"The journey towards sustainability for a non-manufacturer is definitely
different." — Meredith Lindvall, Director of Recycling & Waste Diversion,
Cox Enterprises
From its humble beginnings in 1898, Cox
Enterprises is now a fourth-generation,
family-owned company that has evolved into a global innovator in the broadband
and transportation industries. It is home to two major brands, Cox
Communications
(the nation's third-largest cable and telecom business) and Cox
Automotive (home to
Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader, among others).
Even before corporate apparatus existed to codify sustainability, Cox leadership
solicited sustainability input from its employees. Much of what leadership
learned wasn't on their radar — both in terms of potential target areas and,
more importantly, just how ready employees were to act.
Cox Conserves, the company's
internal sustainability arm, has been around for over a decade. Founded by
Chairman Jim Kennedy, Cox Conserves has been instrumental in driving
tangible environmental improvements.
Communicating complex, unfamiliar sustainability claims on CPG packaging
Join us as Applegate and HowGood share insights into marketing lessons, consumer response and understanding, and marketplace data on the expression and communication of new categories of sustainability claims on CPG packaging - as well as tips for avoiding consumer and industry backlash and controversy - Wed, Oct. 16, at SB'24 San Diego.
"We've been doing sustainability before we even called it sustainability,"
Lindvall said.
Kennedy came to Cox's leadership in 2007 thinking about legacy. He wanted his
company and his name remembered as stakeholders that left the world a better
place than they found it.
So, he laid out the vision and tasked leadership to build it from the ground up.
Cox codified sustainability into corporate culture in 2007 by setting its first
sustainability goal: Carbon reduction. The team soared beyond its goal well
ahead of schedule, which got leadership thinking about grander plans and the
cumulative power of buy-in.
Conversations driven by Kennedy, the family and leadership revealed that
employees' motivation, buy-in and insight aligned with leadership's vision of a
future-proof
company.
The next step was building mechanisms to fuse leadership's vision and employee
ambition through meaningful action — so, they crafted more ambitious goals
beyond just carbon reductions.
Five years ahead of schedule on its initial sustainability goals, Cox rolled out
its updated sustainability road map in '12-'13 — adding water- and
waste-reduction targets on top of carbon: Zero waste to landfill by 2024, and
energy and water neutrality by 2044.
At the time the company’s goal went live in 2013, Cox had a measly 9 percent
diversion rate; the company is
now
80 percent waste-free. And the carbon and water reduction goals are on track to
be met ten years ahead of schedule, making Cox readjust carbon- and
water-neutrality deadlines to 2034.
Cox has invested nearly $140 million in 400+ sustainability and
conservation projects and is on track toward meeting all of its water-, waste-
and carbon-reduction goals on or ahead of schedule.
But internal sustainability isn't enough. Thanks to buy-in across the entire
organization, Cox also engages supply chain and business partner sustainability
to reduce scope 3
emissions;
and partners with national environmental groups to protect of the nation's
coastlines, waterways and public
lands.
Sustainability is a constantly evolving matrix of setting targets, quantifying
baselines, measuring progress, and evaluating. When there's buy-in across
company culture, goals can be met ahead of schedule. For Cox, this wasn't an
invitation to sit on its laurels, but to push the envelope.
The power of buy-in
For sustainability to work, leadership needed two things: Trust in the inherent
value of sustainability and trust that employees would run with that vision.
From its first carbon commitment to now, Cox Conserves has grown into a
company-wide movement with buy-in across the board. Nearly 30 employees staff
Cox's sustainability department; but as Lindvall pointed out, that's not where
the magic happens.
Cox's secret sustainability sauce lies in the initial vision of its founder and
employee buy-in across the entire organization. Operating sustainably is as
inseparable as turning a profit.
"Not only do we have buy-in from the highest level, which is key; we also have
grassroots employee motivations," Lindvall said. "We're extremely laser-focused
on driving behavior change and making progress towards those goals. Once Cox
employees make up their minds they want to do something, there's no stopping
them."
Cox's leadership put a stake in the ground back in 2007. It evolved into a core
value of Cox Enterprises, something employees can engage in that's tangible
and important to leadership.
"I think we're a little spoiled because sustainability is something that every
Cox employee can get engaged in," Lindvall said. "And because it's vertically
integrated from buy-in, it gives them a lot of purpose."
The power of engagement
Cox has more sustainability engagement and initiative from its employees than it
can handle, Lindvall said proudly. Cox Impact is an employee-driven
environmental stewardship platform where employees can share their ideas and act
in campaigns dedicated to certain sustainability practices. Last month offered
challenges on zero waste: Lunch-and-learns, training sessions, planning
materials, links to educational articles, and targeted action plans roll out
with each challenge, empowering employees to take educated action.
At any time, a Cox employee can access thousands of various actions to drive
sustainability at work and in their own homes, with quantifiable metrics for
each reported directly to the board. Friendly competitions gamify the whole
experience, with plenty of engagement throughout the leadership column.
Corporate green committees cascade into regional and local committees, all
unified by a central theme. Not surprisingly, locations with highly active green
councils excel on sustainability KPIs.
"Each one of those [committees] will create their own actions," Lindvall said.
"It's really a great feedback loop. The cool thing about having a feedback
structure is [employees] are able to give feedback all the way back to us about
opportunities they see."
Accountability buzzes up and down the leadership column. Management and
leadership check up on goal progress; employees strategize and innovate on
making sustainability attainable and tangible on the ground. And they learn from
each other.
"Having that buy-in from the top where employees can say 'Hey, if I take this
action, this is something that's important to my leader, my leader's leader, and
all the way to the top that's actually reported out to the board of Cox
Enterprises," Lindvall said.
Wholistic engagement makes sustainable behavioral changes a vertically
integrated KPI, just like productivity and profit.
"It might be hard for someone to directly connect their actions," Lindvall said.
"The relationship between making a sustainable decision and that direct line to
one of Cox's objectives really keeps them motivated."
From knowledgeable eco-evangelists to someone just getting started in their
sustainability journey, Cox carves out steps for deeper engagement — taking the
same steps with suppliers, communities and other business stakeholders. As
Lindvall said:
"We really want to be a thought leader. How can we turn what we've learned and
help others on their journey? We can't do sustainability by ourselves. One of
the things we've done that makes us so successful internally and externally is
really meeting people where they are."
The power of big goals
It's not the size of a goal that's the problem, but employee buy-in. When
employees and leadership make the ambition their own, no dream is too lofty.
It's the key that unlocks internally motivated sustainability.
Leadership found the formula for successful sustainability goals early on: When
you don't know what to adopt, set something reasonable, review, reset and shoot
for the stars. Armed with the knowledge of what Cox can do, Lindvall and the
team were empowered to set even more ambitious goals simply because leadership
and the Cox family believed in the power of their employees to coalesce and make
positive change.
And there's proof in Cox's pudding: A recent company-wide survey indicated that
employees still want to do more despite Cox's already ambitious sustainability
goals. More importantly, they believe they can do more.
Lindvall's tips on internally motivating sustainability
Tip #1: Measured matters.
Providing measured feedback to employees aligns everyone's vision of success,
Lindvall said. This old rule applies to most anything in business, but it's the
stamina for Cox's sustainability success.
Tip #2: Give them wins.
"You've got to allow people wins; and that means setting interim milestones,"
Lindvall said.
It's admirable and necessary to adopt waste-, water- and carbon-reduction goals.
But lofty targets alone may not be enough to foster sustained action.
"That's an all-or-nothing goal," she said. "It doesn't allow for folks to feel
success for everything they're working on … and it makes it really difficult for
that to be a metric that leadership and employees can gain buy-in to."
Lindvall's pro tip is 10 percent chunks towards goals. That gives employees
ownership to set their own milestones, making the difference between "Here's
what I think you should do" and "Look what we can do."
Tip #3: Let them talk.
Cox creates playbooks chock-full of ways for employees to get engaged. But it
also makes channels of dialogue jettisoning custom-tailored solutions to fit the
needs and play to the strengths of regional and local offices.
No one solution works for everyone; but soliciting feedback can ensure
milestones are met and align with company culture.
"Make sure you're getting that buy-in and feedback, allowing them to work on the
goal that's in their language," Lindvall said. "How can we integrate this into
your workflow?" Meeting people where they are at means matching KPIs for work
with KPIs for sustainability.
Tip #4: Connect sustainability to good business
"It's business-critical that we integrate sustainability for resiliency into our
future plans," Lindvall said. "It's gotta be a way that you think about making
sure your business stays in business."
Sustainable Brands’ Enabling the Good Life
report revealed that if
brands want to remain competitive, they must adopt business strategies aligned
with the expectations of a new generation of consumers — “those whose decisions
are driven to create a better world for themselves and their families, without
negatively impacting the world around them.”
Even if an organization isn’t facing
demands from customers to
become sustainable, it will from talent. Millennials are the biggest workforce
today, and they're
working
at places that take sustainability
seriously.
Cox recruiters approached leadership asking for more info on what the company is
doing for the planet. Talent wants to know, Lindvall said; and they won't work
at a
company
that doesn't take a stance.
The final word
"Set those lofty goals, but make sure there's a way for employees to directly
take action on them," Lindvall concluded. "If you just keep it to 26
sustainability engineers, you don't get the change that you want … You need
engineering, but you also need employee engagement to drive the type of success
that you want to see towards those goals."
Top-down and grassroots dance to make the change. Where they meet in the middle
is where amazing things happen.
Get the latest insights, trends, and innovations to help position yourself at the forefront of sustainable business leadership—delivered straight to your inbox.
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 Jun 24, 2021 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST