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  • Erik Distler - VP, Head of Sustainability at AEG

    Erik Distler - VP, Head of Sustainability at AEG
    2024/10/29
    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 festivalsPiloting initiatives at smaller events to apply learnings and replicate at larger eventsIncorporating reusable materials at events in partnership with Our WorldAdvice 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 ...
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    38 分
  • Ellen Jackowski - Chief  Sustainability Officer and EVP at Mastercard

    Ellen Jackowski - Chief  Sustainability Officer and EVP at Mastercard
    2024/10/10

    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.
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    29 分
  • Jonah Smith - Vice President, Environmental Social Governance Strategy and Programs at IBM

    Jonah Smith - Vice President, Environmental Social Governance Strategy and Programs at IBM
    2024/09/03
    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 BoxKey characteristics of companies that effectively embed sustainability across the organization Data useability as a key challenge to sustainable business valueIBM’s Sustainability Accelerator ProgramAdvice 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 ...
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    42 分
  • Allison Jordan - Executive Director at California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, Vice President, Environmental Affairs at Wine Institute

    Allison Jordan - Executive Director at California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, Vice President, Environmental Affairs at Wine Institute
    2024/08/20

    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.
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    36 分
  • Marissa McInnis - Senior Director, Global Sustainability at Verizon

    Marissa McInnis - Senior Director, Global Sustainability at Verizon
    2024/07/23
    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 organizationVerizon'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 ...
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    25 分
  • Todd Brady - Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President of Community Relations and Sustainable Operations at Intel

    Todd Brady - Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President of Community Relations and Sustainable Operations at Intel
    2024/06/18
    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 collaborationThe challenges and opportunities of AI on sustainabilityIntel's progress toward 100% renewable electricity by 2030Advice 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. ...
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    32 分
  • Erin Hiatt - Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility at RILA

    Erin Hiatt - Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility at RILA
    2024/06/06
    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 associationRILA’s climate action blueprint for member companiesThe development of RILAs new tool to help measure scope 3 emissions in collaboration with OpteraEngaging members in advocacy for climate related initiativesAdvice and recommendations for sustainability professionals 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 ...
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    34 分
  • Derek Young - Vice President ESG at CBL Properties

    Derek Young - Vice President ESG at CBL Properties
    2024/04/02

    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.
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