Going Green?
Hudson Gain Studies The Chief Sustainability Officer Role In Corporations
DON’T HIRE A SUSTAINABILITY CHIEFUNTIL YOU READ THIS STUDY!
OCTOBER 15, 2008
Healthy organizations have always looked for ways to reduce costs in the near
term, appeal to customers and employees, and ensure the long term viability of the organization.
The current trend toward sustainability in organizations is exciting because it supports all of these
business objectives.
Hudson Gain Corporation, the leadership solutions firm, has conducted a comprehensive study on
sustainability and leadership. Specifically we reviewed the role of the head of sustainability in organi-
zations. The study includes research on over 1200 companies, and leverages interviews with over 60
sustainability executives. This document provides insight on the key responsibilities and challenges
of the sustainability boss, as well as guidance for creating and filling the role. We hope this study will
prove useful to any organization seeking to fill the role of chief sustainability officer, whether creating
the role for the first time or upgrading the function, or whether filling the role with an internal candi-
date or conducting an external search for the right sustainability leader.
Table of Contents
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Scope And Methodology .................................................................................................................................................. 7
Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Case Study........................................................................................................................................................................ 11
Requirements For The Corporate Head Of Sustainability Job .................................................................................... 13
Challenges Of Sitting CSOs............................................................................................................................................ 23
Top Sustainability Leadership – Companies And People ............................................................................................25
Looking Ahead To Sustainability 1.0 And 2.0 ................................................................................................................28
Best Quotes From Our Interviews ..................................................................................................................................31
Credits ..............................................................................................................................................................................33
3
Introduction
The coming decades will prove to be a trying and excit-
ing journey where organizations and their leaders will
find solutions to capture elusive energy sources, find
enough water for growing popu-
lations without polluting too
much of it, slow global climate
change, and preserve the
ecosystem that supports all
forms of life, including cus-
tomers and companies. Now is
the time for boards, CEOs, CFOs and HR executives to
ask, “Does my organization have the right sustainabili-
ty role to win this challenge? Do we have the right
person in this critical role?”
In this study we provide a definition of sustainability,
“must have” criteria for the top sustainability job in
organizations who are selecting someone to lead the
sustainability function, a list of the top three sustainabil-
ity bosses, and other great findings and quotes from our
research of over 1200 organiza-
tions, and our interviews with
over 60 sustainability execu-
tives.
For the purposes of this study,
we sometimes refer to an orga-
nization’s top role in sustainability as the “Chief
Sustainability Officer” or as the “CSO.” In practice, the
actual job titles vary greatly and include terms such as
Green, Sustainability, Environment, Community and
Social Responsibility. In other cases the role was a sub-
4
Now is the time for boards, CEOs,
CFOs and HR executives to ask,
“Does my organization have the
right sustainability role to win this
challenge?”
set of a leadership role in another function such as
Operations or Communications.
Sustainability: What Is It?
When companies and decision makers start to look
at sustainability as an issue, they are bombarded
with reams of data about green, alternative energy,
recycling, carbon footprint, responsibility, and the
seemingly endless variations on the definition of
“sustainability.” You might find many debates about
the motives of big corporations that publicize their
sustainability programs, versus the argument that
the largest organizations are the ones who stand to
make the biggest impact for the planet. If you find all
of this daunting, we have encouraging news for you.
There are simple long-standing principles that organ-
izations use to measure and improve their business
through sustainable business practices. The philoso-
phies behind many of the current organizational
sustainability practices can be traced back to the
Brundtland Commission (World Commission on
Environment and Development, 1987), which defines
sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future genera-
tions to meet their own needs.”
Our study focused on the voice of the executives who
are leading sustainability efforts on behalf of major
corporations and non-profits, and in this elite circle
of sustainability executives, there is a tendency
toward a consistent definition of “sustainability” that
is often referred to as the “triple bottom line.” The
three Ps of the triple bottom line are Profit, People
and Planet.
5
PROFIT – from reducing waste and costs today, to
ensuring that resources will be available for sustainable
profitable operations long term.
PEOPLE – from compliance in HR, OSHA and cus-
tomer safety today, to social responsibility and
ensuring the sustainable well-being of future genera-
tions of customers and employees.
PLANET – from environmental compliance today, to
long term global environmental viability to sustain the
ecosystem that human life and commerce depend on.
While each organization’s definition might vary, the
“triple bottom line” definition at least influences sus-
tainability practices in most companies with a
commitment to sustainability.
6
Scope And Methodology: LeadingCompanies In Sustainability
Of 1241 companies that are on one or more of the
Fortune 500, FT Global 500 or the Forbes Largest
Private Companies lists, fewer than half of the compa-
nies list in their public documents an executive with at
least partial responsibility for sustainability and the
environment. Most surprising is that of the 1241 com-
panies researched, there were only a total of 191
executives listed with responsibility for sustainability
(and/or the environment) explicitly indicated in their
job title. As it turned out, many other companies had
someone performing sustainability duties and provid-
ing cross functional leadership to green activities that
were bubbling up in various functions throughout the
organization.
We focused our study primarily on larger global public
and private organizations, and we also included several
mid sized specialty companies, universities and other
organizations with advanced sustainability practices. In
total we reviewed the credentials of 214 executives with
key responsibility for sustainability, and we engaged 61
of them in a structured individual interview.
To maximize the degree to which participants could
be open and transparent with us, we agreed to make
their participation and their employers anonymous
and their comments unattributed. As we conducted
our research and interviews, the spirit of the sustain-
ability executive community was remarkable. The
executives we interviewed had a clear spirit of shar-
ing, and a true mission of preserving the environment
and its resources for future generations, and they
were equally committed to their fiduciary responsi-
7
bility to the employers, shareholders, customers and
communities they impact.
Companies Represented in the Interviews:
For this study, Hudson Gain conducted original
research and interviews with sustainability leaders from
leading companies in a range of sectors including:
8
AutomobileManufacturers
Chemical Companies
Consumer Products
Energy Producers
Media & Publishing
Food and Beverage
Healthcare Servicesincluding HospitalSystems
Pharmaceuticals
Retailers
Financial Services
Business Services
Technology and ComputerProducts
Universities
Conclusions
The authors of this study conclude that it will continue
to be a competitive advantage for a company to have a
sustainability function. The reason is that many initia-
tives yield meaningful near term cost savings.
Increasingly, sustainability leaders are identifying and
making progress toward initiatives that promise long
term efficiencies. Experienced sustainability leaders
are also keen to strike a balance, and can point to just
as many initiatives that present extreme long term ROI
challenges. One head of sustainability said, “We can be
the greenest company on the planet but if we are losing
money, we won’t be in business any longer.” He and
others also talked about the importance of the long
view, reinforcing that sustainability is a function that
looks well beyond the near term costs and savings.
After all, if businesses do not operate in a way that
ensures enough clean water, soil, air and energy to sup-
port growing populations, it will make it very hard for
any business to be in business.
Further, it is clear that there is a very limited talent pool
of experienced sustainability executives. As noted ear-
lier just over 200 sustainability bosses could be
identified from over 1200 companies. For the typical
newly created position, the Board, CEO, CFO and/or HR
would determine the required skills and qualifications,
interview candidates (internal and external) and
appoint someone to the role. Because of the newness
of sustainability as a dedicated business function, and
because of the shortage of talent, instead of appointing
someone to set a strategy, marshal resources and
engage the organization, many CEOs are simply handing
off the sustainability responsibilities to an existing
employee whose main credentials are an interest in sus-
9
tainability and strong reputation in the company. While
many sustainability chiefs have flourished in this sce-
nario, this hiring strategy runs the risk of mixed results.
Because of the newness of a formalized sustainability
function, there simply are very few people with more
than just a few years of experience.
Boards, CEOs, CFOs and HR need to
take a more systematic approach to
designing the role, and selecting
from available talent internally and
externally, and developing and sup-
porting that talent (see more under
“Requirements for the Chief of Sustainability Job”).
During our interviews, innovation had a high coinci-
dence with sustainability leaders who were finding
solutions to the long term challenges. Screening for
innovation ability, and supporting innovation will be cru-
cial to the successful hiring and development of sus-
tainability talent.
The authors of this study believe that Wall Street will
ultimately reward sustainable practices. Sustainable
business practices can impact the following metrics,
and when they do, they will be posi-
tively factored into the valuation of
companies:
• cost savings achieved through
reduction of waste
• reduced liability derived from more responsible han-
dling of materials and pollutants
• performance of a business based on their ability to
attract and retain the most qualified employees
• long term viability of a business due to its access to
sustainable resources and customer bases
10
Wall Street will
ultimately reward
sustainable practices
The challenge for companies today is to select, appoint
and empower sustainability leaders who understand
and act on this connection between sustainability, com-
pany performance, and company valuation.
While there is a debate about
whether or not long term
prospects for Return on
Investment (ROI) are realistic, we
found at least one case study in
which ROI from long term sustain-
ability activities was both realistic,
and reflected in net present value (NPV) in the short
term.
Case Study
Random House, Inc. is one company that has imple-
mented a number of environmental initiatives with
positive ROIs in the last few years. “Given that wasted
carbon usually equates to wasted dollars, it’s no sur-
prise that many of these have been reduction or
efficiency projects” says Andrew Van Der Laan, lead for
sustainability initiatives at Random House. “And it’s
become increasingly clear that our
core business strategy and our
sustainability strategy are inextri-
cably linked because of these
efficiency opportunities.”
A perfect example is Random
House’s recent overhaul of their warehouse lighting.
They replaced metal halide lights with fluorescent
lights that used 40% less energy with no noticeable dif-
ference in light output. Additionally, they installed
motion detectors and timers to ensure that lights were
always turned off in unoccupied portions of the facility,
11
“This was a project that
made good business sense,
even before we considered
the environmental benefits.”
which increased the energy savings. This upgrade cost
Random House just over $800,000, but the investment
has been well worth it. The initial analysis suggested
that the upgrade would reduce annual energy con-
sumption by about 3.4 million kWhs, generating nearly
$400,000 in annual savings, and that’s been borne out
by the actual results in the first nine months after the
project was completed. That’s a payback period of just
over two years even at current electricity prices, which
Van Der Laan notes have been increasing by double
digit percentages for the last several years. “This was a
project that made good business sense, even before we
considered the environmental benefits,” he says.
However, he points out that green was definitely part of
the pitch, saying “We highlighted the fact that the
regional grid supplying our warehouse facility derives
much of its energy from coal, and therefore produced
50% greater emissions than the electricity we were
using at other facilities. That let us talk about the addi-
tional benefit of reducing more emissions per dollar
invested than would have been possible at any other
facility.”
12
Requirements For The CorporateHead Of Sustainability Job
We asked sustainability leaders what the requirements
of the job are, and specifically, we asked what qualities
are “universal” regardless of size of company or indus-
try, for-profit or non-profit. As a control we also asked
what they felt was specific to their industry or sector.
Below are the top “universal” qualities, criteria and
characteristics of effective sustainability executives:
COMMUNICATION – Virtually everyone we inter-
viewed placed a high importance on communications
skills. CSOs need to educate and persuade, and they
need to mobilize resources and inspire people to
action. Communication is also seen as a lever for driv-
ing action by creating awareness of financial aspects.
One leader encouraged, “sensitize people to the effect
sustainability has on finances and reporting.” Many of
the CSOs also warned against making communications
the cornerstone of the strategy – if it is all talk and no
science, or no action, the initiatives become hollow and
tend to fail.
TECHNOLOGY – A good CSO candidate needs to be
generally familiar with the technology of the organiza-
tion he or she serves as well as the technology of
sustainability (energy, waste, carbon emissions, etc.)
and how their company creates footprint in these
areas. One CSO said, “The technology aspects of ener-
gy sustainability are universal.” The same can be
argued for the science of waste, carbon emissions and
many other technological components of sustainability
strategy.
FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY – While most of the
CSOs agreed there are long term benefits that compa-
13
nies often strive for, the great majority cited short term
opportunities to save money with sustainability prac-
tices. One executive told us that it is much easier to
build support for sustainability, “if it saves money, and
if it improves your standing on Wall Street.”
MEASUREMENT – Gather data, establish your base-
line, benchmark to your peers, set goals, and
continuously improve, measure, and start the cycle all
over again.
INNOVATION – Most of the CSOs were very modest
about what is happening in the field today, and stressed
the urgency to find new drivers of sustainability. To
paraphrase the comments of many of our interviewees
- what is going on now is not enough.
ETHICS – Keeping balance among the three Ps of the
triple bottom line - profits, people and planet - and pur-
suing these with transparency and for the right rea-
sons.
SUPPLY CHAIN – CSOs need to understand the entire
supply chain in order to reduce footprint at each stage
of design, sourcing, producing and delivering the goods
and services of their organization. The most advanced
sustainability programs are making changes in their
own operations, throughout their supply chain, and in
their suppliers’ and customers’ behavior. They’re driv-
ing customer behavior by both educating their
customers, and by leading R&D to change products in a
way that is conducive to lower energy use, greater recy-
clability and reduced end of use impact.
OPERATIONS, STRUCTURE AND CULTURE – CSOs
need an understanding of how structure and culture
works in order to have the type of impact required to
make sustainability a priority for every department and
14
division in the organization, and have to be empowered
by Boards, CEOs, CFOs and HR with the right authority
and resources to get the job done. As one person put it,
“Sustainability is a direction that every department must
take. It’s a matrix organization; I have to partner with all
the functions. Sustainability is about alignment.”
The above requirements were voiced consistently during
our interviews with CSOs. A number of other worthy
requirements were suggested as well, and they include:
• Commitment to the 3 P’s of sustainability.
• Ability to change culture, and make sustainability
part of every job.
• Quantitative approach, measurement, ability to quan-
tify carbon footprint and other parameters.
• Financial approach to showing ROI.
• Operational expertise such as understanding of cool-
ing systems and facilities.
• Deep technical expertise in the underlying science
and engineering that will ultimately drive change.
• Ability to foster complete change in a business, or as
one CSO put it, “we’ve been a natural gas company
[for many decades]; there won’t be any gas compa-
nies in the next century.”
• Ability to marshal support.
• Support from the CEO, the C-suite and the board. Yet
one sustainability leader added, “what the C-suite is
looking for is a little shy of what is needed.”
• Ability to influence all levels and functions.
• Ability to generate cost savings, and ability to per-
suade others about importance of long term benefits
that may incur higher costs today.
15
• Partner with the communications function.
• Combination of business and environmental back-
grounds.
• Measurable prior success in sustainability.
• Understand your specific industry, and understand
most of what gets done in sustainability is transfer-
able across industries.
• Ability to map the company’s impact.
• Strong auditing skills.
• Strong vendor selection and management skills.
• Strong project management skills.
Advice to companies looking to hire their firstCSO and advice to new CSOs
This is not your father’s career. Stock and cash alone
will not lure a sustainability boss away from a top post.
This is a breed of executive with multifaceted motiva-
tions. What will lure them is the opportunity to have
the biggest, most enduring impact on the largest num-
ber of constituents. If your company is ready to
support such challenges and benefit from conquering
such challenges, then you will be in position to attract
the best CSO talent.
Even if your company already has a sustainability func-
tion, expect it will continuously change in the coming
years, as new, more impactful best practices emerge.
Organizations should place in the role someone who
leads, innovates and builds, rather than someone who
operates or manages.
16
Some additional advice from the panel ofCSOs we interviewed
• Look for the right talent internally and externally to
lead the charge.
• Use outside experts to get a fresh look at your com-
pany and scope out the charter of your sustainability
initiatives and role of the CSO.
• Like any business function, there needs to be a boss,
but like great HR makes everyone a better people
manager, great CSOs will make sustainability part of
everyone’s job.
• Partner with government, Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs), academia.
• Find the most supportive employees, and engage and
support them first.
• Find a way to tie sustainability to values that already
exist in and drive your company.
• “The better educated graduates want their personal
values to align with the work. They want to work for
someone they feel proud of, so the company policy
on sustainability and [corporate social responsibility]
is a plus for recruitment.”
• Communications is important to build support, but
avoid a communication-only strategy.
• “Don’t over staff this thing. Building a big sustain-
ability shop signals this is an operation.” Rather,
imbed sustainability in the culture, function as an
internal consultant, and “facilitate the process.”
• “Your board members should be from companies
that are implementing sustainability.”
17
Other CSOs suggested alternatives to hiring aCSO
• Board member with sustainability responsibility, to
act as a thought leader and catalyst on forward-look-
ing sustainability opportunities, and a watchdog on
norms and compliance.
• “If someone has a passion for improving the business
[and a passion for improving the business’s impact on
the world], then I would go with the internal person
and support them with consultants.”
Making a commitment to hire a CSO is significant for any
organization, and sustainability heads are in short supply.
So the competition to find and identify qualified CSOs will
create a fair amount of churn in the marketplace. The best
sustainability executives insist on support from the top. One
sitting sustainability head said, if he was approached about a
new role, “I would want to interview with the top person. If
there is no connection or synergy, it is not going to work.”
Hiring a Sustainability Boss from the Outside,or Promoting from Within?
We asked our interviewees, when an organization is creat-
ing a Sustainability role for the first time, whether they
should hire from the outside, or develop from within. The
results are as follows:
18
16.4%Outside
36% Depends* 21.3%
Inside
26.3%Outside if you
don’t have someone inside
* depends on company size, culture, need for company knowledge versus sustain-ability knowledge, potential need for a new perspective and/or changemanagement ability, etc.
Where CSOs Come From
During the interviews, CSOs reflected on their back-
grounds more as springboards than as prerequisites.
In practice, CSOs come from a wide range of educa-
tional backgrounds, business function experience and
industries. The following functions represent the areas
from which many sitting sustainability executives built
their credentials:
• Change Management
• Engineering and R&D
• Environment and Safety
• Finance and Audit
• Human Resources and Organizational Development
• Law and Compliance
• Operations
• Public Relations and Communications
• Strategy Consulting
• Supply Chain
The above functional experience in and of itself does
not make someone qualified for the top sustainability
job. The CSOs most recognized by their peers were
perceived to have strong people skills and an ability to
turn vision into action. As a broader talent pool, the
CSOs we interviewed demonstrated a passion about
the issues, and a motivation for continuous learning.
Setting Standards
Throughout the study and during the interviews it
became very clear that there is a short list of organiza-
tions, councils and standard setting bodies that are
shaping generally accepted practices in sustainability.
19
Before you hire or promote anyone to lead sustainabili-
ty in your organization, ask them what they can teach
you about:
• CERES Reporting www.ceres.org
• Dow Jones Sustainability Index www.sustainability-
index.com
• Environmental Protection Agency www.epa.gov
• GRI Guidelines www.globalreporting.org
• ISO 14001 www.iso.org
• Millennium Ecosystem Assessment www.maweb.org
• National Resources Defense Council www.nrdc.org
• US Green Building Council (and LEED certification)
www.usgbc.org
• World Business Council for Sustainable Development
www.wbcsd.org
• World Resources Institute www.wri.org
Additionally, sustainability leaders actively partner with
specific organizations in their communities or in their
sector. A strong candidate for the top sustainability
post at your organization should be able to talk about
their connections to and strategy for partnering with:
• Universities, various
• NGOs, various
• Energy Utilities, various
20
Guide to Building CSO Talent from the Insideversus Buying Experience from the Outside
If your organization has never had a sustainability head
before, or if you are faced with replacing, expanding or
upgrading the role, these seven steps will be vital to
your success.
• Leadership team and Board meet to determine the
business objective for creating the sustainability role.
Collectively envision and define what success should
look like one to three years in the future. Understand
that adding this role may require a new level of col-
laboration at the senior leadership team level.
• Partner with an outside expert in sustainability lead-
ership to clarify role and responsibilities, build
requirements and objectives for the sustainability
position, and be sure that the objectives of the role
align with the organization’s business objectives.
• Working with a talent acquisition expert (such as
your internal talent/staffing group or an outside
expert in sustainability leadership and executive
search), map out a search process that considers
both internal and external CSO talent.
• In the event the best candidate is internal, prepare (in
advance) a development plan for the newly appoint-
ed sustainability boss. Be prepared to invest in
training and/or coaching in soft skills such as com-
munication, influencing, leading, managing change,
etc. Be prepared to invest in hard skills and certifica-
tions in technology, audit, etc.
21
• In the event the best CSO candidate is external, pre-
pare (in advance) an on-boarding plan that gets the
outside hire up to speed on your culture. The best
on-boarding programs involve multiple stakeholders,
maximize engagement across the business, generate
early wins and make the outside hire an insider more
quickly.
• Conduct the search including targeted candidate
research, interviews, assessments and references.
Ensure “apples to apples” comparison of sustainabili-
ty talent by applying the same discipline for internal
candidates as for external candidates. Make the hire.
• Follow through on training, development and on-
boarding.
22
Challenges Of Sitting CSOs
Sustainability is not a zero-sum proposition. It can be
implemented in ever increasing stages of profitability
and employee engagement. As you create or fill the
CSO role, be prepared to support and empower your
sustainability boss through a number of typical obsta-
cles. Below are some of the specific challenges that
CSOs voiced:
• Getting the organization engaged, pushing people
beyond their comfort zone
• Changing processes
• Getting companies to act on their plans.
• Getting the data you need to set a baseline, compare
to benchmarks, set a target, and measure against
targets in energy usage, pollution, recyclability of
products, etc.
• Showing the numbers to people, getting them to go
green.
• Reducing our footprint
• Helping customers reduce their footprint.
• Transcending the organizational structure and cul-
ture, “from working with a housekeeper fishing
medical waste out of the garbage in a hospital to get-
ting the CEO to issue a press release [or a new
policy].”
• Leveraging those already engaged while educating
those who are not.
23
• Getting the right mix of marketing/communications
and operational change and HR to make things happen.
• Educating people in a way that makes them knowl-
edgeable, confident and ultimately engaged in
making an impact.
• Bring together all the disparate activities and
resources in a manageable, understandable single
process.
• Data collection: what are our usages, footprint, and
where.
• Complexities of a post-off-shoring world: “electricity
is more [expensive] in India than in North Carolina,
and the Indian facility emits more carbon than its
North Carolina counterpart.”
24
Top Sustainability Leadership –Companies And People
Skeptics are quick to question the motives or genuine-
ness of sustainability at companies like Wal-Mart or BP.
The fact is other companies nearly as large are doing
nothing. If shareholders come to expect that compa-
nies continuously improve sustainability, which benefits
everyone, then we’ll ultimately have the Wal-Marts and
BPs to thank for getting the competition started, even if
they are not always seen as the perfect examples of
everything that can possibly be done.
During the interviews the 61 participants in the study
recommended 95 individuals and named over 120
companies as being noteworthy examples of top lead-
ers in the creation and development of sustainability
functions.
Their criteria for being a “Top CSO” were:
• Creative, innovative and breaking new ground.
• Delivering results in sustainability across the 3 P’s of
the Triple Bottom Line.
• Great communicators.
• Someone who sets a vision, gets the ball rolling, and
measures success – typical in any function, but diffi-
cult in the new and sometimes elusive area of
sustainability.
• Freely sharing what they do with other companies.
25
The Making of a Sustainability Success –Featured Executive
Dawn Rittenhouse joined DuPont in 1980 and has held
positions in Technical Service, Sales, Marketing, and
Product Management within the Packaging and
Industrial Polymers business and Crop Protection busi-
nesses. In late 1997, she began working in the
corporate organization to assist DuPont businesses in
integrating sustainability strategies into their strategy
and business management processes. She leads
DuPont’s efforts at the World Business Council for
Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the United
Nations Global Compact. She also manages the cor-
porate recognition program for Sustainable Growth
Excellence. In 2007 she also picked up responsibility
for DuPont’s efforts on climate change. She is current-
ly on the Board of ERTHNXT, the Advisory Committee
of Bridges to Sustainability and the Education
26
COMPANIES MOST NOMINATED BY THEIRPEERS AS DOING THE MOST IN SUSTAINABILITY
Wal-Mart (10 mentions)
DuPont (8 mentions)
Coke, Interface, Nike, and Starbucks (6 mentions each)
INDIVIDUALS RECOGNIZED BY THEIR PEERSAS TOP SUSTAINABILITY PROFESSIONALS
Ben PackardVP Global Responsibility
Starbucks
Dawn Rittenhouse Director, Sustainable Development
DuPont
Matt KistlerSVP Sustainability
Wal-Mart
Committee of the Delaware Nature Society. Dawn has
a double major in Chemistry and Economics from Duke
University.
A Note About DuPont
DuPont is one of the first companies to publicly estab-
lish environmental goals which it started doing 18 years
ago. It has broadened its sustainability commitments
beyond internal footprint reduction to include market-
driven targets for both revenue and research and
development investment. The goals are tied directly to
business growth, specifically to the development of
safer and environmentally improved new products for
key global markets. DuPont is a science-based prod-
ucts and services company. Founded in 1802, DuPont
puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions
essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people
everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries,
DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and
services for markets including agriculture and food;
building and construction; communications; and trans-
portation.
27
Looking Ahead To Sustainability11..00 And 22..00
Regardless of what industry you look at, there are basic
“1.0” sustainability practices that may seem like com-
petitive advantages now, but will soon become eclipsed
by “2.0” level sustainability innovations. That said,
there are other industries or organizations, where tak-
ing a 2.0 approach now may be too disruptive, and
initiatives may not generate enough support to be
effective. The art of success will be gauging the right
strategy for your business.
Sustainability may have a long way to go, but it is noth-
ing new. One CSO told us that a U.S. based luxury car
maker, during in 1980s “developed a new headliner,
[the covering on the interior roof]. It was a new prod-
uct. We wanted to make the headliner out of a fairly
rigid material. We evaluated materials. The one we
went with was recycled bottles. It was the best kept
secret at [luxury car maker].” This CSO explained fur-
ther that the company couldn’t tell customers that
recycled bottles were in a [luxury car brand]. But it
sparked an interest in other recycled materials, which
led to “recycled compact discs in switches.”
Sustainability goes back farther than that. You might
recall returnable reusable soda bottles, or the diaper
service that picked up dirty diapers, and dropped off
clean diapers. Perhaps reusable products will make a
come back. But sustainability goes back even farther
than these. A popular maker of environmentally
responsible consumer products, Seventh Generation,
takes its name from the Great Law of the Iroquois
which states, “In our every deliberation, we must con-
sider the impact of our decisions on the next seven
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generations.” Revitalizing timeless truths to drive a
futuristic approach to business is working for Seventh
Generation. Let’s take a look at where large organiza-
tions are today, and where they are taking
sustainability. We’re confident the future of your busi-
ness will benefit from this collective insight.
Reactive Sustainability Practices (pre-1.0)
• Communications or legal or regulatory affairs related
activities only.
• Traditional ‘environmental’ function steeped in safety
and compliance.
• Biggest reason for activity is to save money.
• Recycling programs.
• Labeling products and packaging for recyclability.
Sustainability Version 1.0
• The sustainability boss is a C-level position, empow-
ered to make sustainability integrated in the business
and part of everyone’s job.
• Educating your customer about the company’s cur-
rent sustainable practices.
• Packaging made from recycled materials.
• Eliminating secondary packaging.
• Reducing energy usage in plants, offices and via cor-
porate policies such as reducing executive air travel.
• Retooling and reorganizing plants for more sustain-
able operations.
• Enabling the sustainable behavior of your employees,
customers and of your suppliers.
• Lighter paper that takes less energy to ship and less
energy to cart away to recycle.
29
• Conducting sustainability audits, and managing peo-
ple and resources to improve key sustainability
metrics. One CSO cited, “It is not a top down process .
. . some of our most exciting savings with energy use
came from challenging the employees on the floor”
Sustainability Version 2.0
• Agenda of “zero footprint”.
• Normal business operating at a negative carbon foot-
print (and possibly selling carbon offsets as a
by-product) rather than buying carbon offsets to
make normal operations carbon neutral.
• Outside verification of the sustainability audit, “a lot
of people are suggesting Carbon Offsetting should
fall under Sarbanes Oxley”.
• Redesigning products for sustainable manufactura-
bility.
• Networked power supplies in computer networks:
when users turn off computers, the network detects
what peripherals, servers and cooling systems won’t
be needed, and switches them off too.
• Regenerate energy from the heat from computers,
battery chargers, power supplies and servers to con-
tribute to the generation of electricity.
• Designing for the sustainability at each phase of the
product’s creation, production, use and disposal. For
example, one CSO suggested, “in electronics, reducing
energy use in the products, and reducing the toxins
that are released from the products at disposal.”
• Popularizing the consumption of foods and bever-
ages at room temperature for foods and beverages
that don’t require refrigeration such as soft drinks.
• Influence and measure the rate at which your prod-
ucts are recycled after use.
30
Best Quotes from Our Interviews
“More and more the board is discussing [corporate
social responsibility] and considering [it] when making
decisions.”
“I can make buildings 100% [green], but then we won’t
be in business.”
“Some employees are pushing for us to change faster
than we are. Younger employees tend to be more green.
I think [buying into sustainability] is a generational
issue as much as an industry issue.”
“Lead customers rather than follow their lead. We
research chemicals, and pull them before the govern-
ment issues a warnings or a ban.”
Examine “. . . the environmental fate of chemicals,
where do they go after use, what are the substitutes,
are they worse . . .”
“Europe is head and shoulders ahead of [the U.S.]”
“China has no environmental regulations; everything is
going to the air, the rivers. We [consumers] are pollut-
ing the planet so we can have cheap goods.”
“We have to end our ‘dependence on foreign oil’, that
phrase has one too many words, we have to end our
dependence on oil period.”
“We have an OD [organizational development] group
that we lean on to move these issues forward.”
“Recycling isn’t true sustainability”, but another person
added, “recycling is not saving the world, but it gets
31
people where they live. It is a visible, noticeable, inter-
active program that is understood by everyone.”
“The chief consideration is a broad and strategic mind-
set because sustainability is not about a single function.
It’s really about the fact that the earth is about to dou-
ble in population in the next couple of decades and the
people in those areas that are about to double are in
developing areas. They are becoming more affluent and
will be vying for the same resources as we do.
Sustainability affects all inputs.”
On behalf of a leading beverage company it was said,
the perception is that bottles and water are its big sus-
tainability issues. “The reality is [beverage company’s]
biggest impact on the environment is its refrigeration.”
32
Credits
About the Authors of this study:
James Celentano founded Hudson Gain Corporation in
2003, has 14 years of human resources, executive
search and leadership development experience and is
an adjunct professor at New York University.
Roger Thorne has over 25 years of experience in orga-
nizational development, process improvement, and
human resources leadership, and is a Managing Partner
at Hudson Gain.
Victoria Zelin has over 20 years of change management,
organizational development and executive search experi-
ence, and is a Senior Vice President at Hudson Gain.
Patricia Samperi has over 10 years of experience in
corporate communications and management consulting,
is founder of Green Your Culture and is a senior con-
sultant in the extended team at Hudson Gain
Corporation.
Hudson Gain would like to thank the many organiza-
tions, sustainability professionals, consultants and
members of academia who participated in this study.
Sharing your insight and comments on an unattributed
basis maximized the frankness of this study. Without
your contributions this study would not have been pos-
sible. Additionally, we thank Andrew Van Der Laan and
Random House for sharing their case study; we thank
Dawn Rittenhouse and DuPont for sharing their details
for publication; and we thank Jonathan Cloud, the
entrepreneur-in-residence at the Sustainable Business
Incubator at Fairleigh Dickinson University for his
insight and feedback as we conceived of and conduct-
ed this study.
33
About Hudson Gain
Incorporated in New York in 2003 to deliver talent
acquisition and talent development services, Hudson
Gain Corporation is a boutique leadership solutions
firm serving the needs of client companies throughout
the world. Hudson Gain works with client organizations
to acquire leadership talent, accelerate the development
of management and leadership skills among high poten-
tial managers and leaders, and provide guidance,
support and solutions for companies in transition. Our
service offerings include Executive Search, On-Boarding,
Executive Assessment, Recruitment Process Design,
Leadership Development, Talent Management, Sales
Effectiveness, Management and Communications Skills
Training, Organizational Design, Employee Engagement
for Leaders, Human Capital Aspects of Merger
Integration, and Change Management for Sustainability.
Contact
To discuss sustainability, leadership or any need your
organization may have in executive search, human capital
development or change management, feel free to
directly contact Roger Thorne and Victoria Zelin.
Roger Thorne
Managing Partner
Hudson Gain Corporation
212 835 1601
Victoria Zelin
Senior Vice President
Hudson Gain Corporation
212 835 1602
34
©2008 Hudson Gain Corporation
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NEW YORK, NY 10001
WWW.HUDSONGAIN.COM
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