Category: The Next Series

Sustainability leaders stand at the precipice of a pivotal moment for the future of our climate. While no single individual claims to have all of the answers, changemakers are increasingly turning to each other to chart the course forward for sustainable innovation and climate action — exchanging insights on how to implement unique initiatives, harness emerging technologies, institute best practices, and challenge conventional wisdom in order to effect transformative changes for our ecosystems, our societies, and our most vulnerable.

In 2024, Sustainability Next — a new editorial flagship series from NationSwell — will spotlight the standard-bearing corporate sustainability leaders, entrepreneurs, experts, philanthropists, and more whose catalytic work has the potential to shape the landscape of progress amid urgent need for environmental action. 

For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Fred Tan, Head of Social Impact at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Deepa Lounsbury, the CEO of LabStart — a nonprofit venture studio that helps build accessible pathways for underrepresented entrepreneurs to bring climate technologies from lab-to-market and one of HPE’s grantees.

---

Jason Rissman, Chief Experience Officer, NationSwell: What brought you into climate and sustainability — was there a moment in your life that galvanized your commitment to this work?

Fred Tan, Head of Social Impact, Hewlett Packard Enterprise: I grew up in Singapore, and we are very climate sensitive by nature of our location and the economy that the country relies on. That was always at the front of my mind growing up, intersected with the fact that my family, before my generation, has historically never graduated from high school. When I look at my life and the opportunity I’ve had to journey through different socioeconomic circumstances, it’s a privilege to be able to work on systemic issues, cultural issues, and to combine the two to focus on how climate affects communities and how communities can be empowered to help tackle the climate crisis. 

Deepa Lounsbury, Managing Director, LabStart: 18 years ago, I sat next to a venture capitalist on a plane who told me that he invested in energy. I slipped one of my resumes into his pile as he was looking through them, and fast forward three months, I started my first job in climate at a small venture capital firm in Los Angeles where I was looking at a whole variety of technologies, including algae biofuels, recycling technologies, novel wind technologies, and solar. I’m still optimistic and going strong, and have taken a lot of notes along the way to figure out how to accelerate more solutions and bring talented human beings into climate work.

Rissman, NationSwell: How do you see this moment in sustainability — which trends are filling you with optimism and which ones are giving you pause or concern? 

Lounsbury, LabStart: The biggest source of my optimism is that there is so much energy and interest. I’m heartened by the number of people who are excited to dedicate their life to this big and complex problem, the existential crisis of our time. The thing that worries me is that it feels like starting a climate startup is a luxury that only very few people can ever even dream of. We can’t depend on every big climate solution being launched by the very few people that have a big enough bank account or the right friends; we have to make our umbrella much bigger. 

Tan, HPE: Similar to Deepa, I think one of our phrases that we commonly use is that every job is a climate job. I think the enthusiasm and momentum is incredible. We are seeing the structures put in place that will enable us to get to where we need to get to from a sustainability perspective, and we’ve got the best and brightest minds working on these issues — that give me lots of cause for optimism. 

Living a sustainable life is, in many ways, still seen as a privilege for folks; it’s part of a structural and cultural problem that we haven’t yet solved, and that’s one thing that keeps me up at night. We need to do a better job of enabling change to happen, both structurally and culturally, so that everyone is able to participate in the fight against the climate crisis — and also the benefits of a more sustainable life. 

Rissman, NationSwell: Tell us a bit about your sustainability strategies — what are the unique commitments and challenges that you’re embracing?

Tan, HPE: I think fundamentally we see that the world is becoming increasingly data-driven, and naturally we feel strongly that technology holds the key to unlocking solutions to some of the most pressing challenges that we’re going to face as a society — including the climate crisis. 

I think we also see it as our business imperative to reduce our emissions across our value chain, to build climate resilience throughout our business — so much so that in 2022, we accelerated our net zero target by 10 years. Today, we are one of only three global IT companies with a net zero target of 2040, and interim targets that have been approved by the net zero standard of the Science-Based Targets Initiative. 

Sustainability is built into the fabric of our business strategy, and as a tech company, the greatest opportunity for reduction for us comes from helping our customers minimize the environmental footprints of their IT estates. 

Importantly, the climate crisis is not just an environmental issue. It is also a social issue in which 5 million excess deaths are anticipated between 2030 and 2050, disproportionately affecting racial and ethnic minority communities. Thus our strategy and commitment is to lead a collective effort to safeguard both the planet and its people.

Lounsbury, LabStart: LabStart is really all about unlocking potential for climate — there’s the human potential, and then there’s the technological potential. Our goal is to unlock both. BIPOC college graduates are only half as likely to have their name on a patent as white college graduates, so something that’s not talked about enough is having an idea that is “good enough” to launch a climate startup, or one that’s protected enough where you have a moat you can actually create a scalable solution around. 

We estimate there are about 25,000 climate-related patents inside our Department of Energy-funded national labs, but the vast majority of them don’t get commercialized because it’s hard for outsiders who aren’t familiar with the national labs to access the IP. We’re putting both of those opportunities together to seed climate startups with both diverse founders and climate IP that’s inside of our research institutions.

I’m proud to say that our current ten fellows are a really diverse bunch in terms of their ethnic makeup: 50% are Black or Latinx and 50% are women or non-binary.

Rissman, NationSwell: It’s a fantastic model — can you tell us a bit about how you find the renewable energy-related patents that you’re going to try to match with talents? 

Lounsbury, LabStart: There are, for example, 6,000 energy efficiency related patents and 6,000 energy storage related patents in our DOE National Labs and even more at our universities.  We simply start with those who know their IP portfolios best (the technology transfer officers) as well as keyword searches to look for technologies that offer solutions to decarbonization problems that we have not yet solved.  The next step in our evolution is to build upon today’s method and accelerate the IP filtering process utilizing AI and advanced technology solutions. 

We start our technology funnel that way, and then we utilize a mix of both internal and external reviewers at different stages of narrowing it down. We have scientists, industry/corporates and investors, all weighing in on which ones have potential, and then we compile a shortlist of patents that entrepreneurs can select from when they fill out our application. We do also give them an option to look outside the shortlist.  We select LabStart Fellows based on relevant experience, hustle, and their thoughtfulness and rationale for starting a business based on their selected IP. 

Rissman, NationSwell: Fred, I’m curious about how you see LabStart, the role that they’re playing today, and how you’re supporting them.

Tan, HPE: We believe in innovation at HPE; we believe that innovation starts small, and we believe in supporting American innovation, so the national labs are great partners of HPE. I think when we look to tackle the climate crisis, our belief is that we need to support both the individual solutions and also ensure that the ecosystem more broadly is able to thrive.

When we look at the ecosystem of incubators and accelerators, we see that only 2% of them are focused on helping climatic entrepreneurs. So our strategy at HPE is to support the intermediary organizations that enable climate entrepreneurs to start their ventures, to thrive, and to succeed. LabStart hits on all these parts. 

Rissman, NationSwell: Tell us about the progress that you’ve seen to date, and what you’re hoping to accomplish in the next couple of years.

Lounsbury, LabStart: We just finished the first three months of our program, and it is kind of breathtaking to see how far a single person can take a great idea in 12 weeks. They have talked to dozens of customers, the licensing offices, developed stunning pitch decks, calculated the environmental impact at scale, and generally have launched.

When we’re talking about deep climate tech, it’s a long journey and different organizations support it in different ways. I think what’s really important for us as the first leg of the relay race is to make sure we pass the baton and collaborate with all the other downstream accelerators that are primed to help entrepreneurs at a later stage, at step two, step three, step four. I’m so excited to see where everybody lands next. 

Rissman, NationSwell: Fred, curious to hear a bit just about how HPE is supporting — tell us a bit more about what you’re able to do.

Tan, HPE: It’s a mix of everything. Our funding for LabStart goes toward supporting them organizationally in a way that is unrestricted and gives them the flexibility to grow in a way that best meets their needs.

I think what we’re trying to work toward is how we can help become a convener by bringing others to the table, in terms of leveraging our network of customers and technical experts within the company, and to be able to support LabStart and the fellows that go through the programs. But then also to give a signal to others that we interact with, other organizations, companies, and foundations, to catalyze more funding and resources for LabStart as an organization. 

Rissman, NationSwell: If we look further out — let’s say seven, ten years into the future — what do you hope you’ll have built together?

Lounsbury, LabStart: What we’re doing is paving new paths to wealth in a somewhat nascent industry, new paths for intellectual property to actually get in the hands of the people who need it and will benefit from it. Instead of bushwhacking like we’re doing right now, I hope to pave a smooth, well-lit road with proper signage and street lights for all the maybe-entrepreneurs who are on the fence. I would love to be part of that inspiration and for them to know that there is a path for them that many people have gone down before.

Tan, HPE: From one side of the picture, what we hope for is that there’s more innovation that hits market scale. Throughout history there have been promises, and sometimes unkept promises, to communities that the evolution or revolution will bring jobs and economic opportunity and security. 

I think what LabStart is doing is crucial in ensuring that we keep our promise with the tech revolution that we see happening, and crucial in opening up doors and opportunities for people and communities to participate in what will be the economy of the future. 

Rissman, NationSwell: As you’ve been experimenting and learning together through this partnership, what have you learned about intersectional approaches like this that might be of help to our other members or other funders who are curious and motivated about trying to advance equity while pursuing the energy and climate transition?

Lounsbury, LabStart: The first thing I learned is that if you put an opportunity out there, the people will come — the talent and the hustlers and the people who just need a little bit of help to take that first step. We were just astounded by the quality of applications we got in our very first full application cycle. 

The second thing I learned is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. I think every accelerator might have learned this, but this journey is hard and there are lots of times when you feel really alone and down. To start with why you’re doing this as a way to center and to figure out where your light is coming from is a really important piece of it.

The last thing I’ll say is that we have a really big vision, and it’s inspiring to be surrounded by super optimistic people. I don’t think you’ll find anyone more optimistic than entrepreneurs.

Tan, HPE: What I’m learning is humility, honesty, and trust. If we’re not intentional, power can become imbalanced whenever funding is involved, and working with Deepa and LabStart has required honesty about what HPE can bring to the table and what we cannot bring to the table — and also the humility to step back and recognize that what we bring to the table might not be the end-all, be-all of what the sector needs. 

To make space for others to come along and to provide their expertise — even if it means putting ourselves in the backseat — also requires that honesty and humility, but then also trust in these other partners. I think we’ll continue to learn as we support LabStart, and as we continue to bring others to this table in support of Deepa’s vision.

At a moment of growing inequality and division, who is advancing the vanguard of economic and social progress to bolster our most vulnerable communities? Whose work is fostering the inclusive growth that ensures every individual thrives? Who will set the ambitious standards that mobilize whole industries, challenging their peers to reach new altitudes of social impact? 

In 2024, Impact Next — a new editorial flagship series from NationSwell — will spotlight the standard-bearing corporate social responsibility and impact leaders, entrepreneurs, experts, and philanthropists whose catalytic work has the potential to shape the landscape of progress amid urgent need for social and economic action.

For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Francine Chew — VP, Head of Corporate Impact for Guardian.

---

Greg Behrman, CEO and Founder, NationSwell: Tell us a little bit about your leadership journey — was there a formative experience that helped you to arrive in impact work? 

Francine Chew, Vice President of Corporate Impact for Guardian:

I’m an immigrant from Jamaica, and I came here when I was 12 as a part of this program called Prep for Prep that provides leadership opportunities to academically gifted minorities in the New York City area. As a result of Prep for Prep, I went to Exeter, and then I had an opportunity to go to Yale — it provided an incredible foundation and access. 

I felt like I was Jane Goodall — like a scientist in the jungle, wondering what strange environment I had been lifted and shifted into. When I moved to Exeter and saw the differences in resources and even level of conversation and discourse between what I was seeing in New York City public school versus private education, it was clear to me that there was a whole other world.

My life, I think, is testament to the benefit that access and opportunity can provide, and I’ve wanted to pay it forward as a professional do-gooder. 

Behrman, NationSwell: What would you say are some kind of defining facets of your leadership that help you to be an effective leader in this space?

Chew, Guardian: Because I started out on the for-profit side of work and didn’t cut my teeth at a foundation, the profit and purpose has always been an easy marriage. I care more about the life-changing impact that comes from participating in a program that I’ve helped structure versus the number of students who’ve enrolled. 

For me, at the heart of this work is the question, “If not for this intervention, this involvement, what would not have happened?” The activity and the outputs aren’t enough — it’s the actual change that matters. 

Anytime you’re dealing with corporate social responsibility or corporate impact within the context of an organization, you have to be comfortable with the fact that you have a dual mandate to drive the goals and purpose of the broader corporate entity alongside those of underrepresented populations. Our job is to figure it out in a very creative way that satisfies both needs.

Behrman, NationSwell: As someone who is very comfortable being at the intersection of profit and purpose, do you have any unlocks for folks in making the case for the business value of social impact work?

Chew, Guardian: I think what we have not done enough of is building in mechanisms to do longitudinal tracking. The first part of that is beginning with the end in mind — you start by asking questions, especially with young populations, about how you can stay in touch, because asking for permission upfront means shaping the dollar allocation and use of funds. 

I think the second part of that is putting on the hat and saying, if I were the biggest skeptic in the world, what would convince me? I sometimes think about a story I heard about how President Obama won over the democratic apparatus to become the nominee. He didn’t ask, “Why don’t you see me as presidential?” He asked, “What do I need to show and demonstrate for you to get behind me?” 

That stayed with me — “what do I need to demonstrate?” It’s taking an unemotional approach and saying, “What metrics are convincing and how do you see the world so that I can better understand and align to that?” 

Asking what would have to be true and getting people to start answering some of these questions can help you bake in accountability — it means that they’re thinking about it in ways that they weren’t before, and then you’re getting them to become a part of the journey.

Behrman, NationSwell: What makes your approach to the work differentiated — are there any programs, initiatives, or partnerships that feel particularly exciting?

Chew, Guardian: Part of what’s exciting about here at Guardian is there’s a real commitment and follow through on the narrative of change: More than half of the executive leadership team at the firm is new, and with this shift has come new clarification of Guardian’s purpose of inspiring wellbeing through mind, body and wallet. 

When there is agreement and alignment on how we do that at the very top of the house, everything can flow through from a process perspective, including the work itself. There is a strategic coherence and a simplicity on what we’re trying to achieve, and internal alignment on our organizational goals.

Behrman, NationSwell: How do you think about collaboration with other corporate philanthropies or private foundations or funders? 

Chew, Guardian:  It’s something that we’re definitely open to in the future. Currently, our partnerships are exclusively with for profit and nonprofit organizations.  An example is the collaboration with EVERFI by Blackbaud to launch Minding Your Money (Guardian’s first-of-its-kind financial wellness curriculum that addresses the intersections of personal finances, relationships, and health and that helps young people learn lasting financial habits before they enter adulthood). There’s an opportunity for it to be white-labeled so that other organizations can fund the expansion of the program in schools across the country, because we can’t do it alone. While we touched 20,000 students this academic year, and that’s an awesome number, we would like to touch 500,000 students in a single academic year! The only caveat is that with everyone who white labels, I need to know about it so that impact is attributable back to Guardian. 

Even in the criteria for expansion and ecosystem building, the question we need to answer is, “What’s in it for us?” That’s the banker in me. Track who uses it, ask other people to use it so that the benefit can be broadly distributed, but I want credit for that too. At the end of the day I would like Guardian’s name to be in all of these conversations as the people who launched and led the work, and then I would also like there to be room for others to say, and then we took the baton that they passed to us, and we made it much more.

Behrman, NationSwell: Who are three peer leaders you admire, look to as exemplars or swap notes with? 

Chew, Guardian: There are so many people I admire who are doing this work, but one is Tia Hodges from MetLife Foundation. I’ve had the chance to know her through the charitable committee for the Life Insurance Council of New York, which I chair, and her willingness to partner, to serve, to share thoughts, is just so admirable. 

I also have this standing Friday call — we rarely cancel — with two women who I worked with at Prudential: Sarah Keh and Nisha Aidasani. We say we’re each other’s small council, a la Game of Thrones, and the call is an hour in which we carve out time to chat a bit about what’s happening personally and professionally. It’s a chance for people who understand the work, but also each other, to connect, share wisdom, and support one another. I truly value that group, and it just sustains me in many ways.

Behrman, NationSwell: What are three resources that you might showcase or lift up that have helped to inform your leadership? 

Chew, Guardian: I read the Wall Street Journal religiously and I used to read the Economist all the time. Even though we are focused on social impact, we can’t drive impact unless we are aware of the broader economic impact. So whatever the medium is that is most effective for you, It is incredibly important to be grounded in the economic realities of what’s moving our companies and our space. 

At a moment of growing inequality and division, who is advancing the vanguard of economic and social progress to bolster our most vulnerable communities? Whose work is fostering the inclusive growth that ensures every individual thrives? Who will set the ambitious standards that mobilize whole industries, challenging their peers to reach new altitudes of social impact? 

In 2024, Impact Next — a new editorial flagship series from NationSwell — will spotlight the standard-bearing corporate social responsibility and impact leaders, entrepreneurs, experts, and philanthropists whose catalytic work has the potential to shape the landscape of progress amid urgent need for social and economic action.

For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Indeed’s Abbey Carlton, Vice President of Social Impact and Sustainability, and Maggie Hulce, Chief Revenue Officer.

Greg Behrman, CEO and Founder, NationSwell: How was it that you arrived in social impact work — could you each tell us a little bit about your journey to get to where you are now? 

Maggie Hulce, Chief Revenue Officer, Indeed: I spent most of my early career struggling with the question of where I could do the most good in the world — “Is it better to be part of a corporation, or to be in government? Where can you actually drive the most change?” 

I found myself gravitating to drivers of economic opportunity: workforce development, access to education, and the challenge of finding meaningful work that also pays well. Indeed is unique in how deeply the mission to help people get jobs is embedded in the culture.  At the same time, Indeed is a tech company, with the ambition to disrupt a huge industry and the potential to improve the lives of billions of people. That combination has been pretty magical, honestly. 

Abbey Carlton, Vice President of Social Impact and Sustainability, Indeed: Growing up in the rural Midwest at a time when a lot of factory jobs were going away and seeing the impact that had on people, families, and communities made an early impact on me — I saw firsthand all of the ripple effects that come when people don’t have jobs and opportunities. 

Economic opportunity has really been the animating theme of my whole career, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to come to Indeed, where hundreds of millions of people go to find jobs every month; I believe we are changing how hiring happens. 

It’s been really exciting to get to work alongside business leaders like Maggie, who see that social impact doesn’t have to be this niche thing to do off to the side — it really is core to our mission and our business.

Behrman, NationSwell: You’ve mentioned how embedded and connected to the core of the business social impact is; what else is different, special, or exemplary about the work you’re doing at Indeed? 

Hulce, Indeed: In our space, there is a very natural synergy between what is good for both sides of our ecosystem — job seekers and employers — and the social value that comes from making hiring faster, more effective, and more fair. 

To make hiring more effective, you first have to understanding skills and occupations deeply. You have to collect a lot of data about job seekers and jobs, and then you have to use that data to make recommendations that are nuanced, because people are nuanced in what they solve for when choosing where to work.  

We can also use all the information we collect to make data-driven arguments to employers about how to optimize their jobs or hiring processes.  This coalesces with what we’re trying to do to make hiring more fair and to help people connect with opportunities that they might be overlooked for. 

Carlton, Indeed: We’ve set four really ambitious ESG commitments for 2030, two of which Maggie and I work together very closely on: First, to help 30 million job seekers facing barriers get hired by 2030, and second, to shorten the duration of job search by half. Those are goals that will have a huge impact on people who struggle to find work, and, if we do it right, will really improve economic opportunity for lots of people. They will make our business better, they will make hiring better, they will make it easier for our clients to connect with a broader and more diverse talent pool. 

Behrman, NationSwell: Could you give an example of what that work might look like in practice?

Carlton, Indeed: Let’s say I’m someone who has gone through a cybersecurity boot camp at Year Up, and now it’s time for me to go out and look for a job: What is it like for me to look for a job on Indeed? If we can put a spotlight on where that on-ramp works really well, and where there are opportunities to help somebody who’s gone through a non-traditional educational program to explain what that is and what they learned and what skills they’ve built, we can build that into how we think about our job seeker profiles going forward.

Hulce, Indeed: Abbey’s team has played a big role in helping our product and engineering teams understand the challenges that people face when they don’t have a bachelor’s degree.  Our teams are asking: How do we help job seekers represent their skills in our ecosystem?  How do we help them present their skills in a way that’s compelling to employers?  And how do we influence employers to remove college degree requirements? 

At a certain level, inertia is the biggest barrier we face.  But, we’ve seen data-driven conversations with employers can actually change things.  For example, we can help employers realize that for certain roles, removing college degree requirements is a good business decision, as it helps them reach a much broader pool of talent.  It’s a unique role we can play, as we see both sides of the market. 

Behrman, NationSwell: What would your advice be to other leaders in the space who are similarly hoping to drive impact outcomes while making the business case for this work internally? 

Carlton, Indeed: I’ve learned that if you see your role as a social impact leader as being the counterbalance to the business strategy or being off to the side, then you might not invest in understanding the problems other teams are trying to solve across different areas of the business. Opportunities arise when you can connect those dots, whatever they may be. 

Hulce, Indeed: Our mentality internally is always, “We should be customer #1.” We care a lot about equity in our practices, so it makes sense that we should be practicing on ourselves first. If we have an idea, we want to know how well it will work.  So we try it out, and see what we learn.  This approach also helps us build more empathy for our customers.

Carlton, Indeed: What Maggie and I have done together recently is think about whether there is a single galvanizing focus that we could bring to the company so that all of these good things don’t get diluted, and we really think about skills-first hiring as being that focus. 

If we think about promoting economic mobility, that is a way that Indeed is uniquely positioned to drive change. So we’re going to pull that lever and focus on centering skills in the hiring process, because that’s how we believe we can make hiring more equitable for all job seekers.

Behrman, NationSwell: What is it about your personal leadership that you think has helped you to be effective?

Hulce, Indeed: I think a lot about the importance of optimism – believing that change is possible — and the idea that you need to triangulate with different types of brains to actually solve some of your hardest problems. 

As a leader, I also reflect on how to get people excited about what we’re trying to do. How do you get them to believe in what is possible? And how do you get them to work together to challenge and change the status quo? 

The last part of leadership I think about a lot is the importance of time spent developing and investing in people, in giving them opportunities to grow.  

Carlton, Indeed: When I was leaving the Rockefeller Foundation, my then-boss gave a toast where he described me as firm in my principles and flexible in my methods — that is the way that I try to work.

When you are in this work, you come to realize how deep, entrenched, systemic, and long-term it is. I have tried to navigate the space of doing work on jobs and economic opportunity with some pretty firm principles and beliefs, but with a lot of flexibility on how we get there, trying new things in the process. 

Behrman, NationSwell: Who are some of the peer leaders you really admire that you want to shine a spotlight on?

Carlton, Indeed: Hamdi Ulukaya, who founded Chobani and then the Tent Partnership for Refugees, is a leader whose work I have been following and admiring for some time now — I am in awe of some of the ripple effects his work has had. Last year, Indeed had the opportunity to be a part of the coalition that Tent has brought together and to sponsor a number of large-scale hiring events focused on refugees in Europe. I think his leadership is such an inspiring example of the role that business can play in galvanizing real deep change around social issues.

Hulce, Indeed: I’ll call out our CEO, Chris Hyams, as someone who has been so incredibly thoughtful about how he weaves together what we’re trying to do as a company and the importance that it can have on society. From his advocacy for responsible AI to our ambitious goals with ESG, he is definitely leading from the front.

Behrman, NationSwell: Are there any resources — books, essays, poems, quotes — that have informed your leadership that you might recommend to other leaders?

Hulce, Indeed: I am halfway through Big Bets by Rajiv Shah, which discusses how to bring people together to drive bold change. I’d also recommend a book by Deanna Mulligan called Hire Purpose.  She was the CEO of an insurance company, and her book discusses reskilling, upskilling, and long term talent strategy.