The Company Road Podcast E9 Christian Smith - Driving Sustainability: What We Can Do Starts with You
"If you want the best talent out there, having a commitment to sustainability works because people care very deeply about this topic... people are actually resigning from jobs or they don't apply for jobs when companies don't have a good approach to sustainability."
Christian Smith
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
- Sustainability as a Business Strategy: How sustainability can be used as a strategy to reduce risk and improve profitability
- Aligning Purpose and Profit: Presenting sustainability initiatives in a way that justifies investments to senior stakeholders
- The Importance of External Engagement: Stress-testing sustainability approaches through engaging with external stakeholder and why seeking collaboration is essential
- Navigating a Sustainable Future: Whether sustainability is a lost cause or there is still meaningful action that can take place in the business world to create change
- Evangelising Sustainability: How to effectively and authentically promote sustainability as a priority within organisations and to senior leaders
Key links:
Art of Persuasion episode (referenced) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz9kuheZV5M&t=492s
Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows https://www.amazon.com.au/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/1603580557
International Accord https://internationalaccord.org/
Zalando https://www.zalando.com/
NGOs https://www.ngosource.org/what-is-an-ngo
About our guest
Christian Smith has been in the sustainability field for over 15 years, holding positions at major retailers, fashion brands and in the NGO sector. He’s currently Head of Sustainability, Diversity, Inclusion Reporting and Stakeholder Engagement at Zalando where his role is to connect the organisation with the outside world as they navigate the ever changing world of sustainability.
Christian also acts as an advisor across sectors on how to embed social and environmental innovation into business models, and possesses an MSc in Environment and Sustainable Development from UCL.
About our host
Our host, Chris Hudson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-hud..., is a Teacher, Experience Designer and Founder of business transformation coaching & consultancy Company Road (www.companyroad.co)
Chris considers himself incredibly fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s most ambitious and successful companies, including Google, Mercedes-Benz, Accenture (Fjord) and Dulux, to name a small few. He continues to teach with Academy Xi in CX, Product Management, Design Thinking and Service Design and mentors many business leaders internationally.
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