Sally Uren
Tuesday morning’s plenary began with inspiration from Dr. Sally
Uren, Chief Executive at
Forum for the Future, who shared five
dreams and four “false choices” on the concept of looking back to look forward.
She spoke about the crossroads of this moment in time; and, reflecting similar
sentiments from Bill McDonough’s
keynote
on Monday, asked everyone in attendance to consider, “Is it going to be a path
where we deliver systemic change or the path where we do something only slightly
better?”
Through her false choices construct, Uren shared the following takeaways: 1)
focus on both environmental and social
impacts;
2) examine the big impact areas with a system; 3) the need for brand
collaboration, not competition; 4) the false choice between growth through
increased profit vs. making investments in sustainability.
L-R: Cindy Drucker and Andrew Benett
Next on stage were Cindy Drucker
and Andrew Benett from
ESG Consulting Solutions at PwC,
who shared a data-filled presentation on connecting the dots between ESG and
brand health.
One of the major dots centered about stakeholder centricity and the need for a
shift around stakeholder mindset. According to Drucker, it is widely accepted in
business that customer-centric businesses are more successful than their peers.
She took it one step further by suggesting that brands should treat employees,
suppliers, investors, regulators — all
stakeholders
— with the same focus and attention that they do customers.
Benett pointed to ESG leaders such as Microsoft, Walmart and
Unilever: “The standouts for ESG performance share certain traits — they
have a cadre of stakeholders they really know, ESG is embedded into the
corporate culture, and they elevate their role above the category as a leader.”
Next, Jane Ewing, SVP of
Sustainability at Walmart, and WM SVP and Chief
Sustainability Officer Tara Hemmer
then shared insights from their companies’ partnership to address material
recovery and behavior change at the consumer level. Ewing shared that Walmart
has gone
bagless
in its Canada and Mexico stores and they are working to introduce it in
certain states in the US.
After the break, SB’s VP of Content and Brand Storytelling, Sam
Monnie, sat down with Katie
Decker — President of Global
Essential Health, Healthy Lives and Global Customer Development at Johnson &
Johnson Consumer Health — to discuss the company’s Healthy Lives
Mission — a
commitment to invest $800 million through 2030 to improve people’s health while
protecting the health of the planet.
“No way would we have gotten where we are without being driven by our people.
You have to partner together. There are too many unknowns and technological
challenges,” Decker said.
L-R: Alison Lewis and Sally Uren
Uren then returned to the stage for a fireside chat with Alison
Lewis, Chief Growth Officer
at Kimberly-Clark. Lewis, who came to her
role at the 150-year-old company in 2019 from a non-sustainability capacity,
shared her thoughts on the evolution of her role and how to work with the
C-suite at legacy companies. One key piece of advice for practitioners is to
empower local markets by giving individuals sustainability goals and letting
them be drivers of innovation.
“Finding solutions that drive sustainability and growth is a massive win,
especially in challenging economic times,” Lewis said. “Crisis is the best time
to make the biggest changes; so, use this time to get management to bet on some
game-changers.”
L-R: Khalilah Olokunola and Tish Archie Oliver
The morning plenary wrapped with an insightful conversation between Tish Archie
Oliver — Head of Diversity, Equity,
Inclusion & Belonging, North America at Unilever
and Khalilah (“KO”) Olokunola, former Chief People Officer at TRU Colors
Brewing.
“Belonging is not a new topic. What’s changed is how we understand it and how we
unpack it,” KO said.
Unilever performed a comprehensive assessment to understand the state of
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB) throughout its organization by
having leaders discuss using DEIB as a driver of business growth and conducting
an employee survey. The results informed a five-year learning journey roadmap to
improve equity and belonging at the company.
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Mara Slade is a seasoned communications professional having worked both in-house in sustainability roles and at top creative agencies including Edelman and Digital Kitchen. She has led corporate ESG reporting projects for a variety of Fortune 500 clients ranging from tech, retail, sustainable agriculture, consumer packaged goods, financial services, among others. She is a certified GRI reporter with an MBA from Presidio Graduate School in Sustainable Management.
Published Oct 20, 2022 11am EDT / 8am PDT / 4pm BST / 5pm CEST