Sustainability Magazine - January 2022 by Energy Digital

January 2022 | sustainabilitymag.com

ESG

Reckitt

Spin's E-scooters are making sustainable micro-journeys a stark reality

Embedding quality in a changing environment

Diversity & Inclusion

Ferrexpo

Using the power we hold to increase diversity

Fires up decarbonisation and autonomy

EMPIRE

STATE

BUILDING 'S

FUTURE S

FEATURING:

INTERXION HQ

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

AGGREKO

In Association With:

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS

2022 February 23rd-24th

STREAMED & IN PERSON TOBACCO DOCK LONDON

Confirmed Speakers Include:

Ben Clifford

Sarah Chapman

Global Health, Safety & Sustainability Associate Director

Global Chief Sustainability Officer

Fidelity International

Manulife Financial Corporation

Roy Cheung

Mary-Jane Morifi

Global Head, Sustainability Solutions, Engineering Plastics

Chief Corporate and Sustainability Officer

Covestro

Tiger Brands Limited

Øistein Jensen

Sandeep Chandna

Chief Sustainability Officer

Chief Sustainability Officer Tech Mahindra

Odfjell SE

Never miss an issue!

+ Discover the latest news and insights about Global Sustainability...

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

The Sustainability Team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

JOHN PINCHING DEPUTY EDITORS

HELEN ADAMS EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

SCOTT BIRCH

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

GEORGIA ALLEN DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ PRODUCTION MANAGERS

PHILLINE VICENTE JANE ARNETA JACK THOMPSON ELLA CHADNEY

PRODUCTION EDITOR

JANET BRICE CREATIVE TEAM

OSCAR HATHAWAY SOPHIE-ANN PINNELL HECTOR PENROSE SAM HUBBARD MIMI GUNN JUSTIN SMITH REBEKAH BIRLESON JORDAN WOOD VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

KIERAN WAITE SAM KEMP

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

EVELYN HUANG HABBIE AMOS JACK NICHOLLS MARTA EUGENIO ERNIE DE NEVE MOTION DESIGNER

TYLER LIVINGSTONE MARKETING DIRECTOR

ROSS GARRIGAN

MARKETING MANAGER

GRETA ANDREJEVAITE PROJECT DIRECTORS

MARK CAWSTON

BEN WIGGER ASHLEY KIRBY GLEN WHITE MEDIA SALES DIRECTORS

GLEN WHITE MARK CAWSTON

MANAGING DIRECTOR

LEWIS VAUGHAN

EXECUTIVE ASSITANT

JORDAN HUBBARD CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

STACY NORMAN CEO

GLEN WHITE

FOREWORD

Smoke and mirrors

“There needs to be a collective awakening to some of the prescriptions. A bottle that has been made from recycled plastic is still a plastic bottle which could materialise in the ocean”

It seems absurd that, up until the 1950s, doctors were regularly prescribing cigarettes to people with asthma. “That’s 60 Lucky Strikes for you, Ethel,” would not be an uncommon diagnosis from a GP. What has this got to do with Sustainability, you may ask. It’s about refusing to look at the bigger picture; refusing to take a really good collective look in the mirror. When it comes to climate change we have to start thinking bigger – much bigger. Placing our myriad bins in colour and/or size order on Wednesday evening may make us feel better initially. But, like taking home fags from the pharmacy, isn’t much of what we are doing a short-term solution, designed to make us feel better without actually focusing on the wider, existential problem? There needs to be a collective awakening to some of the prescriptions. A bottle that has been made from recycled plastic is still a plastic bottle which could materialise in the ocean. Furthermore, when it comes to offsetting, should we be more inclined to raise an eyebrow. Surely it would be better to refrain from damaging the planet, rather than planting a tree in the aftermath of that destruction. We need to ignite a mind shift away from the dogma of ‘feeling good’ towards a culture of transformation. This means pushing the government towards an EV infrastructure, not in 2030, but in the next 18 months. And, yes, it means not stepping on that plane bound for Ibiza. After all, 1m on the runway will ‘offset’ the previous five years of recycling you had been so proud of. The march towards change, real tangible change, has started but we must make it fly,

JOHN PINCHING SUSTAINABILITY MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY

john.pinching@bizclikmedia.com

sustainabilitymag.com

CONTENTS

Our Regular Upfront Section: 12 Big Picture 14 The Brief 16 Timeline: Adidas 18 Trailblazer: Fawzia Koofi 22 Five Mins With: Aniket Bhatt

42 ESG

Electric dreams: Spin's e-scooter's are making sustainable microjourneys a stark reality

Increasing crop production without starving the planet

Creating a sustainable low carbon business culture

Bayer

CISL

Net Zero

Empire State's Building future

Diversity & Inclusion

Using the power we hold to increase diversity

Cardinal Health

ESG goals to build a more sustainable future

Capgemini

Unique skill set to uphold sustainability and change the world

106

Supply Chain sustainability Doesn't mean an erasure of profit

Enabling educators. Empowering students. Explore how we accelerate student discovery, learning and innovation with our Digital Education 3D Experience. EXPLORE THE 3D EXPERIENCE

152 116

Fidelity International

New adventures in sustainability for finance firm fidelity international

Covestro

Using products as part of a sustainability solution

164 Orsted

Inspiring the green energy revolution

128

Danone

Specialised nutrition takes global crusade for sustainability to the next level

176

Tech Mahindra

Seize the day to create a green business model

138 Enel X

Innovations are reaching the pinnacle of sustainability

190

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The gold standard in diverse spend

CONTENTS

206

252

Committed to net-zero data centres 2030

Build-to-suit data centres offer customised solutions

Interxion HQ

NTT

224

268

Embedding quality in a changing environment

Energy efficiency and CO2 challenges on the road to net zero

Reckitt

240 Aggreko

Powers smooth energy transition

Orange

282 SSE

Data-driven, frictionless, insights and creating value

294

Ferrexpo

Fires up decarbonisation and autonomy

306

Nautilus Data Technology Naturally cold water cooling for high-performance sustainable data centres

320

Sudlows

Growing with the demand

334

Quarry Mining

Dedicated to becoming the best in the market

BIG PICTURE

Avoca-don’t Off the menu Spain Spain

Avocados have been described as ‘ticking time bombs’. Once lauded as the ultimate symbol of dietary humanitarianism, their reputation has gone distinctly pear-shaped. Experts now believe that travelling 1000s of miles, only to be smeared across a cracker in Luton, is more environmentally damaging than eating meat. Thick-skinned? They’ll have to be. sustainabilitymag.com

THE BRIEF BY THE NUMBERS

“The Empire State Building is the world’s most famous building – the international symbol of hope, determination and endless possibilities”

Are automotive manufacturers incentivising the purchase of hybrid or electric vehicles enough?

Anthony E. Malkin

Chairman, President & CEO Empire State Realty Trust  READ MORE

“We are focused on reducing emissions in the transit ecosystems and enabling cities to be more greener, healthier, more equitable and liveable”

63% No

37%

Yes

Hui Wen Chan

Director of Sustainability, Spin  READ MORE

“By being transparent on D&I and helping to raise awareness, companies can prove they are engaging with ESG commitments” Kelly Perry

Head of ESG Client Solutions, Edison Group  READ MORE

January 2022

Spin’s e-scooters are making sustainable micro-journeys a reality Ford – the most famous car manufacturer in the world – is leading the electric transit charge with its future-proofing Spin e-scooters.

Supply chain sustainability doesn’t mean an erasure of profit Eco vibes and sustainability in the supply chain are both popular and profitable according to experts at Better Origin and Michelin.

 EXPEDIA AND KEY TRAVEL The travel companies are providing carbon neutral hotel rooms.

EMPIRE STATE OF MIND Retrofitting has enabled New York City’s most famous structure – the Empire State Building – to inspire future generations with a magnificent, modern and sustainable internal infrastructure. With reduced carbon emissions and alternative energy sources the iconic building has risen anew, galvanising its status as a landmark of popular culture, business and style. The Empire State Building has reduced carbon emissions by 54% over the past decade – which saves $4mn a year, while future efforts are expected to reduce emissions by 80% within the next decade. Sustainability Magazinespeaks exclusively with the team behind the brave new ‘Empire state of mind’ and an enduring determination to make The Empire State Building more relevant than ever.

 PIVOT BIO: TRANSFORMING THE FOOD SYSTEM & REDUCING EMISSIONS Pivot Bio has created a new fertiliser to enhance supply chain sustainability, as the human population rises and the focus of climate change shifts onto the methods of food production.  PWC'S DIVERSITY & INCLUSION SURVEY SHOWS ROOM FOR GROWTH Accounting company PwC has released the results of a new survey, showing how diversity and inclusion programmes have been received by employees. The results show there is work to be done.  PRESIDENT OF CHINA, XI JINPING, DECLARES AN END TO COAL USE Although there may have been some ambiguous wording used at COP 26, coal is on its way out.

W I N N E R S JAN22

L O S E R S sustainabilitymag.com

TIMELINE IT’S LIKE THAT THAT'S THE WAY IT IS Magic number German company Adidas was created by the superbly-named Adolf ‘Adi’ Dassler and his brother, Rudolph. It became renowned for high performance sports apparel and sneakers – later detailed by the now ubiquitous three stripes and a trefoil logo. Following a huge row between the siblings, however, Rudolph sprinted off and formed rival brand Puma.

Black history Undetered by growing racial discrimination in Germany, Adi conviced Black sprinter Jesse Owens to use Adidas spikes at the Olympic Games. It quickly became a success – quite literally, as Owens won four gold medals. Many endorsements have followed including partnerships with Daily Thompson, Carl Lewis, Kobe Bryant, Naomi Osaka, Damian Lillard and Florence Griffith Joyner (with whom it created a weird one-legged spandex running suit). 16

January 2022

1924

1936

It’s the instantly recognisable brand with the three stripes. Adidas has been setting the standard in sportswear for decades but its influence in the arenas of diversity, popular culture and sustainability have been just as enduring.

1986

1998

Diversity and united Throughout the 1980s Adidas’s tracksuits and its classic ‘Stan Smith’ tennis shoes were subverted by Black urban communities, graffiti artists and rappers in the US, who wore them as fashion statements rather than sportswear. Realising the potential of diversifying, Adidas signed a commercial ‘kit supplying’ deal with hip-hop act RUN-DMC. Similar deals have been struck with Beyoncé and Pharrell Williams, cementing Adidas’s status as pop culture icons. Pace setters In 1989 Adidas banned the use of CFC. Not Chelsea Football Club – whose kit it produced from 2006 to 2017 – but chlorofluorocarbons. The company does not use this ozone harming substances and many others in the production of any of its products. In 1998 it produced its Workplace Standards manifesto and, the following year, became the founding member of the Fair Labor Association. sustainabilitymag.com

TRAILBLAZER

Name: Fawzia Koofi Job Title: Former Republic Peace Negotiator and first female Deputy Speaker of Parliament in Afghanistan Company: Afghan Parliament

awzia Koofi has achieved several firsts – being the first girl in her family to attend school and achieve a Masters degree, then becoming the first woman in Afghanistan to serve as deputy speaker in the Afghanistan parliament. Throughout her 16 years working in the Afghan government, Fawzia has made the endurance of Afghan women an international concern and has helped untold levels of women and girls receive an education. Now a widow, Fawzia is living as a refugee with her two teenage daughters. But Fawzia plans to return to her homeland and has faith in the Afghan people. “One of the things not reported, on is the transformed generation, a generation that wants to live in harmony and peace”, says Fawzia. 18

January 2022

Across the world, men are more likely to die by suicide than women, yet in Afghanistan, 80% of suicide attempts are made by women. 87% of Afghan women are victims of physical, sexual or psychological abuse.

AFGHANISTAN’S FIRST DEPUTY SPEAKER IN PARLIAMENT DOESN’T FEAR THE TALIBAN

sustainabilitymag.com

TRAILBLAZER

Providing education and surviving assassination Women and girls were banned from educational institutions during the 1996 – 2001 Taliban rule. It was in the months following 9/11, at the beginning of the War in Afghanistan, when Koofi began her political career. She first endorsed a female education campaign ‘Back to School’ and the next year became a UNICEF Child Protection Officer. In 2005, she served as a parliamentary representative for Badakhshan province, the remote, mountainous region where she was raised. During the peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government, Fawzia 20

January 2022

met with the group and personally urged them to interact with female negotiators, but the Taliban laughed at her suggestion. They may have been embarrassed by Fawzia’s presence, after two failed assassination attempts against her. Afghanistan remains one of the most dangerous countries for women Fawzia has faced threats to her life before. Her parents wanted a son and left their newborn daughter in the Badakhshan mountains to die, until her mother changed her mind. Now, the Taliban have eroded decades of progress in a matter of months. Desperate families have fled the country, fearing that

“ Political differences should not be a reason to kill a human being” – Fawzia Koofi their sisters and daughters will be forced into marriage with the Taliban and denied the chance to finish school. Fawzia spoke about the abuse of Afghan women to the UN. “I ask member states to regard women and human rights in Afghanistan as a matter of national security of their own countries”, said Fawzia, who went on to highlight the importance of a government which protects “the diversity and inclusion of everyone”.

Diversity & Sustainable Development Award For her phenomenal work in a terrifying year, Fawzia won the Casa Asia 2021 award for Sustainable Diversity and Development. Fawzia was also honoured by the The Pat Tillman Foundation with the 2021 Champion Award, for her leadership in the Afghan evacuation. “If we abandon the people of Afghanistan, the consequences are going to be huge – not only on the people of Afghanistan but on the rest of the world”, Fawzia warned the UN. Wherever life in exile takes Fawzia, she won’t give up on Afghanistan and the “transformed generation” that wants peace – neither should we. sustainabilitymag.com

FIVE MINUTES WITH...

ANIKET BHATT

Co-founder at talks ESG, inspiration and leadership

WHY IS ESG IMPORTANT TO YOU?

ESG is moving at an incredible pace and is going to impact everyone. Through Zersent I hope that we can democratise ESG.

WHERE DID YOUR IDEA FOR ZERSENT COME FROM?

While at an international law firm I had the opportunity to speak with many leaders and the general counsel of various companies in the early to mid-stages of their ESG journey. It seemed to me there was a tremendous opportunity to create a tool for businesses to eliminate traditional siloes and start moving in the right direction.

January 2022

IMPLEMENTING ESG IN A BUSINESS CAN BE COMPLICATED. HOW DOES ZERSENT MAKE IT A SIMPLE PROCESS?

ESG acceptance is proliferating among employees, customers and investors. Most leaders, however, believe that their ESG programs fall short of producing the optimum result. Moreover, according to a survey, roughly 91% of corporate executives responded that they are not highly confident in their existing ESG capabilities. A few of the most common reasons organization's fail to reap the benefits of ESG are: • Siloed and fragmented implementation rather than a holistic approach   • Ignoring culture or efforts to transform culture   • Reporting and disclosure not based on existing standards and framework   • Not bringing everyone (board member as well as employees) on the same page • Directly jump to external ESG scores and benchmarks instead of understanding their organization's needs We kept these common issues in mind while developing our product. As a result, in addition to ESG reporting, Zersent also helps organizations tackle the root cause of issues like ESG culture transformation, collaboration, cross-functional engagements and address them holistically.

“ Most leaders, however, believe that their ESG programs fall short of producing the optimum result” When an organization starts using Zersent, they have most major reporting frameworks, such as SASB, TCFD, CDP, GRI, UN's sustainability goals, etc. Additionally, we leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) so that organizations can rapidly identify the gaps and create plans to bridge those gaps. sustainabilitymag.com

FIVE MINUTES WITH...

WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON ARGUMENTS YOU HEAR AGAINST ESG?

While developing our product, we interviewed many business leaders, industry experts, and sustainability experts. Going into the process we had made an assumption that businesses would be reluctant to embrace ESG, assuming that their fiduciary duty was limited to maximizing shareholder values irrespective of environmental or social impacts or broader governance issues. However, we learned that most business leaders support ESG, but they don’t know how and where to start when it comes to ESG. 24

January 2022

Additionally, they also complain that they lack the necessary tools to drive all the three components of the ESG holistically. That is where we come into the picture.

WE KNOW THE ENVIRONMENT, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE OF ESG – BUT IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU FEEL NEEDS TO BE FEATURED?

Yes! Value. It’s easy to forget that the primary purpose of a business is to create value for its stakeholders. However, it’s critical that the process of value creation is interlinked with the three components of ESG. During our research we learned that business leaders look for

“ During our research we learned that business leaders look for strategic direction to guide them” strategic direction to guide them where they are and what could be an ideal state to ensure that value creation is aligned with ESG. We created a maturity model called Zersent's ESG maturity model or ZM2.

It has five levels, with Level 1 the lowest and 5 the level most organisations strive for. It shows what the characteristics of each level are and what's missing. It's beneficial for the Chief Sustainability Officer or ESG leaders to see where they are and what the next level will look like.

WHERE DO YOU HOPE ZERSENT WILL BE IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS? We set out with a mission to democratize ESG. I expect that in 12 months we will continue to grow and help companies achieve ESG in a more effective manner through our platform.

sustainabilitymag.com

In Association With:

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS

2022 February 23rd-24th

STREAMED & IN PERSON TOBACCO DOCK LONDON

Confirmed Speakers Include:

Ben Clifford

Sarah Chapman

Global Health, Safety & Sustainability Associate Director

Global Chief Sustainability Officer

Fidelity International

Manulife Financial Corporation

Roy Cheung

Mary-Jane Morifi

Global Head, Sustainability Solutions, Engineering Plastics

Chief Corporate and Sustainability Officer

Covestro

Tiger Brands Limited

Øistein Jensen

Sandeep Chandna

Chief Sustainability Officer

Chief Sustainability Officer Tech Mahindra

Odfjell SE

INCREASING

CROP

PRODUCTION WITHOUT

STARVING THE PLANET WRITTEN BY: JOHN O'HANLON

January 2022

PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

BAYER

sustainabilitymag.com

BAYER

The paradox of agriculture is how to produce more with less environmental and climate impact: we talk with Bayer's Head of Sustainability, Klaus Kunz

ith a turnover of more than €40bn and a million employees, Bayer is a giant by any standards. Its Crop Sciences Division has grown alongside the traditional pharmaceutical business since it was launched in 2002, particularly since its acquisition of its American rival Monsanto. At that time, Chairman Werner Baumann asserted: “Our sustainability targets are as important to us as our financial targets,” a bold statement but a commitment all companies are having to take on in the new reality that's developed around climate change, biodiversity and population growth awareness. Agribusiness is especially under pressure to change and adapt to the sometimes conflicting pressures from the environmental lobby, the urgent need to feed ever growing populations and (frequently misinformed) public perception fuelled by social media or the press. That's part of the reason why Klaus Kunz, Head of Sustainability and Business Stewardship at Bayer Crop Science, has one of the most demanding jobs in this sector. He's been with Bayer for ten years, in his present job for the last three and a half leading sustainability initiatives and before that leading on compliance and regulatory issues. Thus he played a big part in formulating Bayer's three part commitment made in 2019, a rethink of Bayer's strategy following the Monsanto acquisition: 30

January 2022

Klaus Kunz, Head of Sustainability

Example of an image caption

“ I THINK THE MOST SPECTACULAR STEPS FORWARD WERE OUR FIRST PILOTS IN THE AREA OF CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURE” KLAUS KUNZ

HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY, BAYER

• To reduce the environmental impact of crop protection by 30% by 2030 by developing new technologies, e.g. helping farmers to scale down crop protection product uses and enabling a more precise application. • To reduce field greenhouse gas emissions from the most emitting crops systems in the regions Bayer serves by 30%. • And to empower 100m smallholder farmers by providing greater access to sustainable agricultural solutions. Reaching these goals will not solve the problem, he admits, and it's not yet clear exactly how they'll be met, but he says that setting high standards is an essential step on the road to transformative change. “The strategy shift was a clear statement, and a clear commitment to place sustainability at the core of our business in the future. I have seen massive changes in recent years and I'm 32

January 2022

really happy to have had the opportunity to contribute to those changes.” At Bayer, sustainability now has taken centre stage, delinked perhaps from corporate affairs and PR motivations. Now it is linked to impact, he says: “If you want sustainability to create an impact, you have to embed it in the business. There's no other way to do it. We and our competitors used to say our driver was to feed the world. Nothing wrong with helping farmers to improve their yield, but we have a lot of customers in the Americas and Europe among large-scale farmers, but if you say you want to make a contribution to feed the world, you need to focus also on smaller growers in low- and middle-income countries.” Part of the strategic shift was to acknowledge that food security is a huge concern in much of the world, and that to make an impact here and be more inclusive of smallholders would involve huge investment: hence the commitment to improve the lot of 100m of these small farmers. Bayer already has a strong presence in that market but it is far from the aspired target.

BAYER

Bayer: increasing crop production without starving the planet

sustainabilitymag.com

KLAUS KUNZ TITLE: HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY INDUSTRY: CHEMICALS

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: GERMANY Klaus Kunz is Head of Sustainability at Bayer Crop Science. He is a manager with 19 years’ experience in global strategic matters and projects. He is an effective team leader with a work history in research, development and project management as well as regulatory & public/governmental affairs. Klaus has a thorough understanding of the global regulatory and political environment, based on multiple interactions with local authorities worldwide. He is passionate about leading people, and tackling strategic cross-cultural and cross-functional challenges.

BAYER

However, particularly in Europe, there's growing concern about the impact of farming on biodiversity loss, greenhouse gas emissions, GMOs and the like. “We know agriculture plays a significant part in climate change, so we must talk about how to produce more and reduce the environmental impact of crop protection at the same time. Up till 2018 our industry was not very vocal about this, which is why we committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions on our customers’ fields and the impact of our crop protection products by 30% until 2030.” Delivering the promise So how to produce more and preserve better? Klaus Kunz is emphatic that a key tool will be better technology. “We believe there are disruptive technologies on the rise – it's about digital agriculture, precision application of crop protection to reduce volumes, and new breeding technologies which will open new opportunities to grow stronger plants.” With the help of his dedicated sustainability team and a growing sustainability network inside the company he has lined up a programme of work, first making sure that all the business units across the world know, understand and engage with the strategy.

“ IF YOU WANT SUSTAINABILITY TO CREATE AN IMPACT, YOU HAVE TO EMBED IT IN THE BUSINESS” KLAUS KUNZ

HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY, BAYER

So far the most spectacular step was to engage farmers with the concept of 'climate smart agriculture', the economic part of the equation, and this he finds truly exciting and innovative. “We want to incentivise growers for carbon sequestration, for a way of doing agriculture which helps to reduce emissions or even to put carbon back into the soil. We saw an opportunity to create business value from doing things more sustainably.” Many companies have set carbon neutral targets. Bayer's is 2030 – but many companies cannot become fully sustainabilitymag.com

BAYER

DID YOU KNOW...

THE BAYER CARBON INITIATIVE

Rewarding responsible farmers with a whole new revenue stream In July 2020, Bayer announced its Carbon Initiative in the USA and Brazil. The long-term scheme offers a payment of $3 per acre for reduced tillage (strip-till or no-till), $6 per acre for cover crop adoption, and $9 per acre for adopting both practices, per year. On the principle that earlier adopters should also benefit, any participant who implemented any eligible practice on an enrolled field on or after January 1, 2012, is eligible for historical payments after verification by Bayer. “Farmers are passionate environmentalists and stewards of the land they farm,” said Brett Begemann, COO of Bayer’s Crop Science division. Their lives and livelihoods depend on the weather, and they are some of the first to be affected by drought, flooding and extreme conditions. If anyone has a vested interest in battling climate change it’s farmers, and we are committed to developing new business models like this unique Carbon Initiative to help them in that fight.”

January 2022

carbon neutral and stay in business too, so their route is to offset – to buy carbon credits from businesses that are able to do more. Farmers are a case in point: they grow plants that absorb carbon dioxide and put it back into the soil. This gives them a potential second revenue stream or financial asset in addition to the market value of their crop. This asset needs to be science-based, he says, and verifiable by an independent ISO accredited third-party verifier, and the credits gained traded on the market like any other asset.

BAYER

Alongside offsetting the 'insetting pathway' is just as important for Bayer. Bayer is not alone in its quest to become carbonneutral by 2030, not only through its own operations but also its supply chain. “Take the example of the big food distributors like Cargill and Metro: their supply chain is mainly the growers and it's in their interests, too, to incentivise the farmers. So both through offsetting and insetting farmers will find an opportunity in the future if they change their approach, and face a disadvantage if they don't. We are here to help them.”

Making sustainable agriculture pay Bayer is taking great strides expanding its sustainable initiatives. “I think the most spectacular steps forward were our first pilots in the area of climate-smart agriculture. We want to incentivise growers for carbon sequestration and for a way of doing agriculture which helps to reduce emissions or even put carbon back into the soil. We already have our Carbon Initiative running in Brazil and the USA, and this year we rolled it out to seven countries in Europe.” The principal aim is to reward growers for adopting climate-smart farming practices like using cover crops, tillage reduction, crop rotations and precision nitrogen application. These activities sequester carbon in the soil while improving soil health, resilience and productivity as well as limit emissions. It's not always this easy to see the right ways forward, he continues, pointing to the example of rice culture in Asia. Traditionally rice is grown in flooded paddy fields: as well as irrigating the rice, the water also acts as a herbicide, so the rice grows out of the water without weeds to compete with – a double benefit. “But there's a problem. Many areas don't have enough water already and that's a problem that we know will get worse. And a hidden problem is that tremendous amounts of methane are formed underwater, in the anaerobic conditions at the roots of the rice plant. Paddy rice is a huge emitter of greenhouse gas and you could make a big saving on emissions and water use by going over to dry-seeded rice, hybrid rice, or even other crops. There's not a single way to do sustainable agriculture.” Embracing the concerns that people have over biodiversity, emissions, genetically modified organisms and the like and businesses have to find a new language to sustainabilitymag.com

KEY PARTNERSHIPS

“ My dream has always been to open a shop with agri inputs, through which I could help farmers on a large scale with better guidance and training” RANJU SINGH

SMALLHOLDER FARMER JHARKAND, INDIA

A BETTER LIFE FOR FARMERS Better Life Farming, a long-term partnership of Bayer, IFC (International Finance Corporation), and Netafim, aims at enabling smallholders to unlock their farming potential. With our joint forces we want to assist smallholder farmers to grow their farms into commercially viable and sustainable farming businesses. This will encourage financial security, increase knowhow and create a meaningful impact in their lives. With nearly 500 Better Life Farming centres set up in India by the end of 2020, many more smallholder farmers will be empowered to improve food security in India – not least thanks to new hybrid tomato varieties displaying much longer post-harvest freshness. This will help tackle the serious problem of food loss during transportation.

January 2022

Ranju Singh, Smallholder Farmer in Jharkand, India Ranju Singh grows vegetables and cereals in the Chatra district of India’s Jharkhand State. After working as a small-scale seasonal seed seller, she decided to join the Better Life Farming (BLF) initiative and open a BLF Center as an agrientrepreneur. Social service is an integral part of Ranju Singh’s life. Her BLF engagement is just one facet of this commitment. Besides helping smallholder farmers, she is passionately committed to uplifting and empowering women and juvenile girls. The smallholder farmers in Ranju Singh’s locality lovingly refer to this resolute lady as ‘Didi’, which means ‘older sister’ in Hindi. They have every reason to do so. Besides running her own farm, Ranju Singh provides her fellow farmers with access to an ecosystem of farming solutions via the Better Life Farming initiative – solutions tailored to the needs of smallholders in India.

BAYER

From seed seller to agri-entrepreneur Prior to joining Better Life Farming in June 2020, Ranju Singh was a small-scale seasonal seed seller travelling from village to village. She could only supply seeds to the smallholders who happened to be around when Ranju visited their village. But with multiple villages on her visiting list each week, the chances were high that smallholders would miss the opportunity to buy seeds. What she values most about Better Life Farming is the availability of inputs, guidance and advice on the best possible utilisation of time, effort and money. That, she knows, is important because a lack of modern-day cultivation knowledge and supportive guidance in the past had limited the smallholders’ opportunities to develop their farming potential. But now more and more of them are applying advanced technologies such as drip irrigation, mulching, staking, shade cultivation, etc. This is all the more important given the challenges smallholder farmers face in India. In particular, many of them are on the verge of opting out of farming because they lack appropriate marketing channels and access to professional off-takers. As a result, they suffer from low produce prices and insufficient returns on their farming investments.

member of an NGO, Mahila Mandal, which serves around 3,000 farmers in the region and also works to uplift and empower smallholder farmers and women in the Chatra district. In the past, Ranju Singh was involved in a number of social welfare organisations and is currently engaged in providing social and legal justice to juvenile girls in her area. What’s more, the project is helping poor, disadvantaged children to escape from the drudgeries of child labour and gender discrimination and lead better lives in the future. By sharing her story with these children, she hopes to encourage them to develop a more clearly defined purpose for their lives – be it in agriculture or elsewhere. Ranju Singh’s concern to empower women and support female agri-entrepreneurs ties in well with one of the Better Life Farming Alliance’s goals: Women Empowerment and improving female smallholders’ access to information, services and resources are key to addressing the enormous social, economic and environmental challenges faced in rural India, for example. Newly established womendedicated BLF centres in India are one practical example of how the Alliance is promoting gender-smart initiatives across smallholder farming countries.

Working to empower women Besides her commitment to smallholders in general, Ranju Singh is particularly concerned about helping female agrientrepreneurs in successfully growing and marketing their crops. Ranju is a highly active

sustainabilitymag.com

BAYER

January 2022

BAYER

“TO DISCUSS IMPORTANT MATTERS DEEPLY I THINK YOU NEED TO BE IN THE SAME ROOM, ENGAGED IN A CREATIVE PROCESS WITH A FLIP-CHART AND SIX OR SEVEN OTHERS. THAT'S THE WAY TO CREATE REAL SOLUTIONS TO REAL PROBLEMS” KLAUS KUNZ

HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY, BAYER

explain the problems. Continuing the paddy rice example, to save communities more than 50% of the water now required and still grow a crop will require new varieties with greater stress tolerance and this opens new opportunities for innovation. “I used to make the mistake of promoting impact reduction, which some in the business equated with revenue reduction: now I think we all see that huge new opportunities are opening for us – for example the carbon business that we now have didn't exist before. If we want to drive culture change in the business, these are the key messages we need to understand.” Another example is reducing pesticide impact. “Will this mean taking products off the market? Well, Bayer has been screening products for decades, not just selecting those with the greatest efficiency against pests and diseases but for safety, the protection of beneficial organisms, and more selectivity: this is more embedded than ever, and any product coming into our pipeline today has to meet these standards. The entire business is beginning to really engage here, and I find that extremely exciting as we all start to see added value and new

revenue streams coming out of sustainable practices.” As a commitment, five years ago, Bayer announced that it would make its vast database on its crop protection products, previously only shared with regulators, publicly available: a huge step he says in establishing public trust. On the matter of pesticide safety, the burden does not rest solely on manufacturers. What can be done about end users who over-use products, or in extreme cases dispose of empty containers unsafely, or wholesalers that supply irresponsible retailers? But Bayer is playing its part. He has a team working on business stewardship. It's one thing to have proper labelling and user guidelines, but many farmers may not be able to read. “It's so important that we train and train farmers, talk to governments in those societies to make sure there is proper use of crop protection. Professionalism is often lacking in the downstream supply chain. I have teams working on these problems: for me end-to-end sustainability is central to our work.”

sustainabilitymag.com

ESG

ELECTRIC DREAMS: SPIN'S E-SCOOTERS ARE MAKING SUSTAINABLE MICRO-JOURNEYS A STARK REALITY 42

January 2022

ESG

Ford – the most famous car company in the world – is leading the electric transit charge with its future-proofing WRITTEN BY: HUI WEN CHAN

hen Ford-owned Spin was founded in 2018, our mission was to transform cities and campuses with smart mobility solutions. We truly believe in multiple modes of transportation and view the e-scooter and e-bike as sustainable options for short distances. In the years since our emergence, we’ve seen the world continue to urbanise – cities have grown both geographically and in population, while climate change has become an ever-more pressing issue. This makes Spin’s efforts to transform mobility even more critical. Most of our 20th-century cities were designed and built around private car ownership, dedicating the majority of public space – over 80% in cities – to streets and parking. But cities account for about 70% of global emissions, with road transportation being one of the biggest contributors. As we think about combating climate change, the design of our cityscapes and the way people get around, must form part of the solution. sustainabilitymag.com

Help us in the search for the Top 100 Companies in Sustainability NOMINATE NOW

A BizClik Media Group Brand

NOMINATE

CELEBRATE

Creating Digital Communities

ESG

“ As we think about combating climate change, cities, including the design of our cityscapes and the way people get around, must form part of the solution” HUI WEN CHAN

DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABILITY, SPIN

The world will not be able to reach its climate goals without a shift away from cars towards more sustainable modes of transportation. One of our goals at Spin is to create a future with increased accessibility and mobility – less reliance on cars and more public space dedicated to parks, recreation, art and economic activities, rather than parked vehicles. That brings us to our new mission.

The 15-minute city We view 15-minute cities as being the ideal model for sustainable urban design. The concept of a 15-minute city centres around making it easy for residents to access all elements of their daily life – work, home, leisure, food, education and healthcare – within 15 minutes or less, through a combination of reliable public transport and shared public or private mobility. This is a much more sustainable approach to city planning which also has a positive impact on people’s lives and wellbeing. Studies have shown that long commutes reduce both job and leisure time satisfaction, and that people are unhappy with a commute beyond 15 min (especially drivers). Sustainable transportation and transitoriented development are at the heart of the 15-minute city – reducing the time and sustainabilitymag.com

“ Given the urgency of the climate crisis, now is the time to rethink the future of mobility in cities to create more sustainable ways of city-living” HUI WEN CHAN

DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABILITY, SPIN

distance it takes to access the various elements of people’s lives. Shared micromobility services must be a key part of the new urban transportation landscape and how people move around. Nearly 50% of car trips in the U.S. are less than three miles – distances that are easily replaced by e-scooters and e-bikes. Mobility in 21st-century cities can’t just be about replacing gas cars with electric ones. Cars have negative environmental and social impacts beyond emissions. They take up valuable public space, create congestion, pollution and noise – all of which have negative health impacts for communities – and spend 95% of their inanimate existences parked. Scooting stars We don’t see micromobility replacing cars, but it can help reduce the use of cars, enable efficient connection to public transit, reduce emissions and allow cities to repurpose space formerly dedicated to parking. E-scooters and e-bikes are zero-emissions vehicles. Accounting for lifecycle emissions, scooters are much less emissions-intensive than single-occupancy vehicles. Spin’s life cycle assessment of our latest generation of e-scooter – conducted in partnership with MIT – indicates that the 46

January 2022

ESG

Safety There is a lack of safe, dedicated infrastructure for riding and parking scooters and bikes, which is a real barrier to adoption of micromobility solutions. Studies have shown huge increases in bike and scooter usage after bike lanes are incorporated. During the COVID19 pandemic, numerous cities added new pedestrian and bike lanes and saw significant increases in micromobility usage. Meanwhile, a recent study found that cycling increased by up to 48% in cities that added bike-related infrastructure. High-density cities with access to public transportation saw the greatest increases. Spin supports the creation of safer places to ride through its ‘Spin Streets’ program, directly supporting the design and installation of protected bicycle lanes, pedestrian amenities and other roadway redesigns to improve the public realm. After Spin installed the first protected intersection in Salt Lake City, the city included multiple bike lanes and protected intersections in its 2021-2022 capital plan. Moreover, Spin has partnered with transportation data companies to offer Mobility Data for Safer Streets – a program that provides local municipal and community partners with information to target investments in sustainable infrastructure, where it will have the greatest impact. sustainabilitymag.com

ESG

emissions per passenger kilometer of our scooter is 38g CO2e, comparable to many forms of public transit. But we aren’t stopping there – we continue to improve upon our products by designing them with sustainability, durability and circularity in mind. As a leading micromobility operator, it's our job to offer eco-friendly modes of transportation to our riders that enable sustainable mobility. We strive to operate sustainably, minimising our emissions footprint and the impacts we have on the climate and environment. We hope that the entire 15-minute city transportation ecosystem can operate this way.

70%

Cities account for global emissions

50%

of car trips in the U.S. are less than three miles

95%

cars spend of their inanimate existences parked

48%

cycling increase in cities that added bikerelated infrastructure

Equity, Inclusion, Access Mobility is about access – to jobs, education, healthcare and a range of other products and services. Access to reliable and affordable transportation is core to the concept of the 15-minute city and to improving economic mobility and quality of life for all urban residents. Micromobility can lift barriers to access of services, particularly in neighborhoods underserved by public transportation. Equitable access impacts the lives of potential users by connecting them to more job opportunities and reducing the time it takes to travel to those opportunities. NABSA’s 2020 ‘State of the Industry Report’ found that studies across nine cities indicate that 44% more jobs were accessible within five minutes or less when pairing shared micromobility service with public transportation and walking. In a city – like Pittsburgh – where 65% of low-income residents lack access to a vehicle, and residents without a vehicle can only access about 40% of the region’s jobs within

January 2022

a 90-minute commute, providing additional transportation options can greatly enhance access to jobs and other opportunities. ‘Move PGH’ is Spin’s groundbreaking mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) program with the City of Pittsburgh, designed to address key equity and access issues. As part of the program, Spin intends to work with the City, local non-profit organisations and researchers at a local university and the Urban Institute, on a ‘Guaranteed Basic Mobility’ pilot program to cover the cost of Move PGH transportation options for up to 50 low-income Pittsburgh residents over one year. During the trial period, the researchers will measure the impact on participants’ economic mobility, health and travel-based behaviour, to ensure the program’s long-term sustainability. Early ridership data from the Move PGH program indicates that scooters can help connect people to reliable and affordable transportation, particularly in underserved communities.

sustainabilitymag.com

Changing gear It’s important to have sustainable modes of transportation but meaningfully lowering emissions from cars requires both the availability of more sustainable vehicles and behavioural change. We need vehicles that pollute less and we need to convince people to use them. Behavioural changes are hard – we won’t be able to get people out of cars by merely offering them scooter and bikes. We need to increase the use of micromobility by bringing communities together and making changes 50

January 2022

in three core areas – 1) safety, 2) equity, inclusion and access 3) supportive policies and regulations that place pedestrians and micromobility riders at the centre. Back to the future The landscape of city transportation needs rebalancing as we integrate shared micromobility into our travels. Shared micromobility is a piece of the puzzle and part of the ecosystem. Spin is one shared micromobilty provider in the industry; we are one perspective on the

ESG

“ We are focused on reducing emissions in the transit ecosystem and enabling cities to be greener, healthier, more equitable and liveable”

work of sustainable transportation. We are focused on reducing emissions in the transit ecosystem and enabling cities to be greener, healthier, more equitable and liveable. The micromobility sector has grown rapidly in the last five years, but there’s a lot more room for growth. The era of private-car ownership must come to an end. The future of mobility is shared, electric and sustainable.

HUI WEN CHAN

DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABILITY, SPIN sustainabilitymag.com

CISL

January 2022

CISL

Creating a

SUSTAINABLE LOW CARBON Business Culture WRITTEN BY: MARK JACKSON PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

sustainabilitymag.com

CISL

January 2022

CISL

Ben Kellard Director of Business Strategy, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), on the need for a sustainable business culture

OP26 has placed sustainability, and specifically a low carbon future, right at the forefront of the business strategy agenda. No longer are companies able simply to pursue a profitat-all-costs strategy without considering the environmental consequences of their actions. The customer of the future will simply not allow it. However, for many companies there exists a large gap between intention and reality. They might wish to clean up their act, but how do they accomplish this? In many respects, the first step is to define what a sustainable business is and to work out whether you are one. “The sustainable business identifies a purpose that serves society in a sustainable way,” explains Ben Kellard, director of business strategy at Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), which is part of Cambridge University. He sees leading companies taking an external view to understand how the world is changing in terms of factors such as inequality and climate change. “That are completely reshaping how we do business, what our consumers expect of us and so on,” he says. Sustainable businesses also take an “inside out view”, considering “what they are really good at as a business”, and overlap that with the changing needs of their consumers and society to identify a “sustainable purpose”, which they “internally integrate throughout the business.” In effect they make sustainability core to their business, aligning sustainabilitymag.com

CISL

“ The sustainable business identifies a purpose that serves society in a sustainable way” BEN KELLARD

DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS STRATEGY, CISL

January 2022

all their working practices and innovations to this central mission. Kellard believes that creating sustainable business practices can also be a highly motivating factor for the workforce. “Human beings are purpose-led social animals,” he says. “For a long time, businesses haven't really tapped into that. They’ve just sold us stuff. I think that when you align a corporate purpose with creating a sustainable future, that is something people can really get behind.

CISL

BEN KELLARD TITLE: DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS STRATEGY LOCATION: HITCHIN, ENGLAND

EXECUTIVE BIO

“Staff feel they can bring their full selves to work rather than leaving their real self at the door and picking it up again, at evenings and weekends.” According to Kellard, sustainable businesses also engage externally with “other actors up and in their ecosystem, their regulators, suppliers and customers to bring about the transformation in their sector because that’s what is needed if you’re going to have a truly sustainable purpose”.

Ben leads CISL’s business strategy advisory work. He helps leading businesses to develop and implement holistic leading strategies that include evidence-based ambitions. He recently worked with leaders from four pioneering businesses (IKEA, Unilever, Interface & DSM) to capture how they practically developed and integrated a sustainable purpose. He is also on the steering committee of the first BSI standard for a sustainable, purpose-led business. Ben draws on twenty years of experience as an organisational consultant, eleven of which were with the international sustainability not for profit, Forum for the Future. There he led their international strategy work that involved defining organisational leadership and directing partnerships and strategy projects.

CISL

Creating a Sustainable Low Carbon Business Culture

January 2022

CISL

“ We advise leading companies on how they can become more sustainable” BEN KELLARD

DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS STRATEGY, CISL

This is where CISL comes into play. Research, undertaken with leading academics in Cambridge and worldwide, is channelled into practical business and policy solutions. “We advise leading companies on how they can become more sustainable,” he says. “We also figure out what that means and then research it.” Kellard firmly believes in the quality of their network and faculty that CISL has developed over its 30 years of existence. He is also convinced of the need to create a low carbon sustainable future. In many respects, CISL acts as a matchmaker introducing progressive companies to each other. “We convene them together to help them, test ideas with them,” he says. “Because we bridge rigorous academic research and the real world.” CISL works in three main areas – sustainable finance, policy, and business transformation. As regards the former, its Centre for Sustainable Finance works with progressive banks and those who regulate them to play a catalytic role in achieving a sustainable economy. For policy, CISL has developed links both with Westminster and Brussels to help shape the regulatory environment needed for a low carbon, sustainable economy. However, it is business transformation that is Kellard’s sphere of interest. CISL’s Centre for Business Transformation works with businesses and their stakeholders to explore the critical questions shaping the future of corporations. He sees CISL’s role as leading sustainable businesses on a journey to make them more beneficial for society, the environment and also shareholders. “My day job is working with boards of companies to help them figure out how they can accelerate that journey, and applying sustainabilitymag.com

CISL

1989

Year founded

Sustainability Industry

51-200

Number of employees

20,000 Network

January 2022

CISL

“ We are transforming a 1930’s telephone exchange in central Cambridge into a world-leading example of an ultrasustainable retrofit”

research and evidence to that,” he says. He then applies those insights to their research. “Sustainability is complex, ambiguous and uncertain,” Kellard explains. This is in part due to the need for sustainable businesses to engage with an external system that consists of suppliers, customers and regulators. “We help them identify their challenges and think about how they can resolve them,” he says. “But it’s always about bringing it back to the core business.” It is this which he finds both challenging and rewarding. He believes the aim is not just about mitigating risks, such as avoiding BEN KELLARD DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS potentially negative reactions to the STRATEGY, CISL environmental consequences of the actions companies take. It is to unlock previously unrealised opportunities. both academically rigorous, but also “I think if you’re able to meet society’s very practical and applicable to the rapidly changing needs within the limits of organisations with which we work.” what our planet can provide, … there are Most of the work is carried out through huge opportunities to be gained in terms leadership groups where businesses pay to of connecting and motivating not just join to cover the administrative costs. CISL with employees, but with customers and also receives payment for its education suppliers,” he says. “It’s about unlocking programmes and advisory services on a fee whole new markets and value propositions.” for service basis. CISL mainly works with banks and “That’s our business model in the way we companies, with clients including meet our client’s needs,” he says. “We have ASDA, DSM, Lloyds and Anglian Water, incredible centres of excellence at the providing an essential university,” he says, adding bridge between academia that Cambridge University CISL and business. It neither as a whole is focused on receives any central creating a low carbon funding from university Each year CISL works with future, with initiatives such or government, but works business, government as Cambridge Zero, which with businesses who fund and finance leaders in is aimed at “creating a nettheir full-time researchers, over 250 organisations zero future”. or fellows. including consumer brands, Crucially, CISL is also “That’s great because it global banks and national putting its money where its keeps us honest,” Kellard governments, attracting mouth is, moving to a new says. “One of the things more than 1,200 delegates ground-breaking, climatewe pride ourselves on into its programmes. friendly accommodation is that our research is in Cambridge in early 2022. sustainabilitymag.com

CISL

“ We’ll explore the role of businesses in creating a zerocarbon, restorative of nature, and a sociallyinclusive society” BEN KELLARD

DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS STRATEGY, CISL

The Entopia Building, a retrofitted telephone exchange will be transformed into an ultra-low carbon sustainability hub and a new home for CISL as it scales up business, government and academic leadership, collaboration and innovation. CISL claims the office building will set new standards for low energy use, carbon emissions and impact on natural resources as well as user experience and wellbeing measured against multiple benchmarks. “We are transforming a 1930’s telephone exchange in central Cambridge into a worldleading example of an ultra-sustainable 62

January 2022

retrofit,” Kellard says. “Working with our committed project team we have set the highest standards for an existing building, with aims to achieve multiple sustainable building certifications.” These include BREEAM (Outstanding), the Passivhaus 'EnerPHit' standard, and Well (Gold) certification, alongside the application of 'circular economy' principles which will minimise the volume and impact of manmade resources used in the building. As well as being CISL’s home in Cambridge, the building will serve as a virtual hub for its international offices and its global

CISL

network. It will also host The Canopy, an Accelerator and Sustainability Hub which will support innovative startups and small businesses. CISL also plans to create a centre in China to help incubate and promote startups there, as well as in the UK. “It will be the most highly rated retrofitted building in the country,” Kellard says. “It will become a really exciting example that many other businesses can use for where they're retrofitting their businesses.” In the future, CISL will continue its policy of combining improvements to its own sustainable working practices, including its

travel, with advising clients and contributing to sectoral changes. “We’ll explore the role of businesses in creating a zero-carbon, restorative of nature, and a socially-inclusive society,” Kellard says. “We'll continue to work with our partners – both clients and our peers – who are also looking to try and advance these questions.” One example of this is a consultation process that CISL has been involved with to develop a British Standard as to what constitutes a sustainable purpose-led business. “Up to now, there’s been a forest of different standards and approaches,” he sustainabilitymag.com

CISL

January 2022

CISL

“It’s often called the decisive decade because from a climate perspective if we don’t make major changes this decade, we’re essentially running out of time” BEN KELLARD

DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS STRATEGY, CISL

says. “We are all pretty much saying the same thing. So, can we just capture that? That’s what we’ve done.” CISL has just entered the public consultation phase, which Kellard says is the first step in creating a principlebased standard. They are also carrying out research about what sustainable business means for individual leaders, and have produced a guide to help businesses achieve netzero. “What are the capabilities needed for individual leaders to shape organisations to deliver a sustainable future?” Kellard asks. For him, this is not just a key question for CISL, but also for the planet. “It’s often called the decisive decade because from a climate perspective if we don’t make major changes this decade, we’re essentially running out of time,” he says “So we will continue to find strategic partnerships to work with others, to deliver the shift to a sustainable economy.” It is a sentiment that would be echoed not just by the leaders present at COP26, but also many of the demonstrators at fringe events across Glasgow. Kellard, for one, believes it represents the future of business in a low carbon world.

sustainabilitymag.com

USING THE POWER WE HOLD TO

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals encourage diversity to reduce inequality and boost economic growth. From the boardroom to boybands, diversity rules 66

January 2022

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

WRITTEN BY: HELEN ADAMS

rom the Magna Carta (1215) to The Constitution of the United States (1776), equality has been established in laws across the globe for centuries. But only recently in human history have laws been wide enough to support every demographic. Now with consumer power holding weight alongside the legal system, businesses are keen to prove that they are dedicated to preserving diversity in the workplace – from offices to adverts, supply chains to the CEO. In the modern world, not only is diversity expected, it makes good business sense. A team that includes members from diverse backgrounds, with different experiences, lifestyles and achievements will be more prepared to solve complex problems, anticipate responses and predict outcomes, than one where all team members have the same catalogue of skills and knowledge.

sustainabilitymag.com

TM FORUM

We’ve survived remotely. Now, let’s thrive with hybrid working.

Empower your people to work from anywhere with connectivity from Colt. Find out more

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

“ Our organisations should mirror the markets where we operate and we should use the power we hold to reduce inequality” THOMAS UDESEN

CO-FOUNDER & AMBASSADOR, THE SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT PLEDGE

UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS ON DIVERSITY

Sadly, diversity is not yet universally acknowledged as a strength in the workplace, with some countries still lacking a Human Resources Department (or similar unit) to protect employees and job interviewees from discrimination due to their unique attributes. But some of the UN Sustainable Development Goals will address inequality and push for diversity – and not just in the workplace: Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls Across the world, women make up only 28% of managerial positions – it’s a good start, but there’s a way to go Over the next decade, 10mn girls will be at risk of child marriage, which will prevent most from finishing school or entering the workforce. The UN Sustainable Development Goals aim to: ‘Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation’.

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all The UN predicts that the pandemic will lead to an increase in youth not in school, employment or training, 31% of young women and 14% of young men. As half of the world’s population is under the age of 30, this is huge. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals plan to achieve higher levels of economic productivity through: ‘Diversification, technological upgrading and innovation’. Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries By 2030, the UN aims to: ‘Empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.’ sustainabilitymag.com

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

In order to reach this goal, discriminatory laws, policies and practices must be abolished, while legislations which promote diversity must be upheld.

CULTURAL MOMENTS IN DIVERSITY In September 2021, boyband BTS spoke at the UN, as the Republic of Korea’s Special Presidential Envoys for Future Generations and Culture – and have clocked up 5mn views in two months. Pop culture has led the way for years in pushing for diversity development and businesses have listened. From #OscarsSoWhite to increasing diverse representation Following the Covid-19 outbreak in China, prejudice against Asian people living outside of Asia has increased – but movies have fought back. Parasite was the first movie to win Best Film not made in the English language, which displeased then-President Trump, who remarked that he preferred Gone With the Wind (1939) and Eternals is the first film in the Marvel universe to have included a gay kiss, a deaf character and South Asian superheroes. David Bowie confronted MTV for lack of Black artists In 1983, Bowie had just released Let’s Dance. He sat down with MTV’s Mark Goodman and at the end of the interview, asked Goodman: “I’m just floored that there’s so few Black artists featured [on MTV]. Why is that?” Goodman claimed that MTV was moving forward, but the company was afraid that Prince would alarm some viewers. Bowie asked: “Should it not be a challenge to make the media far more integrated?” 70

January 2022

Neurological diversity Greta Thunberg may have lost support at COP26, after inviting world leaders to shove their climate crisis up a particularly warm part of their anatomy, but with her Asperger's syndrome, Greta has served as an ambassador for neurodiversity since her ‘School Strike for Climate’ began in 2018. “In this society, everyone thinks the same. If you are on the autism spectrum that makes you different. In a crisis like this, people who think differently can be a good resource”, said Greta. Like the climate protesters she leads, the neurodiverse community is growing stronger.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Do you know all 17 SDGs?

“ It’s really hard to ignore what’s going on around the world and the need for change is imperative” KELLY PERRY

HEAD OF ESG CLIENT SOLUTIONS, EDISON GROUP

ENGAGING WITH DIVERSITY

Kelly Perry, Head of ESG Client Solutions at Edison Group, found that working from home was convenient in many ways but has had its challenges, “I have missed human interaction”, she says. “It’s important for individuals to share knowledge, experiences to help build diverse relationships both in and outside the organisation.” Global AuM’s in sustainable investment continues to grow and Edison Group recognises that a common disclosure framework would help make sense of the complex and subjective world of ESG data for companies and investors alike. sustainabilitymag.com

“ Diversity is the one true thing we all have in common... celebrate it every day” WINSTON CHURCHILL

FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

January 2022

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

One challenge in the financial markets is some still feel ESG is a PR stunt and not a real strategy to be imbedded at the core operations and the ethics and culture of a business. “Climate crisis is real, ESG is real and demonstrating ESG commitments is the direction of travel”, she says firmly. “ESG serves a purpose, it’s about corporate transparency and demonstrating a business’ commitment to people and planet. It’s hard to ignore what’s going on around the world and the need for change is imperative – while currently ESG is being driven from large institutions like BlackRock we are seeing a rise in ESG being built into the decision making of more smaller investment firms, the capital available to companies with a robust sustainability strategy is growing. With the rise of stakeholder capitalism and digitalisation, everyone has a public voice and platform and transparency of companies ESG commitments can help avoid negative press and lose out on ESG focused capital.” Regulators and investors alike are examining company policies on diversity and inclusion. Shareholders and potential shareholders want to see how companies have responded to Covid-19. How can accountability be enforced? “D&I are key to the success of a business. It can be challenging in specific sectors that can be dominated by different diversity groups, however it is important that at a top level, business review the diversity of the board, their colleagues across all business areas to ensure they work with a diversly skilled

team”, says Perry. “By being transparent on their D&I and helping to raise awareness and education and training around ESG, companies can prove that they are engaging with ESG commitments.” Diversity is a strength across the sectors. The Sustainable Procurement Pledge wants to ensure that support of diversity is more than just a box-ticking exercise, by inviting those in the industry to get involved and make a pledge to support organisational change. “As far as Diversity is concerned, the same arguments around social justice and performance apply to Procurement”, explains Thomas Udesen, Chief Procurement Officer at Bayer and Co-Founder of The Sustainable Procurement Pledge. “Our organisations should mirror the markets where we operate and we should use the power we hold to reduce inequality. As so often, impact happens when ambitions are lived from the top, when things are hardwired into your decision making and when good behaviour is celebrated and rewarded.”

MOVING FORWARD WITH DIVERSITY

The post-pandemic world might be kinder than the one it left behind. As the world has lost too many lives and so much time, we can grow back stronger, more willing to engage with those a little bit different to us, to be integrated and to listen, as we push to meet The Sustainable Development Goals. As Udesen says, organisations must use their power to reduce inequality in the workplace and their supply chains. “There is a lot of work [to do] and asking questions that have not been asked before is a good starting point”, Perry adds. “and transparency is a good thing, it’s key to positive and progressive development.” sustainabilitymag.com

CAPGEMINI

Capgemini uses unique skill set to uphold sustainability and

CHANGE THE WORLD WRITTEN BY: JOHN PINCHING

PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

sustainabilitymag.com

January 2022

CAPGEMINI

Capgemini boasts an expansive history

of delivering information technology and consultation. In a changing world it is using its flexibility to spark an evolution

s a pioneering information technology service provider and essential partner to global companies, Capgemini employs 300,000 people across about 50 countries. Make no mistake, however, sustainability is right at the top of its agenda and it is using all of its experience and unique skills to address climate change. Dr James Robey is Global Head of Corporate Sustainability at the company and is under no illusions about the scale but also the all-encompassing potential of the sustainability challenge. He explains: “We have hundreds of offices and data centres which consume large quantities of energy. We also have a large number of people, many of whom have been very mobile in terms of the way we deliver services to clients. So the first focus we had was the reduction of operational impacts within the business. “As early as 2016, we set science-based targets for Capgemini in terms of reducing our environmental impacts and – alongside that – we've been seizing the opportunity to inspire our clients.”Indeed, Capgemini also uses IT consulting and engineering skills to help its clients with their business transformations. It is very clear that the company sees ‘sustainability culture’ as a massive opportunity, particularly from a decarbonising perspective. Many of its clients have carbon footprints – which can be upto 200 times greater than Capgemini’s – and the company views action on climate change among those partners as a major priority. sustainabilitymag.com

That's why alongside its operational strand, it has systems in place which are all about helping clients reduce carbon emissions and recognise that it’s one of the most fundamental contributions we can all make. Change is coming Sustainability is a ‘business imperative’ throughout Capgemini. “We recognise the dangers associated with runaway climate change,” James explains. “And we also recognise that there are positive opportunities that come with being a more sustainable business. We know that the best people want to work for organisations which have a purpose – organisations which are making a positive impact on the world.” “It is essential that we are here to help partners with their own transformations, many of whom need assistance in that journey. From that perspective, sustainability goes far beyond image and much more into the substance of what we can deliver for our clients,” he adds. Amid the international pandemic, the company has also been able to focus on one of the major environmental impacts of the business – travel.

Committed to having a 100% electric fleet by 2030 Committed to 100% renewable electricity by 2025 78

January 2022

“ As early as 2016, we set science-based targets for Capgemini in terms of reducing our environmental impacts and, alongside that, we've been seizing the opportunity to help our clients” DR JAMES ROBEY

GLOBAL HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY, CAPGEMINI

Now that travelling is beginning to return, Capgemini is striving to apply the principles it began pre-COVID; measures that were hastened by lockdown. Consequently, virtual collaboration and efficient remote delivery have gained considerable traction as a new era unfolds. James says: “The whole industry has had a collective awakening in terms of what is possible. In that sense, I think the pandemic has really accelerated the potential speed of the transition to a low carbon delivery model.” Capgemini has several programmes in place around energy – in data centres and offices – and that includes investment in renewables. It is signed up to RE100 and it is committed to 100% renewable electricity by 2025. “In some countries that's easier than others,” notes James. “Our largest country by far is India, where we have over 150,000 people working, and we've been investing extensively in solar and renewable generation, both onsite and offsite.” In another move, the company has been running an internal global awareness campaign – Capgemini Climate Circles Campaign – in the run up to COP26. It involves business leaders participating in discussion circles with groups of about 10 people. There are two pivotal topics involved – the first is around the race to

CAPGEMINI

EXECUTIVE BIO DR JAMES ROBEY TITLE: GLOBAL HEAD OF ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM Dr James Robey has led the sustainability agenda at Capgemini since 2008, creating and driving a broad ranging program to reduce the Group’s own environmental impacts whilst identifying opportunities to support Capgemini’s clients with their own sustainability challenges. In addition, he teaches at a number of leading universities on the topic of Sustainable Business.

sustainabilitymag.com

Unique skills to uphold sustainability

Capgemini achievements Capgemini develops framework of 8 priorities and 11 ambitious objectives Believing in the benefits for all that digital transformation can bring, the company inline with its purpose, Capgmeini intends to be a benchmark for its contributions to society by building on its trackrecord with the establishment of a framework of priorities and ambitious objectives for ESG.

Capgemini recognised as a leader in tackling climate change Being one of 200 high-performing companies out of the 12,000 scored, Capgemini has achieved a position on the ‘A List’ published by CDP. Capgemini has been recognised as a leader in corporate environmental ambition, action and transparency worldwide.

January 2022

CAPGEMINI

net zero and decarbonisation. The second is around how innovation and technology is applied to the challenges of climate change. “It’s proving a really effective way of engaging many thousands of our people in a conversation around climate change,” says James. “The discussions are really getting people to think about how they can make a difference on a personal level, but also at a business level.” Culture club Ultimately, sustainability is a business challenge and Capgemini has been aware of this for 15 years. James reflects: “I always describe sustainability as a business change problem, possibly the biggest business change problem we've ever seen. Given the size of our business, the level of change is significant, but we have a fantastic level of engagement from our people. “This is a sustainability programme people want to engage with – they can see why we need to act and they want to be part of that cultural transformation. The biggest aspect around that transformation is the mindset around delivery.” This approach is changing mindsets; encouraging people to develop the art of what can be achieved and what can be delivered remotely. Key to this transformation has been the onboarding of senior leaders and building the right governance structures around the wider journey to carbonisation and the milestones the organisation wants to reach. Underpinning these ventures is the digital age. So much of the sustainability roadmap has been reliant on companies adapting to the new world; the digitised landscape. While the solution relies on digital, however, it is digital itself that has also been part of the problem, as James recognises. sustainabilitymag.com

CAPGEMINI

“When we talk about the digital era or technology, we need to start acknowledging that technology itself has a very significant environmental impact. If you look at the global emissions from the IT sector, it's about 4%. So therefore we have to take responsibility for that impact and recognise the mitigating environmental effects of other sectors. “From a Capgemini perspective, it's vitally important that we see the responsible use of technology as absolutely critical in terms of achieving sustainable outcomes.” One for all Diversity and inclusion is – alongside environmental sustainability and digital inclusion – one of the three pillars of Capgemini’s approach to responsible business practices. It is all about community outreach, empowering people to be included and, ultimately, transforming the performance of the company. As well as a global programme, there are also a host of local programmes specifically focused on diversity and inclusion. And, as James is keen to point out, this means diversity in terms of diversity of background and also in terms of diversity of thought. “We recognise that that diversity of thought brings real creative value to us as an organisation,” he says. “Inclusion is clearly critical in terms of getting the best out of people and, in turn, it is the catalyst for being the most sustainable and responsible business we can be.” Major global organisations are recognising that leveraging partnerships is a fundamental element of the sustainability drive. Capgemini is at an advantage in this respect because collaboration has been the foundation stone of its business for decades. 82

January 2022

The company has various ecosystem or alliance partners that it works with across the whole technology industry in order to deliver the best solutions to clients, and this terrain has changed very noticeably in recent years. “Increasingly we are seeing big transformation programmes with our clients,” notes James. “We're increasingly seeing the complexity of systems, complexity of platforms and complexity of solutions. The only way you can deliver that is by having those close relationships with partners. We are working with those partners on sustainability as well, trying to figure out how we can most effectively impact the client's needs by bringing together the right combinations or alliances of suppliers.”

“We know that the best people want to work for organisations which have a purpose – organisations which are making a positive impact on the world” DR JAMES ROBEY

GLOBAL HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY, CAPGEMINI

Future proofing Capgemini was one of the first in its sector to set science-based targets in 2016. These were aligned with the two degree climate science, and were achieved ten years early – a reduction in emissions across the business of about 30% per person. These were actually achieved before COVID lockdowns at the beginning of 2020. The achievements prompted the company to reassess the aspirations of the business in the future – it realised that if the strategies were in place and mobilising was encouraged it could set much more ambitious targets across energy, travel, commuting, waste and water by 2020, with a view to include all supply chains by 2030.

Along with a range of offsetting projects, these represent the company’s headline goals, but there are also a range of more tactical ambitions. “We are part of RE100, so we are committed to 100% renewable electricity by 2025 and we’ve also joined EV100 and, therefore, we are committed to running a 100% electric fleet by 2030. This year, we have also taken the first step of removing all pure petrol and pure diesel vehicles from the company fleet list earlier this year.” During the sustainability process James and Capgemini have, above all else, been inspired by driving change; through the company, through partners, through the wider population and, critically, through individuals. Having recognised the scale of the sustainability and climate change mountain, the company is determined to begin the climb by instigating positive change. And while the summit seems like a distant dream, the direction has been established and motivations have been calibrated. These constants will remain until the mission accomplished – and that’s the reality for Capgemini.

sustainabilitymag.com

NET ZERO

E M P I R E S T A T E B U I L D I N G ' S

FUTURE S U S T A I N A B L E

January 2022

NET ZERO

We discover how the Empire State Realty Trust have transformed this most iconic of buildings into a beacon for sustainability

WRITTEN BY: JOHN PINCHING

mpire State Realty Trust (ERST team: Anthony E. Malkin, Empire State Realty Trust Chairman, President and CEO Dana Robbins Schneider, Empire State Realty Trust senior vice president, Director of Energy, Sustainability & ESG. What is the secret to the ESB’s relevancy and timelessness? AM: The Empire State Building is the world’s most famous building – the international symbol of hope, determination and endless possibilities, and the authentic symbol of New York City to the world. 90 years young and cemented in the global conversation as a pop culture icon, the Empire State Building means something to everyone. Our world-famous tower lights are the instantly recognisable feature of the New York City skyline. They define New York City to the world, and shine 365 days a year to honour and recognise organisations, occasions and holidays. Our famous musicto-light shows garner tens of millions of views, while our brand is sought after to enhance authenticity and connect with the dreams we represent. How important is it for the building to demonstrate an ability to adapt and innovate? AM: The Empire State Building continues to inspire and demonstrate what can be accomplished when people work together sustainabilitymag.com

CREATING BUSINESS VALUE THROUGH SUSTAINABLE ENERGY Ensuring you have the best partner at your side.

enelgreenpower.com

NET ZERO

“ Modernised for the 21st Century, we have made the Empire State Building an exemplar of an energy-efficient, sustainable and healthy building” ANTHONY E. MALKIN

CEO, PRESIDENT & CHAIRMAN, EMPIRE STATE REALTY TRUST

towards great achievements. Now that is happening in energy efficiency, water conservation, waste diversion and indoor environmental quality (IEQ). A transformation of the built environment is critical to slow the effects of climate change. Our work at the Empire State Building proves that a cost-effective transformation of even a 90-year-young building in the middle of New York City is possible. Modernised for the 21st Century, we have made the Empire State Building an exemplar of an energy-efficient, sustainable and healthy building. Energy efficiency and IEQ are at the heart of all we do at ESRT. We have committed to carbon neutrality for the Empire State Building by 2030 and for the portfolio by 2035. The Empire State Building has been powered by 100% renewable wind energy since 2011, and

all our portfolio energy usage is powered by 100% renewable wind energy. Since our retrofit was completed, it has been replicated across millions of square feet throughout the U.S. If we can do it with the Empire State Building, anyone can do it anywhere. In terms of climate change, has there been a culture shift among the people working in the ESB? DR: Since 2010, we have incorporated rigorous sustainability performance provisions into our leases, helping tenants achieve their ESG goals and ours. Criteria for energy, water, health and wellness, IEQ, responsible materials specifications, and waste diversion are all part of our sustainability clauses, and this superior sustainabilitymag.com

NET ZERO

Inside the Empire State Building’s 21st Century Upgrade

tenant-owner collaboration has made ESRT a Gold Green Lease Leader. More than 50% of energy in office buildings is driven by tenant use, so tenant-owner collaboration is critical to meet environmental performance goals. ESRT is committed to environmental stewardship, and we track our performance against our stated goals as we work towards a carbon neutral future. We have committed to comprehensive targets to reduce our energy, emissions, water and waste usage and we never compromise healthy building and IEQ performance to achieve our goals. Our sustainability work and industryleading retrofit is also featured in our newly 88

January 2022

reimagined ‘Observatory Experience’. It is a point of pride for hosts who give tours of the Empire State Building. What major sustainability transformations have happened inside the ESB? DR: The Empire State Building underwent an industry-leading deep energy retrofit that reduced energy use by more than 40%, and carbon emissions by 54%. As we planned to implement these changes in the building, the order in which they were done and the interactions between individual projects were crucial for optimal effectiveness and ROI. We took a comprehensive, holistic approach to building performance

“ Kong brings visitors face-to-face with the famous primate featured in the original 1933 film” ANTHONY E. MALKIN

CEO, PRESIDENT & CHAIRMAN, EMPIRE STATE REALTY TRUST

optimisation and always balanced technical, economic and healthy building categories by performing the right steps in the right order – beginning with the optimisation of the building envelope (windows, insulation, infiltration)

which reduced the load on our central plant by 33%. Furthermore, we quadrupled the performance of all 6,514 windows and reused over 96 percent of existing materials, while reflective insulation was placed behind each radiator to reduce energy used to cool and heat the building. There has also been the implementation of extensive tenant energy and sustainability measures which include lighting, equipment and water efficiency. The largest wireless battery management system in the world has also been installed and our elevators use regenerative braking to store potential energy, which is reused within the building. sustainabilitymag.com

NET ZERO

“ We quadrupled the performance of all 6,514 windows and reflective insulation was placed behind each radiator to reduce energy used to cool and heat the building” DANA ROBBINS SCHNEIDER

DIRECTOR OF ENERGY, SUSTAINABILITY & ESG, EMPIRE STATE REALTY TRUST

What has been the key to turning a 1931 innovation into a progressive 2020’s entity? DR: The repositioning and deep energy retrofit at the Empire State Building was a first for Empire State Realty Trust. In its implementation, we identified that it was critical to understand the order in which things needed to be done, and measure ROI and effectiveness of each project, not in a silo, but how each one reacts with other energy-reducing projects. In 2020 ESRT and Empire State Building became the first structure in the Americas to achieve the WELL Health-Safety Rating. Which partnerships have been essential in the ESB's retrofit? DR: The Empire State Building retrofit was a valuable partnership between ESRT, the Clinton Climate Initiative, the Rocky Mountain Institute, Johnson Controls and JLL. We also are the first stop for all new proptech companies who want the brand of the Empire State Building associated with their products and services. These partnerships keep the Empire State Building and our entire portfolio at the cutting edge of modernisation. 90

January 2022

NET ZERO

What are your goals in terms of carbon emissions? DR: ESRT is aiming to achieve carbon neutrality in the Empire State Building by 2030, and across its 10.1 million square foot commercial portfolio by 2035. Our Chairman, President and CEO serves on the Local Law 97 Advisory Board and on the Technical Pathways for Commercial Buildings Working Group to influence legislation based on our successful emissions reduction and sustainability practices within the Empire State Building. We are committed to exceed LL97’s timeline to reduce carbon emissions, portfolio wide; 40% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. The Empire State Building has reduced carbon emissions by 54% over the past decade – which saves upwards of $4 million a year – and our current and future efforts are expected to reduce emissions by 80% within the next decade. Our entire portfolio is powered by renewable wind energy which makes ESRT the nation’s largest 100% user of green power in real estate. ESRT received the coveted GRESB 5 Star Rating for sustainability performance in both years of participation and was named ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year in 2021. How has the ESB adapted to the digital era? AM: We have updated technology – within the Empire State Building and throughout our portfolio – to control air quality, temperature and light which includes CO2 sensors for increased employee productivity, MERV 13 filters to remove 85% of harmful air particles and active bi-polar ionisation, which is shown to neutralise 99.92% of coronaviruses. Completed in December 2019, the Empire State Building Observatory Experience underwent a $165 million reimagination which added a new entrance on 34th Street dedicated to observatory guests. There is also sustainabilitymag.com

NET ZERO

“ The largest wireless battery management system in the world has also been installed and our elevators use regenerative braking to store potential energy” DANA ROBBINS SCHNEIDER

DIRECTOR OF ENERGY, SUSTAINABILITY & ESG, EMPIRE STATE REALTY TRUST

January 2022

NET ZERO

a new 102nd Floor Observatory, with spectacular 360-degree views through floor-to-ceiling windows, and a range of museum-quality digital and tactile exhibits. These include the hugely popular ‘Kong’, which brings visitors face-to-face with the famous primate featured in the original 1933 film. Meanwhile, ‘Construction’ places guests in the middle of life-like bronze sculptures amid videos of iron workers as they build the iconic tower. ‘The Site in the 1920’s’ allows guests to look through building surveyors to see New York City streets in the late 1020’s, while the ‘World’s Most Famous Building’ depicts the Empire State Building as a cultural icon in a sweeping 72-screen, 180-degree surround sound theater. Additionally, Modern Marvel’ outlines the specific measures taken to make the Empire State Building a world leader in sustainability. How is the ESB embracing diversity, equality and inclusion? AM: Our key DE&I measures are included in our annual sustainability report, which details our hiring practices, discrimination-free workplace and pay equity. We believe diverse perspectives enhance effective decisionmaking and innovation, and we strive to create a diverse, inclusive workplace where people can be authentic in their roles. We are proud to have received a GRESB score of 96 and an A-rating for the public disclosure of our ESG activities, for a second consecutive year. There is a genuine commitment to transparency and disclosure of key diversity metrics at all levels of the organisation including race, gender and age group distribution.

sustainabilitymag.com

ESG GOALS TO BUILD A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE WRITTEN BY: LEILA HAWKINS PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

January 2022

CARDINAL HEALTH

sustainabilitymag.com

CARDINAL HEALTH

Michael Bellantis, Director for ESG and Sustainability at Cardinal Health, tells us about the organisation's commitment to reducing its emissions by 50% by the year 2030

very day, I have the opportunity to work in an organisation that truly prioritises the health and well-being of its people and the environment. It’s incredibly rewarding," Michael Bellantis says when asked about his role as the Director of Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) and Sustainability at Cardinal Health. The company's mission is "to be healthcare's most trusted partner, by building upon our scale, our heritage, distribution products and solutions, while driving growth in evolving areas of healthcare, through customer insight, data and analytics, and focusing our resources on what matters most." Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, located in the United States’ Midwest, the company was first established as a grocery wholesaler in 1971. After more than 10 years of growth in food distribution, the company pivoted to pharmaceutical distribution in the early 1980s. Today Cardinal Health is not only a distributor of pharmaceuticals, but also a global manufacturer and distributor of medical and laboratory products and a provider of performance and data solutions for healthcare facilities. "Cardinal Health plays a key role in the very complex healthcare industry,” Bellantis says. The healthcare sector is energy-

January 2022

Michael Bellantis, Director for ESG and Sustainability at Cardinal Health

Example of an image caption sustainabilitymag.com

CARDINAL HEALTH

intensive and accounts for 4.4% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, according to the nonprofit organisation Health Care Without Harm. To address environmental issues, Cardinal Health has established a set of sustainability guiding principles with four key pillars, Bellantis explains. "The first pillar is pollution prevention, focusing on minimising waste generated throughout our operations and maintaining high rates of reuse and recycling. "The second is energy optimisation, to reduce impact on the environment, minimise our greenhouse gas emissions, and give preference to renewable energy sources. The third pillar is around designing projects or products to reduce consumption of natural resources. And the fourth is our employee and public outreach, to promote environmental awareness and engagement among employees, the public and our customers. "ESG, specifically around climate action, is the right thing to do," Bellantis adds. "As a global company, we know that the long-term health of our communities, colleagues, customers and

“ I HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK IN AN ORGANISATION THAT TRULY PRIORITISES THE HEALTH AND WELLBEING OF ITS PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT. IT’S INCREDIBLY REWARDING” MICHAEL BELLANTIS

DIRECTOR, ESG AND SUSTAINABILITY, CARDINAL HEALTH

January 2022

CARDINAL HEALTH

MICHAEL BELLANTIS TITLE: DIRECTOR, ESG AND SUSTAINABILITY INDUSTRY: HEALTHCARE LOCATION: USA

EXECUTIVE BIO

Michael Bellantis is Director, ESG and Sustainability at Cardinal Health with oversight for the company’s Environmental Sustainability, Energy Procurement, and Product Stewardship initiatives and furthering the organisation’s ESG strategy. Prior to joining Cardinal Health in 2018, Bellantis served in Environmental, Health, and Safety leadership roles at organizations within the Chemical and Steel industries. Bellantis received a Master of Business Administration from Franklin University and a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Policy and Management from The Ohio State University.

CARDINAL HEALTH

ESG goals to build a more sustainable future

“ THESE TYPES OF OPPORTUNITIES DRIVE INNOVATION… [AND] IT’S EXCITING THAT THESE CONVERSATIONS ARE TAKING PLACE IN THE AREA OF SUSTAINABILITY” MICHAEL BELLANTIS

DIRECTOR, ESG AND SUSTAINABILITY, CARDINAL HEALTH

100

January 2022

partners depends on a commitment to environmental sustainability. “We've established several ESG-related goals including a commitment to reducing enterprise Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by the fiscal year 2030, using fiscal year 2019 as the baseline. "We've established these goals with the intention of alignment with science-based targets to help mitigate the impacts of climate change," he says. The reduction applies to scope 1, or direct greenhouse emissions, from the fuel burned in facilities and the vehicles the company owns or operates, and scope 2 emissions, from the consumption of electricity, heat and cooling that the company purchases. "My objective is to steer the organisation in a manner

that we can achieve these goals, while simultaneously continuing to grow, innovate and meet commitments to stakeholders as a business," Bellantis explains. "It's about working together and establishing those trusted relationships in a multi-tiered organisation, which allows us to drive performance. Building working relationships and establishing trust with stakeholders enables everyone to meet around the table and march in the same direction towards these goals." To monitor its greenhouse gas emissions, Cardinal Health uses a software solution and system that “enables us to track trends and look at areas where we can improve," Bellantis says. Bellantis says that a significant challenge - across all industries - is tackling scope 3

emissions. These indirect emissions occur in a company’s value chain and include such things as greenhouse gas emissions from the suppliers and vendors that deliver raw materials, external manufacturing facilities, and last-mile partners who drive products to healthcare providers. These are more difficult to measure than Scope 1 and 2 emissions, Bellantis explains, but they represent an important impact on the environment. "Our opportunity is to screen these scope 3 emissions in a way that allows us to track and reduce them." Bellantis is optimistic, he says. "These types of opportunities drive innovation, and Cardinal Health has demonstrated that it's a very innovative company, able to tackle complex issues. It’s exciting that these conversations are taking place in the area sustainabilitymag.com

101

CARDINAL HEALTH

“ WE'VE ESTABLISHED THESE GOALS WITH THE INTENTION OF ALIGNMENT WITH SCIENCE-BASED TARGETS TO HELP MITIGATE THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE” MICHAEL BELLANTIS

DIRECTOR, ESG AND SUSTAINABILITY, CARDINAL HEALTH

of sustainability. Ultimately, reducing our environmental impact makes our operations both more resilient and more efficient." Cardinal Health has several other important environmental projects underway, including its Total Waste Management Initiative, an enterprise-focused solution focused on the elimination, as well as the reduction and/or reuse of waste and waste by-products. Locally to its headquarters in Central Ohio, Cardinal Health recently executed a power purchase agreement (PPA) in partnership through Smart Columbus Energy, an initiative of Smart Columbus, a public-private partnership that leads the city’s efforts to transition to clean energy. The PPA will enable the company to source 100% renewable energy from next year onwards for Cardinal Health’s headquarters and for its premier central-Ohio distribution centres. "This will be Ohio-based, renewable energy. It's a terrific opportunity for us to support the development of renewable energies in the community many of our employees call home." The company also further works with Smart Columbus in its dedicated innovation efforts in piloting certain technology, transport, and environmental developments. 102

January 2022

sustainabilitymag.com

103

“ IT'S REALLY AN EXCITING TIME AT CARDINAL HEALTH… OUR ESG PRIORITIES ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER” MICHAEL BELLANTIS

DIRECTOR, ESG AND SUSTAINABILITY, CARDINAL HEALTH

104

January 2022

CARDINAL HEALTH

It was this organisation that facilitated the PPA deal, thanks to its knowledge of local utility firms. In addition to its sustainability goals, Cardinal Health is similarly focused on the social and governance aspects of ESG; notably, in building a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce with goals to increase leadership representation of women and racial and ethnic populations among its workforce by 2030. To integrate all of its corporate citizenship initiatives throughout the company, Cardinal Health’s ESG Steering Committee, chaired by the EVP and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, is tasked with: coordinating and prioritising recommendations and requests about ESG issues; making recommendations to management on ESG projects and investments, with a focus on business benefit, cost-effectiveness and sustainability; assessing recommendations and requests for ESG information or initiatives from stakeholders and interest groups; and developing consistent internal and external communications about ESG matters. "It's really an exciting time at Cardinal Health," Bellantis says. "Our ESG priorities are more important than ever. We’re pleased to be making a positive difference and very much looking forward to continuing the work.” You can learn more about all of the company’s corporate citizenship efforts in its latest Corporate Citizenship Report.

sustainabilitymag.com

105

SUPPLY CHAIN SUSTAINABILITY

SUPPLY CHAIN SUSTAINABILITY DOESN’T MEAN AN ERASURE OF PROFIT Sustainability in the supply chain is popular and profitable say Better Origin and Michelin WRITTEN BY: HELEN ADAMS

ustainability within the supply chain has had a long and tumultuous history – from the outlawing of slavery to the current initiatives to drive out forced labour. Currently in North-West Africa, chocolate manufacturers are sweeping child slave labour out of their supply chains, in response to a lawsuit from children represented by International Rights Advocates, who say they were forced into slavery on cocoa plantations which supplied Nestle, Mars, Mondelēz and Hershey with cocoa. Not only are such supply chain offences illegal, but perhaps more damagingly, a PR disaster. A recent report from Garnier shows that 73% of consumers want to be more sustainable

106

January 2022

and buying from a business with unsustainable credentials will put many off or incur a boycott. Following successful public shaming of those discovered to be hiding unsustainable practices (such as the Nescafe boycott 1977-1984), supply chain sustainability has become an essential element in business. Although protecting vulnerable people from exploitation remains a high priority, finding answers to environmental pollution and waste management is also deeply necessary. A Michelin Guide Inspector and Better Origin spoke with Sustainability, to discuss their management of supply chain sustainability and why it’s important.

SUPPLY CHAIN SUSTAINABILITY

sustainabilitymag.com

107

SAUR

Loved by Procurement Built for IT Sustainable Business Spend Management Coupa empowers organizations to drive responsible and measurable impact for their business and the broader community. Find Out More

coupa.com

SUPPLY CHAIN SUSTAINABILITY

How Stockport's 'Where The Light Gets In' Got The Michelin Green Star

“ The MICHELIN Guide has witnessed the work of chefs and the paths they have taken in striving for ethical practices” MICHELIN GUIDE INSPECTOR The new Michelin Guide Green Star supports supply chain sustainability France, 1889: Brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin opened a tire company now known across the world. To help the French automobile industry sell more cars (and tyres), they put together The Michelin Guide, to enable travellers to find places to eat. Stars denoted the finest establishments and the brothers were able to pay inspectors to visit the restaurants anonymously to rate them.

The Michelin Guide has added the Michelin Green Star and an anonymous Michelin Guide Inspector spoke with Sustainability to explain why. “The Green Star was introduced for the first time in the United States last fall during the California Family Meal event”, says the Michelin Guide Inspector. “This new collection of restaurants brings together chefs with a common cause, whose inspiring initiatives and methods help to raise awareness of the importance of environmental issues. Throughout our U.S. selections, MICHELIN Guide inspectors have found many chefs who are committed to promoting regional products while skillfully crafting cuisine that respects nature and seasonal changes.” Awards based on sustainability are growing in popularity – from the Earthshot prize to the Net Zero Leader of the Year. Why is it important to celebrate sustainable chefs? sustainabilitymag.com

109

SUPPLY CHAIN SUSTAINABILITY

“For many years, the MICHELIN Guide has witnessed the work of chefs and the paths they have taken in striving for ethical practices”, explains our Michelin Guide Inspector. “Today, we are using all of our available communication channels to showcase these chefs and their teams. Our goal is to shine a light, for the industry and the general public, on the practices and philosophies that are contributing towards a more virtuous world.” So what are the Michelin Green Star chefs doing to be more sustainable? “Every MICHELIN Green Star restaurant is different and works in its own unique way”, explains the Michelin Guide Inspector.

“ It doesn't make sense the way our capitalistic society works. You need to make money out of being sustainable” FOTIS FOTIADIS

CO-FOUNDER & CEO, BETTER ORIGIN

110

January 2022

of global greenhouse gas emissions come from food waste. Better Origin aims to eliminate this source

While Michelin inspectors are employees of the company, they are dedicated to preserving their anonymity. This is to avoid special treatment from restaurants, which may impact their Michelin Guide rating

SUPPLY CHAIN SUSTAINABILITY

“But all make a difference to the world around them and act as role models to us all, by: • Working directly with growers, farmers and fishermen • Foraging in hedgerows and woodlands • Growing plants and rearing animals • Using regenerative methods such as no-dig vegetable gardens and successional cover crop growing “They also often go beyond environmental considerations, to address issues related to ethics and wellbeing, as well as contributing to local, national or global charitable and educational projects.”

For those aspiring chefs, Michelin looks for a responsible attitude to the food supply chain. “There is no specific formula for awarding a MICHELIN Green Star, as every restaurant and its surrounding region has a unique set of conditions. The Inspectors are simply looking for those at the top of their game when it comes to their sustainable practices. They consider things such as: • The provenance of the ingredients • The use of seasonal produce • The restaurant’s environmental footprint • Food waste systems • General waste disposal and recycling • Resource management • The communication between the team and the guests about the restaurant’s sustainable approach” Carbon offsetting is not the answer to decarbonising the supply chain Biotech company Better Origin, sees a future without food waste. Using AI-powered insect mini-farms to convert leftover nutrients into essential nutrients, the company can reduce food waste and emissions. Fotis Fotiadis, co-founder & CEO of Better Origin, aims to maintain supply chain sustainability for the long run. “At Better Origin, we have developed the tools to convert food waste into nutritious, high value food for animals”, explains Fotiadis. “We can deploy our systems on farms, food waste facilities or supermarkets and we convert the waste into different products, such as feed for chickens or fish. That will vary, based on the input of the food waste you put in. If you have, for example, grains that come out of a brewery, these are very clean and there’s nothing wrong with them – we can actually convert that into human food. sustainabilitymag.com

111

“We do all that through a decentralised and highly autonomous system. This is very important, because we can deploy a system on site and the user, whether that is a farmer or an operator, they do not need to know anything about farming insects. We do all of that remotely and our software does the farming. We have lowered the barrier to entry for anyone who wants to start farming insects.” Fotiadis is adamant that there are better solutions than carbon offsetting, for companies who want to decarbonise the food supply chain. “Carbon offsets are a very hot area of discussion at the moment”, says Fotiadis.

“ Our goal is to shine a light on the practices and philosophies that are contributing towards a more virtuous world” MICHELIN GUIDE INSPECTOR “However, the risk with offsets is that it’s almost like a permission to pollute. If you think: Instead of trying to minimise that, I'm going to go and buy offsets from someone planting trees in Cambodia – then job done! But actually that doesn't solve the problem. “If we were to use carbon offsets to mitigate this problem and decarbonise the food supply chain, we would run out of land in a few years. I am a big supporter of the net zero movement and it is great to see governments, consumers and retailers pushing towards that, but we need to start looking into how we can make meaningful changes to reducing emissions and not just continuing business as usual.” 112

January 2022

SUPPLY CHAIN SUSTAINABILITY

sustainabilitymag.com

113

SUPPLY CHAIN SUSTAINABILITY

So as businesses move to more sustainable options, what role should supply chains be playing? “Supply chains should be working with companies, to be able to find where they can reduce or eliminate emissions. That happens at the source, where the emissions are created. The way we work at Better Origin, because of the flexibility we have with our systems and the autonomous element that we built in the system, all we can do is work with companies like supermarkets and go and plug our systems in the supply chain to decarbonise it. We would just go and put in our systems and convert their food waste into products that can go back onto their shelves. What you do there, is that you really start closing the loop into this food cycle or into the food supply chain. “You mitigate the emissions at the source by: • Avoiding food waste • Producing food locally “This also produces profit, because when you plant trees to pay for that carbon offset, there's nothing to return, unlike when you actually clean up your emissions using our technology. We can reduce food waste, reduce emissions and produce a product that we can then sell back into your stores. That's a core value of our company as well. It doesn't make sense the way our capitalistic society works – it's not going to work. You need to make money out of being sustainable. “That's why we've worked a lot on a solution that can reduce emissions, while being profitable and cleaning up the emissions at the source of your supply chain. The core of what we do, to help these companies decarbonise the food supply chain”, says Fotiadis. 114

January 2022

From the companies that Better Origin have worked with, the response has been hopeful. “In the food production sector, it's quite a large, slow moving industry”, says Fotiadis. “You're convinced about the changes, but once they get convinced, they are quite fast to adopt. The reception so far has been very positive, even if it takes a bit of time to get them to the point of adopting.” Consumers are growing keener to consume responsibly The world’s population is expected to hit 9bn in 2070. Yet in 2020, the UN classed 811mn people as ‘under-nourished’, although this was partly due to the pandemic. At Better Origin, the company has seen some promising developments arise from Covid. “We've seen a big change after the pandemic, both from companies adopting our technology and investors”, explains Fotiadis. “People are finally realising that the next big crisis is the climate change crisis. The next reason we might be in a lockdown – if it's not another pandemic – could be adverse climate conditions.” An environmental catastrophe, such as another flood or heat wave, could impact the food supply chain. “As restaurants continue to reevaluate their supply chains, a local, sustainable focus is more of an interest now than ever before”, concludes the Michelin Guide Inspector. “The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated our focus on the state of our planet and the responsibility we each bear. The MICHELIN Green Star has found its natural place and is strengthened every day through discussions with professionals in the industry and foodies across the world who are eager to consume more responsibly”.

“Supply chains should be working with companies, to be able to find where they can reduce or eliminate emissions” FOTIS FOTIADIS

CO-FOUNDER & CEO, BETTER ORIGIN

sustainabilitymag.com

115

USING PRODUCTS AS PART OF A SUSTAINABILITY SOLUTION

WRITTEN BY: JOHN PINCHING PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE 116

January 2022

COVESTRO

sustainabilitymag.com

117

COVESTRO

The plastic industry is seen as the problem, but by building a circular economy Covestro is proving it can be part of the answer to climate change

ngineering plastics is one of the seven business entities within Covestro with a range of sustainability goals. By design, its focus is on ‘sustainability solutions’, with different products in its portfolio serving different sustainability targets downstream. Roy Cheung is Global Head of Sustainability Solutions, Engineering Plastics, at Covestro and he has become increasingly aware of the need for cooperation throughout the ecosystem, from manufacturer to consumer and everything in between. “As we look to increase circularity exponentially, we need to work with external partners and our vast customer base,” he explains. “We sell materials to other companies who make products which then need to be recycled at the end of their life. It's our job, within the business, to engage with customers, not only about selling our products and solutions, but also about uniting to roll out initiatives to take back and recycle the materials.” Indeed, Covestro has been aiming for a closed loop model for many years – a system which aligns itself with a robust circular economy and involves all the different aspects of company operations, while also involving the wider global ecosystem. “This is something that excites me,” says Roy. “To develop and grow a new idea into reality and witness its ability to become sustainable represents the central focus for us. This is particularly important because of the nature of our business – as a raw

118

January 2022

COVESTRO

Roy Cheung, Global Head of Sustainability Solutions, Engineering Plastics, Covestro

sustainabilitymag.com

119

COVESTRO

materials provider. Naturally, our carbon footprint is part of the scope three emissions of our downstream customers, so whenever we achieve a product with a lower footprint, or with an increased circularity, it benefits the entire ecosystem.” There is no escaping the fact that the plastics industry is very energy intensive, but if the carbon footprint is heavily reduced – which Covestro is passionate about ensuring – the narrative around plastics does change radically. Indeed, alongside its CO2 reduction plan, Covestro is keen to show how responsible plastic use is actually part of the solution to climate change and that responsible plastic incorporation is sustainable throughout the world, and on a long-term basis. The pivotal aspect of the plastics scenario is to move away from a linear, “take-make120

January 2022

“ Because of negative narratives around plastics, we need to educate people, not just about the nature of materials, but how they use the materials, and how they design products with them” ROY CHEUNG

GLOBAL HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY SOLUTIONS, ENGINEERING PLASTICS, COVESTRO

COVESTRO

ROY CHEUNG TITLE: GLOBAL HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY SOLUTIONS, ENGINEERING PLASTICS LOCATION: LEVERKUSEN, GERMANY

waste” model, and the practice of recycling parts becomes an intuitive part of the manufacturing and functionality of products. Roy notes: “We need to educate people, not just about the nature of materials and plastics, but how they use the materials. Only then can people appreciate that it is not plastics that are causing the problem but our behaviour around them. That’s the essence of the Circular Economy.” As the world’s population reconciles to the current situation and the issues around ending deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels, plastic producers such as Covestro have the significant job of demonstrating how their products can support sound environmental practices. This is the shape of things to come and Covestro has been aware that the shape is circular. The natural end being replaced by an

EXECUTIVE BIO

Roy leads the global sustainability strategy of the engineering plastics business unit of Covestro, with a focus on the commercialization of sustainability solutions and the promotion of circular design strategies in designing for a circular economy. He's also an experienced business model innovation practitioner, actively building alliances and partnership in the industrial value chain to enable closedloop recycling and better material traceability in driving the transition towards a circular economy.

COVESTRO

“ The early adopters tend to be curious people and many from the younger generation who have a clear idea about what they want on sustainability for their future generations” ROY CHEUNG

GLOBAL HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY SOLUTIONS, ENGINEERING PLASTICS, COVESTRO

2015

Year established as a legally independent company. Business activities extend back to the 20th century, as the former Bayer MaterialScience

Chemical, Manufacturing Industry

16,500

Number of Employees 2020

€10.7bn Revenue 2020

122

January 2022

endless and wasteless cycle which benefits everyone and, mercifully, the planet itself. Going full cycle Two years ago Covestro began to shape out a new corporate-level vision called ‘Fully Circular’. Guided by a principle which urges the entire organisation to move forward positively with the intention of taking on the negative aspects of climate change and realising that steps to alleviate it are possible. This mission is translated into some key areas. The first pillar concerns how the company can be much more independent from fossil fuel resources, by using alternative materials. “This means using non-fossil based materials such as bio-waste, biomass or recycled materials,” says Roy. “We have a

COVESTRO

whole portfolio of products which The third is called ‘joint contain post-consumer recycled solutions’. This means working (PCR) plastics. At present PCR with partners upstream as well If you are using a serves primarily the electronic as downstream. laptop of a major brand in the U.S. or industries, so if you are using a A good example of this cohesion Europe, the chances laptop of a major brand in the is Covestro’s recycling of the are it will contain some percentage of U.S. or Europe, the chances are it enormous 19 litre water bottles. recycled plastics. will contain some percentage of These are used throughout many recycled plastics that come from companies countries – typically in offices – and made like us.” out of polycarbonate. Historically the water The second pillar involves the essential company would collect the old water bottles principles of the circular economy. “The key and refill them a few times, but at the end of for this lies in recycling,” insists Roy. “We life these would be disposed of. Therefore, are investing a lot in recycling technologies it has been essential that the company because there's a huge amount of plastic discovers how to integrate the old bottles waste that cannot be mechanically recycled into a circular model. properly. With different types of plastics, you Roy says: “Now we’re working with one of need another type of recycling technology – the biggest water bottlers – Nongfu Spring chemical recycling.” – to retrieve all end-of-life water bottles.

sustainabilitymag.com

123

COVESTRO

We're talking about one million bottles every year across China. These then become recycled raw materials for other applications, such as electronics. It’s a great case study of one item reappearing as another, and in a completely different industry.” Plastic population The company has endeavoured to unite every employee with the same fully circular vision, with every function making a contribution from procurement to operations to sales. It also includes supporting functions like HR, controlling and supply chains. Roy explains: “To bring every single employee on board; to equip them with precisely the knowledge they need is a constant challenge. But we are seeing positive change. There has been a growing number of early adopters within the organisation who are already showing willingness to contribute. They tend to be curious people, with many from the younger generation, who have a clear idea about what they want on sustainability for future generations.” Covestro is also encouraging digital expansion among its workforce with many digital initiatives encouraging more sustainable behaviour. This is particularly useful when it comes to the traceability of materials. “We want to locate and trace the good quality recyclable plastics, but it isn’t possible without implementing AI technologies and digital mapping. Traceability and transparency of the supply chain is a major theme when it comes to upholding the circular economy.” The circular challenge is certainly one that the company, and Roy in particular, is focused on. It represents the epicentre of where it needs to be in the coming years. “That model involves how people use the products and the speed of this process will 124

January 2022

“ The designers are thinking about what the product offers when it is ready to be recycled and whether it can easily be dismantled, separated and sorted” ROY CHEUNG

GLOBAL HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY SOLUTIONS, ENGINEERING PLASTICS, COVESTRO

COVESTRO

Using products as part of sustainability solution

sustainabilitymag.com

125

COVESTRO

increase as the lifespan of products reduces. Across the ‘linear economy model’ there is a negative narrative around plastics but with circular you are concentrating on reusing and recycling rather than being distracted by the waste element.” The concept of circular has been further enhanced by Covestro’s efforts to promote design strategies that put future recycling in mind. Roy notes: “We think circular design strategies should be incorporated at the beginning of the product design process, so that designers are thinking about what the product will offer when it is ready to be recycled and whether it can easily be dismantled, separated and sorted.” Global solutions The traditional markets for Covestro are China, Europe – particularly Germany – and the Americas, with a specific focus on the U.S. The circular concept requires all these regions to operate symbiotically as Roy describes: “It's a global phenomenon but in order to solve the constant problem of waste, we need to close more loops, and that has to be at a local level. We need more voices and contributions from all countries and companies – big and small. “A great many recyclers, especially in developing countries, are not big companies. Some of them are startups or social enterprises, or even operated by a single individual level. Therefore inclusiveness and diversity have a huge role to play. Beyond circularity or plastic recycling we must embrace and prioritise the challenge of alleviating poverty.” This notion of cohesiveness is essential to achieve full circularity, and Covestro is adamant that it cannot be achieved alone or within one single institution, industry or nation. “We really need more partnerships

“ Beyond circularity or plastic recycling we must embrace and prioritise the challenge of alleviating poverty” ROY CHEUNG

GLOBAL HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY SOLUTIONS, ENGINEERING PLASTICS, COVESTRO

to have more collaborative models. We're living in an era in which we are constantly discovering new innovations and working together is the key to leveraging them. This has to happen internationally and by groups of people with an understanding of the common goals involved.” With this philosophy and a determination to go circular on an all-encompassing scale, the future looks bright for Covestro. “In the near future, we want to be more circular than we are right now and we will have more solutions in our sustainability portfolio entering the commercialisation phase. We're going to have more carbon footprint data available, more transparent data about supply chains downstream and much more closed loop models with our partners.” “Eventually we're going to achieve our fully circular goals, while helping our downstream customers achieve theirs.” concludes Roy. It’s a bold statement but one which resonates. After all, for Covestro, perhaps more than many other companies, it has been about encouraging a tremendous cultural shift and recognising its place in the climate change equation – realising that even plastics can become a force for good.

sustainabilitymag.com

127

SPECIALISED NUTRITION TAKES GLOBAL CRUSADE FOR SUSTAINABILITY TO THE

128

January 2022

NEXT LEVEL

DANONE

WRITTEN BY: JOHN PINCHING

PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

sustainabilitymag.com

129

130

January 2022

DANONE

Danone puts sustainability at its global

sites, across its agricultural network and throughout its expansive supply chains

erhaps appropriately, Paul Kennedy – Global Sustainability Manager at Danone Specialised Nutrition – names ‘Roll With It’ as his all-time favourite track. The Oasis hit suggests that whatever challenges you are facing and whatever goals you are striving for, you should trust yourself, be yourself and you will get there. In a way, that perfectly crystallises the climate change situation. It is an examination of our ability to overcome the obstacles in front of us. Indeed, Danone has become a proud trailblazer for rapid change, influential innovation and cultural shifts within the food production industry. Danone’s powerful frame of action ‘One Planet One Health’ has established very clear aims and commitments around key aspects of its dependence on nature. Paul explains: “It's all about how we fight the climate crisis, how we protect water resources, how we accelerate the circular economy towards packaging and how we fight food waste. Most importantly for Danone, as a globally recognised food company, is the ability to transition to regenerative agriculture practices. This is our guiding star, when it comes to preserving and protecting the planet’s resources.” Paul’s role is based within global operations and he works on implementing the company’s ambitious action plans, such as decarbonising local operations through sustainabilitymag.com

131

DANONE

100 Years - Looking back at an epic journey

energy efficiency, switching to renewable energy and finding solutions with local partners, while also working on preserving and protecting precious water resources. Our goal is to engender sustainability into the minutiae of its expansive network. “It is imperative that we connect effectively with our procurement teams, farmers, suppliers and partners because, ultimately, it all impacts on our carbon footprint numbers. Additionally, working with our local markets establishes a really tangible connection with our brands and helps to yield a culture of sustainability,” says Paul. Vital ingredients In the food industry reputation is everything and, while many companies have gradually brought green credentials to the top of their agenda, Danone has had sustainability on its radar since the 1970s, when it recognised that economic progress could not happen without societal progress. 132

January 2022

“ When the values of the company are aligned with the individuals that represent it, you already have a huge advantage” PAUL KENNEDY

GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY MANAGER SPECIALISED NUTRITION, DANONE

That belief system has been the driving force for many of Danone’s modern initiatives and also forms its overarching approach to the climate change challenge. Paul believes this notion of honesty and responsibility is vital: “This is not just something we feel we have to do – it's been part of our DNA and has been for years. It goes beyond our factories and offices; it defines how we interact with society and

DANONE

PAUL KENNEDY TITLE: GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY MANAGER, SPECIALISED NUTRITION

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: IRELAND Since 2015 Paul Kennedy has overseen the global nature and sustainability programme in Danone’s baby food operations, integrating the company’s commitments on climate change, water preservation, regenerative agriculture & promoting a circular economy for packaging & food waste. Since 2019 he has taken on the additional responsibility Danone’s medical nutrition operations. Paul graduated as an engineer from the National University of Ireland in Galway. He started his career as a project engineer within the construction industry and joined Danone in 2010 as an Environment, Health and Safety Manager at Danone Wexford, the baby formula plant that was certified as carbon neutral by the Carbon Trust in 2020.

sustainabilitymag.com

133

DANONE

the planet. It provides the solid foundation stone upon which everything at the company is built.” At Danone these commitments serve as the critical infrastructure, but Paul is also passionate about seeing action on the ground. “When the values of the company are aligned with the individuals that represent it, you already have a huge advantage,” he enthuses. “But we also need to walk the talk on the ground. It’s been really empowering to witness employees getting immersed in initiatives, ensuring that they are part of this journey and have a compelling role in the transformation.” Carbon reduction focus As stated in its 2015 Climate Policy, Danone has committed to become a carbon neutral company by 2050, across its full scope of responsibility, including agriculture, through solutions co-created with its partners. To reduce its carbon footprint, Danone measures its impact including its full scope of emissions throughout the value chain. “We've been measuring the carbon footprint of Danone products since 2008, when we made our initial commitments,” says Paul. “We measure it rigorously and frequently. That helps us engage in parts of our supply chain that are of greatest importance and enable us to prioritise areas which require attention.” This vast knowledge and expertise – built over years of measuring – is equipping the company to have positive conversations with businesses, partners and farmers about projects which focus on collective reduction goals. The impressive focus on detail has even allowed Danone to accompany its farmers and calculate the carbon footprint of the 134

January 2022

DANONE

100%

Renewable electricity across its production sites worldwide by 2030.

2025

Packaging to be 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable.

milk they're producing, whether it be in the US, France or New Zealand. That level of knowledge is crucial as it allows Danone to apply the maximum resources and effort into the areas where the greatest impact can be achieved. Digital love In order to produce such dynamic data Danone has embraced the digital era and the possibilities it presents. Paul has been a convert and believes that progressive sustainability and digital have become inseparable: “Digital technologies are massively contributing towards accelerating actions that are needed to build a more sustainable future.” “We see it right across the value chain – whether it's simple, practical or profound – digital technologies support smarter agriculture and better agricultural practices. They also provide a greater knowledge of the ground beneath our feet and how crops are growing,” he adds. Within Danone’s own sophisticated digital platforms, smarter tools and monitoring of production processes have boosted efficiency throughout its resources – including the decreasing of energy and reducing water usage. In addition, the digital era is bringing unprecedented transparency and traceability right across the value chain. “This enables us to know the entire path of our raw materials, from the farm, right through to the marketplace. Being able to connect that information is essential because what consumers are really asking for is the truth behind the products. Knowing about the producers is also becoming much more important and digitalisation gives us the tools and the infrastructure to deliver transparency.” sustainabilitymag.com

135

New ground In the last few years Danone has developed a new plant for specialised nutrition in Brazil which has achieved landmark certification in three key environmental areas (carbon neutrality, water reduction and zero-waste to landfill) and has created a new template for its plants around the world. It is also a project that has been particularly close to Paul’s heart as it represents a working operation that, from the beginning, has been motivated by a planet-saving ethos. Paul reflects: “I'm very proud of this, because back in 2018, together with the local leadership team in Brazil, we planted the seed about the possibility of a beautiful new plant which was not just about reducing our carbon footprint, but having a positive impact in Poços de Caldas. “We set ourselves an ambition around three pillars – for the production site to achieve carbon neutrality and, as quickly as we could, protect the water resources and become zero-waste to landfill” A fundamental milestone for Danone’s Specialised Nutrition plant in Brazil has been authenticity. It's not about offsetting, but making sure that the plant itself runs on 100% renewable electricity. With that bold level of commitment in mind, the company has even installed over 1,500 solar panels, covering the entire car park infrastructure, enabling it to self-generate electricity as well as running the plant. While the trailblazing operation in Brazil has created a blueprint for newly designed sites, Danone is also ensuring that existing operations are constantly changing the game and reimagining what is possible. “We have some great examples already out there,” Paul notes. “Our production site in New Zealand is well on its way, successfully 136

January 2022

implementing a renewable energy project in the form of a biomass plant which allows the system to run on renewable steam. There is also a similarly inspiring project unfolding in Indonesia.” Meanwhile, in Europe two of Danone’s plants are already carbon neutral – Wexford, in Ireland, and the Evian water plant in France. These examples provide impetus for the wider Danone network, its partners and, of course, its customers throughout the world. Its guiding principles also means that the company is committed to cut carbon

DANONE

“ Digital technologies are massively contributing towards accelerating actions that are needed to build a more sustainable future” PAUL KENNEDY

intensity by 50% by 2030, use 100% renewable electricity across the world by 2030 and produce 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable packaging by 2025. Evidently, Danone is a company energised about the future and, above all, completely at home with its place in the present – excited by its role in making the company, the industry and the world a better place.

GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY MANAGER SPECIALISED NUTRITION, DANONE sustainabilitymag.com

137

X-Factor: Enel X’s innovations are reaching the pinnacle of sustainability WRITTEN BY: JOHN PINCHING 138

January 2022

PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

ENEL X

sustainabilitymag.com

139

ENEL X

Enel X is Enel Group’s global business providing exceptionally sustainable and innovative solutions, particularly in the arenas of renewable energy, electric mobility and energy efficiency

s a highly respected provider of innovative solutions – in areas of renewable energy, electric mobility and energy efficiency – Enel X is always striving to embrace the future and uphold its green credentials. Sustainability clearly has a major impact on the company's image and reputation. Indeed, having open and honest discussions about the climate change situation is a fundamental element of Enel X’s agenda. No one is more aware of the need to ‘walk the walk’ than the company’s Head of Sustainability, Nicola Tagliafierro. He reflects: “Of course, every company wants to talk about sustainability but it is very important from my perspective, to talk again about ‘effective sustainability’ – to avoid the situation of clearly green washing, or circular washing.” The company believes in the importance of communicating the metrics in terms of environmental impact, but also social impact. Consequently, there are two directions of communication. “Firstly, we focus on CO2 reduction, in terms of how many people are impacted and which communities are affected,” says Nicola. “At the same time, we need to be fair to the market, institutions and all stakeholders, by explaining the impact these initiatives have on the entire business, and not hiding behind small initiatives that do not represent the core business,” he adds. 140

January 2022

Example of an image caption sustainabilitymag.com

141

ENEL X

X-Factor: Enel X’s innovations are reaching the pinnacle of sustainability

“We don't need to be afraid of saying that behind sustainability, there is a business. In doing so, companies can keep reinvesting in new sustainability” NICOLA TAGLIAFIERRO

HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY, ENEL X

142

January 2022

Boosting sustainability In recent years, Enel X has been concentrating on ‘sustainability boosting’, which involves accelerating the sustainability of products, companies and even public administration. It is all intended to hasten and radically improve the level of sustainability, by analysing the current situation and – through the metrics – discovering areas where improvement can happen rapidly. Nicola explains: “The sustainability boosting programme demonstrates that environmental aspects need to be covered through the circular economy. Our level can be significantly improved by sustainable input introduction, service models, life extension models, sharing strategies and widespread recycling.” And Nicola knows that those new models can be extremely helpful in maximising the use of Enel X products. Different models and perspectives allow the company to view them in an entirely different way.

ENEL X

Enel X can support a potential emission reduction of

32,000

tonnes per year of CO2 and

116,000

megawatt hours per year of energy saving

NICOLA TAGLIAFIERRO

EXECUTIVE BIO

Furthermore, Enel X's Sustainability Boosting Program looks at the situation also through the lens of social inclusion allows Enel X to select products and solutions in terms of usability, accessibility, functionality and understandability, while also allowing it to focus on specific communities of people and how solutions can galvanise their lives. Nicola says: “For people that are experiencing disabilities, or people with different kinds of impairments or difficult economic conditions, we design and develop specific solutions orwe rethink how existing ones can be improved.

TITLE: HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY INDUSTRY: UTILITIES LOCATION: ROME, ITALY Nicola Tagliafierro is since 2017 Head of Sustainability in Enel X. In this role, he is responsible for Sustainability Worldwide Strategies, Circular Economy Portfolio Acceleration and Environmental Solution Development. He is the first Italian to be accepted, thanks to his strong commitment on Sustainability and Circular Economy innovative researches, in the prestigious Aspen Institute USA within the First Movers Program. In 2000 he graduated in Economics and Business Management in Naples (Italy) with a Master Degree in Energy in 2003. He started his experience in London in corporate finance for American company Utility Corp United and energy forecasting for Mott McDonald Group. He is also founder of an innovative start up, winner of several acknowledgments.

sustainabilitymag.com

143

ENEL X

“We then find several small or big projects that can be applied to that particular solution, making those solutions more and more sustainable both in the process and in the final output.” Enel X’s electric charging solution is a notable example of the company’s willingness to embrace sustainability. An internal material that was historically going to waste from another division of the company, is now being used as a plastic to build its recharging infrastructure and electric charging infrastructure. The company is also transforming the lives of wheelchair users who can use ‘juiceability’ –

a cable which allows an electric wheelchair to recharge during an individual’s journey, making shopping trips, visiting the gym or going to a restaurant much more straightforward. “Wheelchair users can use the same charging station as a car,” enthuses Nicola. “That's how we totally rethink the solution through the prism of sustainability.” Change is coming Enel X not only seeks to evolve through innovation; the company also strives to modernise sustainability itself. Nicola says: “A lot of people become entrenched in an old approach to

“We need to move away from the concept of offsetting, not because we don’t believe in planting trees, but because we need to concentrate on actually reducing carbon emissions” NICOLA TAGLIAFIERRO

HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY, ENEL X

sustainabilitymag.com

145

3,381+ Number of Employees

2017

Year Founded

146

January 2022

ENEL X

“There is nothing more sustainable than a saved kWh. I use digitalisation in all our strategies, because dematerialising and smart devices with digitised instruction mean the use of less resources and so efficiency” NICOLA TAGLIAFIERRO

HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY, ENEL X

sustainability, such as a cost-based system or offsetting carbon emissions by planting trees. My view was very clear on this – we need to move away from the concept of offsetting, not because we don’t believe in planting trees, but because we need to concentrate on actually reducing carbon emissions. It’s this kind of logic that we are using to take employees with us.” “This is why we are introducing circular economies – they have a powerful mechanism that generates incredible business opportunities. The company is already making a saving in terms of CO2, and when the business unit realised that we were saving costs, it sent out a very compelling message to the entire company,” he notes. Consequently, different business lines of Enel X have been completely rethinking their processes, which has led to rebooted training, changes in communication and a widespread cultural shift across the company. Digital love Digitalisation is one of the greatest milestones of positive sustainability – as Enel X is discovering. “I use digitalisation in all our sustainabilitymag.com

147

ENEL X

“We know we're part of an ecosystem, so we have a holistic approach. It means we need to collaborate and listen to all our stakeholders and this includes clients, local communities, institutions, suppliers, partners, experts and startups” NICOLA TAGLIAFIERRO

HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY, ENEL X

strategies,” insists Nicola. “Because digitalisation means dematerialising, and dematerialising means the use of less resources. Every area of the business which is able to reduce the use of resources is effectively supporting the sustainability drive.” Digital also has another important role. Through the Internet of Things its devices and infrastructure have become much more smart – digitised instruction has meant a reduction in resources being used. It has also emphasised another important concept of sustainability, which is traceability. This is an essential cog in the overall circular economy mechanism. Prolonging the life of a product is a top priority at Enel X and constructing alternative models to ensure they are even more durable for the future, is an ongoing project. “I can also improve the recycling and reusing 148

January 2022

phase, through traceability,” enthuses Nicola. “Digitalization is clearly one of the biggest allies of sustainability.” Circle of life Enel X is using a very innovative approach to the circular economy, which encourages its partners and clients to follow. Indeed, the company strives to support awareness of the circular economy throughout its supply chain and it has developed a series of critical metrics and a report to help companies to progress sustainably. “The report, which includes the monitoring of CO2 reductions and targets, presents an opportunity for companies to self-analyse and receive a certified score. We wanted to create a market standard to measure circular economy maturity which everyone could be able to use even independently,” explains Nicola “We have developed in less than one year more than 150 circular economy reports for 150 different companies in Europe so far. Thanks to this approach, we are also able to calculate the savings that those companies can generate through our approach. Ultimately, there is a potential emission reduction of 32,000 tons of CO2 per year and also116,000 megawatt hours per

ENEL X

year of energy saving.” We are planning to develop 4,000 circular economy reports in the next 4 years. Diversity and inclusion is also a fundamental aspect of Enel X’s pathway. It is participating in the mission's Valuable 500 – a worldwide initiative with the aim of unleashing the enormous potential that could be generated from the inclusion of 1.3 billion people with disabilities around the world. “This vision is totally in line with the target that Enel X has, both for employees and

clients,” says Nicola. “This is why we are now looking at the programmes which are focusing on the accessibility of our services that boost inclusivity.” Meanwhile, the company has also overseen the development of smarter assistance for COVID-19 patients during the international pandemic. A telemedicine tool has assisted patients and monitored their health conditions in real time. It was unrolled at a hospital in Roma called Agostino Gemelli University Hospital with great success. sustainabilitymag.com

149

ENEL X

Nicola Tagliafierro Head of Sustainability, Enel X @ MotoE

150

January 2022

In partnership Enel X strongly believes in dynamic partnership working. Nicola says: “We know we're part of an ecosystem, so we have a holistic approach. It means we need to collaborate with all our stakeholders and this includes clients, suppliers, partners, experts and startups. All of them represent an important part of our business and all of them contribute to ‘innov-ability’ – a perfect match between innovation and sustainability.”

This year the company also joined CDP as a gold accredited renewable energy solution provider. “Being a gold member of this association is a clear proof of how we're committed to long-term sustainability.” Enel X is also establishing important partnerships with local industrial associations. For example, in Italy, it is partnering with Confindustria, to spread the circular economy within the market and supporting companies in the application of sustainable innovative solutions. Moreover, to incentivise this market transition we collaborate with Confindustria to reward companies participating in the ‘best performer in the circular economy’ with a special award for best energy circularity. Furthermore, the company is changing gear by teaming up with MotoE and Formula E. “They're more than just a racing series because they really represent a battle for the future,” says Nicola. “People of every age can really test and understand the electric mobility revolution which is currently unfolding all around us.”

sustainabilitymag.com

151

NEW ADVENTURES IN SUSTAINABILITY FOR FINANCE FIRM FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL WRITTEN BY: JOHN PINCHING PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

152

January 2022

sustainabilitymag.com

153

FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

Fidelity International surges forward with ambitious net-zero plans, futureproofing and bold sustainability goals or Fidelity International, the importance of sustainability cannot be ignored. The climate crisis is one of the most difficult challenges facing today’s generation and all companies have a role to play. This year, Fidelity set a goal to reduce company-wide operational carbon emissions to net-zero by 2030, 20 years ahead of the 2050 goal most countries and many companies have set, along with a range of other sustainability goals. While the easiest approach when setting any goal is to do the minimum required. That wasn’t good enough for Fidelity. It believes it is right that it does even more than it is asking the companies it invests in to do. Leading by example Ben Clifford is the company’s Global Health, Safety and Sustainability Associate Director and is relishing the challenge of leading the company into a brave new era of environmental responsibility. He is a man with a wealth of sustainability experience across many industries but reconfiguring the financial landscape has been his greatest test to date. “My role focuses on our corporate operations,” he explains. “It’s about identifying our key environmental impacts, managing those from a sustainability point of view and striving to improve them.” 154

January 2022

sustainabilitymag.com

155

FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

Fidelity International January 2022

“It’s about identifying our key environmental impacts, managing those from a sustainability point of view and striving to improve them”

Many of Ben’s goals sustainability involve the development performance and good of ‘energy reduction economic performance sites’ – looking at how – the two areas are the company can inseparable. It's very switch to renewable much about turning energy and reassessing the mirror on ourselves all the aspects of the in terms of how we business which have real, operate and how we practical and positive wish to be viewed. In environmental impacts. terms of approaches to Ben is under no sustainability and the illusions about the task mitigation of risks, we BEN CLIFFORD GLOBAL HEALTH, SAFETY AND for Fidelity and the wider ask our partners to work SUSTAINABILITY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, industry and believes with us to find solutions. FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL sustainability should In turn, we apply these always be at the forefront practices ourselves and of all decisions. He explains: “We're a this increases credibility across the board.” financial services and investment company, and for a long time sustainable investing has Hero to zero been a pivotal element of how we operate. Fidelity recently launched its first “We now see definite correlations corporate sustainability report. One of the between companies that have good key commitments within it was a robust 156

January 2022

FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

commitment that aims to achieve netzero status by 2030 throughout corporate operations. In addition, it has made a netzero commitment on the investment side by 2050. There has also been considerable activity on the governance side. Ben says: “We've done a lot on the reporting and data capture side. Without good data, you can't see the impact of any of the initiatives that you implement. “In 2020, we implemented our corporate sustainability committee – our central body where we manage all the different programmes, whether environment or social governance related." Above all, the company wants to be open and transparent about where it is on the sustainability journey – clearly marking the plot points along the way. On this basis, Fidelity will be setting some short-term targets around 2024 across different areas. With this 2024 target considered, it will look to reduce energy by 25%, overall carbon emissions by 25%, water usage at Fidelity sites by 25% and waste produced by that golden figure of 25%. “It has been a fundamentally important decision to set these targets for 2024 – it keeps us focussed on the short to medium term and has really helped us make sure that we're on track for the 2030 goal, but also that we're aligning to the 1.5-degree scenario.”

We've set 2024 as our date to reduce paper by

50%

BEN CLIFFORD (CENV) TITLE: GLOBAL HEALTH, SAFETY AND SUSTAINABILITY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR LOCATION: TADWORTH, ENGLAND INDUSTRY: FINANCE Ben, a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv), is the Global Health, Safety and Sustainability Associate Director at Fidelity International and has been working in the Health, Safety and Sustainability field for over 15 years across a number of different sectors including Aerospace, Defence, Technology, Transportation and Finance. Through his varied career, he has focussed on a number of different areas: specialising in H&S and Environmental Management Systems, Environmental Management, Energy Management and Net Zero strategy, Sustainability, Safety Culture, Mental Health, Corporate Governance and Design for Environment. In his free time, Ben enjoys spending time with his young family, exploring the outdoors, and has a passion for cooking.

FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

158

January 2022

FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

People have spoken The last few years have witnessed an increasingly ubiquitous sustainability culture at Fidelity, not just as a company belief system, but at an individual level. Instilling these focuses among employees has been vital in terms of achieving wider targets. Furthermore, it has created the brand of collective ambition which is necessary to uphold a true sustainability model. “A lot of people understand that it is a big issue,” says Ben. “Whether it's climate change or biodiversity, they want to discover more about mitigating some of these impacts. We want to bring them on the journey with us, explain what goals we are aiming for, what they can do to help but also emphasise how it can benefit their normal day-to-day lives.”

“We're a financial services and investment company, and for a long time sustainable investing has been a pivotal element of how we operate” BEN CLIFFORD

GLOBAL HEALTH, SAFETY AND SUSTAINABILITY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

Not only have Fidelity employees been very receptive in terms of what we need to do, they've also been pushing the company and challenging it to be more progressive in some of the programmes that it’s set. In the climate change era, this kind of symbiotic relationship within the corporate ecosystem is essential. sustainabilitymag.com

159

FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

Make Your 'One Day' Happen

“ Using collaboration tools and digital forms of communication has definitely reduced our overall carbon footprint” BEN CLIFFORD

GLOBAL HEALTH, SAFETY AND SUSTAINABILITY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

160

January 2022

Ben explains: “In response to the positive staff response Fidelity has set up the Sustainability Ambassadors Programme and we now have over 200 ambassadors across the organisation, impacting on multiple different functions. The role looks at both the investment and corporate side, enabling individuals to embed initiatives within their regional and functional teams. Ultimately, it gives sustainability a much more personal perspective.” Digital watch The climate change crisis runs parallel with the digital era, inviting our lives to change with the ever-increasing evolution of technology. This situation is particularly stark in the finance sector which has,

FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

historically, involved considerable travel, paper usage and carbon emissions. Ben believes that digital is and will be a considerable ally in the company’s own approach to climate change. “We've set for 2024 as our date to reduce paper by 50%,” he says. “We have also moved to more digital-based contracts and will continue moving towards more digital solutions in terms of how we operate as a business. This is a big area of growth in finance and we will be striving to progress in the digital space over the next few years.” The digital dimension came into sharp focus for the company when COVID-19 struck in March 2020. Ben reflects: “Many of our people began working from home throughout the pandemic and, consequently, they haven't been

printing as much, while also considerably reducing the business travel side or their job. Moreover, using collaboration tools and digital forms of communication has definitely reduced our overall carbon footprint.” Net-zero target With Fidelity’s net-zero target only nine years away, it has applied five key principles to reaching the sustainability summit. The first one is around the data, the verification of the data, the transparency of that data and, ultimately, the disclosure of it in external forums. “We want to challenge ourselves, but we want to make sure that we do it in a credible manner,” insists Ben. “Subsequently, we have had a big focus on data and the processes surrounding it.” sustainabilitymag.com

161

FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

162

January 2022

FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

“We want to increase efficiency, both in terms of improving building infrastructures and looking at renewable energy sources” BEN CLIFFORD

GLOBAL HEALTH, SAFETY AND SUSTAINABILITY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

The second focus is on energy efficiency. This aspect looks at the electricity being consumed in Fidelity’s offices – a significant proportion of the company’s operational carbon footprint. Ben says: “We want to increase efficiency, both in terms of improving building infrastructures and looking at renewable energy sources, but also making sure we’re using all our spaces as efficiently as possible.” The third area is around business travel and, specifically, air travel. Another significant proportion of the company’s wider global operational footprint. Remote working has, in this regard, also been a revelation with far fewer corporate trips and a much greater number of virtual events. Renewable energy is the fourth item on the manifesto with Fidelity prioritising the switch to renewable energy contracts or onsite renewable generation. This step has already been undertaken at two of the company’s offices, with other feasibility studies underway. The fifth really drills down on the carbon emissions from Fidelity’s operations it is unable to eradicate – establishing residual emissions and making every effort to create rapid solutions for carbon removal.

Dancing to a different tune Fidelity International’s sustainability efforts and impact are already resonating through the company. The company epitomises the optimism and determination of neo-sustainability companies who reach above the general standards and have instead begun to navigate the terrain according to their own higher expectations. Following COP26 it has become clear that the future involves company autonomy over their own responsibilities to people and the planet – effectively transcending their own service provision and making sustainability the defining aspect of what they do. This culture shift has been accelerated by Fidelity’s own 2024 set of milestones – six years before the recommended year of 2030. By setting this immediate ‘futureproofing standard’ the hazy non-specifics of international conferences and government recommendations suddenly become crystallised; representing something people can believe in. That is the sign of something authentic and, above all, something sustainable.

sustainabilitymag.com

163

INSPIRING THE GREEN ENERGY REVOLUTION WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

164

January 2022

ØRSTED

sustainabilitymag.com

165

ØRSTED

Green energy pioneer Ørsted has shaped its own sustainable future and is now working to create a world that runs entirely on green energy

elping to create a world that runs entirely on green energy is the daily focus of Ida Krabek, Director, Head of Global Sustainability at Ørsted – a company that stands on the front line of climate action. The title Head of Global Sustainability could appear daunting to most people, but Krabek is taking the challenge one small step at a time. She has been part of the sustainability journey at Ørsted for almost a decade, and has seen the company transform from a fossil fuel-based utility to a global green energy leader. They are now focused on helping create a world that runs entirely on green energy. “The green transformation of the world is a massive undertaking, but it holds the power to be a major force for positive change,” said Krabek from her office in Copenhagen. Danish-based Ørsted is a pioneering green energy company and the global leader in offshore wind. The company develops, constructs and operates renewable energy in the form of vast wind farms, solar farms, green hydrogen and energy storage facilities. “We are on track to become a carbon neutral company and the next journey for us is to enable and inspire others to go through the same transformation, and with our green energy solutions we can help customers do that. Ørsted wants to be a catalyst for change towards a world that runs entirely on green energy.”

166

January 2022

Example of an image caption sustainabilitymag.com

167

EXECUTIVE BIO IDA KRABEK TITLE: DIRECTOR & HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY LOCATION: DENMARK Ida Krabek is Head of Global Sustainability at Ørsted, a global renewable energy leader. Together with her team, Krabek helps ensure that Ørsted develops green energy in a sustainable way through implementing relevant climate and sustainability programmes, setting and achieving science-based targets, and delivering on an ambitious programme for supply chain decarbonisation. Ørsted is the only energy company in the world with a science-based net-zero target as validated by SBTi. Ørsted is ranked the world’s most sustainable energy company in the 2021 Global 100 index by Corporate Knights and is awarded the A-score for climate action by CDP.

168

January 2022

ØRSTED

Our green transformation

It may come as a surprise to learn that only a decade ago Ørsted - which was then called DONG Energy - was one of the most coal-intensive energy companies in Europe. Today, they have been crowned the most sustainable energy company in Corporate Knights’ 2021 Global 100 index of the most sustainable corporations. “We’re the world leader in offshore wind. This means we have installed green power capacity to supply more than 15 million people with green energy and our ambition is to increase this figure to 30 million by 2025,” said Krabek who is keen to discuss how Ørsted has shaped its own sustainable future, how it is working to enable and inspire a world to run entirely on green energy and how she is collaborating with stakeholders to ensure the best outcomes for the planet and its people. Phoenix from the ashes Ørsted was founded in 1973 as DONG – which stood for Danish Oil and Natural Gas

– and has risen like a phoenix from the ashes, dropping the original name and re-branding in 2017 in honour of the Danish physicist and chemist Hans Christian Ørsted, who inspired the electromagnetic theory. “The objective was to transform our core business from fossil fuels to renewable energy. This has given us a business model that is long-term sustainable – both environmentally and financially,” said Krabek who has been with Ørsted since 2012. “I joined Ørsted because I saw a company that had a clear ambition to be a part of the solution when it came to addressing climate change and global warming. “Back in 2009 our legacy business came under pressure due to new regulations for European energy markets. We also saw intensified public interest in climate and resistance to coal-fired power stations. We realised we had to change our business model to achieve long-term sustainability and a viable financial business model. sustainabilitymag.com

169

What is renewable hydrogen? The vision at Ørsted to create a world that runs entirely on green energy, but some activities that require large amounts of energy, such as heavy industry, shipping and aviation, cannot be decarbonised by renewable electricity alone. This is when green hydrogen comes into play. Renewable hydrogen, also known as green hydrogen, will play a vital role in decarbonising industry and transport, which will help companies around the world reach their net-zero ambitions. Green hydrogen starts with a renewable energy source like offshore wind, which produces renewable electricity. This is used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen, and the hydrogen can be used by heavy industry to reduce its carbon emissions. The renewable hydrogen industry in the UK is in its infancy. Ørsted believes that, in the same way the cost of generating wind power has dropped by more than 60% since 2012, renewable hydrogen will rapidly reduce in cost. With continuing support for its development, it can become low-cost, widely-available, and a key part of the green energy system. In the UK, Ørsted is one of the lead partners in a renewable hydrogen project called Gigastack. The project, based in the Humber, will produce renewable hydrogen using electricity from the Hornsea Two Offshore Wind Farm, to be used by the Phillips66 refinery. 170

January 2022

ØRSTED

But also looking ahead we believed the future of an energy company would be green energy. We then set the target to radically transform the company,” said Krabek. Ørsted set their goal of transforming from 85% fossil-based energy production to 85% renewable energy production by 2040. “We reached that target in 2019, way ahead of what we had expected. Today, we are one of the world's biggest renewable energy companies, particularly in offshore wind. “We may be a Danish company by heritage but we have a global presence. Our biggest offshore wind footprint is in north-west Europe including Denmark,

“Ørsted wants to be a catalyst for change towards a world that runs entirely on green energy” IDA KRABEK

DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY, ØRSTED

Germany and the UK. We are extending that footprint to the US and the APAC region, including Japan and Taiwan, as we see a big potential for offshore wind in these areas.” Ørsted, which is on track to be a carbonneutral company by 2025 by reducing emissions from energy generations and operations by at least 98%, was recently awarded The Terra Carta Seal by HRH The Prince of Wales who said: “The Terra Carta Seal recognises those organisations which have made a serious commitment to a future that is much more sustainable, and puts Nature, People and the Planet at the heart of the economy.” sustainabilitymag.com

171

Ørsted listen to their stakeholders “We listen a lot to our stakeholders,” commented Krabek, which she says is an intrinsic part of her team’s role. “You have to be curious and you have to genuinely listen to other people's perspectives, as that is what shapes sustainability.” She leads an empowered team at Ørsted to navigate the complex landscape of sustainability – as she points out “no single department or single person can do it alone”. “We work as a team to make sure the company knows best practices and we look at how the sustainability space is moving and then work with relevant business functions across the organisation to make sure we have the right programmes and initiatives in place. 172

January 2022

“We are very focused on what our different stakeholder expectations are relating to sustainability from investors, non-profit organisations (NGOs), local communities, the regulators or governments, who ask for the energy project and are our main customers.” Krabek points out that renewable energy projects such as wind farms rely on a huge infrastructure which, in many cases, will become a significant part of local communities. “We are committed to engaging in early dialogue with local communities, to understand both the perspectives and also the concerns and interest they have in the project that we are going to embark upon together. We want the projects to create

ØRSTED

“We have a partnership with the Grimsby Institute and Further Education College to deliver a three-year wind turbine technician apprenticeship team. This is just one example of how we can partner with a community for a positive shared outcome.” Ørsted has also joined forces with national youth charity OnSide in a new partnership and will invest £1 million in a Youth Zone that will support thousands of young people in Grimsby as part of the town’s ambitious regeneration plans. The dedicated facility will offer long-term opportunities to learn and develop skills.

shared benefits for us as a company and for the local community, so understanding their concerns and interests is something we pay close attention to wherever we build,” she said. “The green energy transition has the capability to be a driver for local job creation and growth, but it requires relevant job skills within those communities.” Working with the community One example of this is the UK town of Grimsby, which was once in decline after the fishing industry slowed down. Offshore wind has given the small town new opportunities and new hope, helping to build a sustainable future for the local people and creating renewable energy jobs in their hometown.

Sustainable supply chain Ørsted leads by example and is currently focusing on making its own supply chains more sustainable, especially when it comes to the manufacture and transportation needed to construct a wind farm. Speaking on how Ørsted is working to overcome the challenges with their own supply chain, Krabek said this was the next stage of their own decarbonisation journey and is calling on suppliers to disclose emissions and develop roadmaps for progress. “We have set a target of net-zero emissions from our supply chain by 2040 so we need to bring down supply chain emissions while scaling our green energy business, and this will not be an easy task. As a company, we don't have direct control over these emissions.” Krabek pointed out that Ørsted is the first energy company globally to have its net-zero target for the full value chain approved by the Science-based Targets Initiative. “We have clear emission reductions targets in place for our full value chain, but we are dependent on the energy industry succeeding with moving towards that 2040 target. That’s why it's a challenge – because you cannot solve it on your own. sustainabilitymag.com

173

“ I joined Ørsted because I saw a company that had a clear ambition to be a part of the solution when it came to addressing climate change and global warming” IDA KRABEK

DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY, ØRSTED

174

January 2022

ØRSTED

“The majority of our supply chain emissions come from offshore wind and 50% of the emissions related to offshore wind are related to steel. Those emissions take place further down the supply chain,” said Krabek, who pointed out they are collaborating with suppliers and are focused on increasing the demand for green steel through the SteelZero initiative.

As part of its climate change advocacy, Ørsted is sponsoring the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition in partnership with the Natural History Museum in London. Krabek commented that the longest running photographic event in the world, which showcases animals in their natural habitat, is “an obvious fit for us because it is an institution that helps to educate people in sustainability and the importance of nature”.

Power to make systemic changes Ørsted may be driving the vision of a green future, but Krabek highlighted the fact that ultimately change is “driven by humans”. “We all have a role to play in delivering that change through personal choices on transportation and food. But I think the more Protecting the environment interesting question is really what can you do Wind farms are major infrastructure projects, to create systemic changes that need to take but Krabek stresses that “green industry has to place? If you work in an organisation, what go hand-in-hand with the protection of natural can you do to push that company to be part habitats both on land and sea.” of that change? This is all needed to progress “This is because climate change and global the sustainability agenda and limit global warming is not the only crisis we as a world warming over the next decade.” have to deal with. We see a biodiversity crisis Commenting on the future Krabek said: unfolding, with more than two-thirds of species being lost over the past 50 years, so we have to “Renewable energy will have to accelerate make sure the green transformation takes place drastically over the coming decade. At COP26 there were a number of positive in balance with nature. outcomes, but it is not enough as the “We have set a target that by 2030 at the national commitments do not add up to latest, all of the energy projects we commission must have a net positive impact on biodiversity. what we need to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. We have to meet that golden You may ask how we are going to do that? We limit because going beyond will mean set this ambition even though we don't have catastrophic and uncontrollable global all the answers. We are among other things warming.” starting to look into what type of projects can deliver in the short-term, so that we get the If the world can achieve what Ørsted has done in the past 10 years we will all be in experience to learn how we can systematically a better place. build this into our pipeline of projects. That’s what sustainability leadership is also about. You have to set the targets and ambitions even if you don’t have all the answers.” sustainabilitymag.com

175

SEIZE THE DAY TO CREATE A GREEN BUSINESS MODEL WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE

PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE 176

January 2022

TECH MAHINDRA

sustainabilitymag.com

177

TECH MAHINDRA

How sustainable experiences and a connected world drives profitability for Tech Mahindra clients as they embark on their post-pandemic digital journey

eize the post-pandemic-day to create a green business model. This is the message from Sandeep Chandna, Chief Sustainability Officer at Tech Mahindra a US$5.1bn company - that believes sustainable experiences can power change for good, and not at the cost of profitability. “Climate change has become a reality. All of us have to make a concerted effort to resolve this together, it can't be a one-man show, or a one company show, it has to be a collaborative approach,” said Chandna. “The organisations that succeed in years to come will be those who have embedded sustainability into the core of their operations. Businesses have to be responsive towards moving into a green business model in order to combat global climate change.” As keynote speaker at Sustainability LIVE, Chandna will share further insights from Tech Mahindra on how they are working with global clients to create a future which is both sustainable and profitable. People, plant and profit Tech Mahindra is focused on leveraging next-generation technologies including 5G, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), blockchain, and cybersecurity to enable digital transformation while ensuring their clients incorporate green initiatives to benefit their people, plant and profits.

178

January 2022

Chief Sustainability Officer, Sandeep Chandna,

Example of an image caption

TECH MAHINDRA

Tech Mahindra: Seize the day to create a green business model

“ The organisations that succeed in years to come will be those who have embedded sustainability into the core of their operations” SANDEEP CHANDNA

CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER, TECH MAHINDRA

Tech Mahindra is a company that practices what it preaches. For instance, when you log on to their website run on dark mode by default – it shows a saving of 10.1 kW since 2020 and read that their ‘Green Marshals ’ have planted 65,000+ trees till date. Despite being one of the fastest growing brands among the top 15 IT service providers globally, sustainability is in the DNA of Indiabased Tech Mahindra, which is driving 180

January 2022

connected businesses with sustainable experiences. “We share our best practices with our customers, and we look at how we can share knowledge that brings improvements for both the organisation and its customers” comments Chandna. Founded in 1986, Tech Mahindra is part of the Mahindra group, which is one of the largest multinational federation of companies with more than 2,60,000 employees in 100 countries. How Tech Mahindra is RISING above the ordinary to combine strategy and sustainability to build a green future: • Turning to renewable energy (RE) (from 1.77% in FY 2015-16 to 21.2% in FY 2020-21) to achieve ecological balance • Investments remain in the green • Profitability aligned with principles - the company has saved more than US$2 million through sustainable initiatives

TECH MAHINDRA

• Sustainability-approved milestones of becoming Carbon neutral by 2030 and increase sourcing from Renewable Energy to 50% by 2025 and 90% by 2030

Trigger of the pandemic for digital transformation Chandna pointed out that the global pandemic was undoubtedly the biggest driver of technology adoption with most of the Tech Mahindra workforce having to work from home but with “no major customer escalations at any point of time.” “Companies had to be adaptable, flexible, agile, and resilient. Digital working is now a way of life and it is predicted that 65% of the world’s GDP is set to be digitised by 2022 which could be almost 6.8 trillion by 2023,” commented Chandna who pointed out it was now time for companies to seize the

TITLE: CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER INDUSTRY: IT AND SERVICES LOCATION: INDIA

EXECUTIVE BIO

“Tech Mahindra is focused on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) globally. It is enabling both rural prosperity and enhancing urban living with the goal to drive positive change,” said Chandna. “When you hear the name Tech Mahindra, you see a company with purpose both with sustainability and individual social responsibility. We are proud to be recognised among the top 100 sustainable companies in the world this year by Corporate Knights. That gives us the confidence that we are moving on the right track.” Chandna has passionately led the sustainability agenda from the initiation stage at Tech Mahindra for 14 years. “I’ve been very lucky that I got the opportunity to put in these green goals at the grassroots level. Over the years, we have been able to set up a structure, we have seen regular improvements and we have really accomplished something very important.”

SANDEEP CHANDNA

Sandeep Chandna is a versatile, goal driven, resultsoriented executive leader with diverse background in multiple sectors with a proven track record of 25 years in IT & IT Services, Oil & Gas and Infrastructure industry. With more than a decade of experience in the area of EHS and Corporate Sustainability, Sandeep has led the Sustainability agenda from the initiation stage at Tech Mahindra to its Leadership position today. He has been instrumental in several key policy advocacy initiatives, leading a diverse stakeholder base and is being recognised by the national and international agencies.

TECH MAHINDRA

Pune Windmill

Mahindra Group - driving a RISE for good Tech Mahindra is part of the Mahindra Group, which has a strong focus on renewable energy, agriculture, logistics, hospitality and real estate. Founded in 1945, the Mahindra Group has a clear focus on leading ESG globally, enabling rural prosperity and enhancing urban living, with a goal to drive positive change in the lives of communities and stakeholders to enable them to RISE . It is one of the largest multinational federation of companies with 260,000 employees in more than 100 countries and is the world’s largest tractor company by volume. Solar Power Plant at Pune

DID YOU KNOW? How Tech Mahindra harnesses technology in a sustainable way At Tech Mahindra, growth leading to a sustainable future is a never-ending journey. Nurturing the technologies of the future, such as cloud, 5G and investing in blockchain has helped to net deals in Healthcare and BPS sectors along with acquisitions. BPS, cloud and digital engineering are all driving growth. Tech Mahindra expects double-digit growth from the cloud adoption business, while 5G and blockchain will bring new growth frontiers. The key focus will be on the blockchain-led initiatives such as digital payments, government-to-citizen services, and digital identities. Tech Mahindra formed a Cloud Advisory Board of 30 members divided across EMEA, America and the APAC regions.

182

January 2022

TECH MAHINDRA

CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER, TECH MAHINDRA

moment to incorporate sustainability into their digital transformation. “The pandemic has triggered a discussion on what we really value and highlighted the extent of local interconnectedness. As a result, we regard the future as an opportunity to rebuild economies with a focus on ESG. COVID-19 has hit almost every industry and it is important every leader believes that clean energy investments could spur recovery from economic devastation that accompanied the pandemic.” “There has been a major shift to clean energy with companies pledging to reduce or eliminate their carbon emissions. Big companies have also announced modifying their executive bonuses to be based on

Hyderabad TMTC

environmental issues of 2021. So, you can see how sustainability is being incorporated into the digital transformation.” Focus on 5G, cloud, AI and IoT for a sustainable future Chandna pointed out technologies like 5G and AI are going to play an increasingly important role in reducing harmful emissions for global organisations. “Companies are strategising ways to decarbonise their business models to create a greener future. Digital transformation powered by 5G, cloud, AI and IoT offers the best ways to meet these goals. Technology has been defining the role to address some of the grievous challenges faced by the planet and humanity, said Chandna who pointed out Tech Mahindra is working on their innovation platform IRS to offer solutions for their customers and society. sustainabilitymag.com

183

TECH MAHINDRA

“Technology will definitely enable the sustainable transformation for most businesses post-pandemic,” said Chandna who provided some examples of how these emerging technologies can reduce carbon emissions: • Implementing 5G solutions in the UK manufacturing sector has a potential to save almost 14 megatons of carbon emissions by 2035 (A Greener Connected Future, O2) • The UK’s NHS reported initiatives of moving email servers to cloud and improving it's digital infrastructure could reduce almost 4,000 tonnes of carbon emissions • Implementing AI solutions during the initial outbreak of COVID-19 - doctors were able to speed up the analysis of data, allowing for quick turnaround of diagnosis and vaccinations • Use of drones to deliver vaccinations to rural communities

“ When you speak of Tech Mahindra you are talking about a company with purpose for both sustainability and individual social responsibility. We are proud to be recognised among the top 100 sustainable companies in the world this year by Corporate Knights. That gives us the confidence that we are moving on the right track” SANDEEP CHANDNA

CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER, TECH MAHINDRA

184

January 2022

Low carbon energy installations 250KWp Solar Power Plant at Pune

1986

Year Founded

US$ 5.1 bn Revenue

141,100+

Number of Employees Operating in

countries

1123

Global customers including Fortune 500 companies

sustainabilitymag.com

185

TECH MAHINDRA

“These are just a few examples of how emerging technologies are reducing carbon emissions. At Tech Mahindra we are playing a major role in looking at how we can help our customers reduce their carbon emissions.” Human-centric experience with NXT.NOW framework Tech Mahindra has launched a NXT. NOW framework, which aims to enhance the ‘human centric experience’ for their

ecosystem and drive collaborative disruption with synergies arising from a robust portfolio of companies. “This will allow us to collaborate on creating value and building scale for our joint customers through rapid prototyping and development of next generation low-code, no-code apps across 5G, IoT AI, ML, and the customer experience,” said Chandna. “It will also identify specific opportunities and build industry solutions for keywords, in communication, media and entertainment,

Tech Mahindra – Chennai TMCC

186

January 2022

TECH MAHINDRA

“ COVID-19 has hit almost every industry and it is important for every leader to believe that clean energy investments could spur recovery from economic devastation that accompanied the pandemic” SANDEEP CHANDNA

CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER, TECH MAHINDRA

SUSTAINABILITY LIVE EVENT BizClik Media Group – publisher of Sustainability Magazine – is excited to announce the launch of its ground-breaking Sustainability LIVE event. It all takes place on 23-24 February 2022 at Tobacco Dock – London's premier 'upcycled' venue. Indeed, the only thing that will be smoking is Sustainability LIVE's inspirational sessions, speakers and stages. During the two days, the allencompassing event will cover every aspect of Global ESG, Diversity & Inclusion, Global Equality, Net Zero Strategies and Renewable Energy. It will also feature a unique stage entirely dedicated to the most pressing subject within the corporate ecosystem – Supply Chain Sustainability.

188

January 2022

TECH MAHINDRA

energy, and utility, and to accelerate crossindustry adoption.” He also stressed that it was time to focus on carbon pricing mechanisms. “All the green initiatives that we speak about need some kind of funds. It is high time that we bring in carbon pricing mechanisms for these sustainability efforts and see how they progress in green business, so that funds don't become an issue for businesses.” Tech Mahindra shows its green credentials The ultimate goal of Tech Mahindra was to be among the top five IT companies and top three IT companies within India by 2021 which they have achieved. “We were very clear on how we wanted to achieve this with responsible business growth and enhanced operational eco-efficiency along with being recognised by others as a top brand to work for. “Our customers give more preference to the vendors who can show their green credentials,” said Chandna who stressed that Tech Mahindra is the only company which is listed in Carbon Clean 200 and ranked #1 in India in the list of World’s 100 Most Sustainable Corporations by Corporate Knights. . “We are constantly rated among the highest, whether it is for sustainability or for our eco-ideas - that brings an added advantage in the marketplace as this is a company with a good ESG performance, which is dependable, has the right practices and good global policies in place.” Tech Mahindra not only has all the attributes above, but also a passionate advocate and speaker in Chandna who we look forward to hearing from next year at Sustainability LIVE. Come and join us.

“ At Tech Mahindra we are playing a major role in looking at how we can help our customers reduce their carbon emissions” SANDEEP CHANDNA

CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER, TECH MAHINDRA

Extensive landscape and tree plantation

THE

GOLD STANDARD IN

DIVERSE SPEND WRITTEN BY: RHYS THOMAS PRODUCED BY: MIKE SADR

190

January 2022

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

sustainabilitymag.com

191

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

Through mandates, mentorship and mobilisation, JPMorgan Chase & Co. is promoting diverse spend throughout its supply chain to enact real change

n an era where Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) is rising rapidly to the top of corporate agendas, prioritising diversity is not, on the surface, a novel idea. In fact, JPMorgan Chase has been committed to supporting diverse suppliers for almost 30 years, with the philosophy that an inclusive supplier base that mirrors the communities in which the bank does business generates wealth, creates jobs and fosters economic growth. Currently, JPMorgan Chase dedicates about $2bn annually - to diverseowned and managed companies. And in October of 2020, JPMorgan Chase made a commitment to increase its spend with Black, Hispanic and Latino businesses by US$750 million as a part of the firm’s $30bn commitment to help close the US racial wealth gap. JPMorgan Chase’s global procurement function oversees $19bn in annual spend, across 6,500 suppliers encompassing technology, professional services, real estate, legal, and every category in-between. Given the impact of this significant spend and its ripple effect on the global economy, the team is cognizant of the importance of purchasing responsibly. Jim Connell, Chief Procurement Officer and Head of Global Supplier Services aims to drive diversity further through the bank’s procurement function.

192

January 2022

Example of an image caption sustainabilitymag.com

193

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

“Supplier diversity is a top priority across Global Supplier Services, which really involves every part of our team - even payment operations and supplier assurance services, who historically wouldn't be involved,” Connell says. “I think it's important that we all play a part in driving supplier diversity forward.” JPMorgan Chase is “doubling down” through a unique approach that leverages its own scale to systematically promote best practices and commitments throughout its supply chain. The firm is mobilising key suppliers to spend more with diverse companies; mentoring those with emerging supplier diversity programs; enhancing discoverability of diverse suppliers; and promoting increased spend targets with key business communities, specifically Black, Hispanic and Latino. The strategy is built upon JPMorgan Chase’s Gold Supplier program, an initiative launched in 2017 that brings together industry leaders 194

January 2022

to generate shared, incremental value and strengthen relationships with its most strategic and highest performing suppliers, from bluechip market leaders to small and agile innovators -both publicly traded and privately held. Connell and his team understand that simply demanding that Gold Suppliers spend more with diverse companies may not provide the desired results. To help drive results they needed a better understanding

JIM CONNELL TITLE: CPO AND HEAD OF GLOBAL SUPPLIER SERVICES INDUSTRY: BANKING

of each company’s current capabilities and how much room there is to grow. "Around a year ago, we engaged with over 100 of those top suppliers to figure out where they are in their journey toward a sustainable supplier diversity program,” Connell says. “We conducted a comprehensive end-toend supplier diversity benchmarking survey, which allowed us to tier them into three different groups.”

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: USA Jim Connell, as Head of Global Supplier Services (GSS) for JPMorgan Chase & Co., is responsible for Sourcing, Procurement, Third Party Oversight (TPO), Payment Operations and supplier control assessment for a $19B supplier spend portfolio, distributed across 31,000 engagements with 6,500 suppliers. Prior to this role, Jim was the Head of Third Party Operations and Controls for the firm, overseeing the firm wide TO program, Supplier Assurance Services and Payment Operations. Before this, Jim led the firm's Corporate TPO group, inclusiveof the PO policy, technology, regulatory engagement and cybersecurity. Before joining the firm in February 2014, Jim served as CPO for RBS Citizens Bank, managing Strategic Sourcing, the Contract Management Center of Excellence and a supplier spend profile of $1.7B per year. Prior to accepting the CPO role in 2012, Jim held various leadership positions within BS Citizens Bank's sourcing function, including management of the Marketing, HR, Technology, Facilities & Operations sourcing teams. Prior to entering the financial services industry in 2008, Jim practiced strategic sourcing for 7 years at Comverse, Inc., which followed a successful 5 year tenure as a corporate technology sales representative. Jim holds a Bachelors degree in Political Science from Merrimack College, and lives in Connecticut with his wife, Dorin.

sustainabilitymag.com

195

WWW.OVERLANDTANDBERG.COM

Empowering Organizations to Securely Manage and Protect Their Digital Assets • Leading global technology solution provider for 40+ years • Customers include global Fortune 500, Enterprise,

SME and SMBs in 100+ countries • Data Management and Security Solutions: • Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Business Continuity, Data Protection • Crypto-currency, IT Integration and Manufacturing

Tackling diversity through data and technology Overland-Tandberg is a global technology company serving over 100 countries. We spoke to its Chairman and CEO, Eric Kelly. As Chairman and CEO, Eric Kelly takes a dynamic role in leading the company in its global growth strategy. This has involved an important collaboration with one of the world’s leading banking corporations, JP Morgan Chase, that is expanding the company’s mandate of improving global diversity in the corporate and technology sectors. Kelly says Overland-Tandberg was on the lookout for a partnership with a bank to fit the company’s growing, global footprint. “We actually started off discussing the banking relationship, and then it quickly moved into a symbiotic partnership—they became our corporate sponsor. The collaboration has gained momentum and velocity, with Overland-Tandberg carrying out business with JPMC on the supplier diversity side, working with their chief procurement officer and their supplier diversity group. Established trust and success Kelly points to Overland-Tandberg’s long history when he speaks about the company’s robust reputation in the marketplace. As one of the longest

established black-owned global technology companies, it has built up a respected position. Our vision of “Global Intellect and Inclusiveness” is the ethos that drives the organization – this vision allows us to have a comprehensive understanding of diversity and inclusion. Diversity and data challenges Multinationals and foreign companies face the same challenges as US companies when trying to find black-owned businesses, says Kelly, it comes down to a lack of access, availability and awareness. “There are organizations here in the US that showcase specifically black-owned businesses, and diverse companies,” he elaborates. “But I think that from a multinational standpoint of foreign companies, it’s one of access and availability and awareness. How do you find and develop partnerships at scale with diverse companies when there’s no technology platform that’s designed to provide that information?” Kelly continues, “The world is digital and getting smaller. If you’re a US company you’re directly or indirectly doing business globally. This challenge has been constant, which led me to leveraging my history in technology to focus on creating a platform that could align these resources across industry and essentially play a key role in closing the digital and diversity divide.” It’s called Bridge 2 Technologies. Learn more

198

January 2022

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

“WE VIEW SUPPLIER DIVERSITY NOT ONLY AS A MORAL IMPERATIVE BUT AS SMART BUSINESS” JIM CONNELL

CPO AND HEAD OF GLOBAL SUPPLIER SERVICES JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

Very nascent supplier diversity programs, or those still in the planning stages, are labelled ‘emerging’. Relatively successful supplier diversity programs that have been established for several years are categorised as ‘established’, while industry-leading, bestin-class supplier diversity programs are considered ‘mature’. “That benchmarking allowed us to approach each supplier in a different way,” Connell explains. "We asked them to draft and submit a growth plan that would show us over a three-year horizon how they're going to improve supplier diversity, in general, and specifically with Black, Hispanic and Latino companies. We then benchmarked those growth plans against each other, and once we felt they were sufficiently ambitious, we accepted them.” To date, almost 40% of Gold Supplier growth plans have been determined ambitious enough to have an impact. Collectively they will increase diverse spend by $6.2bn over the next three years, $1.2bn of which is earmarked for Black, Hispanic and Latino suppliers. Financially, it is a major step in the right direction for diverse businesses, and Connell expects that figure to balloon further as more Gold Suppliers are fully onboarded. What’s even more motivating to Connell and his team is ending 2021 with about a dozen Gold Suppliers initiating a supplier diversity program for the very first time. “Most exciting is the exponential impact of this,” he says. “Around half of our Gold Suppliers have also committed to replicating this initiative with their supply chains, cascading the mandate that diversity is a priority for them. We're excited about the idea of magnifying and multiplying that impact. If we can, in some small way by evangelising the methodology that we use, sustainabilitymag.com

199

BRIAN SHORTER

NOEL WASHINGTON

TITLE: HEAD OF THE GOLD SUPPLIER PROGRAM

TITLE: VP OF SOURCING, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & SUPPLIER MENTORING PROGRAM LEAD

Mobilising Key Suppliers “I created the Gold Supplier Program in 2017. My vision for the programme then, as now, was that it be differentiated from traditional ‘preferred supplier’ programs and create real value for JPMorgan Chase, our Gold Suppliers, and the communities we serve. This is a highly influential group of companies with combined revenues of over US$2 trillion, wielding very significant spending power. It’s in this context that we have developed our supplier diversity initiative over the last year, and have the potential, collectively, to make very material improvements for diverse suppliers and diverse supply markets. “My hope for the future is simple: I want supplier diversity to become businessas-usual for our Gold Suppliers, with supplier diversity programs, and diverse suppliers, that are fully incorporated to the Golds’ sourcing, procurement, and vendor management practices. “The most encouraging sign that my hope may be achieved, though, are the reasons why Gold Suppliers are participating. It’s not just because JPMorgan Chase asked them to get involved. Gold Suppliers tell us that they view supplier diversity as a way to invest in and improve the communities they serve where their employees and customers live and work. In short, it’s good business."

200

January 2022

Mentoring Suppliers “I partner existing suppliers that support the organisation, but do not currently have a supplier diversity program (mentees), with other external strategic suppliers of JPMorgan Chase that have well-established supplier diversity programs (mentors). “Mentees and mentors will work together over the next 18-24 months to design and implement a sustainable supplier diversity programme. We hope the organisations we are mentoring will create a long-term sustainable diversity department that will in turn create more opportunities for diverse-owned businesses. Our goal is to have opportunities translate into awarded business, and increased revenues for diverse companies; and access to a broader selection of innovative businesses for our Gold Suppliers. “A majority of the mentees have secured leadership buy-in to hire a Head of Supplier Diversity or assign a dedicated resource to drive the effort. Many of the companies have recognised the importance of inclusion of diverse suppliers and identified opportunities to shift how they procure products and services to drive awareness to the utilisation of the diverse business community.”

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

TED ARCHER

WILLIAM KAPFER

TITLE: HEAD OF DIVERSE SUPPLIER BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

TITLE: GLOBAL HEAD OF SUPPLIER DIVERSITY COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Discovering Diverse Suppliers “Not being able to find or discover qualified diverse-owned businesses is a pervasive misconception. There are diverse businesses in just about every industry. In my role, I work closely with colleagues across the firm to match excellent diverse businesses with the opportunities that will lead to their success. JPMorgan Chase is committed to growing minority and other underserved businesses more broadly. My team connects these businesses to resources directly provided by the firm or provided indirectly through partnerships with other organisations. “Black, Hispanic and Latino-owned businesses often face greater challenges than their counterparts when navigating relationships with large enterprises. This can sometimes lead to challenges with being ‘corporate ready’ when an opportunity arises and once an opportunity is awarded it can be difficult to scale up to meet all the demands from a large corporation.“According to the JPMorgan Chase Institute, Black, Hispanic and Latino households have median family wealth of just 13 percent and 19 percent of white households’ median family wealth, respectively. If black businesses achieved parity with non-black businesses, we would have US$676 billion in more business revenue, 1.6m more jobs, and 25m more wages.”

Supporting Black, Hispanic and Latino “Just as we know that a diverse organisation leads to better problem-solving and innovation, so does a diverse supply chain. Focusing supplier diversity programming on Black, Hispanic and Latino companies helps us to play a role in addressing the racial wealth gap, while promoting and increasing economic mobility for the country’s most historically underrepresented segments. Advancing racial equity requires a more intentional focus on the challenges faced by these communities of colour and a commitment to becoming an inclusive institution. “We have set a clear, quantifiable goal to spend an additional US$750 million with Black and Latino-owned businesses by 2025, as part of the firm’s overall US$30 billion commitment to racial equity. Our program is distinguished by the fact that we don’t limit our internal relationships to simply sourcing and procurement. Our team cohesively aligns its efforts with JPMorgan Chase’s firm-wide DE&I initiatives allowing us to raise awareness about supplier diversity throughout all levels of the business. “We are off to a strong start – and remain encouraged by the firm-wide support that this strategy has catalysed—as we continue to further accelerate work already underway to address racial equality and opportunities in the communities in which we live and work.”

sustainabilitymag.com

201

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

make supplier diversity an integral part of doing business for these big companies, it can really have a transformational effect on diverse communities. That's an exciting notion for us that really mobilises the team.” Though supplier diversity is a mandate for these suppliers, JPMorgan Chase recognises that not every organisation has the resources or expertise to transform overnight - and is supporting them through these challenges. For suppliers with emerging diversity programs, the firm offers access to mentorship. “We're pairing them up with those that are best-in-class, industry leaders in supplier diversity,” Connell says. “We're creating mentor-mentee relationships where they can learn from the best, and providing them with tools, templates, and training modules. For suppliers with established but growing diversity programs, the bank is helping to overcome one of the most common hurdles: discoverability. In the US, the inability to find a deeper pool of diverse suppliers is more a perception than a reality. Connell and his team help to point the way to getting started. “Many suppliers are daunted by the idea of finding diverse businesses and it's a blocker to initiate their programs at all,” Connell says. “We tell people to start small and analyse their own spend, because they're probably spending money with diverse suppliers today that they don't even know about. “There are tools you can use to analyse that, but more importantly is creating relationships with some of the key diverse business certification organisations like the National Minority Supplier Development Council or the Women's Business Enterprise National Council. They can give you the support you need to build your program, expand your databases with eligible suppliers, 202

January 2022

“CREATING MORE INCLUSIVE SUPPLY CHAINS ACROSS THE WIDER BUSINESS COMMUNITY WILL CHANGE THE COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE FOR DIVERSE SUPPLIERS FOR GENERATIONS TO COME.” JIM CONNELL

CPO AND HEAD OF GLOBAL SUPPLIER SERVICES JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

and your network of other companies that you can share best practices with.” Through the Gold Supplier program, JPMorgan Chase also shares its own list of diverse suppliers, with teams in place to ensure that minority and underserved businesses share the same level of visibility as more established competitors. “We have over 100 of the biggest companies in the country, and together we've created this community where we

share diverse supplier lists,” Connell says. "Through practices like this, we help each other succeed.” Improving spend with diverse suppliers supports a wider ESG agenda at JPMorgan Chase & Co. “There is an expectation now that companies that we do business with also share our values. We believe that procurement spend can be leveraged for social good, whether that’s racial equity, environmental

sustainability or good governance. It is not a box-checking exercise,” Connell says, “but a vital pillar for the future of the bank and its stakeholders. We view supplier diversity not only as a moral imperative, but as smart business,” he explains. “We compete with other banks for clients, customers, and talent. And so we know that a bank that is firmly rooted in these communities is going to have a positive long-term impact.” sustainabilitymag.com

203

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

204

January 2022

"COMPANIES SHOULD EXPECT THAT ESG IS GOING TO BE AN INTEGRAL COMPONENT OF HOW THEY'RE MEASURED”

JIM CONNELL

CPO AND HEAD OF GLOBAL SUPPLIER SERVICES JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

When society wins, so too does the overall business community. "Companies should expect that ESG is going to be an integral component of how they're measured in their relationships,” he adds. "And it all boils down to: are you spending your money in the right way, in a way that helps the community? It's a hard thing to measure until you start looking at it in specific domains around diversity, sustainability, and governance. We're taking a programmatic approach to this, getting quantitative around our Gold Supplier community and how we would seek to influence both our direct spend and our suppliers’ spend.” In the coming 12 months, the bank anticipates firm progress in the growth plans that have already been submitted, with more opportunities as further Gold Supplier growth plans are approved. But it is the longterm vision that will enact real change, and bring the bank’s true ambition to life. “The larger purpose of all of this is to have companies develop sustainable programs that will create new diverse spend for decades into the future,” Connell says. “We'd like to see this initiative cascaded to thousands of businesses because creating more inclusive supply chains across the wider business community will change the competitive landscape for diverse suppliers for generations to come.” sustainabilitymag.com

205

COMMIT TED TO NET -ZERO DATA CENTRES BY 2030

206

January 2022

INTERXION

WRITTEN BY: CATHERINE GRAY PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN sustainabilitymag.com

207

INTERXION

Lex Coors, Chief Data Centre Technology and Development Officer discusses the company's commitment to its sustainability strategy

s the interconnection hub for the world’s leading businesses, Interxion provides its clients with sustainable data centres and the right connectivity to interconnect, transact and grow businesses. The company has more than 700 connectivity providers in over 290 data centres across more than 24 countries. With its significant global footprint, Interxion’s clients can expand their reach geographically. This is because the company’s services provide clients with the proximity needed for latency-sensitive applications, and offers interconnection on a global scale. Founded in 1998, the company has changed massively over the years and has had to adapt to the changing technological landscape. Lex Coors, Interxion’s Chief Data Centre Technology and Development Officer and Visiting Professor at the University of East London, has been with the company since its infancy in 1999. Having witnessed first-hand the immense evolution of Interxion, Coors explained how it has changed over the years, he said: “Interxion started by working in minute trading. We then moved into data centres, where we collected as many carriers together with the internet exchanges, creating the first communities of interest with enterprise customers. Then when cloud technologies came, we incorporated those into our operations too.” 208

January 2022

INTERXION

Interxion ZUR3 data centre

Example of an image caption sustainabilitymag.com

209

Emergency Power

Hybrid energy

zwarttechniek.com

Service

When it matters most. In an increasingly connected world, where datacenters have become an integral part of society’s critical infrastructure, a stable, secure power supply is more important than ever. Zwart designs, builds and maintains emergency power installations for the world’s most demanding datacenter owners and operators. Together with it’s engine partner Mitsubishi, Zwart’s installations ensure a trusted back-up solution for our customers throughout Europe and Africa “When it Matters Most”. Over 90 years of experience are applied every day to ensure the highest standards in all aspects of project design, delivery and service. The Mitsubishi engines are recognised for their reliability and cost-effective operation and are ideally suited for mission critical applications. With over 100 gensets currently installed across multiple Interxion sites throughout Europe and Africa, Interxion can ensure that it delivers the highest levels of availability and uptime to its customers. As part of a shared commitment to delivering greener solutions, Mitsubishi and Zwart have recently announced that their datacenter emergency power installations can be operated with 100%HVO diesel,

a non-fossil fuel based alternative that reduces CO2 by up to 90%. Furthermore, Zwart and Mitsubishi are working closely with Professor Lex Coors from Interxion on his vision to the “Road to Zero”, an ambitious and challenging project to eliminate all emissions during non-emergency use by applying innovative maintenance and testing programs and developing custom equipment to ensure the high reliability reputation of Zwart’s solutions is maintained. Jim Craig, Managing Director of Zwart said, “Only by working together can we deliver on the ambitious targets for climate neutral datacenters in 2030” Lex Coors, Chief Datacenter Technology and Engineering Officer at Interxion, a Digital Realty Company stated “As a board member of the EU Climate Neutral Datacenter Pact I am committed to driving the Road to Zero and I am encouraged by the progress being made by Zwart and Mitsubishi in this respect”

Learn more

info@zwarttechniek.com

INTERXION

LEX COORS

EXECUTIVE BIO

TITLE: CHIEF DATA CENTRE TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING OFFICER

Datasector over the last 10 years by Broadgroup

LOCATION: NETHERLANDS

( 2010 ), and again by DCD (2016) . Since 2019, Lex is working with the University

Over the past 25 years of his career, he

of East London to investigate the issues around

has built exceptionally strong credentials

sustainability for Datacentres and was recently

in the design of versatile, cost-effective and energy-efficient data centre infrastructure. During his time with Interxion he has pioneered

appointed as Visiting Professor. At the EUDCA Lex is the Chair for the EUDCA Policy Committee where he represents the

several new approaches to data centre design

interest of the European Commercial Data

and management, including the improvement

Centre Operator Community both politically and

of power ratio efficiency between server load

commercially. Further Lex is Board Member of the

and transformer load, and the industry’s first ever

European Climate neutral datacentre pact. Lex

modular approach to data centre architecture.

is member of the iMasons Advisory Council. He

Lex received already two times the Personal Judges Award for Outstanding Contribution to the

212

January 2022

studied Mechanical Engineering and Management and Economics in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

INTERXION

Committed to Net Zero data centres by 2030

Now Interxion can provide its customers with a hybrid cloud solution. These cloud technologies have also become increasingly significant with the emergence of the global remote workforce, who are more reliant on the cloud to access information remotely. The push towards these technologies is increasing as more companies utilise cloud software services to secure and back up their IT infrastructure. “We’ve changed significantly over the years. Now we embrace a lot of digital technologies to support our operations and have incorporated them into our platforms. We deal with medium-sized data and once we collect this data, the company and our algorithms can learn from that to help us optimise our operations. Technology has definitely changed the way we measure data, as the algorithms now do it for us,” Coors added. This evolution lends itself to Interxion’s commitment to its customers. The company

“ We have changed significantly over the years and now we embrace a lot of digital technologies to support our operations” LEX COORS

CHIEF DATA CENTER TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING OFFICER, INTERXION

has needed to adapt as its customers’ needs have changed, as Coors explained: “We have a lot of enterprise customers who require the efficiencies of the colocation services we offer. With the introduction of cloud technologies, we now work together with the large cloud players and some of their most critical applications are in our data centres. This is because we represent the core of all the networks coming together.” sustainabilitymag.com

213

WE BELIEVE THAT IT’S EVERYONE’S DUTY TO IMPROVE THE FUTURE OF OUR PLANET

This year, Mercury launched Our Planet, Our Duty, our plan for Responsible Business. Our Planet, Our Duty is our promise to help create a more sustainable environment around us. For more information please visit:

www.mercuryeng.com

INTERXION

Interxion PAR8 data centre

“ We have been able to say that for a few years 100% of our data centres are running on sustainable energy” LEX COORS

CHIEF DATA CENTER TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING OFFICER, INTERXION

Adding to this, the Chief Data Centre Technology and Development Officer explained that as Interxion’s customers have grown and expanded, so has the number of data centres the company has to offer. Building sustainable data centres for the future The data centre provider is committed to its sustainability targets and in his role, Coors works to ensure that all of Interxion’s colocation services have a minimal impact on the environment. Explaining why sustainability is so important to the company, Coors said it is so important, he regards it “as a social corporate responsibility.”

To highlight how the company is supporting the global efforts to fight climate change, Coors outlined the work Interxion has been doing to reduce its carbon emission: “We started looking into our sustainability strategy over seven years ago. Initially, we started looking at energy efficiency in 2009 and even before that, we called it our energy overhead. Now, we have been able to say that for a few years, 100% of our data centres are running on sustainable energy.” Interxion has pioneered energy-saving designs within its data centres to ensure they run on sustainable energy. The company has harnessed everything from arctic winds, underground aquifers and even the Baltic Sea in order to reduce its carbon footprint. Working with big players in the technology scene has been crucial in supporting sustainabilitymag.com

215

Interxion Amsterdam Data Tower

700

connectivity providers in over

290

data centres across

European countries

216

January 2022

INTERXION

Interxion, as it looked to add a sustainability focus to its operations. Coors explained that, despite Trump’s dismissal of sustainability initiatives in the United States, big customers such as Microsoft, AWS, Google and Facebook still maintained their commitment to their own sustainable targets. As a result, these big clients still expected Interxion to provide energy-efficient data centres. Interxion’s own sustainable ambitions Although Interxion is keen to support its clients’ sustainability targets by providing them with data centres run on renewable energy, the company is ambitious with its own targets. Outlining the company’s ambitions, Coors said: “Our corporate target

“We are passionate about sustainability because you cannot design a data centre well without this understanding” LEX COORS

CHIEF DATA CENTER TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING OFFICER, INTERXION

is a 68% reduction in scope one and reducing to two emissions by 2030. Scope one is the direct emissions, such as diesel usage; and scope two is the indirect emissions.” He continued: “I think that these targets are so ambitious because we have close to 300-plus data centres around the globe. We’re committed to this programme and we're driving year-on-year programmes to achieve this.” Supporting these ambitions is Interxion’s internal function, The Energy Strategy Group. This group has participants from sustainabilitymag.com

217

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

The transition to cleaner data centres We spoke with Schneider Electric’s SVP Secure Power Europe, Rob McKernan, to NAME SURNAME discuss JOB TITLE, how the company COMPANY NAME create a new era is helping of sustainable data centres ROB MCKERNAN, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, SECURE POWER EUROPE, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

Can you tell me about Schneider Electric? Schneider Electric is the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation and the world’s most sustainable corporation in 2021 as ranked by Corporate Knights. As a business, we enable digital transformation across several key sectors including data centres, infrastructure, and industries. We do this by integrating world-leading processes, renewable energy, and highly efficient technologies with software and services, to drive sustainability throughout the lifecycle.

What is your role and responsibilities? As the SVP for Secure Power in Europe, my role is to empower our country leaders to support our customers within the data centre, industrial and critical IT spaces. This includes working with our customers to define their infrastructure strategy and the business outcomes they hope to achieve through

any accompanying sustainability or digital transformation initiative. From designing and specifying the technologies, to making them more efficient and reducing their carbon footprint, my role is to connect customers with our experts and empower them to transform their businesses sustainably.

Can you talk me through your company’s own sustainability initiatives? At Schneider Electric, we have many sustainability initiatives in place. They include the Schneider Electric Sustainability Impact (SSI) – in which we aim to help customers save 800M tonnes of carbon emissions by 2025. To-date we have helped reduce CO2 by 319 million tonnes, which is a great start. We are committed to reaching carbon neutrality across all company sites by 2025 and are aiming to achieve net-zero operational emissions by 2030. We also aim to achieve net zero emissions throughout our entire supply chain by 2050 and have committed to using no gases or SF6 by the end of 2025.

Why do you think it is important that data centres become more sustainable? Our industry has been working to reduce its energy consumption and lower carbon emissions for many years. One might argue that it is an exemplar to other industries. As large consumers of energy, it has a responsibility to commit towards sustainability and to reducing its environmental impact. New data centres can be designed to be resource efficient, however, it’s paramount that we don’t forget about inefficient legacy facilities. Here, Initiating modernisation or energy efficiency programs and switching to renewables are two key steps that legacy operators can take to become more sustainable.

How is your technology supporting this transition to more climate-conscious companies? I believe that from a technological perspective, achieving sustainability requires a combination of hardware, software, and digital services. However, it requires far more than just the technologies and any business hoping to reduce its environmental impact should carefully consider its strategy. At Schneider Electric we’re developing solutions to help operators meet demands for sustainability and resilience. Our Galaxy VL UPS is the industry’s most compact threephase solution, is powered by lithium-ion and offers up to 99% efficiency. We’re innovating in the design space, using prefabricated technologies to design resourceefficient facilities, and creating edge computing systems that can be deployed sustainably. Further, our vendor-agnostic EcoStruxure™ IT DCIM software helps end-users to not only measure their energy usage but monitor their mission-critical environments from anywhere to increase the reliability of their sites. Our DCIM software delivers smart analytics with predictive capabilities alongside built-in cybersecurity analysis, physical and environmental security monitoring – a complete solution for today’s operators. Finally, we’ve created an Energy and Sustainability services bureau, helping customers extend the lifecycle of their infrastructure and reduce their carbon

impact. We also have a business that’s dedicated to helping customers procure renewable energy.

How do new and emerging technologies support this transition to cleaner data centres? Technologies have a key role to play in future data centres, which must be adaptive, resilient, sustainable, and efficient. However, technology is just one aspect, and a more holistic approach to design and operations is needed. At Schneider Electric, we believe the sector can address this through five steps. First, operators must adopt sustainable practices from the outset, creating global climate strategies that are transparent and measurable. Secondly, they must maximise the use of renewables to decrease their carbon footprint. Thirdly, by establishing resource efficient designs, operators can take a more repeatable approach to deployment and drive efficiency. Fourthly, reducing CO2 within the supply chain is crucial, and partnering with businesses that are aligned with the same ambitions can play a key role in addressing scope 3 emissions. Finally, the utilization of circular materials that can be recycled is essential to reduce landfill.

What can we expect from Schneider Electric in the future? One area we’re particularly excited about is the development of new sustainability metrics specifically for data centre operators. For many years PUE has been a great measure of efficiency, however, the landscape is changing, and as our industry works towards net zero, it’s essential that sustainability metrics evolve to reflect this ambition. Our mission is to be our customers’ partner for efficiency and sustainability, so we’ll continue our work to build the sustainable and resilient data centres of the future, and help the industry reduce its carbon impact.

Discover more about EcoStruxure™ IT”

A D F

Full insights into your data center, edge or colo infrastructure with DCIM. EcoStruxure™ IT Advisor A vendor-neutral planning, modeling and optimization tool.

se.com

senior management and is dedicated to developing, implementing and governing the overall energy strategies; including: • Intelligent energy buying • Continually improving Interxion’s energy efficiency and Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) • Establishing the value of energy as a core service to its customers. Collaborating with strategic partners To ensure the success of reducing its ‘scope one’ emissions, Interxion looks to its partners to help provide sustainable products and services to improve its operations. With Mitsubishi, Interxion is looking at different ways to reduce the amount of diesel the company uses in its day-to-day operations. As a significant polluter, Interxion is keen to reduce its diesel use and as a result, reduce its scope one emissions. The company continues 220

January 2022

“ Technology has definitely changed the way we measure data, as the algorithms now do it for us” LEX COORS

CHIEF DATA CENTER TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING OFFICER, INTERXION

to work hard on this with Mitsubishi and its other partners, Schneider and Mercury. Understanding the importance of partner collaboration is crucial to ensuring the success of Interxion’s sustainable ambitions, as Coors explained: “It’s key that our partners’ sustainability targets align with our own. We have also realised that our partners can’t support our sustainability targets all by themselves, so they need the operators of the data centre to explain the issue we're trying to solve.”

INTERXION

“Our partners listen to what the problem is and then we talk about it, to see if there's a common interest, before we start working on the solution,” he added. Interxion’s alignment with the European Commission Keen to support the global efforts against climate change, Interxion also works closely with other data centre providers and cloud providers within the Climate-Neutral Data Centre Pact. This collaborative effort between these providers came after the European Commission announced that data centres should be climate neutral by 2030.

This Pact was set up as Interxion was keen that players in the data centre industry would meet these collective goals, ensuring the targets would be drafted by those with knowledge of the industry itself. Coors himself is on the board of directors with five other key players in the European data centre industry. Expanding on the aims of the association, Coors said: “We spoke about how to become a more sustainable industry and realised we’re all already on the road to reaching these targets set by the European Commission. We formed the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact and defined

INTERXION MEETS THE DEMANDS OF THE DIGITAL ECONOMY WITH TAILORED SOLUTIONS FROM SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC Today’s data centres are fast evolving; they have become the very beating heart of the digital economy. These mission-critical environments are far more than the legacy data storage and processing facilities of the past. They are gateways to emerging new markets and digital platforms from which businesses can expand their reach to connect with every aspect of our digital lives. Such evolutions require a combination of energy efficient technologies that support demands for both sustainability and resilience, and secure IT platforms capable of supporting an incredible amount of real time data. To meet the needs of its customers, Interxion, a Digital Realty company, has continued to respond with greater connectivity, more redundancy and power, while continuing to align with today’s environmental and security standards. As Fabrice Coquio, president of Interxion France, notes, “Data centres are the first brick upon which we build the digital economy,” and for nearly two decades Interxion

has been laying those bricks one by one, now operating more than 100 state of the art facilities across Europe, with a commitment to offering customers a complete portfolio of flexible data centre solutions. For more than 15 years, Interxion has enjoyed a long-standing and successful partnership with Schneider Electric to deliver innovative colocation solutions. Schneider Electric has supported Interxion throughout the design, construction, and operational stages of its high-density data centre environments; providing flexible architectures that include energy efficient cooling solutions, resilient power protection systems such as its Galaxy UPS, PDU and switchgear, and EcoStruxure™ IT management software to deliver uptime, sustainability and efficiency for its customers, while keeping the environment in mind. LEARN MORE IN OUR CASE STUDY, HERE.

sustainabilitymag.com

221

INTERXION

five pillars to achieve carbon neutrality.” “The first pillar is clean energy. So by 2025, 75% of all data centres shall be running on clean energy and by 2030, 100% of them will be. Then we need to look at energy efficiency to make sure the data centres are efficient, this is pillar number two. The third pillar looks into reusing energy. We also have the circular economy as the fourth pillar and finally, we look at water usage. These five pillars form the base of the association,” he outlined. Approved by the European Commission’s Executive Vice President Frans Timmerman, the association sets up its own regulatory framework and is run without external legislation. Embraced by Interxion, the 222

January 2022

association is a collaborative space that sets ambitious but achievable sustainable goals for data centre providers. Including most of the continent's key players, the current signatories of the pact represent 90% of the industry in Europe. Just this year, the pact presented its first policy paper to the European Commission following its request. The policy paper includes a comprehensive set of 19 recommendations. These recommendations cover public procurement regulations from the procurement and development of renewable energies that can be used by the cloud and data centre industry, to supporting the development of circular

water and energy management, and recycling in the ICT sector. A signatory himself, Timmerman commented on the pact the day it was created, he said: “Citizens across Europe are using ever more technology to go about their daily lives and they want this technology to help secure a sustainable future for all. Today’s pledge – from important parts of the data industry – constitutes a promise to society and offers a welcome first step towards achieving our common ambitions for a smart and sustainable future.” Signatories of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact have agreed to implement measurable energy efficiency targets,

purchase 100% carbon-free energy, prioritise water conservation, reuse and repair servers, and look for ways to recycle heat. This pledge is particularly significant when considering findings from the International Energy Agency. It found that data centres consume approximately 200 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, or nearly 1% of global electricity demand, contributing to 0.3% of all global CO2 emissions. Both Interxion and Coors, along with the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact, recognise the importance of transforming the industry to reduce the damaging effects it can have on the climate. Expanding on this, Coors said: “We are passionate about sustainability because you cannot design a data centre well without this understanding. If you do not understand sustainability well, you can build a data centre, but it will not meet the targets for the future. That's why this is so important for us.”

sustainabilitymag.com

223

RECKITT

Embedding Quality in a Changing Environment WRITTEN BY: MARK JACKSON PRODUCED BY: TOM LIVERMORE

224

January 2022

RECKITT

sustainabilitymag.com

225

RECKITT

226

January 2022

RECKITT

We chat with Valerie Sieurin, the Senior Vice President Global Head of Quality at Reckitt, about how she has transformed the company’s Quality systems and Quality culture, as well as its continuing commitment to creating a better future for all

t is quite a task to implement systemic cultural change in a multi-billion company, but that is precisely what Valerie Sieurin undertook when she accepted the role of SVP Global Head of Quality at Reckitt. Based in Slough, Reckitt is one of the world leaders in developing hygiene, health and nutrition products. Its list of world famous brands is endless including; Air Wick, Calgon, Cillit Bang, Clearasil, Dettol, Durex, Enfamil, Finish, Gaviscon, Harpic, Lysol, Mortein, Mucinex, Nurofen, Nutramigen, Strepsils, Vanish, Veet, Woolite and more. The company has a 200-year legacy and currently generates revenues of more than £14 billion, from its operations in 60 countries, where it employs over 43,000 people. Valerie Sieurin was tasked with embedding a new culture of Quality across Reckitt, leading a global team and building strong internal partnerships to ensure Quality standards are embedded throughout the product life cycle, from marketing to procurement to manufacturing, and distribution to sales. “Every day we sell more than 20 million products across the world,” explains Valerie. “My role is to design and implement a Quality strategy to ensure we are providing everywhere and at every moment products sustainabilitymag.com

227

RECKITT

that are safe , trusted and preferred digital transformation in Quality by our consumers, ” she said. which includes implementing a Valerie, who has a master’s new AI system for planning and degree in food science and food scheduling quality control testing Employees processes from her native France, in manufacturing, a new cloud worldwide has previously worked for major solution for consumer relations, companies such as Danone and Cadbury and most recently the launch of an Schweppes. She has worked in a variety enterprise Quality Management system. of roles at local, regional and global levels, All of these transformation projects as well as having lived in three different were made possible thanks to strategic countries. She has undertaken global partnerships such as with partners, roles for close to 15 years, placing her in SmartQC and Veeva Systems. an ideal position to implement a Quality For Valerie however, digitalisation is not transformation within Reckitt. the end game per se, but a means to drive “This gives me quite a wide view of forward Reckitt’s purpose. “We see digital organisations and different markets,” she says. transformation as a way to achieve this Valerie explains how the journey to the relentless pursuit of a cleaner and healthier new culture was driven in parallel with a world,” she explains.

43,000

228

January 2022

RECKITT

VALERIE SIEURIN TITLE: SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL HEAD OF QUALITY

Initially Valerie with her team identified those areas where Reckitt could improve its performance in pursuance of its overriding goals, the technology that could help them accomplish this, and the partners that could help drive this technology transformation. “As a Quality professional, you are always looking at what you can improve and combine with the strengths which you want to maintain. Continuous improvement is part of the DNA of the Quality leader.” she explains. “But, with my team, we did not want small incremental improvement, with the new technologies available we had the ambition to leapfrog. “We focused on two areas. The first was consumer relations to move from answering complaints to driving advocacy and win consumer preference. The second was

EXECUTIVE BIO

COMPANY: RECKITT As a global leader at Reckitt – a world renowned home of health, hygiene and nutrition brands - Valerie Sieurin is responsible for over 2,000 members of staff working across Quality worldwide. At Reckitt, Quality leaders are increasingly seen as strategic business partners. The disruptive leader is driving a culture change across the organisation, overseeing end-to-end Quality, coaching people to bring their best and driving consumers advocacy in the pursuit of excellence. Valerie Sieurin is an ambassador for creative solutions and innovation in product, processes and Quality systems. She has initiated a digitisation journey of quality at Reckitt and championed new ideas from everyone to make the Quality team even more agile, connected, embedded and predictive. She is also extremely passionate about sustainability & inclusion across Reckitt and the community.

sustainabilitymag.com

229

RECKITT

Title of the video Do you know all 17 SDGs?

“ We are here to protect, heal and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner and healthier world. This is what drives me every day in the decisions I take. It means that we are always looking at better solutions” VALERIE SIEURIN

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL HEAD OF QUALITY, RECKITT

230

January 2022

eliminating repeated failures. Our vision was to make the organisation more predictive in order to avoid such errors, and to support this cultural transformation through technology.” To enable this transformation, Valerie and her team have built a very strong partnership with the Reckitt IT department. In order to transform its consumer relations, Reckitt worked closely with its project partners to design a cloud-based system to enable them to connect everywhere with consumers, using all media from emails to social media. “Now our consumers can contact us from any place and at any time,” she explains. “We can bring insights to the business to improve our products and service and delight our consumers, which ultimately will drive consumer advocacy and increase love for our brands.”

RECKITT

The second cultural to connect all of our Quality transformation concerned Reckitt’s management processes and be Quality processes and systems. more efficient,” she explains. The aim was to connect all the The transformation began with Products sold across company’s Quality processes improving efficiency in Reckitt’s the world everyday to increase efficiency and, as a Quality Control laboratories, which consequence, revenue. Valerie believes that she refers to as a ‘Lean lab Programme and Quality transformations can directly impact lately renamed as LabEx for Laboratory a company’s business success: reduce time Excellence’. “We quickly identified that to market and improve first time right as two implementing lean methodology wasn't examples. enough, it was a good step to start improving Previously Reckitt had Quality systems a laboratory, but it wasn't enough,” Valerie which were not connected with other says. We needed to enhance our programme systems within the organisation and with technology and that is when the therefore inefficient. This is why Valerie relationship with SmartQC commenced. The and her team decided to partner with end game is to have paperless laboratories Veeva Systems to develop a solution that will be fully integrated to the overall using the latter’s Quality management business systems. When systems are platform QualityOne, which Reckitt is connected, this will improve product release now implementing. “This will enable us times and get products to customers faster.

20mn+

sustainabilitymag.com

231

Cloud Applications that Drive Transparency & Trust Throughout the Product Journey 1000+ Customers • 4500+ Employees • $1.5B+ Revenue • 165+ Countries

Helping companies bring high-quality, safe, and sustainable products to market faster without compromising compliance.

"Agile - Empowering - Strategic" www.industries.veeva.com

Reckitt Embarks on Quality Cloud Transformation with Veeva Why Consumer Goods leader Reckitt is partnering with Veeva Systems to transform its quality processes for greater operational agility Consumer hygiene, health and nutrition leader Reckitt is partnering with Veeva Systems to realize Reckitt’s vision for Quality’s digital transformation. By adopting Veeva cloud solutions, Reckitt is establishing a modern technology infrastructure that allows people and processes to operate with agility and speed, without compromising quality and compliance. Reckitt selected Veeva’s QualityOne software to replace disparate legacy systems and streamline activities, data, and documents into a single source of truth. This digital transformation effort improves collaboration throughout the organization, and enables greater transparency and agility. “We’re taking the opportunity to reduce complexity, because that is the enemy of progress and growth, and simplifying our processes with this intuitive platform. The system is not only user-friendly, but its ease of use allowed our team to re-imagine the process,” said Breda Quinn, Global Transformation Quality Director at Reckitt.

“Veeva is an excellent technology partner for us. They are agile and empower us to focus on all the right things. They’re driving the strategic thinking and inspire, and motivate us, to think long-term.” Partner to Industry, Customers: What Sets Veeva Apart from Other Vendors Unlike transactional technology vendors, Veeva takes a partnership approach to its customers’ digital transformation journeys. This includes maintaining deep expertise in industry challenges. For example, Veeva employs “a unique team of strategists who have joined Veeva directly from industry; they are the voice of our customers” said Veeva strategy leader Ed Van Siclen. “And when we get it right -- the collaboration between our product organization, our customers and the strategy team -- we create magic.” Additionally, Veeva solutions are appreciating assets that allow customers to keep pace in a rapidly evolving business environment. “As a cloud-based, SaaS technology provider, we deliver software-at-speed,” Van Siclen said. “We add features three times a year and become an appreciating asset for our customers.”

twitter

facebook

youtube

info@industries.veeva.com

RECKITT

Streamlining processes within their decision making within laboratories leads to greater a more agile supply chain. efficiency, while improving “Now there are a lot of different Generates revenues of more than business, and maintaining technologies that are available to standards to ensure customer us that we have started piloting confidence in their brands. Valerie and deploying. SmartQC for believes that the introduction of these new example, is a digital twin that enables us technologies and systems will provide the to plan and schedule our testing more Reckitt teams the access to the data in a efficiently. We are also looking at piloting digital format that they need to enhance and implementing SmartQA, which will

£14bn

234

January 2022

RECKITT

“ Now we are able to have our consumers contact us from any place and at any time” VALERIE SIEURIN

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL HEAD OF QUALITY, RECKITT

digitise quality assurance activities and ultimately improve product release times further. In our pharma factories we have hundreds of test methods for our products, so it is complex to manage the lab operation. These new technologies really enable our people to focus on what is important, adding value.” The transformative process is not one Reckitt could have undertaken on its own. Valerie places great importance on the role played by their partners. When working out which companies Reckitt should work with, Valerie always initially asks the question, “what don't we know?”. Then she identifies where Reckitt can collaborate with potential partners and those companies which could join them on their journey of transformation. For Valerie the transformative process is continuous. As she observes “the technology of today will be obsolete soon,” which she finds “fascinating.” Consequently, it is vital that companies such as Reckitt are choosing the partners who are innovative, invest in research and could evolve with them in order to improve the quality of both their processes and also their products in order to maintain both efficiency and customer confidence in their brands. “This is why we have partnered with Veeva Systems. This is also why we work with SmartQC,” she says. However, for Valerie improving efficiency and maintaining brand confidence is only part of a bigger picture. She believes that Reckitt serves a far greater purpose than would appear on any financial balance sheet. This is what motivates her. “The reason why we exist is our purpose,” she says. “We are here to protect, heal and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner and healthier world. This is what drives me sustainabilitymag.com

235

#1 leading digital planning and scheduling solution for QC laboratories Smart-QC is deployed in over 150 labs worldwide and our solutions are used by 10 of the top 15 largest companies in the life science industry. Most cResults’ clients have already witnessed massive levels of improvements within their organizations. READ MORE... By cResults the maker of Smart-QC, Smart-QA and FDAAWARE

RECKITT

every day in the decisions I take. We huge objectives and we are all working are always looking at better solutions together on achieving them by 2030,” to fulfill our purpose.” she says. Operates in As such, Valerie is energised by Reckitt has targeted reducing Reckitt’s sustainability initiatives which greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in its lie at the heart of both the company’s operations by 65% by 2030, as well as Countries ethos and its global impact. To achieve using 100% renewable energy and reducing these the company works closely with local its overall energy usage by 25%. This should communities to forge a brighter future. lead to a 50% reduction in its product “We are engaging together with our carbon footprint in the same timescale, partners with 22 million people through with the ultimate goal of being carbon programmes, partnerships and campaigns,” neutral by 2040. she explains. “Our objective is to have a lasting The company has partnered with impact on people and communities, and also the WWF to preserve and restore 2,100 to deliver the UN’s Sustainable Development kilometres of freshwater across two major Goals in which we are engaged.” river basins in the Amazon and Ganges. In These initiatives are also designed to reduce addition, one of its brands, Air Wick, is also Reckitt’s own carbon footprint. “We have working with WWF to raise awareness of

sustainabilitymag.com

237

RECKITT

238

January 2022

RECKITT

1819

Year Founded

Manufacturing Industry

43,000

Number of Employees

£14bn Revenue

“ This is for the good of the people, the consumers, but as well for the planet” VALERIE SIEURIN

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL HEAD OF QUALITY, RECKITT

the importance of nature and how we can all do more to protect and restore it. Valerie believes that neither Reckitt’s culture of Quality transformation nor its sustainability drive would be possible without the strong and clear leadership provided by the CEO, Laxman Narasimhan and company’s senior management. “This transformation in Quality is only possible because of the leaders across the world that are engaged in this transformation,” she says. “We are driving innovation in the areas of hygiene, health and nutrition, continuing, improving and working on our sustainability goals in order to have a positive impact in the world.” The aim behind the current transformation of the company’s Quality processes is to ensure that all of the disparate parts of Reckitt’s global family are connected and working together to achieve its purpose to protect, heal and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner and healthier world. This requires a state of constant evolution. “This is for the good of the people, the consumers, but as well for the planet,” Valerie says.

sustainabilitymag.com

239

AGGREKO POWERS SMOOTH ENERGY TRANSITION WRITTEN BY: DOMINIC ELLIS

240

January 2022

PRODUCED BY: BEN WIGGER

AGGREKO

sustainabilitymag.com

241

AGGREKO

242

January 2022

AGGREKO

For more than 60 years Aggreko has helped businesses manage their power demands – and now the focus is on doing so sustainably as LNG and renewables rise in stature

ar from its Glasgow HQ and the COP26 conference halls, around 150kms north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, Aggreko has been embarking on a new phase of industrial sustainability. It has been integral to the development of a newly commissioned gas station at Ora Banda Mining’s Davyhurst Gold Mine, part of a broader global strategy to assist miners decarbonise their modular energy solutions. Formerly running on diesel, the project – which provides around 8MW of power output – is believed to be the first to incorporate latest gas technology and involves a ‘virtual pipeline’ of gas being trucked over 650kms. It was installed in three months. “We are very excited about this project,” said Rod Saffy, Global Head of Mining at Aggreko. “It’s going to save about 25,000 tonnes of CO2 and a great example of new technology coming to market, and miners having the foresight to commit to cleaner energy on site.” Saffy says it now has similar projects up and running in four countries – two in Australia; two in Canada; one in Spain; and it is about to commission one in Chile. They are all between 6-10MW loads – five involve LNG truck gas and one is CNG compressed gas, and the distances are roughly the same, spanning between 500-1,000kms. sustainabilitymag.com

243

AGGREKO

Powers smooth energy transition

Aggreko is on a mission to cut the amount of fossil diesel fuel used in customer solutions by at least 50% by 2030 and aiming to be net zero by 2050. The sustainable fortunes of its own business, and that of its clients, are very much entwined. “LNG continues to be a strategically important option, and it’s certainly becoming more popular and providing a better option for our clients. Most mines that are running on diesel would prefer to run on gas,” said Saffy. He foresees no reason why you can’t add a solar battery energy storage, and any other renewable, to this LNG arrangement. “A good example would be our Granny Smith mine, where we have a gas-powered station and solar farm attached, and we’re looking at a wind option too,” he said, adding 244

January 2022

“ The Davyhurst project is going to save about 25,000 tonnes of CO2 and a great example of new technology coming to market, and miners having the foresight to commit to cleaner energy on site” ROD SAFFY

GLOBAL HEAD OF MINING, AGGREKO

AGGREKO

that it was one of the largest renewable microgrids in the world. Power scale is a factor; if the loads get too high, nearing 30MW, then a lot of trucks are required as well as increased gas storage on site which means an increase in capital. “At this point it may make more sense to build pipeline infrastructure to the station, so it’s very situation dependent.” Amid the transition from diesel to gas, renewables will continue to grow in stature, and batteries will reduce emissions further. But access to gas can be a challenge. “Not many mines have good access to pipelines, which traditionally has been a barrier to considering gas as a cost effective option. However, we are seeing a trend where there are now more options available in the market to liquefying and transporting gas from the nearest pipeline,” said Whyte.

TITLE: GLOBAL HEAD OF MINING INDUSTRY: MINING LOCATION: GREATER SYDNEY AREA

EXECUTIVE BIO

Global knowledge at local level The advantage of global companies is when entering countries which may not be as developed, you can take established clean energy policies and commitments into these regions, added George Whyte, Managing Director, Australia Pacific and Global Mining Sector Leader at Aggreko. “We are definitely the only true global company operating across all continents. We apply global standards to mines, regardless of the country,” he said. The company has seen rising demand in Africa, South and North America. It’s not only new mines which keeps Aggreko busy – mine expansions as well as scaling down a mine’s power needs is also important. “There is an increasing trend, and definitely those running on diesel are looking to run on gas,” he said. Aggreko is looking at alternate fuels, and as they become readily available, it will look

ROD SAFFY

Rod Saffy is the Global Head of Mining for Aggreko. Rod started with Aggreko in 2013 as an Area General Manager in the AusPac region, before quickly climbing the ranks to his current global position with the company. He is a business management professional with extensive experience in sales leadership, project management and engineering. Having managed some extremely large teams of more than 250 employees, Rod has developed a high level of skill in people management, business and strategic management, sector deployment, complex matrix management and high performing teams. With a Masters Degree in Engineering Business Management, and having worked for such companies as General Electric and Moog in previous roles, Rod has a strong background in the mining industry. His knowledge and experience are deeply ingrained, and he brings a deep understanding of the challenges and complexities of the mining sector to each project he engages in.

AGGREKO

GEORGE WHYTE TITLE: MANAGING DIRECTOR, AUSTRALIA PACIFIC AND GLOBAL MINING SECTOR LEADER INDUSTRY: ENERGY & MINING George Whyte became Aggreko AusPac’s Managing Director in 2013. He previously served as Sales & Marketing Director and Area General Manager, and has held various leadership roles within Aggreko since joining in 1999. George brings extensive experience in the mining sector, having introduced the company’s Mine Cooling services and Life of Mine IPP contracts, and more recently solar hybrid solutions. Some of the company’s recent successes under George’s helm have included Gold Fields’ Granny Smith Gold Mine Power Station and Rio Tinto’s Amrun and Gove Power Stations. George’s recent focus has been to globalise Aggreko’s Mining Services with consistent standards of Quality, Technology and Expertise. He is very driven to support Aggreko’s customer base through its energy transition strategy. George holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Deakin University.

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: GREATER MELBOURNE AREA

at technologies which will support these fuels. He foresees thermal power will continue to play a key element in hybrid solutions. “When you think about renewables, it’s going to be a combination of solar, wind and storage. To achieve a high penetration, you will need all three. Everyone has different targets. We would like to reduce emissions for our customers and have a pathway to that.” Typically solar accounts for less than half of your thermal load, but Saffy believes that will rise as batteries become more efficient. “Mines will be able to access more storage.” he said. Aggreko is exploring how it can integrate green hydrogen into its fleet, and combine it with renewables and battery storage to build efficient and resilient hybrid systems, which will help customers achieve their sustainability goals.

“ It’s been a very busy year for us, and we’ve not seen the same issues in mining that we have in some of our other sectors” ROD SAFFY

GLOBAL HEAD OF MINING, AGGREKO

Targeted approach to partnerships Predominantly Aggreko operates independently, often executing the engineer, procure, construct and manage (EPCM) process themselves.

Although many peers offer renewable solutions, not many have the experience required when managing off-grid mine power. “Occasionally we’ll partner with specialist providers,” said Saffy. “In Chile, we’re installing a power station at 4,500 metres above sea level and using specialist local contractors. “We are also technologically ‘agnostic’, and prefer to design a bespoke solution which will include the best combination of renewable and thermal technology.” While most sectors have been impacted by the pandemic, mining, with its remoteness and scale, has weathered it better than most. “The mining sector is used to managing risks, and has a lot of controls in place,” added Whyte. “It’s been a very busy year for us, and we’ve not seen the same issues that we have in some of our other sectors. We are sustainabilitymag.com

247

1962

Year Founded

400+ Number of Employees (AusPac)

£1.365bn Revenue British Sterling (2020)

248

January 2022

AGGREKO

“ I wouldn’t say it is for all companies but EaaS is a hot topic and increasingly miners are saying ‘we do mining, you do energy” ROD SAFFY

GLOBAL HEAD OF MINING, AGGREKO

sustainabilitymag.com

249

DID YOU KNOW... MINERS ADOPT SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS Whyte said it is starting to see some companies adopt charging stations and believes hydrogen is definitely going to be a technology that presents itself in the near future. “It feels that hydrogen is at the same place that wind and solar were 10 to 15 years ago - it’s a matter of time,” Saffy said. “Whether it’s electric or hydrogen, it will mark a step change to ramping up green energy. Integration will be another game changing phase, not just the facilities but also the mobile equipment.”

250

January 2022

OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS The greatest opportunities are the pace of change with the energy transition, and market expectations. “We’ve seen this sharp acceleration in customer collaboration, and need for ‘fast track’ options,” said Whyte. The principal threat is the new technology, as it always carries investment risk, he adds. “But the advantage of miners outsourcing it means they stick to their core business. We are confident in our experience to manage the energy technology.”

AGGREKO

“ It feels that hydrogen is at the same place that wind and solar were 10 to 15 years ago - it’s a matter of time” ROD SAFFY

GLOBAL HEAD OF MINING, AGGREKO

very optimistic about the outlook in the next year or so, despite disruptions to the supply chain. “We aim to replicate Australian mining standards globally for consistency, both in terms of energy technology and compliance. A lot of developing countries are looking for the same standards, so that’s a unique offering being global. We’ve seen a great demand in the appetite among the global mining houses to engage with us.” He said its key value propositions are its in-house technology and flexibility. “Aggreko’s scale and access to equipment, as well as investment in technology, is a great platform to start with,” said Saffy. “We can meet customers’ early contact needs and as things change, we can bring in new technologies and deliver it under the same long-term contract.”

“We have committed to investing hundreds of millions of pounds a year to support our energy transition commitments towards becoming a Net Zero business by 2050.” The mining sector needs more flexible solutions, and Aggreko focuses on mobile and modular and integrating them with technology. Aggreko is able to offer flexibility by leveraging its short-term contract business division, and its business model allows for low cost for upgrades / swap outs which reduces risk for miners. Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) is also rising in importance. “I wouldn’t say it is for all companies but EaaS is a hot topic and increasingly miners are saying “we prefer to do mining and we leave energy to specialists such as Aggreko,” said Saffy.

sustainabilitymag.com

251

NTT

252

January 2022

NTT

BUILD-TO-SUIT DATA CENTRES OFFER CUSTOMISED SOLUTIONS WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

sustainabilitymag.com

253

NTT

254

January 2022

NTT

US$11bn

Combined Revenue

Companies Coming Together

40,000

Number of Employees Worldwide

Countries Creating a New Global Footprint Across Five Continents

US$3.6bn

NTT Group annual average investments in R&D for the next five years

2000

Year Founded

NTT Global Data Centers Americas spotlights their new Phoenix data centre in Arizona designed to deliver scalable power configurations for its clients

ising from the heat of the Arizona desert is a vast campus which has been designed to be flexible and scalable for clients of NTT Global Data Centers Americas. The 102-acre campus is taking shape in the form of NTT Phoenix PH1 - the first of seven planned data centres on the site. Historically, the Phoenix economy was known for its ‘Five C’s’ - cotton, cattle, citrus, climate, and copper, but with the arrival of these data centres, aptly located on the Elliot Road Technology Corridor, 30 minutes from the city’s Sky Harbor International Airport, another C will be joining the list - connectivity. NTT Global Data Centers Americas (NTT) was quick to seize the opportunity of creating their latest campus in the desert landscape, allowing them the luxury of space, which will benefit their clients seeking a scalable site - especially those on the west coast looking for a new location. “The new campus has substantial expansion capability which will enable us to build out and benefit our clients,” said Brittany Miller, VP Design, Construction and Supply Chain at NTT Global Data Centers Americas who lives 20 minutes from the campus and watched with interest as her first campus project with NTT rose from the desert dust. “Our build-to-suit design responds to client specific requirements for data centre builds. It's not a one size fits all anymore being able to adapt and rapidly implement sustainabilitymag.com

255

NTT

“ Our build-to-suit designs respond to what clients need from their data centre builds. It's not a one size fits all anymore - being able to adapt and rapidly implement is where I see NTT leading the pack” BRITTANY MILLER

VP DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND SUPPLY CHAIN AT NTT GLOBAL DATA CENTERS

256

January 2022

is where I see NTT leading the pack,” said Miller who leads the construction and supply chain team for NTT Americas in all their infrastructure builds. Global neutral operator The global company, which is a carrier neutral operator offering access to multiple cloud providers, enjoys a large footprint with locations in North America, Europe, Africa and India. Clients from Phoenix to Mumbai benefit from NTT’s tailored infrastructure and experience consistent best practices in design and operations across all their scalable and customisable data centres. Global Data Centers Americas was originally founded in 2000 under the name RagingWire. “In (add year) NTT also incorporated DPA, e-shelter, Gyron, Netmagic, NTT Communications Nexcenter,

NTT

BRITTANY MILLER TITLE: VP DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND SUPPLY CHAIN LOCATION: SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA Brittany Miller, Vice President of Design, Construction and Supply Chain at NTT Global Data Centers Americas, leads new data centre construction projects which feature global industry standards, multi-story buildings, and massive capacity. Prior to joining NTT, Miller spent four years leading teams in Microsoft’s Cloud Operations and Innovation business unit. She led a team that was responsible for global program management and governance along with AMER lease execution. Miller also held multiple positions at Intel over her 10-year tenure. She led a global team of supply chain professionals from setting construction delivery strategy through the execution of large-scale construction projects.

Build-to-suit data centre design Miller is keen to focus on NTT’s first data centre on the Phoenix campus which is due to open in February 2022 which has been built with a capability to expand. She pointed out why NTT selected Phoenix as a safe site for the campus as the market offers reliable and affordable power, a low risk for natural disasters, a robust fibre network, connectivity to leading cloud providers, and comprehensive tax incentives.

EXECUTIVE BIO

to form the global data centres division. In 2019, NTT began the process of integrating the companies into a single division globally. Today, the company is the world’s third largest data centre provider by IDC in their Colocation and Interconnection Services MarketScape report. NTT extends to more than 20 countries with a total of 500,000 sqm of server space.

Ryan

Global Director, Mission Critical North America

Tony

Pei Shi

Associate Director of Marketing China

Associate Director, Sales & Service Southeast Asia

Meet your

GLOBAL POWER PARTNER

Generators, power solutions, and 24/7 support. Dedicated to data centers.

24/7 Personal Support Worldwide Exclusive Access for Specifying Engineers Backup Power Solutions Tailored to Data Centers Immediate, Accurate Quotes

KohlerPower.com/datacenters

Kohler: supplying NTT’s customer needs Kohler provides generators for NTT and helps them meet the needs of their customers, explains the company’s Engineering Solutions Manager, Lori Domaschk Originally founded by the Kohler family as a manufacturer of farm implements, Kohler has been operational since 1873. Fast-forward more than a century and in 2008, the family set up and entered a partnership to work on large diesel generators. They continued on this journey before launching their own KD series of generators. Lori Domaschk, Engineering Solutions Manager of Kohler’s data centre business, said the KD Series created the company’s newfound “strong focus” on the data centre industry. “Now Kohler provides a wide range of generators of up to 4MW which allows for greater flexibility in design as well as business direction,” Lori said. Kohler is becoming increasingly more involved with large builds and hyperscalers, the needs of which are somewhat varied and require the customization, collaboration, and partnership that Kohler can offer. “At Kohler, we’re really able to take those concerns - anything that we want to change or modify and we have a lot more control over them,” Lori said.

Partnering with NTT As a provider of generators with enclosures, Kohler’s relationship with NTT is closely knit. “The best way to explain the partnership that we have with them, besides just being another supplier to them, is making sure that they are meeting the needs of their customers. So we have daily, weekly meetings with their team and with the procurement team to make sure that deadlines are getting hit; that they’re able to build in the way that they need in order to meet their own customer needs,” Lori said. Looking to the future, Lori describes Kohler’s growth goals as aggressive. “I would say COVID has intensified the need and the speed for growth in the data centre industry. For us, there are extensive growth plans, and we’re continuing to build and expand our data centre team to meet these growth goals and growth needs,” she said.

Learn more

NTT

“ NTT has grown exponentially, this gives clients the convenience of coming to one provider” BRITTANY MILLER

VP DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND SUPPLY CHAIN AT NTT GLOBAL DATA CENTERS

SNAPSHOT OF PHOENIX, ARIZONA Located in the south-west of the US, Phoenix, Arizona is the largest state capital with a population 1.6 million and lies only 150 miles from the Mexican border at Sonoyta. Its canal system led to a thriving farming community. Cotton, cattle, citrus, climate, and copper were known locally as the "Five C's" anchoring Phoenix's economy. These remained until after World War II, when high-tech companies began to move into the valley. In April 2021, Arizona adopted updated tax incentives for data centres. The bill extends tax breaks for an additional 10 years, through 2033. It also expands tax exemptions related to data centre equipment.

260

January 2022

NTT

“The campus is phenomenal,” said Miller, who is also responsible for the global construction and supply chain standardisation. “I live in Arizona, so I've seen this project rise from the sand into a vast building in the desert - I think this shows why I love construction as I can see all the hard work of the teams showing in the bricks and mortar of a data centre building. “We’re focusing on the build-to-suit concept as another channel for customers. NTT has the ability to expand quickly with partners and build to their requirements which is becoming more important for larger customers. We are leveraging our internal expertise to build and design exactly what they need,” said Miller, who pointed out her team has the “knowledge and capability” to understand what a client is looking for. “In terms of sustainability in construction and engineering, we’re always looking at ways to make our data centres more energy efficient, using renewables in certain regions and always looking at sustainable data centre standards like LEED.” Miller leads a unique team of diverse talent During the past year Miller and NTT have invested in a diverse engineering and construction team that is focused on the customer perspective and requirements. “My team has diverse talent from Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft and this allows us to understand the client perspective and deliver to those requirements.” Part of Miller’s team is Toby Stapleton, Director of Business Operations Construction, Critical Facilities Engineering & Design, who has 20 years of experience in the mission critical and data centre space. sustainabilitymag.com

261

NTT

He pointed out why NTT’s build-to-suit approach is unique. “I think our most unique qualities that set us apart are our team’s speed, flexibility and agility to react to client needs in the way that they are used to within their own organisations. This goes a long way with the stakeholders as that level of trust is needed especially with the significance of the builds we are being entrusted to deliver,” said Stapleton. “Having been on the owner's side as with many of my colleagues here at NTT, we know in depth what our client partners go through on a daily basis. Building off our experience is key in that initial engagement, the trust is achieved quickly, a hyperscale approach is assumed and communicated early on, and this allows our customers to get into eliminating risk day one with a sense of certainty on deliverables,” he said. Dylan Borvansky, Director of Preconstruction, previously worked for large hyperscale clients, and with this wealth of experience on a global stage, he was able to see first-hand the challenges these large companies have and worked directly with them to create cost effective solutions to enable data centre build portfolio success. “This exposure to a multitude of designs from globally recognised teams has encouraged me and my team to always present the options as there are multiple ways to deliver projects,” he said. Commenting on how that experience better positions NTT to deliver build-to-suit projects he said: “I understand, as do many in our industry, that it is hard to remove internal legacy design elements. By working with the NTT team with a focus on providing the best quality, cost optimised and on-schedule projects, our customers are able to tap into that arsenal of information and ways to do it better with the data to back it up. 262

January 2022

NTT

sustainabilitymag.com

263

NTT

“ My team has diverse talent from Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft and this allows us to understand what the client really needs in terms of what we're building and cater to those requirements” BRITTANY MILLER

VP DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND SUPPLY CHAIN AT NTT GLOBAL DATA CENTERS

SIX OTHER NTT CAMPUSES IN THE US Sacramento Located in seismically-stable Sacramento. The CA1/CA2/CA3 combined data centre campus is the largest in California with 53 MW of critical IT load. It features 100% renewable energy and 24x7 staff. Silicon Valley Silicon Valley SV1 Data Center in California is strategically located in the heart of the tech capital of the world. With 16 MW of critical IT load the centre provides scale and a rich ecosystem of connectivity options. This facility is the first in Santa Clara to use an earthquake-resistant design featuring an innovative base isolation system. Ashburn The 78-acre fenced campus at Ashburn, Virginia data centres are located outside Washington DC in the heart of "Data Center Alley" which contains one of the largest fibre carrier densities around. More than 70% of the world’s internet traffic passes through the region's digital ecosystem. The newest data centre on the campus, Ashburn VA5, offers 32MW of critical IT load and is the fifth of nine planned data centres.

264

January 2022

Chicago Located on a 19-acre data centre campus in Illinois, NTT Chicago CH1 features 36 MW of critical IT load and is the first of two planned data centers on NTT’s 72 MW campus. With high-density vaults it can support both single-user and colocation requirements of hyperscale cloud and enterprise customers. Hillsboro The Hillsboro HI1 data centre, the first on NTT’s 126 MW Hillsboro Data Center Campus in Oregon, offers 36MW of critical IT load and Subsea Connect, a trans-pacific network service providing connectivity between Hillsboro and Tokyo, Japan using NTT’s Pacific (PC-1) Subsea Cable System. Dallas Dallas TX1 Data Center in Texas has been recognised by Datacenter Dynamics as one of the “most beautiful data centres in the world”. With a total of 230,000 sq ft and 16 MW of critical IT load, Dallas TX1 has waterless cooling using indirect air exchange cooling technology.

NTT

“Each company that is interested in a build-to-suit has their own unique challenges. Our approach is to provide the flexibility to partner with our clients to find a resolution in a timely manner. Our team is unique as is our approach, and our clients realise early on that the lasting relationships formed are reciprocally beneficial.” NTT Phoenix PH1 Data Centre When the new build-to-suit data centre, Phoenix PH1, opens its clients will benefit from tailored infrastructure and experience consistent best practices in design and operations across all the scalable and customisable data centres. The features of the data centre includes: • Two-story data centre designed to LEEDcertified specifications for minimum water usage and maximum energy conservation,

and featuring a reinforced concrete slab floor design that increases floor loading and variable rack densities • 36MW of critical IT load, N+1 distributed redundancy for each 6MW vault, diverse power distribution to data hall, and dedicated on-site sub-station • Air-cooled chillers with airside economisers and fan coil wall cooling design with hot aisle containment • Three diverse fibre entry points and two Meet-Me-Rooms to provide access to multiple leading cloud providers, along with global and regional carriers and ISPs offering dark and lit services • 24x7 security and facility operations team Miller points out the new scalable campus will enable enterprises to meet strategic business objectives - by accelerating time to market, improving operating efficiency and avoiding costly downtime.

sustainabilitymag.com

265

NTT

Overcoming supply chain challenges Starting at the height of the pandemic brought many challenges for Miller - the main one being supply chain but partnering with suppliers has helped her overcome this major stumbling block. “Supply chain is one of the largest challenges in the past year, but by partnering with our suppliers we have done a really good job mitigating risks. Without the partnership of our suppliers and risk mitigation measures , we wouldn't have been able to deliver on our commitments this year.” Partnership with Kohler Miller pointed out Kohler as being one of NTT’s most important partners. “Globally they have been instrumental in helping with some of the supply chain 266

January 2022

“ We’re focusing on the build-to-suit concept as we own a lot of land and have the ability to expand quickly with a partner and build to their requirements which is becoming more important for larger customers” BRITTANY MILLER

VP DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND SUPPLY CHAIN AT NTT GLOBAL DATA CENTERS

NTT

issues we've had in the past. We're working through a lot of first-of-the-kind with them to shorten the lead times and ensure equipment for generators are delivered on time. This has been a longstanding relationship and Kohler is definitely one of our key suppliers, especially in the US.” Expansion to benefit hyperscalers During the past few years NTT has expanded its global footprint and will continue to do so over the next 18 months, when they'll increase by 20%. Miller commented on how this will benefit hyperscalers around the world. “NTT has grown exponentially, this gives clients the convenience of coming to one provider. By having one NTT and the rapid expansion that we've seen in the last couple of years, we'll offer them the ability to have

one provider and one service globally which will simplify their business model. We've expanded into places that are very desirable to some of our clients so I also think this interconnection will help. “Our build-to-suit designs respond to what clients need from their data centre builds. It's not a one size fits all and being able to adapt and quickly implement is where I see NTT leading the pack.” Commenting on how NTT will continue to retain its leading market position, Miller said it was based on continuing to partner with their clients and expand further into the markets along with their focus on build-to-suit.

sustainabilitymag.com

267

268

January 2022

ORANGE

ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND CO2 CHALLENGES ON THE ROAD TO NET ZERO WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR PRODUCED BY: MARK CAWSTON

sustainabilitymag.com

269

ORANGE

Hervé Suquet, VP Orange’s Energy Group, talks energy efficiency, and how to better serve communities while ensuring the road to Net Zero Carbon

s the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, and digital transformation continues to affect both emerging and mature markets, the role of the telecom operator has never been more pivotal to the continued operation of the modern world. At the same time, the seriousness of the climate crisis has never been felt more strongly, as large parts of the planet struggle with rising temperatures and extreme weather. For telecom operators, the line to walk between underpinning the fabric of the communications age and drawing down on CO2 emissions has never been narrower. At Orange, finding the right way forward lies with Mr Hervé Suquet, the group’s VP of Energy. “I'm in charge of coordinating and delivering the objectives of Orange in terms of energy efficiency. Here at Orange, energy efficiency is understood in two ways: its cost efficiency and its environmental impact, which is measured in terms of CO2 output,” explains Suquet. “My role sits in the middle of those two metrics, between the finance team and the corporate social responsibility team. We have a joint objective to be more efficient in our energy usage across the whole Orange group.” Delivering both increased energy efficiencies and dramatic CO2 reductions is a challenging prospect, not least thanks to the sheer scale of Orange’s operations. Orange is the world’s eighth-largest telecom brand, with subsidiaries operating across 26 countries, and more than 142,000 employees. 270

January 2022

Example of an image caption sustainabilitymag.com

271

ORANGE

Energy efficient solutions to hit Net Zero by 2040

Across the entire group, Orange served 259 million customers last year, invested $5.4bn into its networks, and has already launched 5G services in Romania, Poland, Spain, France, Luxembourg, and Slovakia. Tackling the company’s ambitious Environmental, Social and Governance goals across the entire organisation is no mean feat. However, Suquet maintains that “it’s quite simple in principle,” although he admits it’s “sometimes challenging in terms of day-today implementation.” He continues: “Orange has made the commitment to acting as a trusted partner, to give everyone the key to a responsible digital world. As such, we are very much concerned with our responsibility to the world, especially our responsibility to reduce CO2 emissions, as well as our overall environmental impact.” To meet these goals, Orange’s approach to energy is a critical piece of the puzzle, as laid out in the group’s Engage 2025 strategic plan. 272

January 2022

“ The Engage 2025 roadmap will allow us to play our part in saving the climate” HERVÉ SUQUET

VP, ENERGY GROUP ORANGE

Orange has committed to reducing its CO2 emissions by 30% compared to 2015, and to use 50% renewable energy across its entire organisation by 2025. The group’s current renewable energy mix sits at around 31%. Suquet explains that achieving these milestones is “a key step towards our long term goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions across the whole Orange group by 2040, 10 years ahead of the objectives set by the rest of the telecom sector.”

ORANGE

HERVE SUQUET TITLE: VP, ENERGY GROUP

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: Hervé Suquet has taken the challenge to drive Orange Group Energy strategy since end of 2020, under a dual goal to master cost evolution while reaching Orange target to be net zero carbon by 2040. Previously, he was CTIO of Orange Middle East & Africa, where he drove a strategy enabling Orange MEA to sustain a 6% revenue growth while keeping the

Capex stable, and a stable Opex/Revenue ratio, and design and implement major transformation program as IDEAL (Include Digital in Every African’s Life) and TREE (Toward Responsible Energy Efficiency). Previously he has lengthy experience in Telecom and Information System international assignment, including leading Orange Network & IT Transformation program, and COO of Mobinil (Egypt). Hervé Suquet is a graduated Engineer from ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE (Paris – 1988), and has a Msc in Telecoms, TELECOM PARISTECH (Paris – 1990).

sustainabilitymag.com

273

REDEFINING POWER SOLUTIONS

REINVENTING TELECOM INFRASTRUCTURE

iptpowertech.com

LEADING T-ESCO GLOBALLY

IPT Powertech: Accelerating Sustainability for the Telecom Industry IPT Powertech Group is a leading fullfledged energy systems integrator, and complete energy-efficient solutions provider; offering the largest portfolio of customized telecom hybrid solutions worldwide with advanced inhouse developments and manufacturing capabilities. The group stands out as a unique telecom infrastructure solutions provider that combines telecom services expertise with managed services proficiencies and leads the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia with more than 4,000 experts on board.

expertise in conceptualizing, designing, manufacturing, integrating innovative site solutions, and operating networks on a full OPEX model. By implementing a complete energy and site infrastructure solution and service, IPT was able to capitalize on solar energy and maximize utilization of the grid, which lead to reducing the overall diesel consumption of the sites by 84%. The ESCO program made the current green energy ratio of the sites be 46% (Renewable Energy vs. Total Energy). As the right partners for aligning technological progress with exemplary environmental conduct, IPT Powertech supports Orange’s vision by bringing in its expertise in sustainable innovation for the telecom sector.

Power experts with the largest portfolio of telecom hybrid solutions

IPT Powertech Group developed to become the largest T-ESCO globally through the unique model of coupling innovation in energy savings solutions along with telecom infrastructure services expertise.

A proven track record in radiosites managed services Largest ESCO with more than 10,300 sites

As the leading ESCO provider, IPT Powertech is proud to be a strategic partner for Orange in working towards ensuring a sustainable Telecom sector. The partnership is longstanding and successful with significant results in terms of efficiency and savings.

Learn more

In alignment with Orange’s Engage 2025 strategic plan, IPT Powertech provided its ESCO

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

instagram

YOUTUBE

ORANGE

Orange’s sustainability commitment is endorsed by the SBTi – the Science Based Targets initiative – which Suquet stresses “is very important to us. This roadmap will allow us to play our part in saving the climate.” Driving sustainable development goals in rural communities In order to drive real, meaningful change across both its own organisation and the markets in which it operates, Orange is engaging wholeheartedly with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) laid out by the United Nations. In order to support a better, cleaner, more inclusive world, the UN has identified 17 SDG objectives, which range from reducing emissions to promoting diversity and inclusion. “We've identified 6 areas that resonate deeply with our purpose and strategy as an organisation,” says Suquet. “These are key areas where we can make the most positive contribution and there are definitive actions we're taking to support the individual goals of inclusion, connectivity, and climate.” In order to reduce inequalities in terms of access to knowledge and resources, Orange is working tirelessly to share its digital knowledge and experience with digital tools across developing markets. “We are supporting education, especially for women. We are working hard to provide connectivity to the un-connected by working to broaden the geographical coverage of our network, deploying low cost access connectivity, both in terms of direct connectivity cost and also in terms of affordable 4G onset connectivity,” says Suquet. Efficiency and technology fighting the climate crisis Orange’s commitment to combating the climate crisis takes several forms, all of which 276

January 2022

conspire to drive the company towards achieving its 2040 Net Zero target. “One is energy efficiency, in terms of reaching net zero carbon emissions, not only across Scope 1 and Scope 2, but also across our Scope 3 emissions. We're promoting the recycling and reuse of materials in order to promote a greener environment,” Suquet explains. One way in which Orange is driving energy efficiency is through the use of cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics. The group is deploying an AI-powered analytics and monitoring tool called Energy Big Data across its networks. This tool, Suquet explains, “allows

ORANGE

us to understand how energy is being used throughout our networks, and to crossreference if the energy usage is normal, abnormal, or to be improved, so we can take action.” 5G networks – which Orange is continuing to roll out at speed – are another piece of the puzzle. When commercial 5G deployments started to hit the market in 2019, concerns were raised over how higher data capacities, more cell sites, and larger antennas would affect energy consumption. “5G is very important for us – as it is for the whole telecom sector. Since the beginning of our 5G journey, however, Orange has taken

specific steps towards increasing the energy efficiency of our 5G network,” Suquet explains. “Thanks to the commitment and passion of our team for energy efficiency from day one, it is now standard practice that all Orange 5G equipment has energy saving features built in from day one. Thanks to these measures, transmitting one gigabyte of data on 5G is much, much more efficient than what can be achieved today on a 4G or 3G network.” He adds that “Another commitment we're making as part of Engage 2025 is to have 100% Orange branded products – in particular routers – to have an eco-design approach.” sustainabilitymag.com

277

ORANGE

Orange and the SDG Orange is engaging heavily with six of the UN’s 17 SDG goals, targeting the areas where the group can make the most impact in a way that aligns with its expertise and ethos. SDG 9: Industry innovation and infrastructure SDG 10: Reduced inequalities SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production SDG 13: Climate action SDG 16: Peace, justice, and strong institutions SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals

278

January 2022

“Orange has made the commitment to acting as a trusted partner, to give everyone the key to a responsible digital world” HERVÉ SUQUET

VP, ENERGY GROUP ORANGE

sustainabilitymag.com

279

ORANGE

Combating climate change together For an organisation with the scale of Orange, the battle against climate change can’t happen alone or in a vacuum. “As a responsible actor within the telecommunications sector and beyond, we are committed to reducing our Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions. As of today, most of the focus has been on Scope 1 and Scope 2, but the next step is to really focus on Scope 3, because carbon generation largely occurs in this area,” says Suquet, adding that “We expect our whole ecosystem to work together with us to achieve our SBTi targets.” Working closely with its entire partner ecosystem will, Suquet continues, be key to Orange’s goals of cutting Scope 3 emissions. Driving down CO2 emissions across its entire 280

January 2022

supply chain is so essential, explains Suquet, that it’s fundamentally changing the ways in which Orange approaches its partner relationships. “In the past, we would sign contracts with our partners based only on cost and technical results. More and more, we are also engaging with partners based on metrics like energy efficiency,” he says. “As of today, in any major outsourcing decision, we consider energy and environmental impact, and we expect it to become even more of a key driver in our decision-making process going forward.” A better future “Energy cost increases and energy usage increases are neither innovative nor sustainable,” reflects Suquet. “If we don't take the necessary steps, energy usage

ORANGE

across our network is going to be directly proportional to network traffic – and we know which way the amount of traffic is trending. We have to take action.” With this challenge in mind, Orange is leveraging both its external ecosystem of partners, and its vast reserves of internal expertise in order to hit the group’s ambitious climate goals. “This must be done, and the good news is that it can be done thanks to company transversal action – combining the efforts and expertise of finance, network, corporate social responsibility teams and more,” Suquet explains. By leveraging the full range of available skills and labour from across the Orange group, he is confident that Orange can achieve the stabilisation of its energy usage, even as trends like the growth

of 5G and network traffic continue. “Once this has been achieved, we will also be able to reduce the amount of CO2 generated by our operations thanks to the right portfolio of energy sources,” he adds. “In the future, we will continue to reinforce our capacity to master energy efficiency and usage. One key challenge we face is ensuring that each business unit across all the countries where we operate our networks has the ability to correctly forecast their energy needs, so as to drive the group's action plan towards becoming more efficient, towards sourcing energy more efficiently, towards reducing cost, and shrinking our CO2 impact.”

sustainabilitymag.com

281

282

January 2022

SSE

DATA-DRIVEN, FRICTIONLESS, INSIGHTS AND CREATING VALUE

WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON

PRODUCED BY: TOM LIVERMORE

sustainabilitymag.com

283

284

January 2022

SSE

SSE’s Ronnie Fleming and Chris Platts discuss SSE’s digital transformation agenda and its commitment to a net zero transition and sustainability that makes a difference

ogether, Ronnie Fleming, Chief Procurement Officer and Chris Platts, Head of Procurement Operations, have worked for SSE for more than 15 years. The two have deep roots in the procurement sector working for the likes of Wimpey Construction, Leighton Contractors (Malaysia / Middle East ) Mace Group, United Utilities, Accenture and DHL Supply Chain. “I am a Chartered Quantity Surveyor by profession,” says Fleming. “I have been in the construction and utility industry for over 40 years, the last 12 have been with SSE. As well as overseeing the procurement for all third party spend across the SSE Group (around £3bn per annum), I’m also responsible for a team delivering post contract commercial support across our large capital projects portfolio. In addition, I look after Property & FM, Logistics, Fleet, and Travel with a team of c460 highly talented people.” Chris Platts, on the other hand, heads up the procurement operations team at SSE, “I have the pleasure of looking after about 80 people across UK and Ireland which includes our sourcing teams, purchase to pay, data analytics, system support, sustainability, SRM, and innovation. I also lead our large change programmes for the Procurement & Commercial , such as digital transformation and some broader group change programmes.” Being a leading generator of renewable energy in the UK and Ireland, as well as one sustainabilitymag.com

285

SSE

Data-driven, frictionless, insights and creating value

of the largest electricity networks in the UK, SSE develops, owns and operates low carbon infrastructure for the net-zero transition, including onshore and offshore wind, hydropower, electricity transmission and distribution to grid, efficient gas generation, alongside providing energy products and services for businesses. Data-driven, frictionless, insights and creating value The mission: ‘A data-driven strategic partner, providing a frictionless procurement and commercial experience with insightful market and supplier information that delivers significant value for each SSE business.’ Making a significant, multi-million-pound investment in new processes, tools, and skills over the next few years, SSE aims to achieve its mission creating a world-class procurement function, by focusing on four core themes: 1) optimising the core 286

January 2022

2) data, analytics and insight 3) customer experience and 4) automation. “This programme is one of many across the group. Our CEO wants to create an upper quartile digital business by 2023, which was set last year,” said Platts. “We’re one year into our three-year programme and we’ve had two big deliveries focused on optimising the core. We have implemented a new source to contract system and a new system to control contingent workers and professional services engagements in SSE. “We’ve also completed a data strategy that sets the foundations for the digital change; we’re also in the middle of some proof of concepts and trials to introduce machine learning and analytics on commodity pricing impacts, and in the early stages of a mobile app for catalogue procurement.” Despite this, being successful with a strategy of this magnitude doesn’t come without its challenges. “Big deliveries are

SSE

EXECUTIVE BIO CHRIS PLATTS TITLE: HEAD OF PROCUREMENT OPERATIONS LOCATION: MANCHESTER, UK Chris graduated from Lancaster University in 2003 and began life in procurement at United Utilities in 2004. In 2007 he joined DHL Supply Chain and spent several years in a number of project management, business development, and product development roles. In 2013 he joined Accenture and spent his time working on various procurement and supply chain projects including SSE as a client, which led him joining SSE as Head of Transformation in 2015. Chris is now Head of Procurement Operations and oversees all group procurement and major change programmes on behalf of Procurement & Commercial and leads on some broader programmes across the group. Chris is married with 3 children. He enjoys cooking, football and cycling.

sustainabilitymag.com

287

Balfour Beatty builds new, sustainable futures Through the targets and ambitions set out in its sustainability strategy, Building New Futures, combined with its commitment to constant innovation, Balfour Beatty is committed to reducing its environmental footprint and having a positive impact wherever it works.

Leading the charge towards a Net Zero Future, together At Balfour Beatty, sustainability has always been at the heart of what we do. We’ve already reduced our direct carbon emissions by 55% over the last decade and last year, we further bolstered our commitment to driving a Net Zero Future, launching our refreshed sustainability strategy, Building New Futures. We’re focused on three core areas which are the most important to our business – the environment, materials and communities, and have set bold 2030 targets and 2040 ambitions to help us go Beyond Net Zero Carbon, Generate Zero Waste and Positively Impact More Than 1 Million People. Across all of our operations, we’re already taking action. We have successfully diverted 98.15% of our waste from landfill in the UK and Hong Kong, we’ve joined the United Nations Race To Zero campaign and are also in the process of setting science based targets to reduce our carbon emissions. We have upped the ante in driving innovative solutions – those that can make the biggest, positive impact on our day-to-day operations. Last year, we launched EcoNet, developed in partnership with our valued supply chain partner, Sunbelt Rentals. EcoNet runs silently, in the background of our construction site accommodation to effectively manage the energy demand of appliances, reducing emissions across sites by up to 80%. At St Fergus in North East Scotland, we are working with SSEN Transmission on the construction of a new 132kV substation. On this project, EcoNet has allowed us to significantly reduce the volume and frequency of fuel deliveries needed for temporary power supply generators during the construction phase.

A similar site without our EcoNet system installed requires delivery volumes of 1,000 litres of diesel per week, on average. By utilising EcoNet, we’ve reduced our consumption to approximately half this amount - saving 130 tCO2e over the St Fergus project lifecycle. We’re stepping up. We will play our part, moving our business forward, sustainably, and in doing so we will help build a better future for everyone.

Learn more

SSE

EXECUTIVE BIO RONNIE FLEMING TITLE: CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER LOCATION: SCOTLAND Ronnie qualified as a Chartered Quantity Surveyor in 1991 and comes from a background in construction, where prior to joining SSE, he spent 28 years in various main contracting and construction management organisations working on a wide range of civil engineering and construction projects in both the UK and SE Asia / Middle East. He was previously Director of Procurement & Commercial Operations for SSE Group and in April 2018 assumed the role of Group Director of Procurement & Logistics responsible

290

January 2022

for all procurement and post contract commercial management services across SSE Group. In addition to his Procurement and Commercial responsibilities he also manages our Group Logistics function which entails the control of stock, inventory and distribution of goods from two main distribution centres as well as a network of nationwide depots. In April 2019, Group Property and FM, along with Fleet and Travel were added to his area of responsibility as Chief Procurement Officer. Ronnie lives in Biggar on the edge of the Scottish Borders (SW of Edinburgh) and is married with three grown up children, 2 cats. In his spare time, he is a keen golfer and has recently taken up cycling.

SSE

obviously complex,” says Platts. “Having a large number of users in procurement and the wider business means that business change and adoption needs to be carefully through, but we have managed to deliver them on time and under budget. More broadly we recognise that digital isn’t just about the shiny new technology, it’s a cultural change in the function and the wider organisation to consider new ways of working to become more agile in what we do. “Another challenge has been on the recruitment side. We are looking for resources in some key roles at the moment, but so are a lot of other procurement functions. Labour markets are becoming buoyant post-COVID so we have to consider how we attract and importantly retain talent in the team,” adds Platts. SSE and its relationship with sustainability When it comes to sustainability at SSE, the utility company is deep-rooted in making a difference. “Our purpose is to provide the energy needed today, while building a better world of energy for tomorrow.. Our vision

“ This programme is one of many across the group. Our CEO wants to create a quartile digital business by 2023, which was set last year” CHRIS PLATTS

HEAD OF PROCUREMENT OPERATIONS, SSE

is to be a leading energy company in a net-zero world. Our strategy is to create value for shareholders and society in a sustainable way by developing, building, operating and investing in the electricity infrastructure and businesses needed in the transition to net-zero. And our Goals by 2030 are to cut carbon intensity by 60%, treble our renewable energy output to 30TWH/annum, help accommodate 10 million electric vehicles onto the electricity network, and be the leading company in the UK and Ireland championing fair tax and a real living wage,” says Fleming. sustainabilitymag.com

291

SSE

Focusing on the company’s sustainable procurement strategy, Platts emphasises how proud SSE is of what it has achieved over the last 18 months. “SSE has aligned to the ISO 20400 Sustainable Procurement Guidance Standard as well as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,”says Platts. “We have a new Sustainable Procurement Code, which sets out the requirements and expectations for our supply chain – from paying a real living wage to setting sciencebased carbon targets. “We have also carried out detailed risk and opportunity assessments across our 292

January 2022

“ Our purpose is to provide the energy needed today, while building a better world of energy for tomorrow” RONNIE FLEMING

CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER, SSE

SSE

SSE and It's Partners “We’re fortunate enough at SSE to have a rich, diverse and highly capable supply chain, which extends to some 10,000 suppliers across the group. We have a significant number of deep and mutually beneficial relationships with our top suppliers including GE , Balfour Beatty, Siemens, Hitachi Energy & Vestas. All of these key suppliers participate in a tailor-made supplier relationship management forum that focuses on safety, delivery, excellence, innovation, and B2B opportunities in the spirit of openness, trust, and collaboration. “Healthy, sustainable, and highly capable supply chain partners are essential to the delivery of our ambition. The relationships we have and will continue to develop are founded on the principles of integrity, honesty, and mutual trust. We recognise that without our supply chain would not be able to deliver our strategy and targets, and that is why we devote so much time and energy into developing and managing these critical B2B relationships” – Ronnie Fleming, Chief Procurement Officer

entire purchasing categories, allowing us to directly link our sustainable tender criteria and performance metrics to material risks and opportunities, as well as apply proportionally for our suppliers. We also publish a compliant Modern Slavery Statement each year, dating back to 2016.” Reflecting on SSE’s digital transformation strategy, Platts explains that the challenges from a digital/sustainability perspective have included, "How we can digitally enable our sustainable procurement strategy? How can we assess and track supply chain risk? How do we provide supply chain insight that will

add value to the ESG story? This is why we are currently piloting things like supply chain reporting tools.” “It’s an extremely exciting time to be a part of SSE. We’re a principal sponsor to COP26 and our purpose is to help to address the climate emergency. Having a sustainable supply chain, which is managed by a digitally enabled, world-class Procurement & Commercial function will be key to delivering our net zero ambition,” concludes Platts.

sustainabilitymag.com

293

294

January 2022

FERREXPO

WRITTEN BY: DOMINIC ELLIS PRODUCED BY: ASHLEY KIRBY

FERREXPO FIRES UP DECARBONISATION AND AUTONOMY

sustainabilitymag.com

295

FERREXPO

Interim CEO Jim North is firmly focused on decarbonisation, renewables expansion and autonomous fleet development

errexpo Interim CEO Jim North’s “big three” are probably not that dissimilar from many of his counterparts: growth, decarbonisation and technology. But the fact that we spend the best part of an hour discussing them underlines their vital importance to the iron ore pellet company’s overall strategy. North has been with Ferrexpo for seven years and Interim CEO for the last 18 months. He speaks clearly and in an assured manner, which again is indicative of his focus. When he was Group COO between 2014 and 2020, operational efficiency and discipline were priorities, but now as CEO, the task is how best to execute the growth strategy for the Swiss-based commodity trading and mining company, listed on the London Stock Exchange, whose operations are in Ukraine; North is actually speaking to me from central Dubai, which seems strangely appropriate too for such an international entity (the Gulf city serves Kiev with two flights a day). So to growth first. In its half-year results, revenues rose 74% to US$1,353 million, profit after tax came in at $661 million, and pellet production totalled 5.6 million tonnes; the pandemic-defying figures were attributed to a ‘multi-year investment programme in our assets’. North remains humble though. “You never conclude business improvement – there are

296

January 2022

sustainabilitymag.com

297

FERREXPO

Ferrexpo

“ Transitioning from a manned operation to autonomous is not just a case of buying the technology, bolting it onto the truck and letting them go. It’s about learning to live with autonomy” JIM NORTH CEO, FERREXPO

298

January 2022

different rates of implementation,” he reflects. Operations and sustainability are now clearly two sides of the same coin. Ferrexpo is aiming for 30% reduction in combined Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 and to be carbon neutral by 2050. After achieving 16% and 6% reductions in 2020 and the first half of 2021 respectively, North is confident it will get there “well before” the scheduled date. “We’re well down the path to achieving 30%,” he said. “We have no intention of using carbon offsets – we want to do real carbon reduction. We like to be conservative and over deliver. As we progress, you need to put more work in to get smaller gains.” There are substantial amounts of renewables in the Ukrainian grid already

FERREXPO

JIM NORTH TITLE: CEO INDUSTRY: MINING LOCATION: DUBAI Jim joined Ferrexpo in November 2014 and since then he has successfully managed the Company's operations and introduced world class operating practices. Previously, Jim was Chief Operating Officer of London Mining plc, where he was accountable for setting the company's operational and investment strategy around the world. Prior to this, he held a variety of senior operational management roles in multiple commodities with Rio Tinto and BHP.

EXECUTIVE BIO

but that will only take the company part of the way in addressing Scope 2, so it is targeting more solar and wind. It has trialled a 5MW solar plant, and so far North is happy with the performance. “We want to run it for a period of time to test the seasonal variations before we do more internal investment in renewables.” It is also trialling a small hydrogen test plant, and initially use it to replace natural gas in one of four pelletiser lines. Construction and commissioning will start by the end of next year. Green hydrogen, for Ferrexpo, has two uses: as a gas replacement in the pelletisation process, and ultimately to provide an alternative power source for mining auxiliary fleet. “In terms of the overall renewables strategy, there has to be a blend. It isn’t cost effective to use hydrogen for power generation. “We don’t want to take on significant tranches of debt. The commodity price will determine the rate of implementation.” Electrification and energy efficiency are increasingly key subjects, especially as its fleet of 86 trucks is forecast to grow to 134 units. It has set a deadline for the first diesel engine replacement by 2025-2027, though no manufacturer has been selected yet, and he said the “expectation” is that its primary mining fleet will decarbonise by 2032. Meeting its own emission targets is just one element in the sustainable equation, and there are many uncertainties in the wider steel industry. “We recognise that steel industry will significantly need to reduce carbon inputs to meet their obligations. We’re seeing car manufacturers under pressure to have carbon-free steel by 2030, which will be tough – 2040 to 2045 may be more feasible.” He said the bigger question is

FERREXPO

“ As we expand our business, we need to add lab and analysis capacity, and robotics is well advanced in these areas” JIM NORTH CEO, FERREXPO

302

January 2022

FERREXPO

Autonomous trucks

how are steelmakers going to fund the transition from traditional blast furnace technology to processes with reduced carbon inputs? “China has invested a lot in traditional steelmaking processes over the last 20 years – for them to scrap all that, and implement direct reduction processes, would be a significant cost. I don’t understand how European steelmakers are going to fund decarbonisation – that’s going to be multiple billions of dollars. Ultimately the cost of this transition will be passed onto the end consumer and steel will be more expensive, but it’s clear it’s needed.” Autonomous focus drives digital growth Autonomy is an increasingly core focus within fleet development, and currently six trucks (CAT-793, 220 tons) are self-driving. sustainabilitymag.com

303

FERREXPO

304

January 2022

FERREXPO

“We broke the project need to add lab and RISING TO EMISSIONS into two phases, the first analysis capacity, and CHALLENGES is six trucks, the second robotics is well advanced is nine. We’re holding off in these areas.” Currently, global steel the deployment of the With pellets firing production accounts for 7% further nine until we’ve at 1,400 degrees, AI is operated the six for of global carbon emissions, also being courted to representing more than all of a significant period,” measure variability in the emissions from the world’s he said. off-gases to manage cars put together “Transitioning from a process variation. manned operation to • Ferrexpo’s iron ore pellets “That will be a reduce carbon emissions by 40% autonomous is not significant advantage for every tonne of sinter fines just a case of buying for us in future. AI can replaced with pellets the technology, manage more variables • Ferrexpo has invested over bolting it onto than a traditional control the truck and US$2.9 billion in its operations in room operator.” Ukraine since its IPO in 2007 letting them He doesn’t envisage • It invested $17 million go. It’s about that jobs will go in the in environmental projects learning to live new digital age, more in 2020 with autonomy. that skills will evolve. The computer “We employ 12 doesn’t have any surveyors who are judgement – it will only do what ‘autonomous road builders’ mapping you tell it to do.” the routes – that’s a role that didn’t exist Productivity is very important, before autonomy. We also have more and using robotics is going to play network engineers in our business now to an increasingly key role. He said manage the communication networks – it is thinking about implementing and if you’d said to me 10 years ago we’d robotics in its future mining labs. have a team of drone pilots today, “As we expand our business, we I wouldn’t have believed you.”

“ I changed the leadership development programme, which was largely focused on hard skills, and now there’s a greater focus on cultural change” JIM NORTH CEO, FERREXPO

sustainabilitymag.com

305

306

January 2022

NAUTILUS DATA TECHNOLOGIES

WRITTEN BY: LAURA BERRILL PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

NATURALLY COLD WATER COOLING FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE SUSTAINABLE DATA CENTRES sustainabilitymag.com

307

NAUTILUS DATA TECHNOLOGIES

Using naturally cold water for cooling global data centres is sustainable, environmentally friendly, and it enables high-performance compute for a greater future use of technology

autilus Data Technologies prides itself on its technology that is able to cool data centres with naturally cold water, instead of using water which has been mechanically chilled. Owing to the abundance of naturally cold water in locations across the world, data centres can also be placed in a wide variety of locations globally. Company CEO, James Connaughton explains: “Our preferred sites for data centres are brownfields because they’re perfect for large industrial watercooling systems. They also help create new jobs, as well as digital infrastructure for those communities which are left behind in terms of digital transformation. And at the same time this means we can be closely located in the environments the sector needs to serve.” The current issue is that infrastructure needs to support hotter, faster servers and use naturally cold water to cool data centres in a more sustainable way of doing so. Connaughton added that in order to roll this out, Nautilus works with regional and global partners on the capability to deliver these systems and empower them to work with the company to deliver these systems. “Our goal is not to keep the technology just close to us, but help build facilities that are successful and find a way to get the entire sector to transform into a much more sustainable method of operations and engagement with the local community,” he stresses.

308

January 2022

Company CEO, James Connaughton

Example of an image caption sustainabilitymag.com

309

Focus on sustainability and renewables Connaughton adds that by combining their water-cooling technology with renewable energy sources, that means zero emissions in the sector with an extra 70-80% of cooling efficiency – further driving the value of renewables. He explains: “Unlike most conventionally chilled data centres, we consume no water, whereas mechanically-chilled systems consume a lot. Conventional systems use drinking water, which uses energy to deliver the drinking water to the data centre. Then the data centre retreats the water. In mechanical chilling, water also evaporates, and a big chunk also ends up in the wastewater system. But if you chill data centres with naturally cold water, you don’t have to do any of that.” 310

January 2022

“ Unlike most conventionally chilled data centres, we consume no water, whereas mechanicallychilled systems consume a lot. Conventional systems use drinking water, which uses energy to deliver the drinking water to the data centre” JAMES CONNAUGHTON

CEO, NAUTILUS DATA TECHNOLOGIES

NAUTILUS DATA TECHNOLOGIES

25+

Number of Staff

Connaughton adds the Nautilus approach also means the removal of refrigerants from the cooling process, which are ozonedepleting substances and states such chemicals are not needed any more. Another advantage to the Nautilus system, he says, is the removal of noise owing to not having big chilling systems running. “All of this is a huge leap forward in terms of environmental benefit,” he states. Most notable aspects of Nautilus technology One of the reasons the company is unique in its outlook is the fact that it delivered its first data centre project on a barge. And this was because, the company wanted to demonstrate that it not only could cool with water, but that it could also prefabricate an entire data centre and deliver it to anywhere in the world – and they could locate to the water beside the shore, or on land near a water source. “The computers don’t exactly care, do they?” jokes Connaughton. “So we can find these optimal solutions for rapid deployment into both developed countries, but also to bring digital infrastructure into emerging markets where access to digital transformation is lacking and that is very important to us,” he adds. Scaling up the benefits Its data centres are prefabricated, as mentioned, and tested and the components

DATA CENTRE WATER CONSUMPTION

DID YOU KNOW...

2013

Year Founded

commissioned, then delivered either on floating platforms or on land. When it comes to land-based centres, Connaughton says all they need is the concrete pad. He added that meant greater density, being able to handle two to 20 times the computational power for the same footprint. “We are able to plug in quite sizable computing capacity into very small geographies, which in turn enables us to fit into the edge, as edge computing continues to grow. And the edge is core to what we do. It means we can continue to grow these big regional and global hubs that are more remote and repurpose infrastructure in locations where there are massive exchanges and everything in between,” explained Connaughton. He added that the technology’s scalability comes with the ability to have a global supply chain, which is what Nautilus has. “We have been able to identify capable and competitive

Data centres consume water directly for cooling, in some cases 57% sourced from potable water, and indirectly through the water requirements of non-renewable electricity generation. Although in the USA, data centre water consumption (1.7 billion litres/ day) is small compared to total water consumption (1218 billion litres/day), there are issues of transparency with less than a third of data centre operators measuring water consumption. nature.com

sustainabilitymag.com

311

312

January 2022

NAUTILUS DATA TECHNOLOGIES

“ It was very clear Nautilus’ holds the potential to drive an exponential leap forwards in global sustainability. It also became clear that existing data centre operations aren’t sustainable” JAMES CONNAUGHTON

CEO, NAUTILUS DATA TECHNOLOGIES

supporters that can help us deliver the technology in any place on earth. For example, we can pick up the phone to a developer in Indonesia who wants to do a project and be ready to deliver the entire package in partnership with them,” he says. The challenges and differences in land versus water-based projects Connaughton explains that currently, most mission-critical infrastructure sits at the water’s edge. He offers examples of water treatment facilities, power plants, chemical facilities and major manufacturing facilities. However, he says, this was a new thing when it comes to data centres. “We are the simplest plugin to those locations and can tie into, for example, any existing desalination infrastructures, drinking water treatment or wastewater treatment sustainabilitymag.com

313

and repurpose their water. Our data centres are still 100% the same as other data centres, the same electrical systems, same rack, same networking capabilities, and same security, so people can be comfortable that they are getting the full data centre, but with a much better cooling system,” explain Connaughton. The promise and deliverance of sustainability In order to deliver on sustainability goals, Nautilus suggests more of the sector looks at moving to using water cooling technologies. This is because there have been issues with water supply all over the world, whereby drinking water is being taken by data centres which is needed for people. But now that is not necessary. Connaughton thinks this transition is starting, but believes it will take two to five years to get everyone on board. “Covid cost us a year in time to do this but we already have big global hubs and we’re seeing increasingly

“Our data centres are still 100% the same as other data centres, the same electrical systems, same rack, same networking capabilities, same security, so people can be comfortable that they are getting the full data centre, but with a much better cooling system” JAMES CONNAUGHTON

CEO, NAUTILUS DATA TECHNOLOGIES

314

January 2022

NAUTILUS DATA TECHNOLOGIES

JAMES CONNAUGHTON TITLE: CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER INDUSTRY: D ATA CENTRES AND COOLING TECHNOLOGY LOCATION: FLORIDA, UNITED STATES

EXECUTIVE BIO

James Connaughton is a globally distinguished energy, environment and, technology expert, as both corporate leader and White House policymaker. Mr. Connaughton is the CEO of Nautilus Data Technologies, a high-performance, ultra-efficient, and sustainable data centre infrastructure company powered by its proprietary water-cooling system. Before joining Nautilus Data Technologies, he served as Executive Vice President of C3.ai, a leading enterprise AI software provider for accelerating digital transformation. From 2009-2013, Mr. Connaughton was Executive Vice President and a member of the Management Committee of Exelon and Constellation Energy, two of America’s cleanest, competitive suppliers of electricity, natural gas, and energy services. In 2001, Mr. Connaughton was unanimously confirmed by the US Senate to serve as Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. He served as President George W. Bush’s senior advisor on energy, environment, and natural resources, and as Director of the White House Office of Environmental Policy. During his eight-year service, Mr. Connaughton worked closely with the President, the Cabinet, and the Congress to develop and implement

energy, environment, natural resource, and climate change policies. An avid ocean conservationist, Mr. Connaughton helped establish four of the largest and most ecologically diverse marine resource conservation areas in the world. Mr. Connaughton is a member of the Advisory Board of the ClearPath Foundation and serves as an Advisor to X (Google’s Moonshot Factory) and Shine Technologies, a medical and commercial isotope company. He is also a member of the Board of Directors at the Resources for the Future and a member of the Advisory Boards at Yale’s Center on Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia’s Global Center on Energy Policy.

distributed power, smart cities, smart grids and smart transportation already. So this kind of digital transformation and adoption of new technologies such as water cooling will happen very quickly once it’s taken up by everyone. I think that could be within the next ten years,” he said. Connaughton said the tipping point for the technology’s adoption will come from the customer and compared the uptake to the surge of electric vehicle usage, as well as the rapid leap from standard call and text mobile phones to the full-on smartphones we all use today. “Going from the regular phone to the cell phone was a case in point. Cell phones 316

January 2022

started to creep in in the 1980s and into the 1990s and then after a few years, boom, smartphones were everywhere almost overnight and everyone had got rid of their perfectly functioning, what were, cell phones,” he recalls. Partners and collaborations Nautilus lists its main partners as Schneider, Bechtel, USystems, and Vertiv and says it is establishing more global vendor relationships, plus partners for new data centres, skilling them up and training them in how to operate the systems. Connaughton says: “We like to work with creative and innovative partners

NAUTILUS DATA TECHNOLOGIES

“ I am feeling confident because collectively the leadership team has in the region of 200 years’ experience so they know what they’re doing” JAMES CONNAUGHTON

CEO, NAUTILUS DATA TECHNOLOGIES

who understand what we’re doing and the leap forward benefits of what we do. We like at the moment to start with local developers and then the bigger players as they implement their own development. We’ll see what happens in the enterprise and hyperscale world and how much our partners want to build their own offerings versus them leasing from others, but we are looking forward to them integrating what we are doing with what they are doing themselves. Currently we are having good, constructive conversations with many partners and collaborators about that.” And Connaughton is keen to emphasise that in terms of Nautilus’ management sustainabilitymag.com

317

NAUTILUS DATA TECHNOLOGIES

“Nautilus focuses on supporting the highest level of performance with the lowest environmental impact and the best social and economic benefit, this is the definition of sustainability” JAMES CONNAUGHTON

CEO, NAUTILUS DATA TECHNOLOGIES

structure and team members, they are all made up of previous major data centre suppliers who collectively have built hundreds of data centres across the world. “They all made the jump over to us and our data centre systems and are some of the most accomplished people in the data centre sector. Hopefully that will tell you something about what we do here and our vision for the future of this technology,” he stated. The immediate future and planning goals Connaughton describes his business as a “very thoughtful start-up” but added that he didn’t want it to “get ahead of itself.” He thinks the main aim right now for the business is to raise and maintain visibility, which has been the case with rolling out their first project and has prompted interest in what Nautilus does. “So right now we are working on fitting out the first facility in Stockton, California and then working on two new locations, one in Maine in the northeast of the US and one in western Ireland, which we think are both good as global hubs for the technology as they are on both sides of the Atlantic.

Then next year we are looking at city centre locations which will have the ability to deliver large-scale infrastructure.” He added that half of the new locations are in fully developed markets and half in leading emerging markets. “We’re being quite thoughtful of what our customer class is and at the same time geographic diversity so we can create some acceleration in the adoption of the technology. Then it’s a case of firming up the engineering packages we can offer, along with the licensing program,” he goes on: “The idea is then partners can come to us and we already have the engineering , manufacturing and vendor processes and we can provide the licensing and procurement schedules. We want to make the whole process really easy for the data centre developers, offering a complete package. “Having the prefabricated modular design enables business to move quickly and provides the highest level of computing, the lowest environmental footprint and the greatest social gain at the same time,” Connaughton concludes.

sustainabilitymag.com

319

SUDLOWS

Growing with the Demand WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

320

January 2022

PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

SUDLOWS

sustainabilitymag.com

321

SUDLOWS

John Rippingale, Director of APAC at Sudlows Consulting

322

January 2022

SUDLOWS

John Rippingale, Managing Director of MEA & APAC at Sudlows Consulting, talks designing, building, and commissioning for the MEA & APAC data centre boom

he Asia Pacific (APAC) data centre industry is undergoing a period of unprecedented growth. Countries like India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines - all of which find themselves with large, growing populations and a lack of digital infrastructure - are racing to digitalise fast. “India's a really interesting market at the moment. There are over 1.3 billion people, and the amount of digitalisation happening there is staggering; the number of people that are getting connected, and the number of people who have yet to be connected, is significant,” says John Rippingale, MEA & APAC Managing Director for the newly re-branded and relaunched Sudlows Consulting. “Earlier this year, the total data centre capacity that was live in India was roughly 400 MW. We currently have over 330 MW at varying stages of development, from concept to detail design and commissioning. Sudlows in isolation is contributing to almost doubling the country's data centre capacity, let alone other consultants who are active in the market - who I’d imagine are dealing with a similar number of projects to us. And that's still not enough to satisfy the demand.” The Sudlows that people are familiar with and know in the UK and Europe is a sustainabilitymag.com

323

SUDLOWS

Sudlows Consulting: the top-tier data centre experts

niche design and build company working primarily in critical infrastructure that, John explains, “predominantly designs and builds data centre facilities that go up to about 10 MW of IT Load.” Just as the data centre industry has radically evolved over the past five years, Sudlows too is growing in the direction of the highest demand. Over the past few years, John explains, that demand has pulled the company inexorably in the direction of MEA and APAC. Rippingale joined the company in late 2014 to take a leading role in setting up Sudlows’ first international office in Dubai. Roughly two years later, growing demand from Sudlows’ clients in the UK prompted the company to expand still further into India, where the number of hyperscale projects was just beginning to explode. Now, in 2021, Sudlows Consulting is looking 324

January 2022

further east. “After the success of our India office, the progression into the rest of APAC was quite a natural one. We were looking to expand further into central APAC, and Singapore was an obvious choice for our next office,” John explains, adding that “A lot of the organisations we work for in India have their head offices in Singapore.” While restrictions on new data centre builds remain in place throughout Singapore, Sudlows Consultings’ new office will, John continues, be a staging ground for further growth throughout Central and Southeast Asia. “We're looking beyond Singapore into some of the surrounding markets where there's absolutely massive growth in demand for digital services and infrastructure - not to mention all the hyperscalers setting up new cloud regions.”

SUDLOWS

John Rippingale

“After the success of our India office, the progression into the rest of APAC was quite a natural one”

TITLE: M ANAGING DIRECTOR OF MEA & APAC John is a proficient, highly respected leader and data centre professional expert. John has amassed a strong and detailed knowledge of the fast paced critical data centre industry. He has accumulated a wide range of leadership, technical and commercial skills gained through various roles within design, sales, management, project delivery and commissioning, this has provided John with a full lifecycle knowledge/appreciation and holistic approach to data centre design and build projects and the critical infrastructure industry as a whole. John has successfully launched three international consulting offices, creating a specialist data centre MEP consultancy business. Through his leadership has turned the brand into both a successful and highly sought-after critical infrastructure specialist in the middle east which has seen progressive growth doubling year on year since its launch both in headcount and revenue.

JOHN RIPPINGALE

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MEA & APAC, SUDLOWS CONSULTING

SUDLOWS

The Contractor’s Consultancy Sudlows Consulting is “an inch wide and a mile deep,” John explains. Outside of the UK, the company is a dedicated, full-stack, fulllifecycle consulting and professional services provider to some of the world’s biggest data centre operators - and the work they attract speaks for itself. “Between Dubai and India, we have over 500 MW of projects, and we're working with pretty much every company in the top right of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for our industry,” says John. One of the key reasons behind Sudlows’ success in the UAE, India, and beyond is the level of intersectional expertise and holistic understanding that it cultivates across its teams. “It's really important that our people have a holistic understanding of how all the elements of the business work. If you've 326

January 2022

got commissioning experience, it's going to make you a better designer because you understand the whole process from start to finish, not just your own little silo,” John explains. “We move people around the business and we end up with people who've been design engineers for five years telling us that they actually really like and now prefer commissioning.” As a result, he continues, designers pick up tricks of the trade from commissioners, people working on projects have a deeper understanding of the intent behind designs - not to mention how to execute them - and the entire team ends up having a flexible, dynamic approach that translates directly into benefits for the client. “We're known as the contractor's consultancy out here because we come from a contracting background, which

SUDLOWS

“ It's really important that our people have a holistic understanding of how all the elements of the business work” JOHN RIPPINGALE

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MEA & APAC, SUDLOWS CONSULTING

means we're better equipped to work with contractors, be flexible, and not just rigidly stick to our initial designs when something poses a problem,” John explains. “It's all about making the project work. And data centre projects have really aggressive timelines, because the client wants the site to go live as soon as possible - because that's when the facility can start generating revenue for them.” By applying this approach to the full endto-end lifecycle of a data centre project, Sudlows has established itself as an extremely versatile organisation in the UAE and India. “We can be with the client throughout the whole lifecycle of a project,” adds John. “Even if we're not the lead consultant on a project, there are still lots of different stages where we can get involved and help support the client by adding value to the project.” sustainabilitymag.com

327

SUDLOWS

“ Even if we're not the lead consultant on a project, there are still lots of different stages where we can get involved and help support the client” JOHN RIPPINGALE

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MEA & APAC, SUDLOWS CONSULTING

India: Building with the boom Nowhere is the tremendous growth that Rippingale describes more apparent than in India, where Sudlows Consulting has been active for several years now. It was in 2017, John recalls, that the Middle East operations he had spent two years working hard to build “really started to take off.” “We got invited to more projects, started to win more bids, and forged some strong alliances with contractors and clients in the market,” he says. “Around that time, our UK office did some work with a global developer whose Indian team really liked what we did. They asked if we could come over and do some peer review work for them on a big project out there.” Rippingale took on the account, met with the company’s CEO and Indian team, and “what started off as a small peer review package turned into Sudlows doing the mechanical design, the testing, and commissioning for that project,” John says. “They said they really loved what we do, loved our experience and focus on the A-to-Z of data centres, and said they wanted to give us more work if we could make the commitment to opening an office in India.” Fast forward to the end of last year, and Sudlows was working on approximately 250 MW worth of projects 328

January 2022

SUDLOWS

as the lead consultancy with that single developer. “We're working on some of the biggest projects in India right now, which I am extremely proud of but equally aware of the gravity of what we are doing and the trust put in us by our clients,” adds John. In the UAE - a place which John describes as “heaven for engineers” where people like him are “encouraged to dream bigger” - Sudlows Consulting’s largest data centre project has a capacity of 16 MW IT Load. In India, he says, “we're working on 50 MW single buildings as well as campus projects with capacities of 250 MW or higher. And we're just one consultancy. There are other successful firms working in the market, there are a lot of new players moving into the market; despite all this, we just can't build sites fast enough to meet demand.” A typical data centre project in India, John explains, is a vertical build of between 6 and 10 floors which progresses from the concept stage to fully operational in between 22 and 26 months. “At the beginning of that two-year period, the demand is already outstripping the supply. Even if everyone decides to build to meet that present demand, by the time those projects are live two years later, the demand has already grown again,” he laughs. “The industry just can’t bring new facilities online fast enough.” The prospect of tackling bigger projects in smaller amounts of time was one that John admits he definitely found exciting. “Land really is at a premium, so everything is being built at least eight floors tall now and we're heading for eleven floors becoming the new standard,” he explains. “It can be quite a mind-boggling thing to fit bigger and bigger, denser and denser data centres into these buildings that are getting taller and taller, all while using as little space as possible for all sustainabilitymag.com

329

SUDLOWS

TACKLING THE SKILLS SHORTAGE Rising above other industry pain points like COVID-19, rising materials and construction costs, and the looming spectre of the climate crisis, John Rippingale sees the industry skills shortage as the biggest challenge facing the data centre industry today. “One of the biggest struggles in the market right now is obviously the skills shortage when it comes to getting people into the MEP space, not just into data centres,” he notes. “Lots of people are going into IT, cybersecurity, fintech - all the more 'glamourous' sectors - but behind all of those industries is a data centre. There's increasing demand, but we need people who understand how to do hands-on engineering.” The exponentially rising demand for capacity in markets like India, he adds, is only exacerbating the issue.

330

January 2022

So how are you solving the skills shortage at Sudlows Consulting? I've always been a big believer in taking on graduates. Even in the early days when I was building up the business in Dubai, employing staff with vast data centre experience was beneficial and required, however, but we also made sure we were hiring people just a few years out of university who didn't necessarily have data centre experience, but maybe they'd worked on a server room or some other MEP work and were eager to make the jump. People can gain experience. What makes the difference is having the right attitude. That’s something you cannot train.

SUDLOWS

“ When more than 884 million people (1 in 10 people) don't have access to clean drinking water, we shouldn't be using millions of gallons per day to slightly benefit our PUE” JOHN RIPPINGALE

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MEA & APAC, SUDLOWS CONSULTING

your auxiliary functions. And then you have all the different demands of the customers. It's really challenging, but it's exciting putting 30 MW of power in a building. You go back 30 years and you'd struggle to find 30 MW of power across the whole of some cities.” Moving East with the Demand When I ask most people about the future of their industries, they’re usually quick to throw around phrases like “the future is bright” or “the opportunities are boundless,” or “greater value for our shareholders.” When I put the question to John, he pauses for a moment, frowning slightly. When he does respond, he seems determined to frame his answer carefully. He’s excited for the future, to be sure, but he’s also very cognizant that every reward has its risks. sustainabilitymag.com

331

SUDLOWS

INNOVATIVE DESIGN Both the UAE and India (not to mention the SEA markets where Sudlows Consulting is headed next) present some interesting design challenges, especially when working on huge projects for hypersustainable, hyper-efficient hyperscalers. “Climate was one of the big challenges coming from the UK where you can do free cooling pretty much all year round. In Dubai - and also now in India - the ambient temperatures can sit for prolonged periods of time in the high thirties, and even up to the fifties as well,” Rippingale explains. “The heat is something you just can't avoid. To make things efficient in your external environment, you need to make them as efficient as possible inside the data centre. On the power side, we make sure to closecouple everything from the UPS to the IT load to prevent losses. On the cooling side, if you're trying to run a data hall under 20 degrees, it doesn't matter what country you're in, it's

332

January 2022

not going to be efficient. Here in the Middle East and India, we're really trying to push our internal temperatures as high as we can without getting into areas that would be unsafe for human beings. We're usually running our whitespace at about 27 degrees, which does give us the opportunity to do some free cooling during the winter and reduce our PUE.” The other area to which Rippingale has clearly given a lot of careful thought is water. “One thing we're very mindful of in the UAE and India is that one's a desert and one has water scarcity where people don't have secure access to clean drinking water. So, we don’t use water to cool our sites; it wouldn't be ethical or responsible,” he says emphatically. “When there's water scarcity, and more than 884 million people don't have access to safe water to drink, we shouldn't be using millions of gallons of it per day to slightly benefit our PUE; there are other ways.”

SUDLOWS

“The future is going to be challenging for everyone in the sector. It's going to be good, but it's definitely going to be a challenge as demand grows, time frames get shorter, sustainability gets more important, and skills are in shorter and shorter supply,” he says, adding that the international business’ rebranding into Sudlows Consulting is an important step towards “reinforcing to our clients that Sudlows Consulting is a fullyfledged, full-stack data centre consultancy,” capable of taking on any of the challenges that lie ahead. “The first challenge now is getting the Singapore office up and running, which has been hampered by travel restrictions,” adds John, “but the biggest challenge is still going to be getting the right people, which COVID19 also isn't making any easier.” However big the hurdles facing the entire industry at this pivotal moment in time, Sudlows Consulting is remarkably well equipped to capitalise on this unique opportunity. “Across the whole region (APAC) there's about 2.3 GW of data centre capacity active right now. That's going to double over the next three to five years. Even if every data centre building is 50 MW, that's still almost

“ It's exciting putting 30 MW of power in a building. You go back 30 years and you'd struggle to find 30 MW of power across the whole of some cities”

another 50 projects,” he says. “The demand is so much bigger than the supply, and that's just based on predictions; over the last few years, growth predictions have consistently turned out to be on the conservative side, so who knows how big things are going to get, and how fast it's going to happen.” When it comes to competing in this world of unprecedented demand, Rippingale is confident that “Our specialist knowledge is going to stand us in good stead at a time when there are a lot of other players trying to get into this industry - largely because, outside of the data centre sector, the markets aren't doing so well.” He reflects: “Just because you're an established general MEP consultancy and have one person in your organisation who knows about data centres, that doesn't really qualify you to be a data centre consultancy or expert. The reason we can deliver top level work is because we've got experienced, top-tier talent. There’s a saying in the Middle East that, if you want good bread, you should be ‘giving your bread dough to the baker,’ which means always go to the expert.”

JOHN RIPPINGALE

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MEA & APAC, SUDLOWS CONSULTING sustainabilitymag.com

333

QUARRY MINING

DEDICATED to Becoming the BEST in the Market

WRITTEN BY: CATHERINE GRAY PRODUCED BY: ASHLEY KIRBY

334

January 2022

QUARRY MINING

sustainabilitymag.com

335

QUARRY MINING

2002

Year Founded

140

Number of Employees

$15mn Revenue USD

336

January 2022

QUARRY MINING

Moritz Kerler, CEO and Christian Drewes, Technical Director and Deputy General Manager discuss the huge impact technology has made on the industry

uarry Mining LLC design, manufacture and install industrial mineral processing plants, bulk handling systems and environmental technologies in any plant configuration. The company aims to provide the best value for money to its clients and is a reliable partner for suppliers. Supporting industries in the MENA region, Quarry Mining has developed different, successful systems for bulk material handling, designed and built mineral processing plants for its market and has introduced dedusting filter systems for various applications. CEO of Quarry Mining, Moritz Kerler, explained how he founded the company 19 years ago in the United Arab Emirates where the company now carries out its operation. Kerler emphasised his drive to support the quarry and mining industries, saying: “We want to become the best in our field, so now we are focusing on the growth of the company.” As with many companies across the globe, Quarry Mining had to adapt to the restrictions brought about by the COVID19 pandemic. The company’s Technical Director, Christian Drewes explained how the company has changed over the past year, he said: “We have moved from being on-site and now, more or less, everything is digital.” However, he did add that these changes don’t come without their downfalls: “Although you can get far more information within a far shorter time, it can feel far more impersonal because you don't have close contacts to your clients or to other people sustainabilitymag.com

337

QUARRY MINING

Quarry Mining have a qualified and highly motivated team of around 150 staff and offer solutions with no restriction to the size of the project.

“ We want to become the best in our field, so now we are focusing on the growth of the company” MORITZ KERLER CEO, QUARRY MINING

338

January 2022

on-site in the projects. It's good in some ways but it's also bad in others. Ultimately, digital technology is helping a lot to make things easier and improves the ability to gain information faster and more efficiently.” To support workers as they adapted to this new way of working, Drewes explained that Quarry Mining utilised a lot of different technologies to facilitate remote working, he said: “To keep people remote where we could, we provided a VPN connection and access to all files from people’s homes. This is when we realised that working remotely was possible and the business still operated effectively.”

QUARRY MINING

MORITZ KERLER TITLE: CEO COMPANY: QUARRY MINING

“Now, we have all of our information stored in the cloud and we also use Office 365 so we can share things via Teams. We have had to learn a lot about how to communicate efficiently to adapt to this new environment,” he continued. Determined not to slow down business operations throughout the pandemic, Quarry Mining learnt they were able to do tasks, such as complete commissioning, online. Drewes said: “Although it is a new way to work and handle things, we have adapted well. Our business operations have changed, but the result of our product has remained high quality.”

EXECUTIVE BIO

Moritz Kerler is a German National and was born in 1949 in a small village in South Germany. After a thorough Commercial Education, he was lucky to gain experience from various mentors, company owners and CEOs. One of them was Dr. Reihle, CEO of Maschinenfabrik Weingarten (Press maker for the automotive industry) for whom he worked as a personal assistant. In 2002 at the age of 53 Kerler moved to the Middle East, to UAE where he established Quarry Mining LLC. He managed to group a great team of brilliant and dedicated experts around him, was choosing business opportunities very careful and been extremely successful. He wishes to offer all his future for his company family “Quarry Mining” and try to make it the best in its field and its territory.

QUARRY MINING

Dedicated to becoming the best in the market

Utilising the latest technology to promote zero-harm Not only has technology been a huge support for Quarry Mining as it adapted to remote working, but it has also helped the company with its zero-harm ambition. Workplace injuries occur in manufacturing industries at a significantly higher rate than in other industries. A zero-harm workplace would mean employees, contractors and visitors would not need to calculate the safety of their own movements as the worksite is designed to guarantee safety. As a key player in the quarry and mining industry, Quarry Mining operates a lot of different machinery which has the potential to cause injury. Drewes explained how technology has helped them begin to create a zero-harm workplace: “As an example we use the newest technology within our welding helmets to automatic darkening the glass the 340

January 2022

QUARRY MINING

“ It is really important to us that the people we work with are also climate-conscious. We only have one planet, and we believe it is everyone’s job to protect it” MORITZ KERLER CEO, QUARRY MINING

moment the spark will occur. This helps us reduce risk as in the past we have had a lot of injuries and hospital visits. We always make sure we protect people in our factories.” The company is also realizing the benefits of automation to the general running of its business operations, but also as a support for its zero-harm and safety initiative. As a driver for greater efficiency, Drewes explained where the company is implementing this technology to improve: “We are using the latest technology such as welding tractors, welding robots and automated machines in the factory to make things more automated. This takes the people away from dangerous situations to reduce the amount of harm on site.” Adding to this, Quarry Mining has decided to digitalise its training process, including safety regulations, so all employees have the opportunity to remind themselves of safety processes if needed. “We provide supporting videos with our training sessions to show people how to do certain things and how to manage different situations as well as safety instructions. We can use these for new employees to make sure they are up to speed,” said Drewes. Promoting sustainability in both production and manufacturing With its ambition to become the best in its field, Kerler explained his plans to develop a climate-conscious company: “Especially after what the pandemic has shown us, we are now dedicated to looking at the sustainability side of our business.” Although the company looks to many of its strategic partners, including FLSmidth, ThyssenKrupp, Kleemann and Stiebel, Kerler stressed the importance that these companies' sustainable targets and goals align with Quarry Mining. sustainabilitymag.com

341

QUARRY MINING

342

January 2022

QUARRY MINING

CHRISTIAN DREWES TITLE: TECHNICAL DIRECTOR AND DEPUTY GENERAL MANAGER COMPANY: QUARRY MINING

EXECUTIVE BIO

He said: “It is really important to us that the people we work with are also climateconscious. We only have one planet, and we believe it is everyone’s job to protect it. We like to deal with other companies that have sustainable goals aligned with our own. This brings more joy when working with them because they have the same philosophy as us.” Echoing this, Drewes empahsised the importance of sustainable operations to the company: “We would rather lose business than work on a project where we know they are using polluting machinery or materials because that is not what we stand for. We want sustainable products which take everything into account throughout the value chain.” As the world fights against climate change, it is particularly important industries in the mining and quarry industries take responsibility for the impact their operations have on the environment. Not only can

Frederic Carl Christian Drewes is a professional Engineer and holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Business Management. He has worked for ‘Quarry Mining LLC’ in Ras Al Khaimah since 2014 as its Technical Manager and since 2021 as Deputy General Manager. He successfully leads several projects worth multi million Euros and works to further develop and grow the company, strengthening its position within the market. He does not only focus on the technical elements of his role, but he also works to ensure the economy of all projects, via efficient financial controlling, contract management and project management.

QUARRY MINING

The company can design, manufacture, and install mineral processing plants, bulk handling systems and environmental technologies in any plant configuration.

344

January 2022

QUARRY MINING

mining pollute air and drinking water and harm wildlife and habitat, but it can also permanently scar natural landscapes. Understanding the importance of incorporating sustainability into its operations, Quarry Mining has realised the potential of digital technology, but this time as a support to its sustainability ambitions. “We are using the latest 3D technologies for all our engineering and designs,” explained Drewes. “The introduction of this technology means we are now using less raw material and using all resources efficiently. We are using automated program to calculate how the raw material can be used in the most efficient way. Now, we have nearly zero cutoffs from the material we use, which also saves us money. The less waste you get from a material, the more efficiently you use it,” he added. Quarry Mining is also looking at ways to tackle sustainability in the production side of the company as well as the manufacturing. To reduce energy consumption the company Quarry Mining has installed energy-saving meters to track its energy consumption and aim to reduce energy use where it can. Drewes added: “The aim is to make different processes more efficient by using less energy.”

“ The introduction of technology means we are now using less raw material and using all resources efficiently” CHRISTIAN DREWES

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, QUARRY MINING

Responding to the changing needs of the quarry and mining industries Undoubtedly the quarry and mining industries have massively changed over the years and as with many industries, technology has played a massive role in driving this change. Having worked in the industry for a long time, Kerler explained that in the last decade he has stepped up his company to meet the industries’ growing demands. sustainabilitymag.com

345

QUARRY MINING

He said: “Things have definitely changed over the last decade in the quarry and mining industry. Operations have become increasingly bigger and as a result, smaller companies closed, and businesses concentrated on larger projects.” “We designed the biggest crushing and screening plant for limestone. This plant is operating at a much lower cost per ton than it ever would have been able to achieve in the past. There are also many new products around that we can use to support our operations. I have seen a big change in the way the industry operates throughout my career,” added Kerler. Expanding on this, Drewes highlighted what catalysed this change, he commented: “Operations are only increasing in size. The 346

January 2022

bigger you can get, with lower operational costs, the better your company will be. It’s only the development of new technologies that have made it possible for operations to grow.” “To have large operations, you need new, larger machines and complex control systems; this is not possible without the development of technology. Things like the introduction of cloud connection, integrated systems and improved electronic offerings mean we can operate differently than ever before. It is technology that has brought us up to this level of efficiency,” Drewes continued. With rapid advancements in technological innovation, including automation, digitisation, and electrification, it comes as no surprise that both Kerler and Drewes are seeing fundamental changes within their industries.

“We want to utilise this technology to become even more efficient” CHRISTIAN DREWES

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, QUARRY MINING

Adapting Quarry Mining to be fit for the future In order to respond to these changes, Quarry Mining is keen to adapt and grow to meet the demands of the market, and as Kerler previously explained, become the best in the market. Drewes outlined Quarry Mining’s path to becoming the best in its field: “To do so, we want to have a product that is of very high quality. We also know the importance of technology to get there. We want to utilise this technology to become even more efficient.” Adding to this, Drewes said: “Everything is becoming digital. If you look at the mining industry, very few mines and quarries have the old setup without some technology. If you don’t continuously

replace and upgrade plants without the state-of-the-art technology, you will miss out on opportunities. “We have a lot of plants where we want to upgrade the technology, so they are fit for purpose. We want to upgrade the electrical systems and make the data from the plants available on the cloud. This will allow the clients to gain more information from the plants and digitalisation will help us make older plants more efficient in the future,” he concluded.

sustainabilitymag.com

347

WE MAKE DATA CENTERS SUSTAINABLE.

At Automated Logic, data centers are part of our DNA. We designed and developed the industry-leading WebCTRL® building automation system, an intuitive, proven platform that provides real-time visibility and control of equipment, systems and facilities – from anywhere in the world. And our Strategic Accounts team delivers that innovation to real-world sites, installing the WebCTRL system with expertise and consistency around the world bringing powerful, efficient, and sustainable data centers to life. Visit www.automatedlogic.com/datacenters to learn more. A Carrier Company. ©2021 Carrier. All Rights Reserved.