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.

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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.

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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. 

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 Ellen Jackowski, Chief Sustainability Officer and Executive Vice President at Mastercard.

Jason Rissman, Chief Experience Officer, NationSwell: Ellen, when we first met, you were leading sustainability at HP. What brought you to this field, and was there a moment in your life that galvanized your commitment to bold climate action?

Ellen Jackowski, Chief Sustainability Officer and Executive Vice President at Mastercard: My first job was working at a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop, and their story is pretty amazing — they were one of the earliest companies to really embed social and environmental values directly into their business model. So I was just scooping ice cream, but I really saw the value of how a business could align with social and environmental imperatives and create a difference from a business point of view. 

Those early experiences really shaped my perception that I could make a difference at a company like Mastercard, where environmental and social values are part of the business strategy.

Rissman: How would you define this present moment in sustainability? 

Jackowski, Mastercard: I’ll start with the concerning areas first: There is a ton of waste in our food system; in the last 15 years, clothing production has doubled while the number of times a garment is worn before being discarded has decreased by 36%; domestic and international aviation is responsible for about 10% of global emissions in the transport sector, and an estimated 1% of the global population is responsible for more than half of these emissions. 

So we have a big problem on our hands, there’s no doubt about that. 

But in terms of optimism, it’s clear that the next generation of consumers is demanding that companies, governments, and all of the important stakeholders take meaningful action. And as this next generation of voices gets louder, they have the ability to influence market shifts and we’re seeing that. 

All signs are pointing to the fact that we’re heading into a new market context driven by value shifts, with a lot of opportunity to optimize business models. 

Rissman: Talk to us a bit about Mastercard’s reach and how it informs your sustainability strategy.

Jackowski, Mastercard: We have 90 million merchants in-network and 3 billion cards in circulation, so we really have an opportunity to drive sustainable consumption. And for us, there are three main pillars to that strategy: inspire, inform, and enable.

Rissman: Let’s hear more about inspire, inform and enable. Tell us what’s working, where do you see the areas of most promise, and what’s challenging.

Jackowski, Mastercard: Inspire is really about stirring up hope and optimism and people’s ability to affect change, and one of the benefits of working for Mastercard is we have some really powerful sponsorships with some of the top artists and athletes in the world: the Grammys, Major League Baseball, a lot of different golf and tennis activities. 

The second pillar there is inform: If people are now inspired and want to live a more sustainable, fulfilling lifestyle, how do we provide the right information at the right time for them to be informed to make a more sustainable decision? We have a lot more work to do in this field, but we have our first product out, the Mastercard Carbon Calculator, which provides a certain level of information to card holders around sustainable choices and the carbon impacts of what they’re purchasing. 

And then the third pillar is enable. If you’re inspired and you’re informed, how do we then enable that change? How do we offer opportunities for consumers to take real action, meaningful action? 

Rissman: What’s been the biggest challenge in reaching your own net zero goals for a company like Mastercard?

Jackowski, Mastercard: Since we’re not a manufacturer, our carbon footprint, for the size of the company that we are and with the global reach, is quite small. But we still have a hard journey to reach net zero. 

When you break down our carbon footprint, the biggest section is our data centers, and we know that as AI and blockchain and other powerful computing technologies continue to expand, that could also potentially be the source of emissions growth as well. 

We’re really engaging at the individual employee level with tools and education and awareness about how the choices that they make will determine if Mastercard hits our net zero goal or not. 

And in fact, if you look at our 2022 ESG report, you’ll see that Mastercard experienced 18% growth in net revenue, but only a 3% increase in our emissions. Now, more work for us to do, no doubt, but it’s a good demonstration of how we’re beginning to see the signs of decoupling our corporate growth from our emissions.

Rissman: I think a lot of sustainability leaders are spending time thinking about how to structure their teams, how to integrate sustainability across business units. Any lessons that you’ve gathered that you can share about the best ways to organize?

Jackowski, Mastercard: Well, there are carrots and sticks. And one of the things Mastercard did almost two years ago was change our compensation system so that all 30,000 employees are now compensated on an annual basis on our progress against our ESG goals. 

And so for two years running, all 30,000 employees got that bonus because of our goals. So now that we’ve got that incentive built into the financial structure of how the company works, we followed that up with mandatory ESG and action training. 

Rissman: What have you learned about tackling Scope 3 that might be helpful to others?

Jackowski, Mastercard: We actually baked with Scope 3 into our incentive structure and that ESG compensation modifier. For the past couple of years, the target has been around getting our suppliers to report to CDP, and that’s what drove the compensation around our Scope 3 target. For this year, we’ve upped our game, and now it’s about suppliers setting a science-based target. 

Our suppliers have been very receptive to this so far. I think they’re getting pressure not just from us, but from the other companies that they’re serving as well. So plenty to do, but we have a clear strategy, and we’re continuing to amp it up.

Rissman: I recently read about your commitment to bring 30 million people onto your Community Pass platform over the next five years. Tell us about that initiative.

Jackowski, Mastercard: By leveraging our digital technology, Mastercard has created products like Community Pass — a shared, interoperable digital platform that reaches people in low and medium income countries to provide access to the digital economy, to help them build economic and often climate resilience. So, it’s a really great connection between the environmental side of the focus that we have as a company and the social impact side as well. 

When you’re creating social impact, oftentimes what that’s also building is climate resilience and toolkits for climate adaptation. Community Pass, with its focus on increasing access to critical services like healthcare, agriculture, and micro-commerce, has made a big difference in the world. And that’s why we were very invested in this goal to bring 30 million people onto the platform over the next five years.

Rissman: In order to take bolder action and move faster on climate, what needs to change?

Jackowski, Mastercard: I mean, a lot, right? A lot needs to change. 

I often think about the power of legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act and the power it has to create that competitive spirit, not just here in the U.S. but in Europe and in other regions of the world.

But you know, it’s going to take many different ideas working together. Where I sit at Mastercard — having the support from our board, our CEO, the leadership team, to really innovate and challenge ourselves on how we do more faster, particularly in the sustainable consumption area — is exciting. We’ve got a lot of ambition, and we’re putting it into action.

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 Maggie Carter, Director of Social Impact at Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Greg Behrman, CEO and Founder, NationSwell: Maggie, was there an early or formative experience that brought you into this work?

Maggie Carter, Director of Social Impact, Amazon Web Services (AWS): 

It all started with my mom, who always led by example. She was always giving back. Whether it was volunteering in my school library or serving hot meals and donating blankets and clothes to the homeless in the DC metro area, she was always giving her own time and bringing the family along for the journey.

When I was in college, we led our first Recycling Awareness Week to kick off recycling on campus, and that experience of building and running a grassroots campaign is where I first got the bug to do something with a purpose, and throughout my career I was fortunate to find roles that combined that passion with sports.

When I was leaving the NBA, I knew that I wanted to get closer to program delivery on the nonprofit side. I made the transition to the UN Foundation and UNICEF, which combined my focus areas: children, education, and health. And from there, I was pitching AWS and Amazon on what a partnership would look like around disasters, emergencies, and innovation. The AWS team said, would you be willing to come build this from the ground up? That’s how I got to where I am today.

Behrman, NationSwell: At AWS, the products are part of the impact — they’re at the center of things. Can you speak to the philosophy behind that model?

Carter, AWS: For us, it’s very much about how our technology has the potential to transform the ways organizations are delivering their programs or services to impact their communities and their beneficiaries. We look at our role as co-building solutions with organizations and helping them to scale their impact.

For example, in Rwanda, they are leveraging secure messaging and AI on AWS to more effectively and rapidly identify symptoms in cancer patients and connect them to oncologists when their symptoms worsen. In Rwanda there’s just one oncologist to over 3,000 cancer patients on average — there’s a huge demand and low supply of doctors, and by using this messaging app, we’re helping those cancer patients that need more critical care receive it sooner.

We also co-built a solution with a small organization called Operation Barbecue Relief, whose mandate is to feed those impacted by a disaster, as well as the first responders to disaster. So we designed a solution with them called Project Smoke — an application to help track and monitor their food supplies so they can better manage resources and deploy them where they’re needed most. 

Behrman, NationSwell: Is there anything else that feels very important and differentiated that people should know about this work?

Carter, AWS: Each of these solutions is repeatable and scalable, they’re not band-aids. For us, it’s important to stay laser focused on the unique value proposition that the AWS cloud has when we’re engaging with organizations in our key priority areas — specifically around disaster response, health equity, and environmental equity.

Behrman, NationSwell: Is there an attribute or an approach or a philosophy that guides your leadership that has helped to make you effective?

Carter, AWS: I put high expectations on myself and I lead by example, so it’s about finding that balance where there’s a high bar but also empathy for what is going on. 

It’s always been in my DNA to be the fixer, the builder, so shifting that mindset to where I’m coaching and enabling my team and my leaders to identify that path forward themselves — that’s been a big learning for me in the last two to three years. 

I’ll also add that it’s been amazing to see employees rise to the occasion. Shifting to this approach really helps them build confidence in themselves to find that path forward — it equips them to be successful critical thinkers, here and beyond.

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

Carter, AWS: One who really stands out is Jacqueline Fuller, formerly at Google.org — she is at the bleeding edge, and I was fortunate to work with her and her team when I was at UNICEF USA on some pretty strategic partnerships around Zika and Syrian refugees. I want to also mention Leisha Ward at Target, Paul Poman at Unilever, and Kayleen Walters, the head of impact at Minecraft. 

And finally, my mentor, Kathy Behrens at the NBA. Throughout my career, since I worked for Kathy, I’ve always thought to myself, “what would KB do?” What she’s been able to do with the NBA over time, launching NBA Cares, shifting to the social justice initiative, launching the foundation in the last few years — it’s been amazing to see.

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

Carter, AWS: I love stories of perseverance — those human interest stories where you see what somebody was able to achieve when everybody doubted them, especially in sports.

I particularly love “The ‘99ers” — the documentary follows the U.S. women’s national soccer team that won the World Cup in 1999. I remember watching it live and crying about how this was opening up opportunities for future generations of women moving forward. I think that team gave women and young girls confidence in themselves to be able to push boundaries, to push the envelope, to go where other girls haven’t been able to before.

At a moment of unprecedented attention, investment, and opportunity for the emerging field of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), leaders are asking: Who is best preparing their organization for the society of the future? Who is innovating today to meet decades-long environmental and social goals? Who is setting standards that catalyze their industry’s change for the better? Who is defining what bold and aspirational look like — and how best to advance that work in practice?

Enter NationSwell’s ESG Next, an exemplary group of investors, executives, authors, philanthropists, social sector leaders, academics, and field builders who are helping to shape business as a force for social and environmental progress, advancing — and even pioneering — the most forward-thinking and effective programs, initiatives, technologies, methodologies, practices, and approaches.

For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Renee Wittemyer, Senior Director of Program Strategy at Pivotal Ventures, about the power of thinking big, the unique outcomes of a targeted universalist approach to impact, and why the internal work that leaders do on themselves matters as much as the external.

Greg Behrman, CEO + Founder, NationSwell: Can you tell us how your professional and personal journey led you to the work you’re leading today?

Renee Wittemyer, Senior Director of Program Strategy, Pivotal Ventures: My journey to this work wasn’t the result of one big, defining moment; it was a series of moments that led me to where I am today. My parents are immigrants from India. I spent my childhood going to India every two years, so even from a young age, I was able to see stark economic disparities with my own two eyes. It was a formative backdrop for my experience of the world. After college, I spent several years in East Africa. I lived in northern Kenya and I worked with a group of women in Samburu, and I became very immersed in the challenges they face on a day-to-day basis: lack of power, an inability to negotiate with the men of their village, the way gender roles within their cultural norms dictated how they show up and what they’re able to achieve. I was there on 9/11, and I remember so vividly that they came up to me and asked me what had just happened in my country, because the men in their village were withholding that knowledge from them.

It was such a stark moment: I realized they were relying on me, an outsider, as their entire access to important knowledge, as a link to the outside world. I began to think about how I can create opportunities for women to access power and information, and how technology can help enable equity and agency. My time with them gave me the passion and the lens I have for international development, for women’s groups, small business, entrepreneurship, and technology — and the intersections between those passions. I found my way to Pivotal Ventures, building a strategy inspired by Melinda French Gates, focused on supporting women’s leadership in tech and innovation, and I’ve been here ever since.  Currently, I lead the philanthropic efforts of Pivotal, weaving in my knowledge of what it takes to advance social progress in the U.S. across all our areas of focus.

Behrman: How would you define this moment for philanthropy and social impact work? Where are we, how did we get here, and where are we going?

Wittemyer, Pivotal Ventures: One of the biggest ways that philanthropy has changed in recent years is that we now do a better job of using the inputs of communities most impacted and having leaders with diverse lived experiences at the table to inform decision making.  The field has also become more diverse, with new leaders coming into philanthropy with different backgrounds that shape their points of view.  These changes have happened because leaders have been intentional about inclusion – in making funding decisions and building their teams.  We have made a big step in the right direction.

Looking to the future, I think it will be important for leaders in philanthropy to learn from the different promising approaches to philanthropy and embrace the fully diversity of strategies that are out there and reflect the needs of different communities, rather than holding onto one relatively narrow approach as the future of our field.

Behrman: What’s unique about the strategies, initiatives, and approaches you and your team are leading at Pivotal?

Wittemyer, Pivotal Ventures: When I had my interview at Pivotal, one of the questions a hiring director asked me was, “Can you think big enough?”

Thinking big is core to us at Pivotal Ventures. We’re focused on expanding opportunity and equality in the United States, and we advance that work through high-impact investments, partnerships, and advocacy. When I started, artificial intelligence (AI) was one of the fastest growing fields with potential for disruption . Women are underrepresented in tech more broadly, but when we looked at the emerging field of AI, the disparity was even more stark. So we thought big: we looked at what was coming, and we started laying out the building blocks  of a strategy so that women are represented in AI and have seats at the decision making tables. 

Thinking big here also means finding great partners who are looking at the root causes and pulling strategic levers in innovative ways. I’m thinking about Pivotal’s partnership with Judy Spitz, the head of Breakthrough Tech AI, an incredible program focused on supporting young women in undergraduate degrees. Her research showed that women who graduated from school with the relevant skills for AI often got slotted into generic roles in the tech industry — getting a job in AI is hard when you’ve just graduated, and even harder if you’re a woman. This program helps women gain practical experience in AI through internships and portfolio-building projects with companies , so they have the skills and experience needed to get AI jobs.

Another area we’re thinking big is around expanding access to mental health supports for young people. Since 2018, Pivotal has worked to address really urgent issues of mental wellbeing among young Americans. That work has taken a lot of forms: we’ve partnered with Harvard’s Center for Digital Thriving. This center aims to provide mental health resources for use in schools, homes, and clinical settings. With the increase in mental health needs and the shortage of professionals and therapists, providing educators and parents with effective tools is critical. As a parent of teenagers myself, I understand the importance of guiding our youth to thrive in our technology-saturated world.

I’d also hold up our partnership with Surgo Health and MTV on a youth mental health tracker that will combine surveys, contextual data, social media insights, and personal narratives to enhance our understanding of the mental health landscape for young people and drive equitable changes.

These approaches emphasize timely and accessible mental health support, with a focus on BIPOC and LGBTQ+ youths. It’s part of our belief in what we call a targeted universalist approach: meaning that if you help the subsets of a population that are the most disproportionately affected by a problem, then you’ve actually created a solution that helps everyone.

Behrman, NationSwell: Which leadership qualities do you actively practice, and how do they contribute to your efficacy?

Wittemyer, Pivotal Ventures: I want to say to other leaders that the internal work you do matters. It helps you understand how you show up, and why you show up at all. For me, I am a social scientist, which means I am always asking questions and reflecting on my leadership and role in the world. I’ve spent many years listening to people’s stories. I’ve lived with entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, I’ve ridden on buses in Tanzania, all just to get a sense of the little nuances that make up people’s lives, the small things that come together to build a culture. My hope is that these moments give me insight into how people from these communities are feeling, even if they’re not articulating it.

I take this passion for listening to people seriously: it’s core to who I am. It’s as important to the communities in which you operate as it is to the teams you manage: how are your people feeling, what does team culture look like, and how can you encourage other leaders to be more curious about it?

Behrman, NationSwell: Who are the leaders that inspire your leadership?

Wittemyer, Pivotal Ventures: One of the leaders who inspires me is Ai-jen Poo, the co-founder and president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Caring Across Generations, is an unwavering advocate for both paid and unpaid caregivers. At Pivotal, where we view caregiving as an impediment to women’s advancement in the U.S., Ai-jen has significantly raised awareness of America’s flawed caregiving system. Her push for solutions like paid leave, a core priority of ours, is truly inspiring. 

I am also inspired by Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble, the founder and president of the AAKOMA Project. Since the inception of our adolescent mental health strategy, she has been an invaluable partner, bringing critical awareness to the mental health challenges faced by young people of color. Her team’s groundbreaking report on the mental health state of these youths—highlighting the impact of racial trauma and cultural stigma—has been a catalyst for change.

Promise Phelon, founder and managing partner of Growth Warrior Capital also inspires me. Her firm’s commitment to changing our work dynamics and wealth-building opportunities aligns with our values, making them a key partner. Promise is revolutionizing the venture capital (VC) world with her AI-powered platform, which streamlines the creation of essential materials for founders seeking VC funding. Her work is paving the way for a diverse range of entrepreneurs.

These three women are linked by their relentless drive and the common challenges they face as leaders in their fields. As they gain power and influence, they not only excel in their roles but also pave the way for others, embodying the very essence of leadership.

Behrman, NationSwell: What are you reading that inspires your leadership?

Wittemyer, Pivotal Ventures: I’m also inspired by an upcoming book by Dr. Fei-Fei Li. As a computer science professor at Stanford with a tenure at Google, Fei-Fei brings a wealth of knowledge from both academia and the tech industry. Her book, “The Worlds I See,” promises to offer profound insights. Also, she is the founder and chairperson of the nonprofit AI for All, an organization we’ve been partnering with since my arrival at Pivotal.

Fei-Fei was one of the first people I connected with here. Her vision for diversifying the AI field is something I deeply resonate with, especially the necessity for greater female representation. This is crucial not just for reducing bias in technology but also for fostering innovation and economic growth. The absence of women in these conversations has significant drawbacks.

Her book is especially poignant as it delves into her personal journey as an immigrant, detailing how she rose to become a preeminent AI leader. It’s a narrative that’s both emotionally charged and intimately tied to her professional achievements.

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To learn more about how our ESG Next honorees are shaping business as a force for social and environmental good, visit the series hub. To learn more about NationSwell’s community of our country’s leading social impact and sustainability practitioners, visit our site.