February DLT & SLT Cross-Trust Meeting Summary - “Sustainability Initiatives"
On Friday, February 9th, the members of the Digital Leadership Trust and the Sustainability Leadership Trust came together to discuss the topic of environmental sustainability in our organizations. The Sustainability Leadership Trust was launched towards the end of last year with the purpose of creating a more sustainable world for everyone. A number of key points were shared:
Climate change suggests major disruptions for our companies, but is it a priority within leadership? A recent Samudra survey with Board members saw sustainability as a lower priority. Heard on Bloomberg that morning, emerging economies are not prioritizing climate/renewables over development into first-world economies. While there is a lot of dire news, we also want to focus on successful cases as a way to move in positive directions.
Focusing on supply chain efficiency, for example, has a solid financial model for both cost savings and resiliency.
One member shared that VCs were wiped out in Cleantech 1.0 about ten years ago. To succeed, this cycle will require a more asset light approach with a focus on the corporate buyer who needs climate to improve customer outcomes. Good news is that there are likely more breakout solutions, 10X better.
Source Phys.org
Finding corporate value to drive action - focusing on sustainability can lead to commercial opportunity that benefits customers, employees, and investors. These three groups have greater awareness and are paying attention to how companies are operating and leading in this space. When done well, companies can differentiate themselves and find market advantage.
One member’s company has focused on activism, community, and sustainability efforts - with a focus on making a local impact. At the same time, there is an ongoing challenge to track, measure, and report on these initiatives - so technology may become an important enabler.
Another member’s company is focused on working with suppliers to ensure sustainable practices and to reduce food waste, for instance. And technology has played a major role in traceability - understanding the origin of products and evaluating the carbon footprint.
One member’s company is ISO 14001 certified and has a leadership group dedicated to sustainability.
One member spoke to the importance of employee engagement in order to reduce food waste using a group chat feature whenever there was left over food from an event - and that led to new behaviors and practices to think efficiently within the company’s core practices.
In many cases, these decisions and initiatives are balanced against various priorities: regulatory requirements, customer demands, corporate responsibility, etc. There was a sense that specific and ambitious goals set by leadership to drive culture and innovation is key.
One member shared how they are tracking sustainability in their business modeling for new projects; example shared here (permission given to share confidentially within the group); one caveat - AI is driving up energy consumption now:
Impact of government actions - there was discussion that small changes to the tax code can drive major change and flow of capital, and this is the scale required to drive the kind of change necessary to reduce environmental degradation practices.
At the same time, competing priorities continue to come up - within the military for instance, there is a desire to reduce carbon emissions but won’t compromise mission either (one member shared that it can cost $800/gallon of gas to deliver it to the front lines of a battle).
There was recognition that no one thing will get us there. We all need to be contributing and that this isn’t one-and-done.
Additional resources shared - a few books were mentioned, including, “The Nature Fix”, “The Carbon Almanac”.
So more to continue to discuss on this topic, and thanks to all who shared their p.o.v.’s on this topic.
