Connecting sustainability and regeneration credentials to sales
While there is no silver bullet in connecting your company’s sales to
regeneration credentials, each member on this Tuesday afternoon panel shared
similar experiences on tactics that have proven beneficial. Leslie Hushka,
SVP of Global Corporate Responsibility at Bumble Bee
Seafoods,
quickly set the tone: “A critical factor for success is alignment throughout the
company, which means having a broad base of your employees understand the
company’s sustainability programs and making that part of their day-to-day job.”
Engaging with and training your sales team is critical in authenticating your
sustainability goals, as this leads to positive consumer perception of your
brand. Kellie Ballew, VP of Global Sustainability at Shaw
Industries Group, emphasized
the importance of a sales team that is able articulate the aesthetics, design
and performance details of products with hard-earned sustainability
certifications. This requires commitment to support and prepare the team as much
as possible outside of the basic duties. At the same time, it’s also important
to help the sales team find a balance between short- and longer-term objectives.
“A sale today versus a partner for the sale of tomorrow,” Ballew said.
Rebekah Moses, Director of Impact Strategy at Impossible
Foods, touched on the
challenge of addressing the awareness gap in consumers. She pointed out:
“Consumers who are sustainability-motivated but have an awareness gap around a
whole category of consumption — it is difficult to tap into them and to help
them align their wallet to their values.”
Corporate political responsibility: Lessons learned in 2024 and support for 2025 and beyond
Since 2021, the SB community has explored what it means for companies to use their political influence responsibly in an increasingly polarized world. What have we learned? Join us for an interactive "community café" to dive into this — as well as the Erb Institute's new CPR Decision Tool & Executive Conversation Guide and related case studies — Monday, Oct. 14, at SB'24 San Diego.
One way Impossible has worked to address this is by labeling every product with
its Life Cycle
Assessment
data, as a show of transparency and educating consumers — thus, bridging the gap
between their values and their knowledge of a company’s holistic regeneration
goals.
Jason Pelz, VP of Sustainability, Americas at Tetra
Pak, stressed the importance of
a long-term view in looking at ROI on regeneration commitments. For example,
investing in R&D to innovate on your already-great product so it will be even
better five years from now. Some regeneration commitments require an upfront
cost but ensure a payoff down the road through generating future sales and
building relationships.
In looking at sales lift and ROI, Ballew said it’s hard to attribute anything
specifically to sustainability when you have a huge portfolio. The
test-and-learn model has helped Shaw gauge if the market is choosing certain
products for the reasons that were messaged; and for Ballew, this ROI is very
clear. This is another reason to ensure alignment with the sales team — to
ensure they are comfortable with sustainability language.
The sustainability leader’s guide to climate commitments and disclosure
Tuesday morning, Alexandra Albro of security software giant ESET North
America and Phil Redman from OneTrust
ESG discussed how their collaboration led to
meaningful progress in ESET’s ESG goals, and how their lessons learned can
jumpstart a company’s journey into climate commitments and disclosures.
At ESET, employees were asking about the company’s commitments in emissions,
diversity, and community engagement. The culture was ripe for a robust ESG
platform; and with help from OneTrust, Albro said they successfully identified
ways to identify, commit and communicate ESG goals and disclose them
authentically.
Taking stock of brand culture, consumer and company values, and existing
governance structures is step one in making authentic commitments and
disclosures. Next, sustainability goals need to be aligned with business values
and metrics.
Whether these steps are started grassroots or top-down, leadership buy-in is
paramount, Albro said. Without unified language, policy and governance
structures, grassroots interest from consumers and employees will never reach
critical mass.
“[Momentum] can really come from different areas; and if the leadership team is
receptive, I think you can take it quite far,” she said.
But even with sufficient buy-in throughout, many organizations don’t have
resources to tackle the massive ESG problems they face. Synced governance
structure and relentless collaboration are paramount to aligning ideals
throughout an organization.
“It comes down to collaboration,” Albro said. “Combining all of the parts under
one umbrella is going to be vital to pull all of these efforts together and be
responsible for it.”
Redman notices many companies adopting science-based
targets.
Pledges and commitments are an important rallying point, as well as a north star
to drive fragmented ESG efforts in organizations. An understanding of Scope 3
emissions
is a great indicator of where to invest ESG efforts, Albro said — but she warned
about keeping ambitions realistic: “If you’re not sure you can achieve what
you’ve set out for, be cautious,” she cautioned. “It’s really important to
understand where you’re at and if it’s even possible to go where you want to
go.”
If you don’t have targets today, be upfront about it; but ensure stakeholders a
target is coming soon. Not acting out of fear of missing a goal is worse than
failing to meet one.
Disclosure is voluntary now, but Redman and Albro firmly believe mandatory
disclosures are coming. Wary businesses are diving headlong into
self-disclosures to mitigate significant regulatory and financial burdens later.
Even voluntary reporting can be problematic, though — as companies report on
what they think is material to
them.
Compliance reporting will likely ask for brand-new disclosures, as is happening
now in
Europe.
Future-proofing ESG disclosures is possible, though. Albro recommended
identifying salient stakeholder dialogues and selecting a reporting tool that
facilitates successful communication. Lastly, she recommended reporting on as
many platforms as possible — including SASB,
GRI and the SDGs.
Boosting sustainable product sales with Amazon’s Climate Pledge Friendly
Amazon’s Climate Pledge
Friendly
(CPF) program currently has over 200,000 certified sustainable products — a
small number in comparison to the total population of products available on
Amazon, yet the largest selection in retail today.
Adam Werbach, Senior Integrated Marketing Leader at Amazon, said the CPF
program is one way the ecommerce giant is stepping up to the sustainability
plate: “Scale and success bring broad responsibility,” he said.
Nnika Leiba, Principal Manager of theSustainable Shopping Program, brings an
extensive background in scientific research and toxicology-focused certification
into her new role with Amazon. Working closely with third-party certifiers,
Leiba stressed that “trustworthy and scientifically robust certifications are
needed to help customers sort through all of the claims and marketing
jargon.”
Leiba described her oversight of the company’s rigorous internal process to
verify third-party certifiers. The process includes an in-depth review of the
organization’s scientific rigor, and performance across various sustainability
attributes — including carbon reduction, natural resource conservation, energy
savings, and chemical and material safety, among other criteria. Currently,
Amazon leverages 36 high-bar third-party
certifications
that vary greatly in size and type; but according to Leiba, all the
organizations are highly regarded for their integrity and the robustness of
their program. “They engender trust,” she said.
There are two pathways to qualify for the CPF program. The first path is to hold
one of the 36 certifications currently partnered with Amazon. The second is
through Compact by Design, Amazon’s
internal certification for products designed for better packaging and more
efficient shipping. This program extends beyond the frustrating
box-within-a-box
inefficiency
faced on the consumer end — to qualify for Compact by Design, products must have
best-in-class unit efficiency.
Customers can find CPF products through the filter and search
tool, and brands can create their
own CPF aisle on their store pages. Of note, Amazon Business implemented a CPF
buying
policy,
which has been their fastest-growing buying policy thus far.
Launched just nine months ago, early research shows that the CPF badge builds
trust with consumers and leads to increased repeat purchases. And, as Leiba
pointed out, certifications have a tremendous impact on moving the market
towards safer and more sustainable products.
For Amazon, CPF is a long-term investment plan that still has a lot of area for
growth. The company says it aims to integrate CPF into every point of the
customer’s buying experience, nudging sales in a sustainable direction by
providing more transparency and education to the customer while balancing
simplification.
Companies or certifiers interested
in joining the program can reach
out to Amazon for more information.
Straightforward social impact measurement any company can use
Sustainability professionals are finding themselves spending more and more time
on reporting instead of doing work that needs to be done; and existing
frameworks such as GRI or SASB contain long lists of indicators that can dilute
or divert from authentic impact reporting. And in contrast to the widespread
consensus held for environmental metrics, many companies are challenged by the
lack of a consensus on how to measure social impacts.
In response to this situation, Ford Motor
Company partnered with the
University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable
Enterprise to develop a framework that streamlines
organization and communication around social impact. As Rebecca Shelby,
Ford’s Manager of Social Sustainability, pointed out: “To build a better world,
the environment is really only one piece of that.”
Two years later, the Erb Institute shared Ford’s Model of Human
Progress
at the Sustainable Brands™ 2020 Corporate Member Meeting. While the model
was developed in partnership with Ford, it was designed to be non-proprietary
and sector-agnostic to enable cross-sector adoption, reiteration and data
comparability between companies.
Tiffani Jarnigan, Manager of ESG Process and Innovation at Hewlett Packard
Enterprise
(HPE), said the company took the model and adapted it to the tech industry —
simplifying the process and focusing on the metrics that drive the most social
impact.
Jarnigan explained that the model provides guidance on creating a more focused
list of metrics to tell the story of your company’s social impact goals and
initiatives. Likewise, the model’s streamlined nature helps small sustainability
teams balance effort in project execution and reporting.
“The underlying story here is they’ve done a lot of research, so that other
companies don’t have to,” Jarnigan said.
Trust was quickly identified as being core to the model — as well as to any
business model for its value creation — said Phil Redman, Offering Manager
in ESG at OneTrust. Innovation is another core
principle for building development and leadership throughout the model, and
top-down commitment and integration into existing work processes are equally
important for the model to influence company decision-making. Redman summed up
by acknowledging that social impact is still difficult to measure, but possible
when it’s a step-by-step process.
Measuring regenerative outcomes along the value chain
The data is clear: Net zero isn’t enough. Brands must shift sustainability
models from “do-no-harm” to “net-benefit.” In this Wednesday panel, General
Mills and
Interface discussed their
relationship with
biomimicry as the
best way to achieve net-positive operations as quickly as possible.
No natural systems or organisms create a net-detriment to an ecosystem — and
human systems should be no different. Better
buildings
and processes are the starting point, but the end goal is empowering them to be
net-regenerative contributors to both human and natural ecosystems.
“Regenerative” means creating conditions conducive to life, said Erin
Meezan, VP and Chief Sustainability Officer at Interface. The challenge is
quantifying that into actionable goals aimed at sequestering as much carbon as a
high-performing ecosystem.
Biomimicry 3.8 helped Interface consider the
implications of net-positive operations in its value
chain.
The consultancy considers how facilities have ripple effects in the community
and local ecosystem, using place-based analysis to move closer to net
positivity. Managing Director Nicole Miller reiterated that nature is the
best model for net-positive design.
“We don’t want to get to zero — we want to get to positive,” she said.
General Mills started investing in regenerative
agriculture
in 2019. It siloed its investments in soil health, water conservation, and
farmer livelihoods; then finally recognized the interconnectivity of it all:
What worked looked like how nature operates.
“What if we took these lessons from nature and applied them to business?” said
Mary Jane Melendez, Chief Sustainability & Global Impact Officer at General
Mills.
General Mills began to shift from an extractive mindset to a regenerative one,
leading to a partnership with Ethan Soloviev, Chief Innovation Officer at
HowGood — a SaaS data platform with the world's largest
database on food and personal care product sustainability. HowGood is guiding
the food giant beyond silos towards the whole, considering interventions that
can move the entire system.
Like nature, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to community health.
“If you ever see someone give you a checklist for regeneration, bullshit,”
Soloviev said. “If you ever use someone else’s scorecard to assess yourself,
then you’re not connected to what's unique about your business and what you
can generate in the world.”
Yet, progress towards regenerative goals must be measurable, Meezan cautioned.
Though quantifiable outcomes are essential, they will look different for each
company and its stage in the journey.
Businesses should start with what they’re doing well, Miller said — realizing
their unique value propositions as part of a diverse ecosystem. Regenerative
steps from there should be calculated and programmatic.
Net zero shouldn't be a required pitstop in the regenerative journey, the panel
unanimously agreed. Adopting a net-positive mindset foments more innovation and
purpose than net zero alone.
Regeneration requires metric disclosure as much as a mindset shift. Brands will
arrive at the regenerative intersection of qualitative and quantitative by
fusing existing capital and frameworks with biomimicry.
The Math and the Path: EY on meeting increasingly rigorous investor expectations on climate commitments and disclosures
Sustainability departments and leads have had to be nimble in order to drive
change within companies. But now, whole enterprises must get on board; and
there’s an alignment issue between large-scale organizations and the nimble
nature of many sustainability functions.
“We’re at an inflection point” We need to go big, we need to go fast, and we
need to find how we do that and bring the whole organization along,” said
Bruno Sarda, Principal of Climate Change and Sustainability Services at
Ernst & Young (EY).
External and internal stakeholders are asking reporting organizations to raise
their climate game. Regulators are, too.
The SEC issued a sample comment
letter
showing several typical comments they issue to companies. The first question
asks companies to explain why their stated ESG goals aren’t represented in
investor-focused documents provided to the SEC.
There’s a shortening tolerance for brands saying one thing on sustainability
reports and another in their disclosures. From 2018 to 2020, investors that
conduct structured and formal reviews of ESG
disclosures
have more than doubled, according to EY research. This shows investors are
taking climate risk and disclosure seriously, seeking info pertinent to their
investment decisions.
SEC’s scrutiny and increased disclosure reviews are emblematic of trending
scrutiny about communicating ESG to
audiences.
There’s pressure mounting from investors and regulators; and the solution is
building credibility and cohesion while simultaneously driving down climate
risk.
But it’s not as easy as just more reporting.
EY’s Global Climate Risk Disclosure
Barometer
looks at coverage and quality, examining how organizations report on various
climate issues. The Barometer discovered more organizations are reporting on
climate than ever before; but quality of that reporting is stagnant, and
meaningful climate strategies remain unimplemented.
These discrepancies in coverage and quality are usually owed to the nebulous
nature of quantifying financial impact of climate risks, said Kristin
Sterling, Senior Manager of Climate Change and Sustainability Services at EY.
But other risks disclosed in 10Ks come with their own blinding challenges, so
the excuse of “nebulous” climate risk assessment is running out of steam.
Sterling recommended integrating existing frameworks used to control risk
environments in reporting and applying them to an ESG context. Internal control
structures, such as auditing departments, can be retrofitted to assess climate
risks, too.
“Many organizations already have well-established processes to make big
decisions and evaluate decisions,” Sarda said. “Tap into that, because they
already have a lot of credibility with internal and external audiences.”
COVID was a good dress rehearsal for climate disruption, painfully illuminating
externalities and pain points. COVID has been a wakeup
call
for transparent and meaningful climate commitments and disclosure, and aligning
the language in investor-facing documents and public-facing sustainability
reports.
Get the latest insights, trends, and innovations to help position yourself at the forefront of sustainable business leadership—delivered straight to your inbox.
Tina is a sustainability consultant with EcoNomics, Inc. She is a longtime surfer who is passionate about the world of waste.
Christian is a writer, photographer, filmmaker, and outdoor junkie obsessed with the intersectionality between people and planet. He partners with brands and organizations with social and environmental impact at their core, assisting them in telling stories that change the world.
Published Nov 11, 2021 6am EST / 3am PST / 11am GMT / 12pm CET