Sustainable Nation

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.

Norman Vossschulte is originally from Berlin, Germany. His culturally rich background included ten years living abroad in Africa, Iraq and Spain before moving back to Germany to finish High School and College. He studied Biology and Physical Science before deciding to move to New York City in 1996 to attend the Herbert Berghof Institute for Fine Theatre Arts and Drama.

Norman’s work experience is as eclectic as his upbringing. He has worked in the hotel industry, the non-profit industry, as well as both sports and entertainment industries. 25 years of practicing customer and client relations, has given him an overview of which techniques consistently enhance guest experiences. Norman has over 16 years of staff training and team leadership experience working with The Walt Disney Company and currently the Philadelphia Eagles.

In 2014, Norman became the official GO GREEN spokesperson and began leading the green team for the Philadelphia Eagles. During his tenure the Eagles obtained LEED Gold certification and were the first sports team in the world to obtain ISO20121 certification. He organized and re-branded the initiative as the GO GREEN ECO Committee (Engagement, Communication, Operations) to involve the entire organization. One of the main missions of the ECO Committee is to Innovate & Sustain. The Eagles are now the first sports team to actively invest in the ocean by offsetting carbon emissions from player travel by planting sea grass.

Norman Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss:

• How the strong sustainability program for the Eagles began and evolved
• Material issues and initiatives of the Eagles’ sustainability program
• How the Eagles have achieved 99.9% of waste diversion
• The approach to engaging fans in sustainability
• Utilization of the hydrogen refueling station
• Ideas for making sustainability more mainstream across sports

Norman’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 love this question. Sustainability professionals are at heart, a lot of the ones I meet at least, scientists. They're folks that have either studied this or are really in tune with some of the data and some of the science behind sustainability. A lot of those folks that really live and breathe sustainability every day, their language doesn't necessarily easily translate into sports because we speak the language of fans and teams. So in the sustainability sector, you have to find people that can bridge that gap and literally put into very simple terms some of these sustainability practices that you are trying to bring to a sports team. Every one of us has to figure out how we can translate a lot of this incredible sustainability language into an everyday language so that everyone will understand it and actions. Because actions have to be taken.

What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?

I'm excited that finally it seems like everyone is talking about it. We have some of our mainstream partners that come to us now and say, “Hey, we want to work with you on sustainability.” That's exciting to me because before that, if you had a sustainability partner that was already working in the sustainability space, of course they would talk about sustainability with you, but mainstream partners necessarily didn't. My biggest excitement is Gen Z, the new generation who are now the majority in the workplace and are the ones that are really pushing this agenda. I don't want them to stop because it's important, and because it's their kids who are going to inherit this planet when a lot of these predictions about climate change are going to come true. Gen Z is really pushing this agenda because they're the consumers, they're the clients now, they're the fans. It's important to us and it's important to them and their generation. They're the information generation that loves to post on social media, and it excites me. I think there's a real movement happening, and I don't want it to stop.

What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read?

The Routledge Handbook of Sport and Sustainable Development. It basically dives into the United Nations climate pledge document that was written a few years ago that we actually were part of and that a lot of sports leagues and sports teams in the world have signed onto now. It addresses pretty much every area of sustainability, like waste and climate. We wrote one of those chapters in that book. Anthony Bonagura, one of our directors, actually wrote it and I helped a little bit. It was used in college education, but it’s now available for purchase. It dives into a lot of the science and the data, the United Nations force for climate change pledge program that's out there, and that a lot of leagues in the world, including FIFA and the NFL have signed on to.

What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?

Our sustainability consultant! We have an amazing sustainability consultant, Lindsay Arell. She was the CEO of Honeycomb Strategies that was recently sold to SMG,, a huge global venue operator. She now helps us with FIFA 26. The World Cup is coming to Philadelphia, and there's quite a few sustainability initiatives that we're working on with FIFA, and she's helping us work through that. She helped us with our LEED certification and she's in the middle of helping us to be recertified. I'm not an expert, we're no expert, she is. We always go to her for all the advice. I think it's really important to find someone who lives and breathes this stuff, but who can translate like I said that earlier, that language to us so we can understand it. What should we, what shouldn't we invest in? What should we spend time on, what should we bring to our partners? We really run everything by her. It's really important to have partners and to have folks in your corner who know what they're talking about and who you trust, because again, we don't know what we should and shouldn't be doing. It's really important to ask professionals in this space.

Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at the Philadelphia Eagles?

Philadelphiaeagles.com. If you go there and you click on community, there is a page called Go Green, pun intended. We call our sustainability program Go Green. We are all about innovating and sustaining and the website is a really good source of information.

Thomas Stanchak is a seasoned Commercial Real Estate professional with over 20 years of diverse experience. He began his career with his current employer, Stoneweg US in 2017 as an Asset Manager, where he was responsible for overseeing operations, maximizing occupancy, and maintaining budgets for 17 assets in the Midwest region. In 2019, he was promoted to Senior Asset Manager assuming operational responsibility for more than 50% of total AUMs; where his operational leadership was hugely impactful in Stoneweg US’ ability to deliver healthy returns to its investors that year. In 2020, Tom began focusing his efforts on implementing various energy-efficient and innovative practices to his portfolio by introducing water conservation, LED lighting retrofits, and effective recycling methods that would not only incorporate sustainability, but also provide key value-add for residents.

Thomas Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss:

• Key material ESG issues Stoneweg focuses on
• Stoneweg’s approach to collecting quality data
• Evaluation of climate risks and opportunities including climate transition modeling
• How Stoneweg is preparing for electrification in the industry

Thomas’ Final Five Questions Responses:

What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?

Not everybody is going to agree with you, and not everybody is going to like you, but over time, I've found that if you really work hard and you really do the math around the data and reporting and linking it to finding opportunity, that's the wedge to do things at scale.

What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?

Real time energy monitoring and being able to get responsive feedback from these sorts of technologies as we make improvements. The simple example is, as I change HVAC systems, I can actually see the difference in how the property is functioning.

What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read?

I'm thinking more about multifamily and ESG and that place because I'm sort of responsible for encompassing all of those, as many people in my place are. I bought a book called Safe and Sound, it's by a trans woman named Mercury Stardust. The reason I bought this book is that I read in an article that she is a maintenance professional at an apartment community. She wrote this book because people like her or LBGT people often have to overcome an anxiety or a fear of having people come into their homes to even do minor repairs or do services and that sort of thing. It’s a great book because it opened my mind. I have hundreds of people working in our communities. We have tens of thousands of residents. It kind of opened my mind to a perspective that some people, just to ask for their dripping faucet to be fixed, have to overcome an anxiety; will they be accepted? Will they be treated with dignity? I really found a great affinity with this. I felt like I learned something from the article when I bought the book. I think that more people should be more in tune and more focused on the people that they're trying to serve, the people that lease from you and occupy your real estate.

What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?

If everyone is not using Energy Star Portfolio Manager is nuts, because they should be using it. It's something that the DOE and the EPA are really investing in bringing to the next level. We use several softwares for physical climate risk. We use separate softwares for modeling transition risk and finding opportunities to model how our investments are going to change our carbon intensity over time. We use different software for warehousing the enormous amount of data when it comes to having a large real estate portfolio with separate funds and strategies and that sort of thing. In putting all this data together for measuring the success or the shortfall of how we're investing, how it impacts the stated goals in terms of decarbonization or energy efficiency, it’s a number of technologies that we're employing.

Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at Stoneweg US?

I'm really proud that we've relaunched our website, https://www.stoneweg.us, and there's an ESG optimization section. This is something that I really worked really hard to provide a deep dive into how we're approaching all the material subjects around ESG and how we're making it tactical, going beyond good intentions. It's something that I'll maintain and share our progress and what we learn over time. Part of that is there's no point in me having a Net Zero portfolio, we all need to do it. That's part of the collaboration and that's why our company makes it front facing on our website.

Camille Richard is Head of Sustainability at Back Market, the leading marketplace dedicated to refurbished devices and reducing electronics’ negative impact on the environment. She has led the company to become a Mission-Driven Company in 2022 and a B Corp-certified company in 2023. Working in the environmental sector for 10 years, prior to Back Market Camille was Sustainable Performance Manager for Suez, a waste and water recycling company, in Brazil, Mexico, and France. She received in 2021 the Hub35 Sustainable Award from the Hub Institute.

Camille Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss:

• How Back Market ensures quality of refurbishers
• How Back Market communicates and advocates for the Right to Repair movement
• Efforts to engage suppliers in advancing their sustainability efforts
• Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders

Camille’s Final Five Question Responses:

What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?

Be pragmatic and patient. When you work in the sustainability department of a company, you may understand that not everybody in the company is as mature as you wish on this topic. Sometimes you need to be ready to take one step backward today to be able to take two steps forward in a year. So it's something that you have to have in mind all the time, and it's not because you have to compromise at some point or that your project is not going to come out at some point. I would say as well to push sustainability strategy as an efficiency factor in the company. As a sustainability professional, working corporate, you are the defender of a long-term vision and it's not always the easy way, but nine times out of ten adopting sustainable practices leads to reduced cost and risks in the company. So you have to be patient and pragmatic and keep pushing it like it's actually what it is, a way to be more efficient and to last longer as a company.

What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?

It's almost like a rising movement around the recognition of the contributions of certain companies like us to the fight against climate change. The recognition of scope four to avoid emissions like we mentioned a bit earlier today. There is more and more investor interest in it, saying that the value of the company is not only about money, but it's also about the impact it's actually generating. So I am very excited to see what is going to happen in the next month and years about that.

What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read?

I would say Grow the Pie from Alex Edmond. The idea of the book is to say that creating value is not only about choosing between financial value and the planet and the people, and that a successful company is the one that actually manages to grow the pie for all its stakeholders. A responsible business is actually one that innovates to last longer. I really liked this idea about this book.

What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?

A tool that has helped me a lot and I wish I had known about it when I started at Back Market it's a B Corp self-assessment. It's not a resource per se, but it's a really good tool to run a diagnosis of where you are at in terms of sustainability in your company. What are your strengths? What are your actual weaknesses and what are your progress margins? I would recommend to anyone that wants to start a sustainability approach in their company to run a self-assessment on B Corp. I would say as well, I read a lot of the strategy from the French Agency for Environment that I was mentioning before, because recently they had made a really good one about carbon neutrality that was super interesting. And I look very closely as well as a UN report on waste because of course it's very close to our topic, but I would say mostly the better source of information and good practices for me is to talk with my peers in other companies. Sustainability teams are never huge teams. So it's always very interesting to talk about what you are doing, what are the best practices with people doing your job, but in other companies. So you can actually grab a lot of information and it's super interesting.

Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Back Market?

We are about to launch our corporate website which we are going to feed with a lot of information, but it's not online yet. So I would recommend to follow me on LinkedIn. I'm trying to post regularly. And you can go on our website backmarket.com where we have some information about the company as well.

Rachel Kaufman is the Senior Director, Global Sustainability at Avantor, a leadingglobal provider of mission-critical products and services to customers in thelife sciences and technology industries. In this role, Rachel is responsiblefor establishing the company's environmental sustainability strategies andtargets related to operations and products. She also oversees Avantor's broader Science for Goodness Sustainability Program and leads ESG reportingand customer and investor ESG engagement.

Rachel's sustainability industry experience spans over 20 years. Beforejoining Avantor, she served as the Global Director of EnvironmentalSustainability for Johnson & Johnson's Consumer Health and Vision Caresegments and managed communications and environmental policy for non-profitand government agencies in Washington, DC. Rachel holds a B.S. in NaturalResources from Cornell University and an MBA from the University of NorthCarolina, Chapel Hill.

Rachel Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss:

• Avantor’s internal sustainability program: Science for Goodness
• Achieving consistent GHG reductions year over year
• How Avantor is addressing product use
• Avantor’s responsible supplier program
• Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals

Rachel’s Final Five Questions Responses:

What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?

Hopefully this doesn't come across as something that is obvious, but I would say, I view corporate sustainability quite differently than I view nonprofit work, environmental, conservation work. There is a business side of it. I decided to go back and get my MBA. I'm not saying that's what you need to do, but somehow really beef up that understanding of: what are the challenges that your functional and cross-functional partners are facing. What is it like to be the CFO? What might be their barriers to being able to approve the investment that you need to achieve your sustainability goals? Getting an understanding of the Head of Sales and HR and where their challenges are I think is really key to being able to have those conversations and progress quickly on sustainability goals.

What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?

It's the spotlight, the debate and the day-to-day. The fact that in mass media right now, when you hear about these severe weather events, there's a mention of climate. When there's talk of the economy, there's a discussion of equity. It's really encouraging to see these topics get into the mainstream conversations on the related topics because they are so integral and so interrelated.

What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read?

I actually am not a huge reader of books. I get a lot of my information from reading articles, current events and podcasts. I would recommend folks follow some of the newsletters such as GreenBiz, Corporate Eco Forum, Sustainable Brands, and a top one I really like is actually the New York Stock Exchange. They do a top five ESG weekly roundup. I find that that's just a really great quick summary of what's happening in this space, particularly from that investor perspective. So I'm going to actually do a surprising plug for some of those email newsletters

What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?

One answer is the newsletters and the distributors that I just mentioned, but actually the sustainability network. We all have it, but I've joined a couple of sustainability groups of peers where we've been able to have these honest conversations of the challenges in a safe space. It is so helpful to hear that you are not alone in these challenges, and to be able to share learnings you have and be able to share confidentially and hear from others on how they have overcome some of the challenges. Find that network. Some are more structured than others where you can ask for those honest conversations. There's a few that I'm a part of that other folks you’ve had on the phone are a part of and we have spoken to about achieving these targets together.

Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Avantor?

Our corporate website, which is avantorsciences.com. It's actually getting an overhaul soon, but it has a bunch of sustainability information under the “About Us.” Then of course you can follow myself or Avantor on LinkedIn. We do post quite a bit about our sustainability, DEI, and the work that we're doing in this space on LinkedIn.

Jamie joined Traditional Medicinals in 2019 as the Chief Purpose Officer. She manages Traditional Medicinals sustainability efforts including risk assessment, Zero Waste Project, regenerative and carbon strategy, and supply chain data management. Jamie is a recognized leader with expertise in corporate responsibility, sustainability, shared value creation and employee and community engagement.

In January 2022, Jamie’s role officially expanded to include the Human Resources team. Previously, Jamie was the Senior Director of Corporate Responsibility at McKesson, a Fortune 6 healthcare company. Prior to that she was the Senior Director, Employee Engagement and Corporate Responsibility at Visa and served as the Director of Community Engagement at the Alcoa Foundation for 10 years.

Jamie earned a MS, Leadership for Sustainability, from University of Vermont, an Executive Certificate in Strategic Reputation Management from Dartmouth College, and MBA, Strategic Management, Organization Behavior from The University of British Columbia and a BS in Business Administration, IT, Finance and Accounting from Duquesne University.

Jamie Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss:

• How the B Corp community has helped Traditional Medicinals advance its sustainability efforts
• The FairWild Certification
• Transitioning to biodegradable packaging
• Challenges and processes for quantifying scope 3 emissions
• Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals

Jamie’s Final Five Questions Responses:

What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?

Understanding communication skills and influence skills really matter. What I found, especially working in large companies, is that most leaders are not ill-intentioned, but they may be preoccupied and they may be out of their depth on some of these sustainability topics. So the more you can meet them where they are, think about the scope of responsibility they have as well as their personal values and the company values, and then help move them in the direction of the change that you want to see, the easier it will be for everyone.

What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?

This might be specific to me, but I think we're probably seeing it across the board as hiring managers, is that environmental courses and topics are much more prevalent today than they were when we were in school. What I find now is that many people have degrees or minors in environmental sustainability. They may be working in marketing or R&D or procurement, but they have a real passion for environmental sustainability. We used to have to convince people, we had to do a lot of selling internally to get our initiatives bumped to the top of the priority list. Now we have ready allies across the organization who are really agitating for change. I think that's great, but it does require us as sustainability leaders to change our skills from leading from the front to coordinating and collaborating across departments. But I'm excited to see how many people have skill and passion.

What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read?

I love The Shareholder Value Myth by Lynn Stout. We can't talk about the future health of the planet without talking about the way that our capital markets work. There's a real case to be made for long-term thinking, and I think she does a really good job discussing that.

What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?

The Fair Wild Foundation. If you care about conservation or plants, it's a great one to learn from. They produce really great, thought leadership pieces. For those in the food industry, we use a tool called HowGood that allows us to understand the environmental footprint and impact of our products. That helps us when we're innovating as well. We want to deliver specific impact to our consumers, but if we can do that in a lower environmentally impactful way, that's great. So HowGood is another great tool.

Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Traditional Medicinals?

Our website is https://www.traditionalmedicinals.com/. If you go to the impact section, you can find our impact report. You can find lots of stories about what we're doing in the world and our approach to business, and I hope you enjoy it. I think it's a beautiful site. It also teaches a lot about plants.

Amelia DeLuca serves as Chief Sustainability Officer at Delta Air Lines, leading the airline on its journey to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and deliver a more sustainable and elevated travel experience along the way. Prior to her appointment as Chief Sustainability Officer, DeLuca served as Vice President, International Customer Experience and Partner Sustainability. In that role, DeLuca led cross-divisional efforts to deliver a consistent premium customer experience across Delta’s partners. She also supported the development of Delta's partner sustainability strategy across Delta’s global partner network to enhance and accelerate the alliance’s leading sustainability position and provide greater collective impact across the Delta network.

During her 17-year career with Delta, DeLuca has held varied leadership positions within the Sustainability, Global Sales, Revenue Management and Network Planning teams and has been based in Mexico City, Minneapolis, Amsterdam, New York City and Atlanta. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and has her M.B.A. from the University of Amsterdam. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband and two daughters.

Amelia Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss:

• Delta’s decarbonization efforts and strategies
• What sustainable aviation fuel is and challenges to scale it
• How corporations can purchase sustainable aviation fueled flights from Delta
• Delta’s social and environmental sustainability strategies
• Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals

Amelia’s Final Five Questions Responses:

What is one piece of advice you would give to other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?

I have two for this. I think first and foremost, take care of yourselves. I think that goes for anyone who is alive today, but especially those that are working. Obviously we've all been through a lot. I love that the world has shifted into talking about mental wellbeing more frequently. I think sustainability professionals need to really double down and think about that, because while optimism and passion takes us forward in what we do every single day, this is one of the most daunting things that I've ever been a part of. You open the news, or you go outside and you see a climate catastrophe. Some days it just feels really sad and depressing. So first off, take care of yourself. Make sure you have all the tools you need to feel good, and then secondly, lean into your peers and your sustainability friends. The incredible partners that I've made from my airline counterparts, extending beyond just the airlines, all sustainability counterparts that I've met, there's not a greater group of people than those in the sustainability profession. I've never reached out to someone and asked for advice or asked for their time and they’ve said no. Find a couple of people that you just really enjoy in this space, whether in your industry or something else, and build a relationship with them and it will stand the test of time.

What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?

One of the things I struggle with the most in sustainability is when I feel like we make it really difficult for consumers to know what is right, what is up, what is correct. The news provides different viewpoints, which I think is super helpful, there shouldn't just be a “yes, this is the answer,” and no one disputes it. I love that there are people out there that challenge every part of sustainability from “what's the best product in terms of what to put on board? Is it a plastic water bottle because it's lighter weight or is it aluminum?” There's a fierce debate and I love debate, but the theme I like the most right now in sustainability is transparency. I don't mean transparency in the way that we think about it through the SEC climate rules, for example. I think about it as, not only are we taking time, and this podcast is such a great example, to educate consumers on how to think about sustainability trends. We're all walking towards a world where consumers are essentially empowered to make choices because brands and products and activities, you name it, offer information and transparency about the impact that consumers can make and the choice that feels most right to them personally. I'm personally really excited about the transparency that we're building as a community.

What is one book you'd recommend sustainability Leaders read?

I have two. The more common one, which is one of the first books I read when I moved into sustainability, was Drawdown. My guess is, if you're listening to this, you probably already read that by Paul Hawken, but I liked Drawdown because it really helped me take what felt like a really daunting subject that I was starting in and it broke it down into concepts, and it had a lot of numbers. It really was focused not on what the problems were, but what the climate solutions were. I’m a big fan of drawdown. Separately though, I'm a big fiction reader, and I do always encourage people, including our sustainability professionals, to make sure you continue to read fiction. Not only can it be uplifting if you've had a daunting day, but I think it also challenges our brain to think about things just more broadly, in different terms or from different angles. So another book that I am in the midst of reading right now, which is one of the top books from last year, is called The Candy House. It's a really trippy book. It's essentially this concept of social media that could allow us to upload and share our memories with each other. That just seems really weird. But the reason I say that is I like to read books that make me think about the world and where society is going from a different lens. Candy House is a really great example, it seems like the craziest idea ever. But then you're also like, well, with AI and where we're going, we could be there before we know it. I like to read books that just challenge me to think about the world a little differently.

What are your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?

Podcasts, and that's not just a plug for this one, but I typically listen to a sustainability or climate podcast coming into work and leaving work. I'm a big fan of just kind of diving in topically on things that are interesting to me. Or if I've had something I've come across from a work perspective that I'm like, “Hey, I don't know that much about X,” I'll just listen to a podcast about it. It's such a great way to get a little bit deeper. My second thing of course is my team. I have an amazing team who all know so much more about this space than probably I ever will because many of them have come through college focusing on the environment or sustainability, or they have masters in the topics, or they've worked in the oil and gas industry. We have a woman who's come from Nike and stood up a big portion of their sustainability work a number of years ago. I rely upon them a lot on all things. I think that's what any good leader should do, build a team that knows more than they do and make sure that you’re tapping into them as they go.

Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at Delta?

I hope that you will learn more about Delta's sustainable journey and also look out for some of these sustainability enhancements that you're going to see on board going forward. You can also learn more about our path to sustainability and the progress we're making by going to https://news.delta.com/path-to-sustainability. You can also follow me on LinkedIn. I would love it if you follow me on LinkedIn and engage with me there. I always want to hear your thoughts and opinions on what Delta is doing.

Scott Tew is the leader of the Center for Energy Efficiency & Sustainability at Trane Technologies (CEES) and is responsible for forward-looking sustainability initiatives aimed at transitioning to more efficient and climate-friendly solutions and minimizing resource use within company facilities. He serves as a thought leader in linking public policy, economic impacts and a value-stream approach to sustainability. His efforts have led to the development of world-class initiatives, including introduction of the company’s comprehensive 2030 Sustainability Commitments with the largest customer-facing corporate commitment to combat climate change with the Gigaton Challenge; and as a pioneer in integrated reporting.

Scott holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in environmental science and ecology from Livingston University. He serves on the Advisory Council of the Corporate Eco Forum; as the board chair of the World Environment Center; and as the chair of the US Business Council for Sustainable Development (USBCSD).

Scott Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss:

• The scope of work at Trane Technologies
• Untapped opportunities to reduce emissions though the built environment and food systems
• Smart buildings and using technology to improve efficiencies
• Trane Technologies value stream-focused 2030 commitments
• Working with external advisors on science-based targets
• Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals

Scott’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 power of commitments and the power of public goals; I can never underestimate the power of that. Helping leadership get behind a public commitment is a huge game changer. If you're with a company where that hasn't happened yet, that needs to be the front and center of your focus.

What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?

I believe we're about to move into a new era of regenerative thinking. I think attaching sustainability to a company's purpose like we did at Trane Technologies was what was needed to get us to where we are today. There are some great companies out there thinking “how do we actually have a regenerative mantra so that we actually can redo anything bad from the past and think very differently about solutions in the future?” That means that we are more open to innovation and partnerships than ever before, so that has me very excited.

What is one book you'd recommend sustainability professionals read?

I have to be selfish on this one; After Cooling is one by Eric Dean Wilson. That is a really interesting one because it talks about the cost of comfort to the world, which is exactly the problem that my company is trying to solve. In a world where we have an increasing number of heat waves and heat domes, it might be time for us all to step back and think about how cooling is delivered and what we should do differently in the future.

What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?

There are a few outside organizations that I get a lot of value out of hearing from other practitioners. For your listeners out there, I think you really should explore groups where you can be amongst your peers to find out how they're accomplishing whatever they're accomplishing. I get a lot of value from chatting either one-on-one or hearing a presentation of practitioners of how something worked in their company. Those are the things that I bring back to apply within my company, and I can point to lots of examples of that through the years.

Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Trane Technologies?

You can go to tranetechnologies.com and the opening page will have a link to our sustainability progress. My group is featured with its own section of the website including my email address. I’m always happy to engage with anyone who might have questions or want to follow up.

Tara is Senior Director of Corporate Responsibility at Jack Henry. She leads the strategy and execution of the organization's corporate sustainability efforts, including corporate ethics, the transition to a low carbon future, philanthropy and sustainability related reporting. Prior to focusing on advancing Jack Henry's sustainability efforts, Tara launched Jack Henry's diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy, created an internal mobility program, led the learning and development team, revamped the performance management program, and developed Jack Henry's talent analytics approach.

Tara Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss:

• The transition from a role in HR to a role in sustainability
• What it means for Jack Henry to be a purpose-driven company
• Preparing sustainbility reports and for SEC climate disclosures
• Getting support to pursue science-based targets
• Business Innovation groups at Jack Henry
• Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals

Tara’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 how to make complex ideas simple. If you don't take the time to do it, your communications can fall flat. The world of sustainability is so complicated. You're spanning so many different topics from cybersecurity and information security to greenhouse gas emissions to philanthropy and so on. Really being able to distill all that complexity into simple statements, into communications that people can understand without needing to be experts in the field, and not only understand, but know what to do with that information- if you can figure that out, then you'll easily create impactful reporting and momentum internally within your organization.

What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?

Particularly as a sustainability professional, I think we are so privileged to have a role in which we have the opportunity to impact every single person on this planet through our work. That may seem a little bit Pollyanna, but it's true. I think the work that we're doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to do work around philanthropy, to do work around corporate ethics, all of that really matters. I think that it’s incredibly exciting to be in a field that can have that sort of large scale impact. That and the talent that is coming up. Two members of my team, they are new graduates and they are so passionate, so knowledgeable, and I know they're two of many that are coming out in the field. It's incredible to see what these folks are going to do and how they're going to take us to the next level. So I'm excited about that.

What is one book you'd recommend sustainability professionals read?

It's a classic, and it's not really a sustainability book, it's a book about leadership: Good to Great by Jim Collins. If you can't speak the language of business, and you will hear the concepts in these books spoken about constantly at the C-suite level and with executive leadership, you're not going to be taken seriously. You've got to be able to speak the language of business. In particular, I like Good to Great because of that concept of the flywheel; the idea that consistent action over time really can create momentum and that it's easily sustained and energizes people over time. I think that's so applicable to the world of sustainability. It's a slow roll in the beginning, but once you get things going, if you're thoughtful and consistent, it takes off, and your job is just to tap the rut or make sure you’re on the right course over time.

What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?

I'm a big reader of ESG Today. They have a weekly summary email that gives you the highlights. I think it's important to know what's going on in the field. But the most helpful resource is networking. It's finding other people in this field that you can talk with and share ideas with. I've done that through conferences or through webinars. I'll reach out and say, “I like what you said about this. Could we have a quick conversation?” Just building those relationships so that you have thought partners to bring ideas to and help you make your work more impactful.

Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Jack Henry?

You can find me on LinkedIn, Tara Brown at Jack Henry. If you go to jackhenry.com on our investor relations site, you'll find a link to our corporate sustainability reports and previous reports and highlights of our most recent initiatives.

Liliana joined Wendy’s in June 2014 and has served as Chief Corporate Affairs & Sustainability Officer since February 2021 to reflect her range of responsibilities across Communications, Quality Assurance, Customer Care, Public Affairs and Corporate Responsibility. She previously served as our Chief Communications Officer from June 2014 to February 2021.

Liliana sets the vision and strategy for all communications with franchisees and employees, public relations, government relations and corporate responsibility. Her work with the Quality Assurance function involves developing quality and safety procedures throughout our supply chain and restaurants to provide a safe and quality dining experience for all Wendy’s customers.

Liliana prides herself on building diverse teams and empowering them to find solutions – a leadership style that has produced notable results. Her team recently restructured Wendy’s corporate responsibility efforts under one united banner, Good Done Right, and created our Supplier Code of Conduct. Under her direction, Wendy’s also launched The Square Deal, Wendy’s blog to provide a point of view on issues that are important to our Company and our customers.

Prior to Wendy’s, Liliana served as Vice President of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs at Dean Foods in Dallas, TX. Her previous experience includes tenure as Public Affairs Manager with Mars, Incorporated in New Jersey, and as a public relations consultant for eight years in New York City.

Liliana Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss:

• Defining responsible sourcing and identifying criteria for responsibly sourcing food
• What consumers are looking for in the industry in regards to sustainability
• The process of starting GHG inventories, CDP reporting, and setting science-based targets
• Wendy’s “Good done right” goals for food, people and footprint 
• Tying sustainability performance to incentives
• Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals

Liliana’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 advice that I would give is just to be a sponge for learning and for relationships and networking with others in the field. I would not have considered myself a sustainability professional even 10 years ago. There is so much to learn. There is so much to absorb. I don't think anyone can be an expert in all of it. I think really broadening your aperture so that you have the benefit of expertise from others that are in different aspects of your field is something that I really value. Probably the most important resource that I see in the field is people. Hopefully you can provide some value to them in terms of the expertise and the knowledge that you have, but also continuing to build those relationships and reach out and network to increase your effectiveness.

What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?

The biggest is just the awareness and the general knowledge and interest in this area. That takes a lot of different forms and different parts of the industry, different stakeholders are coming at it with different points of view. But I think that there's never been a better time to really be demonstrating the value and the importance of sustainability work within the business community. I feel like the conversation I'm not having anymore is around “why should we care about this?” Does this actually add to our business value? Is there a strong rationale for being focused on ESG or sustainability? Now the conversation is much more around, “where should we be putting our precious resources?” Where can our efforts be most successful and most effective? 

What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read?

I'll go to the classics. There's certainly lots of more contemporary examples, but I think Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. I was in college when I read it. That really started to open my eyes around not just the importance of a focus on the environment and on sustainability, but a factual, well researched, analysis of what was happening and what we as a society could do to make a more positive impact. I know that's a classic, but I think it's still relevant today.

What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?

To repeat myself, people. I really do collect and curate a great network of people that come from all different backgrounds and perspectives and areas of expertise. The more that I can connect and engage with people that do things that are very different than what I do professionally, I just grow and learn from that. And then a plug for you Josh and your colleagues for podcasts like this one. I usually go for a run every day and I've got a collection of podcasts and other things that, that that's the soundtrack to my daily runs because I feel like there's always something new coming out to help us just learn and get better.

Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at Wendy's?

We would love for you to hop over to wendys.com and click on the what we value segment of our website. You can find our corporate responsibility reports for 2022 and the years in the past, and then certainly a wealth of information about the company and our commitments overall.