dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Sonoma County as one of the world’s premier grape growing regions. SCW has oversight by California Department of Food and Agriculture which supports producer regions. With more than 1,800 growers, SCW’s goal is to increase awareness and recognition of the quality and diversity of Sonoma County’s grapes and wines through dynamic marketing and educational programs targeted to wine consumers around the world. In January 2014, SCW committed to becoming the nation’s first 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019. As of December 2015, 64% of the vineyard acreage in Sonoma County has gone through the sustainability self-assessment and 48% of vineyards are certified by a third party auditor. These sustainability efforts were recently recognized with California’s highest environmental honor, the 2016 Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award (GEELA). Karissa Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Working towards 100% sustainable certified vineyards in Sonoma County Growing the sustainability movement in the wine and beverage industries Engaging small farms in sustainable practices Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Karissa's Final Five Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I think it's really important to you work with programs that have that audit piece. Knowing that there is a certification piece to what we're doing, that we're not just saying we're sustainable or saying we have good practices, but there's actually that audit. Validation is important. Then you have to maintain enthusiasm and you have to really believe that what you do matters. And for me, the sustainable farming and keeping our local farmers in business, that is critical. So, I think if you can connect with what you're doing and you believe in the mission, that goes a long way. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I love that sustainability is really connecting our grape growers to the climate change agents. They only have to put on a climate hat. It's just helping them look at their entire business, looking at their carbon footprint, looking at the resources they use, looking at the water efficiency and really protecting our natural resources and protecting our land. So, I think that there is a connection that is happening, and it's not even starting something new. It's just continuing what we're doing. It's all really important and that's exciting. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? That's a great question. We just read a great case study, and this is relevant for the wine grape industry, but Michigan Business School put out a case study on a specific winery and climate change. Farming is a unique business. We're not a big corporation. You're talking small family businesses that have been passed down for generations. Their land-based. They're Mother Nature-based. They're responsive. And so, this was a great case study. It was put out by the Michigan Business School and I think you can download from them directly but Harvard business school does a great job of being that repository of business cases. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in the work that you do? I'm going to go opposite of what would be really tools or resources. I think you have to get out and talk to the people. I learned the most when I'm actually out walking the vineyard with the farmer, I'm letting them show me what they're doing, how they're thinking about farming and what they have implemented. Especially when you go and you say, "Okay, every year you have to have continuous improvement. What are you doing? Where did that investment go? How did you make that decision to spend a dollar on this part of improvement versus a dollar on this other part of improvement?" And so, that's where I learn. I think that is the best. I'm able then to go out and share those stories so when I meet another grower who's struggling with something or trying to figure out what's next I can help out. So, I think there's no better way to learn and be equipped then to get out and actually be on the farm and talk to the farmer. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work that you're leading at Sonoma Winegrape Growers? Probably the best place is our website, sonomawinegrape.org. Or they can email me directly if they have questions. I welcome that. Collaboration is key to all of our sustainability efforts, not just in Sonoma County but with all the efforts going on. So it's karissa@sonomawinegrape.org. Send me an email, keep in touch with me. I'd love to hear what everyone else is working on. Learn more about SCW: https://sonomawinegrape.org/  Learn more about Sustridge: https://www.sustridge.com/ 

Cathy Resler is the Head of Global Sustainability for Ocean Spray Cranberries - a Farmer-Owned Cooperative - where she leads sustainability strategy across the Cooperative, with Ocean Spray farmers and business partners. Her work on environmental and social responsibility initiatives focuses on building value across sustainable agriculture, operations, supply chain, sales, marketing, and customer and employee engagement,   She led the expansion and first publication of Ocean Spray’s Farm Sustainability Assessment a comprehensive  report of 700+ cranberry farmers performance on pollinator and IPM management, soil health, water, energy, ecosystem conservation, business stewardship, worker well-being and community impact and that in 2018 was benchmarked to the SAI (Sustainable Agriculture Initiative) Platform Farm Sustainability Assessment.  Additionally she launched the first 3rd party social and environmental auditing program for all Ocean Spray production facilities and a cloud-based data collection system for all environmental, philanthropic, and social data.  Prior to joining Ocean Spray Cranberries, Cathy worked in the fashion, jewelry, and publishing industries contributing to the first industry adopted Restricted Substance List (RSL), Responsible Down and Wool Standards, Environmental Paper Assessment Tool (EPAT), sustainable textiles and leather, sustainable forestry management, a national recycling PR campaign, sustainable packaging design, LEED green store design guidelines, the creation of a water stewardship education project in Brazil, and community giving program development.  She also has worked at the U.S. EPA, Columbia University and holds an MS in Sustainability Management from Columbia University and a BS from The George Washington University in Environmental Studies. Cathy Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: The benefits of the cooperative business model Leading large supply chain sustainability efforts Regenerative agriculture in the beverage industry Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Cathy'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 be open. You never know where or what great idea, initiative or partnership can come from or whom it might come from. It could be that person who, in the moment, you don't you have time for. You never know which connections might turn into something amazing. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I think, as we mentioned, regenerative agriculture. I think that the ability to scale that to have such a big impact and really help have a big impact on climate change, and hopefully putting us in a place where the world has a longterm viability and sustainability. Also, the harmonization of programs where we can really see that ability to have meaningful impact. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? I'm going to give you two. I think the first one is one that everyone should read, and I'm sure other folks say this when they talk to you too, Josh, but Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. I think everyone needs to read that. I think it just set off the modern day environmental revolution and it's so insightful and helpful, and still very meaningful for today's day and age. And then another book I found very helpful, personally, was Environmentalism for a New Millennium. It was written by Lesley Paul Thiele and is about 20 years old now. So it sounds dated, but when you read it, it's still really meaningful because to some extent, if you think about where we are in terms of the environmental movement, we've kind of been stuck and we've been on a bit of a circular movement. We seem to be on a bad circular wheel of not moving forward where we feel like we make a little progress and then we come back. So, particularly in the past two years. So, what's really cool about this book is it takes you kind of through the stages of the environmental movement in the United States, and I know I'm having a US centric voice here, but it helps impact what's happening around the world globally because the US does have such a big impact globally. It just helps to give you that education in terms of policy and science and the politics of what's been happening since the 1800's to the modern day. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I think staying connected with people, and I don't just mean social media. Making sure that you're having constant conversations with key stakeholders internally and externally. If you were asked to go to something then go. Make time for it. Make time to have the conversation. It's not a favorite resource or tool that's probably particularly useful, but I think that it's really helpful. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work that you're leading at Ocean Spray? So we're getting ready to launch our new website in the next few weeks at oceanspray.com and they'll have all our new sustainability content on our seven pillars that we focus on. They can reach out to me at anytime at sustainability@oceanspray.com or they can follow or connect with me on LinkedIn. Learn more about Ocean Spray: https://www.oceanspray.com/Corporate.  Learn more about Sustridge: https://www.sustridge.com/.   

Dr. Rafinejad has had over 30 years of experience as a senior executive in high-tech industries in Silicon Valley. He was a Corporate Vice President at both Applied Materials and Lam Research, both multi-billion dollar semiconductor equipment companies. Prior to PGS, he was Associate Professor, Consulting at Stanford University. He has also served as adjunct faculty at Haas Business School at Berkeley and Dean of Management at Menlo College in Atherton, California. Dr. Rafinejad is the founding CEO of Blue Dome Consulting serving high tech companies in the U.S. and China to develop product innovation and organizational leadership capability. He has authored several publications including two books on product innovation. His recent book was published in 2017 and is titled: Sustainable Product Innovation – Entrepreneurship for Human Well-Being. Dariush Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Graduate programs that prepare students to become successful sustainability leaders Sustainable product innovation Leading sustainability change from positions not labeled "sustainability" Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Final Five Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? It is important that sustainability professionals extend their reach beyond corporate sustainability programs which aim to measure and report. Sustainability professionals should build coalitions with the operating units of the company, starting with the enthusiasts and early adopters in each of these units. Sustainability professionals should become entrepreneurs within the corporations. They should seek opportunities for innovation in every building block of the company to affect triple bottom line change. They should remember, however, the big changes start with the small wins and small steps, and through prototyping solutions to demonstrate viability and to create enthusiasm for the potential outcome. What are you, what are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I'm excited by the rise in the awareness of acute need for sustainable development, for social justice and for stewardship of the environment and natural resources. I'm also encouraged by the rise in the recognition that sustainable development is the next innovation wave that will fuel future prosperity and wellbeing. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability professionals read? I'm sorry. I have to shamelessly recommend my own book, Sustainable Product Innovation: Entrepreneurship for human wellbeing. That was published in 2017. So sorry about that. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I use many resources in the sustainability space. Some examples, for instance, I look at websites of activists and other NGOs. Governmental resources are plentiful and they're invaluable. US Department of Energy and the state of California sustainability sites. Leading corporations and industry alliances have many good resources. I also consult trade journals in addition to scientific journals. Trade journals like Solar Magazine, Green Chemistry and others are also very valuable. United Nations organizations such as United Nation Environmental Program as well as United Nations Sustainable Development Goals websites are great resources. They provide and pull data, provide advice and recommendations. One of the PGS faculty professors has published in GreenBiz as well. So, there are many, many resources and of course the listeners who are interested in the scientific area, there is much research done in the sustainability area in regards to climate change, both in prevention as well as adaptation technologies that are being developed. So there's plenty of those areas of opportunity as well. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and what's going on at Presidio Graduate School? The best resource is the Presidio Graduate School website at presidio.edu. They can email admissions@presidio.edu also and ask to join an upcoming monthly virtual open house that we have. PGS also has a Twitter handle and LinkedIn resources they can connect to. Learn more about Preidio Graduate School: https://www.presidio.edu/  Learn more about Sustridge: https://www.sustridge.com/   

In The Battle to Do Good, former McDonald's executive Bob Langert takes readers on a behind-the-scenes eye witness account of the mega brand's battle to address numerous societal hot-button issues, such as packaging, waste, recycling, obesity, deforestation, and animal welfare. From the late 80s, McDonald's landed smack in the middle of one contentious issue after another, often locking horns with powerful NGOs such as Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and Corporate Accountability. Bob Langert has engaged in social responsibility issues since the late 1980s. Bob joined McDonald’s system in 1983 with management positions in logistics, packaging and purchasing. In the 1990s, he had responsibilities for the environment, energy management, animal welfare and Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities’ grants. He was appointed McDonald’s first VP to lead sustainability in 2006. Bob led the development of McDonald’s 2020 Sustainability Vision and Framework, including McDonald’s commitment to the environment, supply chain sustainability and balanced menu choices. He retired from McDonald’s in 2015 and joined GreenBiz, writing a regular column titled "The Inside View" and helping with the GreenBiz Executive Network. Bob Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: His new book, The Battle to Do Good: Inside McDonald's Sustainability Journey Prioritizing sustainability efforts Collaborating with NGO's on transformative sustainability initiatives Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Interview Highlights: You talked about moving from a reactive company and where you were at when this whole movement started within McDonald's with the Styrofoam packaging. Do you think a lot of companies are still operating in that reactive way and why is it important for them to change? I think so. A lot of the big companies and big brands had moved past this idea that sustainability is either a fad or it's going to go away or let's just play defense and be reactive to things. So, bigger companies, they get. They're coming up with these big goals and frameworks and strategies. It's getting integrated and it comes from the C suite. However, once you get past the big companies, there's a lot more companies that don't see it that way. They see it as a hindrance and that is not the way of the future. Sustainability is here to stay, it's a consumer mandate, an expectation that companies be very responsible and you just can't say that you're a responsible company. You got to prove it with actions and plans and goals and metrics, and sharing this in a very public way. So, companies need to take the ball and run with it and that's one of my main messages as I work with companies and organizations, is that the longer you sit on the sidelines observing and reacting, you're going to be left behind because the consumers got high expectations. The transparent world makes it imperative that you be open and honest about your performance and you need to start proving it every day so that your business can grow. I think the smart companies see sustainability as an avenue for growth for the business, an avenue for a better brand, more efficiency, more employees that stay with you and a stronger supply chain. I can build a business case almost ad nauseum and that's what we really should dominate with every company and organization out there. So yeah, the McDonald's story is very much that journey that I described. The subtitle of my book is called "Inside McDonald's Sustainability Journey." I think you captured it really well, Josh, as I really felt that we were playing defense for probably a couple of decades. We were playing defense, I think in a good way because we had a good defensive team. We're got attacked on waste and found a great partner in EDF. We came up with a great waste reduction plan. We got attacked on animal treatment and we found a great expert and we really changed animal welfare within really the whole global beef supply system by implementing her program. I cite other examples but it really wasn't until 2014 that McDonald's itself developed a really proactive sustainability strategy. And that's the best place to be, to stand tall for what you stand for and not be defined by your critics or defined by others. It's interesting just reading through this book and what you just described there about getting attacked by these different organizations. How do you pick your battles when you're such a large organization and you have so many facets of your business? Any large multinational corporation like that can really be scrutinized in so many different ways and I'm sure they are. How do you know where to focus your energy? I know you talk about a formula that you came up with in your book and I'd love to have you just explain that to our listeners and just give them an idea of that process of prioritizing and where you focus your work. I think it's where you pick your battles. Actually, the big answer to that is by developing your own strategy, because rather than pick battles, you should choose what you want to work with on a proactive way. But the reality is every business is in society, we serve society and things are going to come up that you just don't expect. So you're right, you can't work on everything. I guess the formula that you might be referred to in the book is that when you look at all the pros and cons of what you should work on, I really do think that the amount of resources and effort that you put into it should be in proportion to the impact it has on your business and society. This whole shared value concept. So, let me give you an example that I thought was interesting at McDonald's. We were attacked by Greenpeace in 2006 about soy farming in the Amazon, and we were attacked in Europe for that because a lot of it is exported to Europe. I looked at the issue immediately as we're getting campaigned against, the Greenpeace people dressed up in chickens as they came to dozens of restaurants in the United Kingdom. So, it was a pretty big issue and made a lot of news. So, we had to decide what to do. To your question, is this a battle that we should get involved with? So, in one hand, I think a typical response would be we're 1/10th of one percent through our suppliers of soy. However, you know, nobody buys a lot of soy, it's very desegregated, and we already had a policy on purchasing no rainforest beef. So, within a day we talked to our management team and decided if we have a policy on beef not to come from rainforest land, then that’s the way it should be for all of our products. Within a day we called Greenpeace back and to their shock, we said, we totally agree with you. I learned later on when I took a trip through the Amazon with Greenpeace, they told us how surprised they were that we agreed with them. But the important thing is we didn't agree with how to solve the problem. They had these strong mandates against McDonald's and we said McDonald's can solve the soy problem by ourselves. We're not farmers and traders. Let's get our suppliers involved. Let's get other retailers to the table, which we did. We ended up solving that problem with a moratorium within three months. So, I tell that story because sometimes you pick your priorities for how important it is your business or you're being consistent with your policies and programs as we were with that program. What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Develop relationships and develop a relationship where you can build trust with others because as a sustainability leader, what I learned over the years, is that I'm given all this responsibility to help us be a good company, but you're not in charge of really anything. You're in charge of getting other departments and functions to lead on sustainability. You only do that through relationships, influencing them and them having faith and confidence in you. I was blessed with good bosses early on in my career that gave me a lot of rope to learn, travel and meet people. So, that's my first piece of advice. Less focus on getting things done and more focus on developing relationships and trusts where other people want to carry on the work that you're advocating for. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I think the amount of collaboration I see on establishing big transformative changes gets me really excited. Certainly, my work in McDonald's gave me the most fulfilling feeling in the world - not only changing animal welfare for example, but changing it for the whole industry. Or when we helped save the Amazon a little bit through what we did. Or when McDonald's announced that it's going to be buying sustainable beef. So, working with the beef industry to change something for the industry. Doing that through partners like Conservation International, like Environmental Defense Fund, like the World Wildlife Fund is very rewarding. So, collaborating for big transformational change is what I see going on and that's the best thing in the world. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? Well, my book. I gave my plug already. I do like the Dave Stangis' book - 21st Century Corporate Citizenship. I recommend that book as well. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I think being connected to the networks. I learn best through talking with others, whether talking means in person through the GreenBiz network, which I think is phenomenal, or my connections through LinkedIn and Twitter and so forth. I learn the most from other people, other experts. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you, connect with you, and most importantly, where can they find your book? Well, I've got a new website: boblangert.com. Please read my columns. I put something out every three weeks or so Greenbiz.com. You can find my book right now at Amazon.com. It's a good deal. They get a nice discount. You can also get it through my publisher, Emerald Publishing. More about Bob Langert: http://www.boblangert.com/  More about Sustridge: https://www.sustridge.com/ 

Nick Martin is a senior sustainability consultant at Antea Group and the executive director of the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER). Nick is dedicated to supporting clients with assessing, prioritizing and managing sustainability-related business risks and opportunities. He has extensive experience supporting private and public organizations with translating sustainability aspirations into successful strategies and collaborative approaches. Nick has leveraged this experience to support a wide range of companies with accelerating their sustainability journey and defining practical roadmaps for implementation.  Much of his strategic support involves researching leading practices in sustainability and Corporate Responsibility (CR) and utilizing this knowledge to assist clients with benchmarking against peers and developing viable and differentiating strategies.  Specific areas of expertise include: global water stewardship, monetization, context-based decision making, collective action, and corporate transparency. He previously worked in the non-profit sector with the Global Environmental & Technology Foundation (GETF) in Washington, DC and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan.  Nick Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Achieving precompetitive collaboration to advance sustainability in a competitive industry. TCFD and climate scenario planning. Prioritizing efforts as a sustainability professional. Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders. Interview Highlights:  You mentioned climate scenarios, climate disclosure and TCFD reporting. I'd love to get your thoughts on that as BIER has been discussing these topics. If you could tell our listeners, because it's still relatively new thing in the sustainability world, what TCFD, how you're seeing large multinational beverage companies addressing it and the importance of things like TCFD and the emergence of the ESG social investing movement. That's an evolving topic and it's one we could probably have a devoted podcast to, if not more than one. You know, TCFD is the Task Force for Climate Related Disclosures. It was a group that came together to really help frame some set of core recommendations in terms of what companies really need to think about if they want to embed climate scenario thinking into their strategy, their governance, their metrics etc. They pulled from a number of stakeholders to really consolidate that set of recommendations, where companies can then endorse that concept and endorse the importance of climate scenarios without really committing to a recipe or a particular framework. They've left the door open to have it be really company and/or industry specific. They believe that is really important because every industry has a different operational footprint, a different supply chain, changing markets and consumers etc. We actually had a representative, a VP with Bloomberg, come in and join our group and really engage our members to talk about what is the latest and greatest science in this space, what have been the leading companies (especially those oil and gas that have been first or early movers on doing climate scenarios) and what does he and TCFD really recommend. You could spend an incredible amount of time looking at scenarios and getting in that whole paralysis by analysis rut if you're not careful. What we wanted to do is step back and say, "How do we bring together our technical knowledge or our business knowledge or policy knowledge and really start to help bring the beverage sector together to organize around a common process, maybe a common set of scenarios?" That'll help everybody better understand the risks and the opportunities. If it is a common language and we're all speaking to stakeholders, to investors and to our own corporate leadership. That can go a long way of moving from analysis into resiliency. That's really what it's all about, how do we become more resilient as a person, a company or a country? So that's kind of where it stands and I definitely hope that it's going to be a core area of BIER but it's going to take up more than BIER. There's a lot of different groups that are working in this space, so we want to try to capture the greatest experience and knowledge and try to make it relevant to the beverage sector, as we do with a lot of our work. You cover a lot of important issues in the Beverage industry and I'm wondering how you prioritize this work? And maybe you can talk about, in general as a sustainability professional, how should we prioritize what we do and where we focus our efforts? It's one of those questions that I think is becoming even more relevant in the world we live in, in terms of just the pace of information and technology and this whole concept around radical transparency. The topics of the day can change within a day, a minute, an hour and I think that's even more concerning for a company and for a company's sustainability strategy. A lot of these topics that companies are taking on within their strategies really require a longterm commitment. A company is trying to make really transformative changes, whether it's with how they take their products or services to market, their packaging or their innovation. I think one of the risks is that it's easy to get distracted. It's kind of human nature to get distracted by the shiny object or the latest kind of topic or pressure that is being placed on a company from a stakeholder. It's really more important than ever that companies have to remain agile. They've got to evolve their thinking is as things change, but they really have to figure out how to stay committed to what they know is right for their company. Long story short, I've become a big believer in materiality assessments. You can't have everything be a priority. You can't make everybody happy. As a company, you've got to really check yourself through internal reflection, but also reflection with some key external stakeholders, to determine what is most material, where can we get the most business value and where can we differentiate ourselves within the market, within the eyes of investors and others. What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I give this kind of advice a lot. I've got a lot of colleagues. I get a lot of inquiries externally asking about how do I get into the sustainability field and where to start. The advice I give is find a topic or a short list of topics that you really are passionate about. What you need to do is to get to a point where you're a go-to for that topic. You're one of the first people somebody wants to call or thinks about. That's where you really start to get involved in sustainability and you can use that as a foundation. For me, water was definitely that topic. When a lot of people think about me. They naturally think about water first, which is something that I love and I've just found that it's a topic that fits me well. Whether its materiality, whether it's water, whether it's energy and carbon and climate change, just find those topics that you can really invest in because becoming a jack of all trades and sustainability is almost impossible. It's too dynamic and complex. You really got to try to focus. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I think that it's just becoming more mainstream. Finally. I feel like we've kind of gotten over a bit of a curve where I think there's just a much wider acceptance that it is the right thing to pursue sustainability. We do have needs and it's only going to get worse if we don't really take it on. So, I see it obviously with my kids. I think it's almost inherent with them. They just understand it. It's just the right thing to do. So, I feel like we're kind of at that point, finally. We will see. Things can change. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? The one that sticks in my mind, I've actually got a copy here in my office, is a book called Embedded Sustainability. It was written by Chris Laszlo and Nadya Zhexembayeva. It's a book that stuck in my mind. I can't remember when I first read it. It's a few years old now, but it was one of those first books that I felt like really kind of drove that it's okay for businesses to think about profit when they think about sustainability, as long as they're doing it for a greater reason, a greater purpose ultimately. One of the things I loved about the book is that it had these three connected trends - declining resources, radical transparency and increasing expectations. It was just fascinating because those are kind of the three things that really come down on a company and the three reasons that they should really take sustainability seriously. The combination of those three and it just really resonated with me. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in the work that you do? There's quite a few of these days. I think it really depends on what I'm in need of. There's some really good common platform resources out there like Environmental Leader, GreenBiz and various associations. I like WRI, Ceres and World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Those three I feel like put out some really good meaningful work and analysis. So, I definitely keep an eye on those three. I also just depend upon Linkedin and different networks I'm involved in. You get a lot of really, really timely and relevant information, more so than five or 10 years ago. At times it feels like maybe too much information, but you really get some good tips on emerging topics and on new initiatives pretty quickly these days. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work that you're leading for the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable? Well, feel free to call me for one. I'm always willing to have a good discussion. Anteagroup.com/us. So, we do have a different sister organizations, but I'm part of the US group and you can find a lot about our sustainability practice. I am on Twitter: @anteasustain. I'm not very active on Twitter compared to LinkedIn and some other areas, but I am on there. Then definitely connect with us. Connect with me on LinkedIn either personally or we do have a BIER Linkedin page as well. We'd love to have you connect there and keep up on what we're doing with the beverage industry. Learn more about BIER: https://www.bieroundtable.com/ Learn more about Sustridge: https://www.sustridge.com/

This TRUE Zero Waste presentation was conducted in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel on December 7th, 2018. The presentation talks about the benefits of zero waste for organizations, walks you through the various aspects of TRUE Zero Waste certification program, discusses the requirements for becoming TRUE Zero Waste certified and insights from the first TRUE Zero Waste certified business facility in Las Vegas, Coco Taps. Speakers include: Josh Prigge (Sustridge), Coco Vinny (Coco Taps) and Stephanie Barger (USGBC).

As director of market transformation & development for the TRUE Zero Waste certification, Stephanie Barger is responsible for the growth and development of the TRUE program. Barger helped launch TRUE, which is owned and administered by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) in 2017. GBCI is the premier organization independently recognizing excellence in green business industry performance and practice globally and administers all LEED green building certifications. TRUE was acquired by GBCI in 2016 and was previously known as U.S. Zero Waste Business Council, which Barger formed in January 2012. Barger has been dedicated to meeting the growing need for educational resources, peer-to-peer networking and third-party certification for businesses across the nation related to waste reduction and zero waste. She brings over 25 years of experience in environmental stewardship, employee training, management consulting and business development. Prior to forming the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council, Barger spent 15 years leading Earth Resource Foundation (ERF), a dynamic high school environmental leadership program. ERF’s campaigns included curbing plastic pollution through zero waste, promoting native plant restoration, advocating for smoke-free beaches and improving watershed management. In 2009, ERF was awarded a Federal Stimulus Grant (the California Green Jobs Program in Orange County) to provide training for at-risk youth in zero waste and career development. Stephanie Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: The TRUE Zero Waste certification and its value for sustainability professionals The zero waste movement in the United States The TRUE Advisor program Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Stephanie's Final Five Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I think having a really great team around you - so energy experts, water experts, etc. And then knowing what you don't know and having a go-to organization or go-to person. Google is a great thing. There's lots of resources out there. Really building that team, and that can be nonprofits and other industry professionals. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I think the shift that our consumers and our businesses are getting the simple things, like this wave of eliminating straws. We worked for many, many years to ban styrofoam and ban plastic bags and it seems like with the straws, people are getting it. We just don't need that. It's a little thing, but it's a big thing, and with that there is enthusiasm, especially from businesses. With the commodities market, with politics, with deregulation, there are a lot of things that are taking sustainability backwards. But our businesses believe in it and they see the power of it. They have 20 year goals. So, the cycles of politics don't really affect them and they just keep moving forward. I appreciate that with businesses, the leadership and the longterm goals that they're setting. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? The Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawkens. Basically, anything by Paul Hawkens, even his first books. But The Blessed Unrest really talks about that we're not alone. There are millions and billions of people that are working on these sustainability issues, whether it's in their home that they don't even talk about or in their local community. So, it just inspires me that we're all in this together. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? So as I mentioned, the EPA, they have their Warm Model and WasteWise. It's really fun to go in and enter your data and they give you great graphics or facts - like how many trees are you saving, how many car trips etc. I think the very simple thing of doing a zero waste in your home. So, taking your zero waste audit, taking our TRUE zero waste rating system, and doing it in your own home. There is power in that to see the challenges and the opportunities that exist Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work that you're leading at TRUE? Our website is: www.true.gbci.org. Or you can go to the US Green Building Council main website at www.usgbc.org. You can see all the different certifications and all the resources that are available. And a huge resource is attending Green Build in Chicago. There's over 20,000 professionals that attend Green Build and it's just this amazing resource of energy and knowledge and networking. More information on Stephanie Barger and TRUE: https://true.gbci.org/ More information on Josh Prigge and Sustridge: https://www.sustridge.com/

We are turning the tables on this episode of Sustainable Nation, and the podcast interviewer is becoming the interviewee. Josh Prigge was recently interviewed for an episode the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast, so with permission, we republished the interview for Sustainable Nation. Josh Prigge is a sustainability practitioner, college professor, published author, and public speaker with nearly a decade of experience managing sustainability programs and initiatives for large organizations. Josh is the current CEO of sustainability consulting firm, Sustridge, and has also worked as Director of Regenerative Development at Fetzer Vineyards and Sustainability Coordinator at Hawaii Pacific University. Complete Transcript: Our guest today is Josh Prigge. He is the founder and CEO of Sustridge, which is a sustainability consulting firm. Now, you've had a very long and intriguing career in the area of sustainability. Would you agree with that? Yeah, it's taken me a few exciting and different kinds of places with some different types of organizations. It's been great. How did you get involved in this area in the first place? So, I'm from Minnesota originally and my undergraduate degree was actually physical education, so sports was always my passion. So, I was teaching and coaching back in Minnesota right out of college and I just started to become more and more aware of environmental issues like climate change and started paying more attention to these important global issues. After a while, that just became much more of a passion to me than teaching and coaching was. So, I decided I should go back to school and study sustainability and rededicate my career to sustainability. This was back in about 2007, and I was looking for graduate programs across the US and there were only a few at the time. Now they're popping up everywhere - green MBA programs and masters in sustainability. But back then there were a few and one of them was at Hawaii Pacific University. They had a master of arts in Global Leadership and Sustainable Development. And so being born and raised in Minnesota, I thought moving to Hawaii sounded kind of good, so I packed up everything and drove to California, shipped my car and jumped on a plane. I studied in this fantastic program for two years, learning all about sustainability and was fortunate enough to get hired as soon as I graduated as that university's first sustainability coordinator. So I managed sustainability for the university for just under four years. I also served as the president of the Sustainability Association of Hawaii while I was out there as well. So I got a lot of great experience in Hawaii, which is just a hotbed for renewable energy and sustainability. So really great experience out there. And then the university was going through a number of layoffs, and I was fortunate enough not to get let go, but I figured it was probably a good time to start looking elsewhere and taking the next step in my career. So I looked throughout Hawaii and the mainland United States looking for the best sustainability job. I came across the job at Fetzer Vineyards up in northern California, a wine company in Mendocino County. I was hired on as their director of sustainability, and the title then changed from sustainability to regenerative development. I got a lot of great experience in the wine industry. Fetzer Vineyards is a wine company with about 10 brands, including Bonterra, which is the number one organically farmed wine in the US. It's a company that really has been leading the industry in sustainability for a long time. So, I got a lot of great experience starting a new sustainability program from scratch at Hawaii Pacific University, and then on the other end of the spectrum at Fetzer, I got the opportunity to take a very evolved sustainability program to the next level. I had worked at Fetzer for about four years and then realized I have all this experience and knowledge and I could make a greater impact in the world working with multiple organizations instead of just one. So, I left in 2017 to start my own sustainability consulting business. Now I'm working with all sorts of different businesses on greenhouse gas emissions calculating, greenhouse gas planning, zero waste planning, zero waste certification, B Corp certification and all things sustainability. Let's go back to Hawaii and then talk a little bit more about Fetzer in detail, because those are both pretty special kind of situations as far as this topic goes. One of the things that I think a lot of people struggle with is that for a lot of folks, the word "sustainability" doesn't mean anything. It's too nebulous and too soft. They want to know where the recycled rubber meets the recycled road somehow. So, in Hawaii for instance, it is a self-contained ecosystem in a lot of ways, obviously there's a lot of stuff that's brought to the island, but as an entity it's isolated. What were the kinds of things that you implemented and what were your goals when you were there, both at university and also as part of the island wide sustainability program? At the university, like I mentioned, I was the first sustainability employee. So, I was tasked with really trying to create a culture of sustainability and embed sustainability into the culture of the university. It started with a lot of tracking and reporting. I had to create a sustainability metrics system to track all of our metrics - our waste, water. energy, supply chain and really all of our sustainability related impacts. That's really the first step is to really track everything so you can baseline your organization, benchmark yourself against your peers and understand where your biggest impacts lie and where the biggest opportunities might be. After baselining everything and benchmarking, I led a sustainability report. So, we put out a sustainability report for the university back in 2012 and used the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education reporting framework. They have a reporting system that is specifically for universities. So, corporations have the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for sustainability reporting, and universities have this AASHE STARS program. So, I took the university through that process. The first year or so was tracking, baselining and reporting. Then we did a big greenhouse gas emissions report. I led a greenhouse gas inventory of the entire university. So, what are all of the emissions associated with all of the vehicles that are used on campus, all of the energy in the buildings, natural gas, propane, employee travel - all the emissions associated with that. Beginning a new program, that's really what it's all about. It's figuring out where you're at and where are your opportunities for improvement. The after that reporting and tracking, we started looking at some big energy projects and we did some led retrofit projects and looking into renewable energy systems for the campus. We restructured the waste by doing a large waste audit of one of the campuses to reduce the amount of waste pickups and maximize recycling and landfill diversion. So, a lot of really fun projects. It's a lot of fun starting a new program from scratch. Island wide, as the president of the Sustainability Association of Hawaii, that was a nonprofit focused on businesses. So, we were specifically focused on a moving sustainability through the business sector in Hawaii. So what we'll do is have workshops, bring our members out and provide free workshops and educate them on the benefits of a commitment to sustainability, what kind of opportunities are there, the cost savings and really tried to introduce the business community to the B Corp movement. B Corp was relatively new back then and there were only a couple of B Corps in Hawaii at the time. So, B Corp is kind of the highest standard for social and environmental responsibility in business. A company goes through a large assessment and answers a couple of hundred questions on all aspects of their business - from their environmental impacts to how well they pay employees, what kind of benefits they offer, what kind of community impacts do they have, what do their supply chain impacts look like. It's a really comprehensive program and if you get a certain score, 80 or higher on your assessment, you can become a certified B Corp. So, we focused on that and that's kind of where I really learned about B Corp. I brought that with me to Fetzer. So when I got hired at Fetzer, that was one of the first things that I looked into - going through the B Corp assessment. We got Fetzer to become a certified B Corp in 2015 - one of only a few wine companies in the world that have achieved that. I think that the B Corp movement is continuing to grow, I think there's now over 2,500 B Corps around the world in about 55 to 60 different countries. Patagonia's a B Corp, Ben and Jerry's, a number of a large well-known companies that are really doing a lot of good things. But as consumers look to continue to purchase from companies that share their values and share their beliefs, I think this movement of B Corp and these sustainability certifications are going to become more and more important. So, that would be the motivation for a company to go down that road to try to draw this next generation. Is that accurate? Yeah, that's definitely one of them and there are so many others. Attracting new customers, attracting a new demographic that really care about those things is definitely one important thing, as well as building brand loyalty with those existing customers. But outside of that, I think there's so many other benefits, one being just using that certification framework to not only certify but to use that as continual improvement. So, that really just provides a roadmap for your business to continually improve year after year going through that assessment. Another benefit with B Corp is just joining that community. B Corp's love to support other B Corp's. So, at Fetzer when we became a B Corp, we offered a discount to other B Corps out there who are purchasing wine for the corporate events. B Corps love to support each other and they also like to work with each other in creative ways. Ben and Jerry's is a B Corp and also a New Belgium Brewing Company is a B Corp. They actually partnered on a new beer, which was an ice cream flavored beer. So, they had Ben and Jerry's logo and New Belgium's logo on the bottle and on the packaging as a partnership, and that was to bring attention to the B Corp movement and to businesses making powerful impacts in the world and making the world a better place. So there's a lot of great benefits in that world beyond just attracting new customers, but also really being a roadmap for improvement as well as joining those new communities. Let's talk about Fetzer a little bit because there's a backstory around sustainability before you got there, as you know. The Fetzer family and the company had a commitment to sustainable farming and minimal footprint from the day they decided to crush their first grape, and that goes back decades. They had a very deep commitment to these ideas right from the get go, and that was an era when there were not certifications. Tell me about how these ideas around sustainability get transformed into a culture and become second nature within an organization. I think that top down support is key. So you mentioned the Fetzer owners, they were all about. That's about as good as an example as you can possibly have as far as embedding sustainability into the DNA, into the culture of a company - an owner who founds the company with the idea that sustainability is key to its success. So that's the ultimate example, but for companies that are implementing a new strategy around sustainability and want to embed it, there's a number of things that will help. Again, the top down support is key, so having support from the CEO and the C-suite, and having verbal commitments from them so that everybody understands the importance. But it's also important to go from the ground up as well. So, having employees lead sustainability programs and initiatives. At Fetzer we had what was called the Re3 team, which is a sustainability team at the company that is made up of employees from all different departments of the organization. This is key in any business who wants to move sustainability forward - having that interdepartmental team to work together to break down silos within the organization so that all departments of the business are working together to identify opportunities around sustainability and also to engage employees. That employee engagement piece is really important. Getting them active and getting them involved in sustainability is key. And then another important thing is to identify the quick wins and build momentum. So, where's your low hanging fruit? A lot of times companies that are just getting started, there's a lot of energy opportunities. So, energy efficiency, renewable energy, these types of projects have really good payback and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They're just kind of win-wins all around. Getting those quick wins early, communicating them to your employees and to your stakeholders and showing that initial success of your new sustainability program can really help build that momentum and get employees engaged and get stakeholders excited. So, I think top down support, as well as engaging and activating employees and identifying and working on those quick wins to build momentum are important. And then setting ambitious goals as well and being very clear about communicating your progress towards those goals and communicating in your success along the way, I think are really important in building that culture throughout your organization. You had mentioned earlier the first thing that you did at the university was to start collecting metrics. That's the idea that you have to measure to manage. How do you identify or prioritize where you put your efforts? What does that actually look like? Identifying those metrics and understanding where your key material impacts are is what really helps you prioritize. In the wine industry you use a lot of water. That's a big key material impact of your business operation, so that will be a priority in your sustainability program. But also of course, you want to look at return on investment. So, what type of projects are going to have a good payback and are not just important to reduce environmental impacts, but what are also projects that also include good financial payback and also social impacts? So, if you can find those projects that really impact those three different areas financial, environmental and social and have positive benefits for all those areas, you're really hitting on all three. Those are going to be the ones you want to prioritize. If you can identify some of those strong financial payback programs early, you can almost create a revolving fund which can be used specifically for sustainability. If you're just getting started and you have all your metrics, you're looking at your energy, your water, your waste, your greenhouse gas emissions, maybe some of the water projects cost a little bit more and have a lower financial payback. What you could do is focus on those quick paybacks, like the energy projects. So, you look for those projects that will have a good payback and then use those savings from your energy project to fund those slower paying back projects in water or in waste or in emissions or in those other areas. It's just working with your finance department, your operations team and understanding what's important to the business, what's going to have the most impact and then just being smart around strategizing about short term and long term. How can we fund these projects in the short term and how can we fund these larger projects that might take longer to pay back in the future with some of those previous savings? And you had mentioned the idea of a culture, gaining momentum, you get people to buy in, you take down silos and we start to build. What about resistance to that? Give an example where you had a really brilliant idea, a really great plan, but you couldn't overcome the barriers because of the beliefs of some of the people involved. I've been really fortunate to be working with two great organizations, specifically at Fetzer who was just so supportive of my work, supporting me and encouraging me to really help take the company to the next level. There wasn't a lot of pushback there. Obviously, there's tradeoffs and things like that. I think the important thing for people in those other types of organizations, where it might be harder to get projects supported, is having the business case laid out so it's not just a sustainability practice that's going to be good for the environment, but what are the other positive benefits of it? What are the other business benefits? And so being able to use that language in promoting your sustainability projects, the business language. What are the business benefits, the financial, creating resiliency in our business and building towards long-term success and long-term health. Thinking about the bigger picture. But also, getting stakeholder support. At the university for example, if I had a project, a big project that I wanted to pursue, I wouldn't just put that project down on paper and write a proposal and take it to my supervisor. I would go to faculty and go to students and go to other staff, and build support so that when I brought that project forward, it was clear that that the university community is in support of this project. I think you can do that in business as well. Speak with your colleagues at work and find out how these projects will benefit their departments and their aspects of the business, and build that support before bringing the project forward. Tell us a little bit about your current work. Now you have a sustainability consulting firm. So, clients are coming to you because they've identified sustainability is an area in which they want to improve, there are elements that they would like to adopt, and they are coming to you for help. Can you talk to us a little bit about the motivations and the initial contacts with clients when they come to you? It's a pretty diverse bunch of folks that I'm working with. I'm working with one pretty large wine company right now on their greenhouse gas emissions inventory. They have dozens of locations, they have wineries and vineyards all over California and Oregon, very large operations and a very complex inventory. So, what I'm doing is calculating all of their 2017 greenhouse gas emissions, all their vehicle fleets, all of the emissions in their vineyards from the fertilizer they use, the soil emissions, the winemaking emissions and the vehicles and airplanes. So, that project that I started basically right when I started my new consulting business was from a previous relationship. I worked with a large tax and accounting firm in the bay area called Sensiba San Filippo, and they just became a certified B Corp. So, I was working with them for about six months through the B Corp certification process and they just became the first tax accounting firm in California to become a certified B Corp and they're doing a lot of great work throughout the bay area, a lot of great community work, employee volunteering and pro bono work with nonprofits. They are just a really great company. I'm working with organizations on helping them create their corporate sustainability strategy and working with some businesses on TRUE Zero Waste certification. There's a large apparel company that has a large distribution facility where they distribute their products, and I'm helping them go through TRUE zero waste certification. I'm also working with some local governments in southern California on a composting education and awareness program for their community. So, it's really a lot of different stuff. I have a podcast as well - the Sustainable Nation podcast. We're really just trying to share information from other sustainability professionals around the world. But yeah, some companies are looking to implement new sustainability programs and others are just looking for specific areas of help, like how to help them with their emissions or help them with their B Corp certification or a TRUE Zero Waste certification. It's been a lot of fun just helping all of these different types of businesses make positive impacts in the world. You said that to make change, you need to be able to speak that language of business and you need to be able to speak the language of accounting. What I'm hearing in the last couple of examples you've given us, it sounds like there are a lot of businesses that are coming forward and putting a lot of effort into their sustainability efforts for more ethics-based reasons. It's the right thing to do as much as anything else. Do you agree that's the case, that that's part of it? Yeah, I think so. I think businesses are becoming more aware of these environmental crises that we're facing and are starting to understand what the future might look like if we don't change the way we operate. But then again, I think they're all hearing from consumers, especially this younger generation of millennials and younger folks who will soon have the largest purchasing power and in the history of the world. These are folks that are trending more and more that they're looking to purchase from sustainable companies. So, businesses are understanding the long term importance of being a sustainable company. In the world of social media and transparency, I think they're also understanding that not doing the right thing could really destroy value pretty quickly. So it's becoming almost just the new status quo. If you're going to do business, you have to do things the right way or in the long run, you really face a lot more risks than if you don't. I think you're right. I think we've had a lot of examples in the past twenty years of companies who were not doing things the right way. They were fine for a long time and then there was a fall, if you will. You were talking about doing the things that we need to do to turn things around and this is a really extreme question, but I really want to hear what you have to say about it. Is it too late? I was working in sustainability education and that was talking to a grower, and he did all these fantastic things. I said, "How do you feel you're doing? How do you feel about making progress and do you feel very good about it? You're doing so much stuff." He said, "No. It's way too late. The generation of my granddaughter is going to inherit hell on earth. We've lost it already." I think there are folks that share that view. Do you have a more hopeful message for our listeners? It's really easy to take either side of that argument of saying, "Yeah, it's too late. We can't save the planet." But I also think it's easy to be optimistic when you see all the amazing things that are happening around the world. I personally don't think it's too late. I'm one of the optimists. I'm really connected and plugged into all these amazing things that are happening, and I see the momentum building. This new movement that we're seeing is exciting. I had mentioned my title at Fetzer changed from director of sustainability to director of regenerative development. That was because of a new strategy that I helped implement at the company, which was moving beyond sustainable to be restorative and regenerative as a company. Let's not just try to minimize our negative impacts and be less bad, but let's actually try to eliminate those negative impacts and focus on creating positive impacts. So instead of being less bad, we're being more good. So, it's not just how can we minimize impacts, but how can we actually make the world a better place. That's a movement that is growing. i might've been one of the first with the titles of regenerative rather than sustainability, but I think there's a few more now. There is also the Net Positive Project, which is a coalition of businesses led by Forum for the Future, BSR in SHINE. This is a number of companies that are recognizing this idea of regenerative and net positive as the next step in corporate responsibility. So, moving beyond sustainable from actually reducing our emissions 50 percent, reducing water 50 percent, to how can we go beyond that to actually reduce emissions one hundred percent, or actually be water positive and send more water into our water tables than we take out, or carbon positive - sequester more carbon than we emit as a company. So, these are things that people are focusing on now and I think the regenerative agriculture movement, which is growing, is extremely exciting. The studies show that if all agricultural areas where to implement regenerative practices, we would actually reduce the carbon in our atmosphere. We could drawn down CO2 in the atmosphere. We would actually be sequestering more carbon in our soil than we emit as a society globally. So, regenerative agriculture is a very exciting development. I see all these great things that are happening, the increases in renewable energy around the world, the agriculture movement, the zero waste movement, the B Corp movement and I'm definitely optimistic about the future.

Josh Prigge, Founder and CEO of Sustridge, a sustainability consulting firm, talks about the ways he has helped his former employers and current clients to not only reduce their environmental impacts, but to work toward regenerative ways of doing business. References: Sustainable Hawai’I Pacific University Facebook page Josh’s Blog josh@sustridge.com Sustainable Nation | Josh Prigge (Podcast) Sustridge Get More Subscribe on Google Play,  iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.

Aly Khalifa joins Sustainable Nation to discuss: Cradle to Cradle and the circular economy' Engineering and designing for a sustainable future Ocean plastic and designing with recycled materials Recommendations and advice for sustainability professionals Final Five Questions: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals or those working in the circular economy that might help them in their careers? I think there's a principle that I like to use called boundary conditions, and that's something I learned from engineering school. If I'm looking at like the structure of a building and you say "calculate that structure," it's like an impossible task. You need a computer to sort of figure out what happens and the wind load. But what you can do is isolate a single beam and just draw your boundary conditions around one beam, and calculate for that. And as you get more sophisticated in your modeling, your boundary conditions might grow. You might draw around a bigger boundary. You also might say, "I'm going to announce think about temperature also," or I'm going to think about what if there's a rocking party on top of that beam and there's a lot of vibration? So the boundary conditions define for you the problem that you're going to address. And I think in many cases we draw that circle very tightly and we say, "well, I'm just going to deal with this," or in many cases those boundary conditions are never firmly addressed at the beginning because. And we do the same thing in life cycle analysis, right? We have to consider my carbon footprint from here to here, but I'm not going to go outside of that picture. But sometimes it's when you actually list what you're going to define and the things that you can address, and here's the things you are not going to address. Sometimes it's a wake-up call because reflexively, we will attack problems like we've always attacked them and think, "I'm not going to deal with fair labor. I'm not going to talk about realization or I'm not going to talk about these things," without really having acknowledged to yourself that you're not going to do that. Or vice versa. When you do take something on, maybe it's not appropriate to address that. So I think there needs to be some real rigor as a professional about what's inside the boundary conditions for each project, especially on the sustainability side. What are you willing to take on and address, and what do you not want to be distracted by? Because this product has to get done. Frequently, I think there's one stretch that you can take. You can add maybe one set of criteria to it from a sustainability perspective, without having to like eat the whole elephant in one bite. You can say, "I'm just going to take one bite here. I'm really going to reach for this one particular thing without having to address all of it." What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability or the circular economy? One thing it's been great for us on the Ocean Work side is blockchain technology. The whole notion that we can have communities that help us develop a transparency to the way information is shared is very exciting. I have limited knowledge on the topic, so please don't ask me any more about block chain. There's much more qualified people about that. But I do think it's really exciting thing because it's a technology that's not necessarily just for technology's sake. It seems like the heart of the technology is transparency and community building. And I think that's fantastic. I think there must be other technologies we haven't developed, whether it's open source engineering systems, I think there's many different ways that we could develop technologies that are inherently community building and inherently transparent. I'm just wondering what the next one is, but I think this is one of the cases where I feel like I can just build off the work someone else has done and instead of building the tool, get to use the tool. That's really refreshing for me as a sustainability professional. I think in many cases we have to develop the tools more than we get to use them. And in this case I feel like there's a lot to learn about this tool. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? Well, probably the one that first really got me fired up was Entropy by Jeremy Rifkin. I think that was the one, as someone coming into it, just sort of having my head taken off and my brain shaken it up a little bit, and my head put back on. I just felt like I wasn't the same after reading that. I think that's good because I think sometimes we do just need the rational, logical kind of approach to sustainability, but we need the energizing aspect to it. So I felt like Entropy was one that was really great, but there's so many other inspirations for me. I've already mentioned Cradle to Cradle, but I think for me also just the writings of Buckminster Fuller and his call for design science revolution really pushed me on my way. He has a really fun book called I Seem to be a Verb, which isn't really anything to do with sustainability. It's about how to start a design science revolution and what kind of happens in the mind of Buckminster Fuller. And I think that would be another one I just think is a good one to kickstart some emotions on this topic. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in the work that you do? Yeah, it just seems like it changes by the day. I think one of the tools that I'm really enjoying in the past few months is the platform called Slack. It's allowing teams to collaborate on a variety of threads all at once, like the simultaneous nature of being able to look at what's developing across similar but slightly different threads. It's fantastic for me. I feel like that's a tool that allows me to just very quickly share and get feedback amongst a multitasking type of research projects. And then there's a lot of different systems that are going on in terms of tracking materials and signals. The idea of materials having intelligence the equivalent of a DNA, being able to understand what the material is very quickly. There is so much happening on that right now as well. I think that's also fantastic. That's exactly what's needed. We need to attach information to our products to understand them  And finally where can our listeners go to learn more about what you do, learn more about Ocean Works, follow you, whatever you'd like to give out for websites or any way to follow your work. Well, I think my social media presence is pretty frenetic and its fits and starts. Usually has to do with when am I in research phase and when am I in publishing phase, or different things that I'm doing. But certainly on twitter it's AlygKhalifa and that's probably the quickest, easiest way to get to me. But certainly on LinkedIn, I'm pretty active on that. And then Oceanworks.co is where a lot of the Ocean Work stuff is happening. My firm Design Box is partnered up with that, so designbox.us.  You can also see a lot of the other projects that were kind of preceding all this big investment into Ocean Works. Contact Aly Khalifa: https://twitter.com/alygkhalifa Contact Josh Prigge: josh@sustridge.com Sustridge: https://www.sustridge.com/  

Cheri Chastain has been the Sustainability Manager for Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. since 2006 where she is responsible for educating employees on environmental issues and programs, maintaining and developing sustainability policies and projects, and representing Sierra Nevada in industry and policy conversations.  Cheri currently co-chairs the Brewers Association Sustainability Committee, is vice chair of the City of Chico’s Sustainability Task Force, and is a board member of the US Zero Waste Business Council.  Cheri Joins Sustainable Nation to discuss: What's new in sustainability at Sierra Nevada Sustainability in the beer industry Innovations in renewable energy Being a Zero Waste leader Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders More on Cheri and sustainability at Sierra Nevada: https://sierranevada.com/brewery/about-us/sustainability More on Sustridge and the Sustainable Nation Podcast: https://www.sustridge.com/ What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?  Make friends. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability and regenerative development? I'm most excited about the momentum that's building. For so long, it was Al Gore and his inconvenient truth and that just rubbed people the wrong way and it ruffled a lot of feathers and it did some of the necessary way. I think we needed that, but all of a sudden, the effects of climate change are becoming so apparent to people all over this country, all over the globe in the momentum that's building the innovative solutions that are coming out of, plays little corners all over the globe. I find that very exciting. I feel like we're kind of at a tipping point and it's hopefully going to tip in a really positive way. What is the one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. Book that was written over almost 40 years ago. Still so relevant today and it's such a simple, clear, beautiful message that we should all remind ourselves of. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that you use to really help you in the work that you do? Our friends at series are an incredible resource for helping to guide policy and engaging businesses on policy, work and efforts. My friends and colleagues within beer that are addressing sustainability and craft brewing. They are an incredible resource and we're able to bounce off of each other and feed off of each other. Finally, where can our listeners go to learn more about your work and what you do? Our website, www.SierraNevada.com. There's a sustainability section in there. I'm actually in the process right now of updating our sustainability report and that should go live April first is our target date. So for the most up to date information, check back after April first.