GrowCFO Show #237 The CFO’s Guide to Leading Sustainability in Business with Paula Kensington, GrowCFO Facilitator
#237 The CFO’s Guide to Leading Sustainability in Business with Paula Kensington
In this episode of The GrowCFO Show, host Kevin Appleby is joined by Paula Kensington, a seasoned finance professional from Australia with over 30 years of experience. Paula shares her journey from traditional accounting roles to becoming a passionate advocate for sustainability in business. With her unique perspective as both a former corporate CFO and now a fractional CFO, Paula offers valuable insights on how finance leaders can drive meaningful sustainability initiatives beyond mere compliance.
The conversation explores the evolving role of CFOs in sustainability leadership, highlighting the critical need for finance professionals to develop an ESG mindset. Paula emphasizes that while many businesses have been engaged with sustainability for years, finance leaders are often “10 years late to the sustainability party,” only becoming involved when reporting becomes mandatory. She makes a compelling case for CFOs to leverage their ethical foundation and financial expertise to lead businesses toward practices that benefit all stakeholders, not just shareholders.
Key topics covered:
- The unique position of CFOs to lead sustainability initiatives due to their ethical training and financial expertise
- The importance of moving beyond compliance to integrate sustainability into business strategy and culture
- The challenges of measuring and valuing non-financial impacts in traditional financial reporting
- The tension between investor expectations and sustainable business practices
- The need for finance professionals to develop new skills and mindsets to effectively lead in sustainability
- The upcoming wave of sustainability standards and how finance teams should prepare for them
Links
Timestamps
- 0:05:53 Paula shares her background and journey from traditional accounting to becoming a sustainability-focused CFO
- 0:08:15 Discussion on the CFO’s ethical foundation and responsibility to consider impacts beyond shareholders
- 0:09:56 Introduction to Paula’s work developing ESG mindset courses for finance professionals
- 0:12:30 Exploration of whether sustainability standards drive meaningful change or just compliance
- 0:18:45 Conversation about measuring and valuing sustainability impacts in financial terms
- 0:25:10 Discussion on the influence of different investor types on sustainability initiatives
- 0:32:20 Overview of skills finance professionals need to develop for sustainability leadership
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