#84—Andrew Winston: Achieving Net Positive Impact as a Business

Apr 7, 2023

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Andrew Winston is one of the world's most widely read writers and leading thinkers on sustainable business. His books on sustainability strategy, including Green to Gold and The Big Pivot, have sold more than 150,000 copies in seven languages. Winston has also written cover stories for Harvard Business Review and published hundreds of articles in HBR, MIT Sloan Management Review, and other top publications.

He was recently selected for the Thinkers50 Radar 2020, a list of 30 thinkers to watch out for in the coming year. His views on strategy have been sought after by many of the world's leading companies, including 3M, DuPont, HP, Ingersoll Rand, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, Marriott, PepsiCo, PwC, and Unilever.

Andrew has spent much of his career helping business leaders understand how to put sustainability at the forefront of their strategy—which will inevitably affect all industries and companies.

In this podcast he shares with us:

Why this seemingly impossible ideas of not net zero but net positive is actually feasible
How the pandemic actually accelerated both interest and willingness to accept the transition to greener global initiatives
Why now is a good time to invest in ESG/sustainability initiatives
The role of business in society, and why has it changed over time
How any company can make a leap or move to adopting sustainable practices—taking UPS as an example, and how all industries will inevitably be affected

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Episode Timeline:

00:00—Highlight from today's episode

00:45—Introducing Andrew + The topic of today’s episode

2:05—If you really know me, you know that...

3:26—What is your definition of strategy?

4:48—What got you interested in strategy, and particularly in ESG and sustainability strategy?

6:03—Why do companies care about sustainability now where they didn't as much in the past?

7:59—Why is ESG and sustainability a smart place to invest right now?

11:00—Do you think there is a fundamental mindset shift happening in leadership?

13:34—Could you tell us about how UPS adopted sustainable practices in a surprising, yet effective way?

15:10—Could you talk about the future of various industries, using agriculture as an example?

17:44—Where should strategists start with net positive practices?

20:00—How can people follow you and keep learning from you?

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Additional Resources:

Personal Page: https://andrewwinston.com/

Newest Book, Net Positive: https://netpositive.world/book/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewwinston/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewwinston

Thank you to our guests, thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening.

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