Topic: Strategy

Commercial products deployed for social good

Commercial products deployed for social good

CURATED COLLECTION
Posted on
Download

This Curated Collection explores a range of ways that companies are creating or repurposing products in service to their social impact strategies. It includes a non-exhaustive selection of representative and innovative examples of impact-oriented products, organized in categories based on how they are used.

The collection includes the following categories: 

  • Products used for fundraising 
  • Product grant programs 
  • Sustainable product; 
  • Special initiative products
Share this report
Recommended Features
pexels ivan samkov
pexels sam lion

ESG Next: An Interview With Starbucks’ Michael Kobori

Posted on by Greg Behrman

At a moment of unprecedented attention, investment, and opportunity for the emerging field of 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 Michael Kobori, Chief Sustainability Officer at Starbucks, about why this is the most crucial moment for ESG that the field has ever faced, the power of leadership companies to change whole industries, and why tapping into your employees is essential.

Greg Behrman, CEO + Founder, NationSwell: How did your personal and professional journey to the field of ESG begin?

Michael Kobori, Chief Sustainability Officer, Starbucks: When I was 17 years old, my father insisted that I apply for a scholarship offered by his company to spend the summer on a foreign exchange program. When you’re 17 years old, you want to spend the summer with your friends, not go to another country. But he made me apply, I got the scholarship, and spent the summer with a host family in Tokyo, Japan. 

Spending that time in my ancestral homeland, and even meeting some of my distant relatives, awakened in me a passion for thinking globally, and set me on a career that would lead to learning more about the world and working to understand and address the challenges facing humankind.  

As someone who has spent most of my life thinking globally, I think a lot about the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 — it was incredible to see how these protests sparked movements all around the globe. They definitely helped me to reframe my views on social justice.

Another factor that has helped to frame my perspectives on social justice is my ethnicity. I’m a third-generation Japanese-American, and I never used to think about the fact that both of my parents, who were second-generation Americans, spent their youth in the internment camps during World War II. Growing up in the Japanese-American community, we just didn’t talk about it. But the powerful truth is that they were imprisoned by the United States government as enemy aliens.

Today, years later, my two daughters, who are much more conscious about ethnicity and diversity than I was, have awakened my personal history and sense of social justice. They and their generation are alive with discussions about justice and movements for reparations. I’m gratified to see that the Asian-American experience is part of the conversation. And it’s helped me to realize how my family’s history is such a big part of my desire for justice.

Behrman, NationSwell: How do you define this moment in ESG?

Kobori, Starbucks: I’ve been working in this field for nearly 30 years; well before we called it ESG. The work has evolved so much from those days of corporate social responsibility. And as the work evolves, the more we as a society recognize that the challenges of the capitalist system — like inequality and our environmental challenges — are reaching a head.

The current moment has been such an evolution from the early days. It has become so expansive — and as it expands, it keeps bringing more and more stakeholders to the table, including investors and regulators who are helping to change the system.  

Today, there is a clear recognition that the corporate sector is the most powerful and trusted institution in society — even more than nonprofits and governments. With this comes the urgent responsibility to address our global challenges and do our part to help build an equitable, sustainable future.

This is the most crucial moment ever for ESG. While we all try to address our companies’ footprints and the inequalities that may exist in our respective spaces, the real inflection point comes when more and more of us start realizing that we are part of a bigger system: We must ask ourselves what our responsibility is in enlisting others to help change the status quo. 

As practitioners, I think there are tremendous opportunities for us to contribute to society’s well-being and the planet. We need to think beyond our own companies and remind ourselves that the scale at which our business operates is societal and planetary. 

Currently, we are all individually addressing broader societal challenges. People ask if we are collaborating with other organizations and companies focused on the same ecosystem. It’s important to move from individual efforts to collective impact and find ways to capture this progress. When a company thinks on a wider scale, it unlocks opportunities to collaborate for the benefit of society. And collaboration is the only way we can enlist others to help restore ecosystems because, ultimately, success lies in contributing to the restoration of landscapes, which is what matters most to the planet.

Behrman, NationSwell: To which leadership practices do you most attribute your success? How do you approach getting buy-in on the work you’re driving?

Kobori, Starbucks: I’ve been fortunate to work for companies like Starbucks and Levi Strauss & Co., which have been recognized by others as leaders in sustainability. We know that the initiatives we pioneer can influence others in the industry. If Starbucks is successful in eliminating single-use cups and shifting to a reusable cup system, the industry will take notice. At Levi’s, the designers wanted to use less water in the manufacturing process. They came up with techniques to create the worn look on jeans using less water, which led to changes in the industry. Companies that manufactured washing machines began designing machines that used less water. Now, those machines are standard in every apparel factory worldwide.  

Leadership companies have the power to change entire industries. This is why I work for companies like these: We can have a broader influence on the system. 

If you find yourself at an organization that has the potential to lead and you’re facing headwinds because the organization does not have sustainability or responsibility as its ethos, you should focus on the business case for sustainability. It’s there, and it’s been demonstrated over the years — particularly for building resilience in your supply chain. 

It’s also essential to appeal to a company’s talent, especially the younger generation of employees and customers who expect sustainability and social justice from the brands they buy. When you appeal to a large swath of the workforce, that often means success is not dependent upon just one leader or executive. Tapping into your employees builds a movement for internal change that can actually have a societal impact as it starts to impact customers and communities outside of your business.

Behrman, NationSwell: What are some initiatives you and your team are driving at Starbucks that you think are noteworthy, or that show promising signs of advancing the field?

Kobori, Starbucks: Corporations are often nervous about environmental and climate justice and unsure of what to do. In addition to researching and engaging with stakeholders to assuage those anxieties, I prefer to take action. For example, we’ve invested $97 million in a community solar project in upstate New York, benefiting low- to middle-income communities. 

Because of that investment, Generate, our partners in the community solar project, received a deal with New York State and identified a subsidy so that those 24,000 households actually ended up paying less for renewable energy than they were for fossil fuel-based energy — and we also provided renewable energy to all of our stores in those neighborhoods. And now that criteria is being applied as we look at all of the other renewable energy investments that our company is making. 

This investment started with Starbucks’ balance sheet cash, and it allowed us to use our profits to address social and environmental issues, which also allows us to continue to generate income from that investment.

Another notable effort is our work on reusable cups, with more than 20 pilots last year in the U.S. and internationally. We aim to phase out single-use cups and move towards more sustainable options, which will not only help us lead with our employees and customers, but across the industry.

Behrman, NationSwell: To which leadership practices do you most attribute your success?

Kobori, Starbucks: I believe in being a servant leader, supporting my team, and helping them obtain the resources they need. I set a clear vision and empower my team to develop strategies for achieving our goals, and then I support them by influencing key stakeholders, connecting the dots, and connecting people who are doing like-minded work. Being a leader means embedding the work of sustainability and social equity in the business and supporting those teams to own it. It means being a great cheerleader and a supporter of their work. 

Behrman, NationSwell: What are some peer leaders and some books that inspire your work?

Kobori, Starbucks: I greatly admire Erin Meezan, CSO at JLL, who was formerly CSO at Interface. I still think Interface does this better than anyone else, because their approach to social impact is totally embedded in what they do as a company. Janine Benyus, founder of Biomimicry Institute, also comes to mind. Janine is one of the most brilliant people I know when it comes to thinking about ecosystems, biology, and sustainability. Every time I speak with her and I think I have the answer to something, she kicks my intellectual butt and makes me realize that I’m only part of the way there.

Finally, there’s Heather McTeer Toney, who leads climate justice work at the Environmental Defense Fund. She is one of the writers profiled in one of the books I’d recommend: All We Can Save, an anthology of poems and essays by female, largely BIPOC, climate justice leaders edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson.

Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire by Harvard professor Dr. Rebecca Henderson is also an immensely powerful book, as is The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, who has been called our greatest living science fiction writer. The Ministry for the Future describes a not-too-distant future where a U.N. Ministry has been created to implement the Paris Climate Agreement. And lastly, The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle is so helpful — it will always be my go-to for understanding organizational dynamics and building successful teams. 

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

ESG Next: An Interview With Microsoft’s Kate Behncken

Posted on by Greg Behrman

At a moment of unprecedented attention, investment and opportunity for the emerging field of 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 Kate Behncken, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Philanthropies, about the importance of tying together purpose and profit, the power of capacity-building leadership, and this moment of tremendous opportunity for social impact and sustainability leaders.

Greg Behrman, NationSwell CEO + Founder: Tell us about how your personal and professional journey led you to ESG work.

Kate Behncken, Microsoft Philanthropies Corporate Vice President: While I was a lawyer for many years working in Australia and Europe, I was presented with the opportunity to come on board as Chief of Staff for Brad Smith, Microsoft President, Vice Chairman, and General Counsel. That post gave me an opportunity to be exposed to the broader work of the company, and it was in that role that I learned about all of Microsoft’s social impact work. 

I had the opportunity to work on a number of initiatives like Kids in Need of Defense, and I think that exposure is what really lit the fire for me to get passionate about the work we were leading, the opportunity to make a difference, and most importantly, about the responsibility the private sector has to all communities.

Behrman, NationSwell: How do you think about what defines this moment in ESG?

Behncken, Microsoft: As a tech company, we see the tremendous opportunity that technology brings — the huge benefits and great potential for technology to address some of society’s biggest challenges — but we also see the pace of change, the rapid transformation that was only accelerated in the Covid era, and how this pace raises new challenges and also intensifies existing inequities in our communities.

Because of that, at this moment, there’s greater expectation on private sector leaders from everybody — employees, stakeholders, and ourselves. I would say from what I’ve seen at Microsoft, the level of energy across the company for the work we do is at an all-time high. That’s a fantastic opportunity for someone like me in my role, so the question is, how do you tap into it in the best possible way?

We view our goals through four key lenses: supporting economic growth, sustainability, trust and protecting fundamental rights, but ESG is also so broad. I think a lot of us are thinking about what this framework means, and what it’s going to do. There’s going to be more that companies will have to report on in more ways; and there are going to be more things that we want to continue to report on.

Behrman, NationSwell: What is it about your approach to ESG, social impact, and sustainability work that yields the most success?

Behncken, Microsoft: In the private sector, there’s been a historical sense that profit happens at the core of an organization, but the purpose-driven functions take place in this small department that’s separate from it. But I don’t think that’s the case. The more that companies can bring together profit and purpose, the more they’re going to be successful.  

That’s certainly not the case at Microsoft. From a people perspective, we have a multidisciplinary team thinking about how we bring together our purpose and our profit. That’s no easy task. To do that, you really need a diverse skill set. We have people from so many different backgrounds, and as with any team, that diversity makes you stronger, and makes the work better.  

One of the really unique things about Microsoft Philanthropies is a group called Tech for Social Impact, where we focus on how we help nonprofits get access to affordable technology to be able to leverage that tech to grow, scale, and reach more of the beneficiaries that they’re trying to reach. But it’s not just the affordable technology we provide — it’s often that we’re working really closely with them to help them drive their own digital transformation. We’re meeting them where they are. Some nonprofits have great mastery of their technology tools, others not as much. So we, and our partners, listen to the organizations’ specific needs, that’s what makes our model so different from a one-size-fits-all approach to helping nonprofits.

In this arrangement, we reinvest incremental profits generated from the TSI model into philanthropy, into innovation for the nonprofit sector, and into a wide range of social good initiatives. That gives us a tremendous opportunity to do more; the better TSI does, the more that we can reinvest back into the sector.

A lot of people originally thought that a non-profit sales channel in philanthropies is oil and water; they thought, “How can that possibly work?” Well, I see it work. And it’s fantastic. Last year alone, we provided $3.2 billion in donated and discounted technology – up 29% from the previous year – to 302,000 nonprofits that deliver critical services to over 1.2 billion people around the world. Over the next five years, we will double the number of nonprofits we reach with technology discounts and grants to help amplify their impact.

We’re also focused heavily on multi-sector partnerships, like our partnership with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s office to deepen investments in local economies in Central America, bolstering quality of life, increasing access to work, and helping to stem the tide of migration to the United States. For this initiative, the partners worked together to map out the different “swim lanes,” and then we each focused on the one where we could have the most unique impact. 

We lead the swim lane around digital inclusion: Microsoft is focused on expanding Broadband internet access to 3 million Central American  people and providing access to digital skills learning paths to upskill workers and make them more competitive in the job market. We’re training over 100,000 Central American workers in the next three years, helping them to learn the soft, technical, and digital skills that will enable them to gain access to  higher-paying local jobs.

The partners were very thoughtful, not only about which of us could lean in to each of the swim lanes, but about how each lane supported all the others,  and then how all involved collaborated more closely with government. I think it’s a model that we might start seeing in other countries around the world. You can learn more about our work, and the other partners involved on the White House website.

Behrman, NationSwell To which of your leadership practices or approaches do you attribute your success leading the sustainability function of an organization like Microsoft?

Behncken, Microsoft: One of my core beliefs about being a leader is that leadership is about building capacity and not dependency. Of course, I’m very focused on making sure Microsoft Philanthropies is a great place to work, but I’m also really invested in how we’re helping to grow people’s careers in the space. 

I’m also a firm believer in the power of partnerships. We partner a lot with governments around the world. It’s the only way to really achieve scale with some of the work we do, like our global initiative to upskill workers in an effort to support local economies and talent pipelines around the world.

Lastly, I am a firm believer in focus, and I steer my team towards only being at the tables where we can add really unique value. If you do less, you’ll drive greater impact. That’s a journey we’re all still on.

Behrman, NationSwell: Who are some leaders in this space whose leadership inspires your own?

Behncken, Microsoft: I’m inspired by Wendy Young of Kids in Need of Defense, a great organization working to help unaccompanied minors migrating to the US. Wendy is an amazingly generous leader, and Microsoft has worked closely with KIND over many years. I’ve had the opportunity to see how she thinks about addressing systemic issues, and she’s just very on top of it. An absolutely wonderful person.

My team and I look at the work that Shamina Singh is leading at Mastercard, not just on inclusive growth but also more broadly across the whole organization, thinking about how they bring together their purpose and their profit. (Editor’s Note: Shamina Singh is a future ESG Next honoree, and will be profiled in this series at a later date.)

Behrman, NationSwell: What are some resources you recommend that have helped to fuel your leadership, professionally and personally?

Behncken, Microsoft: Caste, an exploration of how America has been — and still is — shaped by a not-so-hidden caste system, is essential reading. The author, Isabel Wilkerson, links our social system to India’s and Nazi Germany’s, and her analysis has shaped my view of the world today.

Brad Smith, who’s the president of Microsoft, recently wrote a book called Tools and Weapons, and also recently released a podcast where he speaks to leaders in business and government to look at the world’s most critical challenges, the intersection of technology and society, rural broadband, and digital inclusion. I think they’re both essential.

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

ESG Next: An Interview With Bain Capital’s Tricia Winton

Posted on by Greg Behrman

At a moment of unprecedented attention, investment and opportunity for the emerging field of 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 Tricia Winton, Partner and Global Head of ESG at Bain Capital, about why she thinks ESG isn’t going away anytime soon, the power of a private partnership model in advancing ESG work, and the importance of focusing on the upside while you navigate the risks and pitfalls.

Greg Behrman, Founder + CEO, NationSwell: Was there a defining experience or moment that drew you to this field?

Tricia Winton, Partner and Global Head of ESG, Bain Capital: It wasn’t just one moment. I’ve had the opportunity to be surrounded by leaders in our field and a firm like Bain Capital that believed that thriving businesses across a number of dimensions including governance, sustainability, organizational performance and culture generate higher returns as well as positive societal and environmental outcomes. I’m proud to say that Bain Capital has held this belief since its inception and before the term ESG came to fruition.  

I joined Bain Capital in the midst of the pandemic and saw firsthand the power of an organization that is sincere and engages and collaborates with a wide range of important stakeholders. I also saw our ambition to lead in this space. The goal was not to make flashy proclamations, but to drive genuine impact. You can feel that in the culture and in the work, which is very different from what I’ve seen anywhere else.

Behrman, NationSwell: What do you make of this moment in ESG? Where are we in its evolution, and how do you assess this moment?

Winton, Bain Capital: I have a long-term perspective on the evolution of the space, and I think broader socio-economic factors have only heightened the awareness of what’s expected of companies and individuals in facing some of society’s largest problems. The reality is we’re going to need more collective effort, not less.

Here’s the good news: We’re seeing progress every day. We’re seeing more and more employees who want to work at firms and companies that think long-term and holistically about their impact.  We know employees want it and we know investors want it. Ultimately, it’s a focus that is going to reward our industry and the broader business community. 

The more I see this progress, the more my conviction grows around the importance of this work. Of course, we need to address the risks our companies are facing — but it’s equally important to concertedly lean into the upside of ESG work and the lasting, positive impact that businesses can deliver. We can and must do so much more.

Behrman, NationSwell: Can you share how you and your team at Bain Capital approach ESG work in ways that are unique or exemplary?

Winton, Bain Capital:  Our full team really wanted to develop an ESG approach that has our fingerprint on it — distinctive, generative and ultimately our own. 

We’ve had four decades built on a consulting business transformation model that’s really unique in this space — and that really gives us a head start on producing authentic, exemplary work. Our goal is to invest and grow great companies, but also to do that in the right way with a very high integrity, respect for people and enthusiasm to create these businesses that thrive. Because of our consulting roots, we have the desire to work through tough problems. We’re trying to apply that same rigor and intensity to our ESG efforts, endeavoring to build out what we think is a distinctive approach to where our culture is in alignment with our values. 

That manifests throughout the five core ESG commitments we established, where we believe we can have meaningful, measurable impact over the long-term. It also manifests in the practical application of those commitments in our investments and portfolio companies, through examples like building our ESG leadership team with leaders from across our business units, organizing global teams to spot ESG trends and share learnings, and focusing on building good governance in our investments and portfolio companies because we believe that good governance is the umbrella through which ESG efforts get the right traction. We have an intentional approach there with a consistent set of practices that centers around ensuring that we are thinking about ESG outcomes with the same intensity that we have every other part of our investment thesis. 

Other examples include the convening of portfolio company leaders like our Chief Human Resources and Talent Officer monthly forums and annual summit to advance our approaches to human capital management.  In these forums, leaders review the latest strategies and tools to enhance diversity, equity and inclusion and share approaches to boost employee engagement and organizational health.

Finally, we prioritize broader stakeholder engagement with thought partners like NationSwell, Focusing Capital on Long Term (FCLT Global), Business for Social Responsibility and the Sustainable Markets Initiative to advance our sustainable investment practices, and Management Leaders for Tomorrow and the Directors Academy to really expand the pipeline of diverse talent coming to our firm and to our portfolio companies.

Those are the kinds of things we’re building out across our businesses. Soup to nuts, we think this is distinctive and differentiating.

Behrman, NationSwell: What are some key opportunities you see for Bain Capital? 

Winton, Bain Capital:  There’s so much that’s been said about how we need alignment, uniform actions, and clarity as an industry. All of that would be great. But for us, here and now, we’re really focused on how we can measure and drive year-on-year improvements. We continue to build out our measurement and reporting capabilities, centering the tangible outputs that help drive our progress. And when you hear people talk about the confusion and the challenges around data measurement, the momentum of what’s possible and those tangible outcomes get lost from the discussion.

We believe that a focus on tangible outcomes helps us act on priority topics, such as our efforts to reduce our environmental footprint and engage our portfolio companies to reduce carbon. We leverage our deeply collaborative approach, and support from expert advisors to ensure decarbonization efforts are practical and relevant for our companies.  

Behrman, NationSwell: To which of your leadership practices do you attribute your success?

Winton, Bain Capital: I embrace a deeply collaborative process and I’m fortunate that our firm and our ESG team really pride itself on that.  We work to understand different points of view. We believe firmly that more perspectives on a problem will yield a better outcome. I think we are trying to be bold and we have an ambitious vision, but we have this highly collaborative approach that I feel will help us build more effective programs and drive impact over time.

Behrman, NationSwell: Who are the leaders that inspire you in personal and professional ways?

Winton, Bain Capital:  I think one of the most inspiring people to me is Paul Farmer. I had the opportunity to meet Paul on many occasions and learn more about his fundamental belief about global health equity and how important it is to advocate for human health and justice globally. With his passing, the world really lost an incredible visionary.Bryan Stevenson’s work on racial justice in America has been a constant source of inspiration for me, and he is an incredible example of how you build lasting partnerships.

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

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging: U.S. certifications and recognitions 

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging: U.S. certifications and recognitions 

CURATED COLLECTION
Posted on
Download

From the Great Resignation to the Great Reshuffle, one thing is clear: workers want good workplaces alongside good jobs. For employers, however, it can be a challenge to signal their value to prospective employees or retain current talent in a tight labor market. Although external validation can never capture the true experience of what it is like to work at any one place, certifications, awards, or other public recognitions can offer employers the opportunity to pursue and promote excellence across a variety of DEIB dimensions.

This Curated Collection provides social impact leaders in the private sector with a roundup of United States-based certifications and “best of” recognitions related to different aspects of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). 

The collection includes the following: 

  • Certifications achieved based on company-submitted applications 
  • Recognitions achieved without needing to apply
Share this report
Recommended Features
deib
pexels karolina grabowska
Survey Image

ESG Next: An Interview with Goldman Sachs’ Letitia Webster

Posted on by Greg Behrman

At a moment of unprecedented attention, investment and opportunity for the emerging field of 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 Letitia Webster, Managing Director + Chief Sustainability Officer, Merchant Banking Division, Goldman Sachs, about what the precipice of this moment in ESG means for sustainability leaders, the importance of integrating corporate social responsibility across your entire business, and the leaders that inspire her. 

Greg Behrman, CEO + Founder, NationSwell: How did your professional and personal journey lead you to the field of ESG, social impact, and sustainability?

Letitia Webster, Managing Director + Chief Sustainability Officer, Merchant Banking Division, Goldman Sachs: When I lived in Telluride, there was a film festival they held called the Telluride Mountainfilm that celebrates important stories that need to be told within mountain communities — by and large, stories that celebrate a vibrant mountain culture with a focus on the environment and and on how it affects our most vulnerable populations. 

It helped to open my eyes to global injustice. I was very young — just out of college, and it informed my perspective. I was running a small non-profit in the region focused on the environment, and it became clear to me that I needed to make this more of my career path. I moved to the Bay Area, worked at The North Face, and while that was fun, I realized that what we were marketing — these big, pristine, wild places — was actually not what was happening in our supply chain, not just at The North Face, but in general across all products and sectors outsourcing to Asia. So I started the sustainability program at The North Face and it’s been my journey ever since.

Honestly, I’ve been passionate about this work since I was a child. It’s in my blood, and it’s so intuitive to me. It always pained me when I saw trees being chopped down for developments — I’d always wonder who was speaking up on behalf of the environment? Where are the birds going to go, the deer, everything that depends on them being there? 

But as I became more sophisticated and understanding of all of the unintended consequences and the ramifications of this work, it became crystal clear to me that there actually was no one speaking up, there was no voice in so many places for communities and the environment that were being impacted by decisions like that.

Behrman, NationSwell: How do you make sense of what this moment means for ESG and its field builders?

Webster, Goldman Sachs: We’ve made a remarkable amount of progress in 25 years,  but there’s highs and lows through all of this. Obviously, the publishing of Silent Spring was a significant milestone in turning the tide and raising awareness on these issues, and designating Earth Day was a big high. But there are big lows that come out of it as people lose focus and competing interests take over.

Sustainability has always been based in the science of what is actually happening to human and environmental health. Unfortunately, the science argument was not always understood from an economic perspective — but the science does impact the economy. And so it’s only been a recent development that we’ve started to see the sustainability argument become rooted in the business argument. You start to understand the cost of these externalities, how they impact your business, and how you approach embedding those material risks in your financial considerations.

When Covid hit, people were worried sustainability would take a backseat, and in fact it only heightened awareness of it. As our country has grown more divided in recent years, sustainability leaders have had to navigate an even more complex environment. Despite this, the reality of the increasing intensity of the impacts taking place are actually motivating investors and businesses to go even faster.

Behrman, NationSwell: What are some other factors driving movement in the field?

Webster, Goldman Sachs: Organizations like SASB have helped to evolve this work, making it more sophisticated, accountable, and transparent; while social media and NGOs helped amplify a broader sense of what’s happening in the world, from who makes our clothes to the carbon intensity of our beef, and now there’s a groundswell of consumer support for sustainability — and pressure on organizations to be more sustainable as their awareness grows more heightened.

ESG is maturing as a practice.  Companies have come along with it as have consumers.  Investors are at this precipice where they now understand the issue and their role in it. This heightened focus from investors is creating a tsunami of effort and impact as firms organize around this to integrate it into their investment approach and practices.

Behrman, NationSwell: What are some of the challenges?

Webster, Goldman Sachs: Sustainability work and the knowledge around it were very isolated at first. Now, it’s opened wide up and there is a deep desire to understand it, integrate it, and do something about it.  However there is a proliferation of frameworks, reporting requirements, and regulations. These are not always aligned; they can cause a great deal of inefficiency and be unproductive, which is causing a bit of chaos in the system.  

We need a more focused and targeted approach globally. We need clarity on expectations and reporting, just as there is guidance on general accounting principles and SEC reporting. Otherwise we fill out spreadsheets and questionnaires all day long, and don’t have time to do the real work to improve on our impact.

We have to get to that point because we’ll be able to consolidate the most material issues, and we just have to be able to focus. Really clear, crisp policy is the most important thing, and I think that includes a carbon tax.

In this moment, we are seeing these macro forces underscore the importance of integrating even deeper. We just need to stay focused on the task at hand. 

Behrman, NationSwell: What is it about your approach that differentiates you from your peers in sustainability?

Webster, Goldman Sachs: My approach, which has been refined over years of coaching and mentorship, tries to bring people to make this work inclusive and welcoming. I think that’s a really important piece of success in this field.  At the end of the day, sustainability has to be embedded into every single business function. It cannot be a standalone, isolated leadership activity where we are taking ownership or control of all of the work. It has to be dispersed, and it has to come from servant leadership — a leadership that is humbled by everything that must be done, a leadership that is visionary about where we need to go and how we get there, and a leadership that understands the goals of all key stakeholders and how this work benefits the business.

And so, it has to play this careful balance of bringing people in to that shared vision that we have and inviting people in to join us and then supporting those people in that journey and making sure everyone is part of it and understands their role in doing so.

My passion and commitment have been my fuel — this is really hard work, there’s no doubt about it. Especially 15 years ago, when doors were slammed in your face and no one wanted to hear from you. We had to literally kick the door down, but now people are more prepared. The challenge is making sure they’re listening to it in a way that they can absorb, in a way that they can engage with. You can’t lecture them, you can’t shame them, you can’t fear them.

For me, it’s all about letting your personal purpose guide your approach to your work. And personal purpose is all about three concentric circles. One is, what are you best at in the world? The second is, what are you passionate about — for me, that’s sustainability and giving people a voice. And then the third is, what does the world need from you?

Behrman, NationSwell: Who are some leaders whose work inspires you?

Webster, Goldman Sachs: I had the opportunity to see David Brower, the founder of the Sierra Club, speak right before he passed away. Listening to his stories — and the perseverance and grit that he had — it was just phenomenal.  For those earliest of environmental leaders to have that level of vision and commitment, is something I am in awe of and so grateful for.

Bill McDonough is a profound thinker whose work, specifically Cradle to cradle when it came out in 2004, transformed the way I thought about Sustainability and  how we can approach the opportunity for systemic change.  It was pretty revolutionary of him to go back to these ancient concepts of turning waste streams into nutrients for new products- he modernized the concept of a circular economy.  And, what he did to completely green the Ford River Rouge Truck Plant was fairly revolutionary  – it set the new standard.  He’s fantastic.

And a bit closer to home, I’d also have to say Hannah Jones. When she became the chief sustainability officer at Nike, it showed me that  I could do this work as my full time career, it didn’t have to something I pursued on the side.

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

ESG Next: An Interview With Target’s Amanda Nusz

Posted on by Greg Behrman

At a moment of unprecedented attention, investment and opportunity for the emerging field of 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, Greg Behrman, CEO + Founder of NationSwell, sat down with Amanda Nusz, Target Senior Vice President of Corporate Responsibility, to talk about the connectivity between ESG and business growth, and the importance of co-creating within your business and across your stakeholders.

Behrman, NationSwell: What is some of the work you’re leading that you’d hold up as a real exemplar of unique and effective approaches to the field of ESG?

Nusz, Target: We have undertaken several initiatives that are advancing our Target Forward sustainability ambitions. One that I’m particularly proud of is our work with Bridgeforth Farms, a fifth-generation, Black-owned family farm. By using cotton sustainably sourced from Bridgeforth Farms, we developed a selection of exclusive tee-shirts sold during Black History Month.

This alliance is unlocking growth opportunities for both of our businesses. It also inspired us to pursue new ways of working across our teams and the ways we operate with all of our external partners to enhance traceability and transparency throughout the sourcing journey.  

Our partnership and work with Bridgeforth Farms illustrates how important it is to not treat environmental and social issues as silos. They can and should work hand in hand to drive progress on all facets of sustainability and sustainable business practices. 

Behrman, NationSwell: Internally, it sounds like there’s an effort to socialize folks around some of these best practices. How do you do that in practice ?

Nusz, Target: The idea of co-creation is the central component to our process and our progress at Target. It’s a principle to which we’ve anchored our new sustainability strategy, Target Forward, which sets a vision to co-create an equitable and regenerative future with our guests, partners and communities. This means it’s a strategy built for collaboration across our business and with our partners, and for upskilling in sustainability for every member of the Target team. At every step, our principles of listening and collaboration shape our decisions and our ability to execute on our ambitions to design and elevate sustainable brands, innovate to eliminate waste, and accelerate opportunity and equity.

We know the work will be better if we do it together.

And that’s not just true of our work at Target headquarters — it’s true in our stores. For the majority of the stores we open, we’re in the community for months, if not years, before the store opening to build community relationships and understand how our stores can have meaningful presence and create meaningful impact for the community. 

It’s just one example of how we are enabling sustainable practices, decision making, and co-creation in every corner of our business, recognizing that impact and progress will be driven from every part of our organization. 

Greg Behrman, CEO + Founder, NationSwell: What’s driving you to carry out this work?

Amanda Nusz, Target: The bold sustainability ambitions being set in the business community are truly remarkable, as is the growing recognition that sustainability strategies are business strategies. The potential to drive positive impact and growth has never been more apparent, and demand for action has never been higher.

It’s energizing to see so many working to meaningfully answer that call, and it’s energizing for me personally as I reflect on the opportunity in front of us to accelerate growth through sustainable practices. 

Behrman, NationSwell: As you look at the field of sustainability and ESG and its growing prominence in the business dialogue, how do you make sense of the current moment?

Nusz, Target: I can’t help but always think about this moment — and what it means for business — in terms of growth. If you look at everything a business is trying to do, and you ask yourself, “Out of all of these goals, what really matters? What’s the role of business?” I strongly believe the role of business is to show sustainable growth — a phrase that has two meanings. 

At Target, we are mindful of the fact that business growth must be grounded in environmental and social sustainability practices; and, that the decisions we make and direction we take as a business must be built to last. Understanding the critical issues in your business model, and then relentlessly focusing on what happens in your model, can really unlock what it means to grow, and to have a brand that people love, need, and celebrate.

Behrman, NationSwell: Who are some leaders in the space who you really admire?

Nusz, Target: With co-creation at the core of our sustainability commitments, we have the opportunity to work alongside so many organizations that are advancing and accelerating sustainable growth.

Partners like the United Negro College Fund with which we’ve created the Target Scholars program to provide 1,000 students at HBCUs with scholarships, mentoring, internship and networking opportunities. And the PENSOLE Lewis College of Business & Design in Detroit, which offers free tuition to aspiring Black designers, engineers and leaders. 

Closed Loop Partners is activating meaningful work to advance circularity across the business community — and we’re grateful for our partnership with them and other retailers in The Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag. 

And we continue to be energized by the innovation we’re seeing across brand partners to advance sustainability with our guests. Our Target Zero initiative has seen brand partners like Burt’s Bees, PLUS, Grove Co. and more developing products and packaging designed to be refillable, reusable or compostable, made from recycled content, or made from materials that reduce the use of plastic.

Behrman, NationSwell: And what are some books or resources that have been really formative or influential for you in this space?

Nusz, Target: I’m always on the lookout for books that help me inspire our team to uncover their strengths and ideas that can advance our sustainability strategy — in particular our longstanding commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion. 

The Overstory by Richard Powers is a book that opened up a great sense of connection and understanding of the complex relationship between nature and humans as well as the importance of family, bio- and cultural diversity. And I found James D White and Krista White’s Anti-Racist Leadership to be an important resource for leaders working on designing and creating great places and cultures for all. 

I also find many podcasts a source of inspiration, including How to Save a Planet, especially the 2021 episodes with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson.

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.

ESG Next: An Interview With George Serafeim, Harvard Business School Professor of Business Administration

Posted on by Greg Behrman

At a moment of unprecedented attention, investment, and opportunity for the emerging field of 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 work looks like — and how best to advance that work in practice?

Enter NationSwell’s ESG Next, an exemplary group of social impact and sustainability leaders who are shaping 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.

Greg Behrman, NationSwell CEO and founder, sat down with George Serafeim, Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and author of “Purpose and Profit: How Business Can Lift Up the World,” to discuss the current state of the field of ESG, why criticism of the field — even bad faith or partisan criticism — can be a good thing, and the integral ways that purpose and profit depend on one another. Here’s what he had to say.

Greg Behrman, CEO + Founder, NationSwell: Was there a moment in your life that drove you to purpose-driven work?

George Serafeim, Harvard Business School: Growing up in Athens, Greece, I witnessed the golden years of our country — years marked by a tremendous amount of growth. But at the same time, I witnessed that if you don’t have transparency in a system, then you don’t have accountability — and if you don’t have accountability, you actually don’t have meritocracy. I witnessed  all the bad outcomes that come from that lack: a 25% decline in gross domestic product, a lot of people losing their livelihoods and their quality of life, a lot of people going into unemployment, and, as a result, a tremendous amount of pain.

Witnessing that has shaped my belief that transparency is extremely important for building accountability — and therefore meritocracy — in society. I think historically, we in America have had very little transparency about the extent to which organizations are impacting the environment and society around them. For me, it was almost like connecting dots — it led to a lot of my work around creating measurement, and metrics, and increased levels of transparency because once you can measure stuff, then you can start building momentum and unleashing waves of innovation that can improve outcomes.

That has been the story of ESG in the last decade.

Behrman, NationSwell: As you think about this field of ESG, where are we now? How do you assess this current moment?

Serafeim: There was no field of ESG a few years ago — and that is very important to recognize because when you create a field, you’re also trying to educate people about the need for a field. And then you scramble to put a field together using the best available tools that you have, the best data that you have, the best frameworks, the best models, the best learnings, the best of everything. Much like product development, you have a minimum viable product (MVP) of a field.

In the beginning phase, there would be people at an organization responsible for ESG and sustainability, and they might not even be in the right places in terms of organizational structure. Think about a tech company where the tech people have no idea what’s happening on the sustainability side.

But now we’re a step or two past this MVP stage, and we actually understand what works and what doesn’t, and we have an understanding of what we need to do to improve it, and improve the infrastructure around it. ESG is more and more incorporated into what an organization does, its core products and services. We’re creating guardrails around what the field of ESG should be. Now it’s a matter of actually improving the field.

Behrman, NationSwell: Does it advance us past the MVP stage to incorporate ESG throughout the core of the organization, as opposed to as an ancillary appendage?

Serafeim: Absolutely. It requires a different mindset. It requires us to ask, “How can we make a profit by having a more positive impact on the world?” instead of treating profit and purpose as disparate entities wherein we’d be asking ourselves how we can distribute the profit that we’ve already created based on some ESG consideration.  

The evolution in thinking we need actually requires ESG to be integrated into the important functions of our organization — it is an entirely different mindset.

Behrman, NationSwell: What is the next big step we have to take as a field — and how do we unlock it?

Serafeim, HBS: The first step is a systemic level of impact measurement and evaluation. We need to get to a world where we actually have comparable, reliable, and relevant impact measurement and evaluation inside organizations. This is what we have been working on with impact-weighted accounts. We also need more collaboration across organizations. Many of the environmental and social challenges that we’re facing require collaboration across multiple companies, across value chains, so that needs to happen more. 

Behrman, NationSwell: Are impact-weighted accounts the answer to systematic evaluation and measurement — or does it need further development?

Serafeim, HBS: I think it still needs further development, for sure. So, as context, we created the idea of impact-weighted accounts about two and a half years ago. And now, it is an idea that has spread worldwide, from the United States to China. And we’re seeing the idea of impact-weighted accounts applied in companies, in investment firms, by policy makers in cities and municipalities, everywhere around the world. I don’t know if it will be the ultimate solution, but I do know that it is a step in the right direction, where we need to systematically measure the environmental and social outcomes that we’re creating, and the value of those outcomes. We need to understand the value that we’re achieving because allocating scarce resources is a very difficult task, and that understanding would help us to prioritize those resources. 

Behrman, NationSwell: What are some takeaways from “Purpose and Profit” that help advance the way that the field’s leaders think about ESG

Serafeim, HBS:  I wrote this book because when I reflect back on my experience, I think we went from a world where very few people that went into business were asking, “What is the purpose of business? What is the purpose of me, specifically, going into business?” 

I have witnessed a tremendous amount of change, and I’m fortunate to be sitting in a seat where I observe hundreds of young people going into business every year, and whose decisions about their careers are being guided by the central questions of, “How can I make a difference? What is the impact that I will have?”

So, I wanted to write the book around two questions. The first one is, “What has changed?” And the second one is, “What can I do about it as an individual?”  I think there are many people that are extremely competent at telling other people what to do, but the most important question to me as an individual, manager, entrepreneur, young person — whatever that might be — it’s always about what I can do within my own organization. And as a result, the book is focused on both trying to understand what has changed, and how I should think about those issues within the context of my own individual career. 

This is what brought me to profit and purpose. I put them together because purpose is extremely important: it motivates action, and it energizes people.  But at the same time, the pursuit of profit is also very, very important because in business, if you actually cannot be profitable, then you won’t be in business for a long time, and you will fail the people you’re serving, to whom you have promised to deliver impact. Profit allows you to scale up, hire more people, create jobs, and provide products. So, the question is: How do we take them both together,  balance them out, and ensure we have a great mix of the two?

The business environment has changed in pretty significant ways. Technology has been a fundamental driver of that change in the operating context. Let’s look at employees. If you go back 30 years ago and you were trying to find a job in a completely different state, that was quite challenging, right?  But now, because of advancements in technology like LinkedIn, you would be able to actually make a choice that was not available to you before.

The same is true for consumers: not only has choice changed, but voice has, too. Now, most of the competitiveness of organizations is actually driven by things like social capital, the trust that you have from society to the brand that you’re offering; intellectual capital, the collective ingenuity of all your employees; and of course, human capital and natural capital as well. As a result, because of all of those more intangible assets that businesses depend on, the voice of people — of consumers, employees, and stakeholders — has become a really important driver of strategic decision-making and value inside organizations.

My book also gives guidance to readers about actions they can take to align their convictions and values with their careers. As an example, if you are extremely passionate about addressing an environmental issue like climate change, or a social issue like diversity and inclusion, you have some choices. The first one is: you can choose to find employment in a place that maximizes the alignment of your purpose to begin with — like an environmentally conscious person choosing to work with a solar energy company. Individuals making choices like this value that level of alignment right from the beginning. 

Others might choose to join organizations where the level of alignment might be low in the beginning, but what they actually value is the rate of change. These people might join a traditional energy company and you try to make a difference by changing that company. We all make different choices and we need to be thinking about those parameters in a systematic way when we think about our own individual purpose and impact at the workplace.

Behrman, NationSwell: There’s political pushback against ESG, and there’s measures of skepticism towards ESG from various quarters of the investment community. Does this criticism impede progress, or is there a world in which all of this is helpful, that the pushback sharpens folks and helps them pressure test their ambitions?

Serafeim, HBS: It would be a shame if the field of ESG becomes a partisan political issue. I view it as a field of development, where it actually becomes part of our management and our governance, that people incorporate into their career pathways — that leads to organizations collectively seeing more positive outcomes.  To me, that is not a Democratic or a Republican issue, it’s a human aspiration issue.

Now, I know that many people view it as a political issue, and it would be a shame if we cannot actually shake it and say, “This is about human aspirations, and how we move forward, and how we actually improve real outcomes.”

When it comes to criticism, there’s lots of it that is quite helpful to advancing the field of ESG. I have written papers that could be construed as a criticism of ESG because I think we should improve things — if you don’t criticize it, how else can you improve?

That said, there are criticisms of ESG that are driven by incentives, personal agendas, and misconstructions of what a concept might be.  I would separate those out because I don’t think they’re helpful, and they serve very specific purposes. But taking a step back from those, the fact that there’s criticism is a good thing because it means interest in the field is peaking, that it’s making a difference, because if it’s not, nobody would care. So the fact that there’s pushback, helpful and unhelpful, means that after a long period of time ESG is finally really affecting things.

For anyone working in an administration position in an organization, it’s important to filter the criticism, keep the good ones that actually can be helpful in improving your organization, filter out the ones that are not helpful, and then feel good about the fact that there’s any criticism at all — because it means the field is actually making a difference. 

Behrman, NationSwell:  Who are some of the ESG practitioners whom you admire?

Serafeim, HBS: Social Finance, led by Tracy Palandjian, is an organization that for me is incredible, it’s amazing the amount of work that they have been doing there. We’re working with another organization, the Value Balancing Alliance out of Germany, they are an incredible organization as well.  

I have been impressed by many people, and one of my personal favorites is Sir Ronald Cohen. The fact that he has been able to be a serial social entrepreneur catalyzing the whole impact investing movement and going strong for 50 years with the conviction and the vision to drive forward things that — for many people — look unimaginable or impossible.

Ilham Kadri, the CEO of Solvay, is someone that has always deeply impressed me. Her vision around sustainability, advanced materials, and how we can actually use technology in science to move forward is something that I have admired a lot. 

Sarah Williamson at FCLT is a pragmatic, collaborative leader who has really made a difference when it comes to how large institutions everywhere around the world are thinking about the issues of long-term prosperity.

And I’d round that out with some scholars and academics: Harvard Business School’s previous and current deans, Nitin Nohria and Srikant Datar, who both demonstrate an enormous amount of intellectual rigor and capacity to implement and visualize the future with conviction for where a long established legacy organization like Harvard Business School needs to go. Lastly, Rebecca Henderson is one of the most important global scholars of our age. I’ve learned a lot from them.

There are so many great organizations and practitioners — I would say what they usually say, that it takes a village, is just so true when it comes to that. We’re talking about system change, and system change takes a lot of people.

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.