Putting Sustainability Into Action with Gerald J Leonard, CEO of Turnberry Premiere

What do jazz bass, project management, and ESG have in common? More than you’d expect.

In this episode of Hospitable, host Rob Napoli sits down with Gerald J. Leonard, musician, author, TEDx speaker, and CEO of Turnberry Premiere, to explore how hospitality leaders can embed sustainability into the DNA of their businesses. From “micro-impact” practices to leadership habits that mirror music performance, Gerald reveals how sustainability isn’t just about saving the planet, it’s about better business.

🧩 Topics Covered
- The “Three-Legged Stool” of ESG: Environment, Social, and Governance explained
- Why practice *is* the performance, on stage and in leadership
- How project maturity assessments shine a light on hidden inefficiencies
- What sustainable hotels do differently to boost loyalty and efficiency
- Data-driven sustainability: turning insight into action
- Why sustainability builds emotional ROI with modern guests

Whether you're running a boutique hotel or leading operations at a global chain, this episode offers a roadmap for putting purpose into practice, without sacrificing profit.

📢 Like, subscribe, and drop a comment to share how you’re making sustainability work in your business.

Learn more: https://www.omniboost.io

⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to Hospitable with Rob Napoli
01:52 – Gerald’s Beatles-on-Bass EP & New Book
03:27 – Music Lessons for Business Success
04:26 – How Vertigo Changed Gerald’s Path
06:28 – Sustainability = Project Management?
07:21 – The ESG “Three-Legged Stool” Explained
11:27 – Measuring Sustainability: What Really Matters
13:13 – Hotels, Guests & Micro-Impact Practices
14:30 – Helping Big Companies Act Sustainably
15:45 – Maturity Assessments & Turning on the Lights
18:46 – Sustainability = Revenue + Efficiency + Loyalty
20:40 – Rethinking ROI in Hospitality
25:01 – Gen Z, Diversity & Why Social Equity Matters

Connect
Gerald J. Leonard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geraldjleonard/
Gerald J. Leonard: https://geraldjleonard.com/
Turnberry Premiere: https://www.turnberrypremiere.com/
Omniboost: https://www.omniboost.io/
Rob Napoli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robnap/
Rob Napoli: https://www.robnapoli.com/

Show Produced by: Niranjan Deshpande (Nick), Broken Frames Studio, http://www.brokenframesstudio.com

#Sustainability #HospitalityTech #GeraldLeonard #LeadershipPodcast #HospitablePodcast #ESG #HospitalityInnovation #DataDrivenDecisions #HotelTech #GreenBusiness #CustomerLoyalty #PracticeIsPerformance #TurnberryPremier #HospitalityLeadership #Automation

Creators and Guests

Host

Rob Napoli

Rob is the Global Head of Brand at Omniboost and US Commercial Lead. He is passionate about sports, travel, and where to find the best whiskey bar in Manhattan.

Guest

Gerald J. Leonard

CEO of Turnberry Premiere

What is Hospitable?

Hospitable is a podcast that discusses how to make hospitality MORE human through technology.

Hospitable focuses on discussing the leading challenges facing the hospitality industry and to explore the latest trends, technologies, and best practices that are shaping the industry. Each episode features interviews with hoteliers, restaurateurs, chefs, industry analysts, and other experts who share their insights and experiences on topics such as customer experience, sustainability, innovation, staffing, and more.

Hosted by Rob Napoli

Podcast Transcript
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:07:17
Rob Napoli
A few instruments behind you. And, yeah, I see that you are quite an accomplished bassist. Back in the day, when?

00:00:07:19 - 00:00:10:00
Gerald Leonard
Back in the day. I'm still doing it, man.

00:00:10:02 - 00:00:15:16
Rob Napoli
How did you find your way into the more sustainability and leadership? Because you also have written some books on leadership.

00:00:15:18 - 00:00:36:16
Gerald Leonard
As I looked at, it was about doing good, and I'm making a difference. This carbon sustainability, our corporate sustainability process was think of it as a three legged stool and one leg is for your environment. The other leg is for the people. And then the other leg is for the profits of the business.

00:00:36:18 - 00:00:45:09
Rob Napoli
There's a lot of little things that we can do that we can also pass on to the guests. Right. How does that affect on a bigger scale? How does my small action improve?

00:00:45:11 - 00:01:01:01
Gerald Leonard
You know, I would go to workshops or meetings about sustainability and it's like, hey, recycle your towels. I'm like, okay, great. How does that apply to saving water? As a consultant, I would want to know that, hey, by doing this, this is how much water you say?

00:01:01:03 - 00:01:19:05
Rob Napoli
Check out the TedX talk around. What if practice is performance, right? It's falling in love with practice. And expression of your day is practiced. And it's practiced leading up to whether it's sales, it's doing all the things to lead up to when you finally get to the sales call. And then are you ready for it? That's that's part of the grind.

00:01:19:05 - 00:01:19:12
Rob Napoli
That's the practice part

00:01:19:12 - 00:01:46:23
Gerald Leonard
Practice. Like I said, a line in there says that 95% of professional musicians life is practice. I think the greatest ones that shine on stage are those that really love. They don't just like what they get to do. They they've embraced it. For them, it's not practice. It is the performance.

00:01:47:00 - 00:02:11:04
Rob Napoli
Hey, y'all. How we doing? Rob Napoli here, host of hospitable. Wanted to introduce you to today's guest. Our guest is Gerald J. Leonard, the CEO of Turnberry Premier and founder of the Leonard Productivity Intelligence Institute. A recognized expert in project management and sustainability. Gerald has spoken on major platforms like NPR and Cancel Show, as well as doing a TedX.

00:02:11:06 - 00:02:38:14
Rob Napoli
He has a unique blend of business expertise, very, cool and storied past, as well as a creativity as a professional bass player and Gerald brings some really insightful, fresh perspectives on how organizations can thrive through sustainability and how we put actions to words, and leveraging data to make very good decisions that drive ROI both to the companies and to us as humans.

00:02:38:16 - 00:03:01:21
Rob Napoli
So get ready for, a really fun interview with Gerald. And without further ado, let's get into the show. So, Gerald, I gotta I gotta ask. I see, few instruments behind you and, and doing a little research for this show. Yeah, I see that you are quite an accomplished bassist back in the day.

00:03:01:23 - 00:03:04:22
Gerald Leonard
Well, back in the day. I'm still doing it, man.

00:03:04:24 - 00:03:07:10
Rob Napoli
Still? Still doing it. In fact.

00:03:07:12 - 00:03:38:23
Gerald Leonard
In fact, I have I have four tracks that have been mastered, and it is for the, an E.P. I'm getting ready to release called, Beatles on Bass. And I have a book that I just wrote that I'm, in the process of editing and handing over to my literary agent called. It's part of a series called Productivity Smarts, and I talk about 12 iconic musicians who have, produced some of the most music, you know, in history.

00:03:39:00 - 00:04:08:10
Gerald Leonard
And they and I and I dig into what are their productivity secrets. But when it comes to the bass, I still play, I've recorded four Beatles songs that's coming out, and I'll probably release it after after the Christmas holiday beginning in the year. And then the the book comes out, and then I'm working on a new EP of, doing some cover songs of some of the artists that I write about in my book, but I play, I record, and then, yeah.

00:04:08:10 - 00:04:11:18
Gerald Leonard
So I'm still, I'm still, I'm still playing and I love it.

00:04:11:20 - 00:04:39:03
Rob Napoli
So, I mean, this is just me a fan because we have a conversation saying, you know, your background is is quite varied. Yeah, really heavily in the work that you're doing. Currently, with, you know, Turnberry Premier and Prince rule execution is really around, looking at and working with companies on sustainability, you know, project management around sustainability and working at how do we talk about this idea of, of sustainability.

00:04:39:03 - 00:04:58:07
Rob Napoli
Right. And how do we put that into play? And it's interesting because your background is varied from product and you've got product, you've got music, you music, you've written quite a few books, you've done all kinds of things. So tell me, you know, how did you, how did you find your way into the more sustainability and leadership?

00:04:58:07 - 00:05:14:20
Rob Napoli
Because you also have written some books on, leadership and execution and organizational strategy. So how did, what's that? I mean, obviously, it's a long story, but let's condense it. How did we get to where you are today, focusing around this idea of sustainability? Right now.

00:05:14:22 - 00:05:31:23
Gerald Leonard
Sure. And I'm going to start it back when I first started playing music. And I'm again, this is going to be a really short story. I'm going to condense a lot of things and fast forward really quickly on some areas. But there are three things that I learned from being a musician that I've incorporated into my life throughout my entire career.

00:05:32:00 - 00:05:53:09
Gerald Leonard
And that is one. As a musician, you got to practice. You got to really study and know your craft, whether it's your bass or whether it's the art or whether it's the science of sustainability or whatever that is. Right? You got to know your craft. Two you need a band. You need people around you that you can play with, that you can talk to, that you can relate to that you can talk shop with.

00:05:53:11 - 00:06:13:17
Gerald Leonard
And then you need a coach. You need someone who's been there, done that, and who is, already have achieved what you have achieved or looking to achieve and who can show you all of the shortcuts and all of the, the landmines. And basically, I call my coaches, I look for a tour guide. I don't want a travel agent.

00:06:13:19 - 00:06:37:07
Gerald Leonard
Travel agents going to tell me, hey, go there. It's going to be fun. But they've never been a tour guide or somebody who's been there, done that many times, and they can really show you how to have a great time, but also how to avoid all the mistakes that they make. Fast forward I kept playing even when I switch careers, and I won't go through all the careers I've switched in, but I leverage that principle. Practice.

00:06:37:09 - 00:07:02:16
Gerald Leonard
Where's my band? Who's my coach? And so when it came to sustainability, I looked at, okay, well, how do you what is sustainability? And I have a coach, I have a mentor, who does a lot of what it's called whole brain learning. Right. And and, you know, if you watch my pod, my Ted talks, you will learn that I went through a major bout with vertigo, lost ability to walk six weeks before my Ted talks.

00:07:02:22 - 00:07:24:14
Gerald Leonard
That's a whole nother story within itself. But in the process of recovering, I really did a lot of research around neuroscience and kinesiology and all the different sciences. And I found this gentleman, and he really helped me to leverage, you know, whole brain learning. And so I took a principle, a practice that I've learned from him called photo reading.

00:07:24:14 - 00:07:47:03
Gerald Leonard
And I grab four scholarly books on sustainability. And I was asked by one of my clients who was a fortune 500, hey, can you, you know, help us get on board with the sustainability piece because that's going to, allow us to, highlight you. You'll be a part of our supply chain. You know, it'll allow you to become a preferred supplier and even a tier one supplier.

00:07:47:05 - 00:08:15:14
Gerald Leonard
And and so that was a big motivation for doing it. Just be be quite honest, to help me grow my business. But also, as I looked at it, it was about doing good and I'm making a difference. And so what I did is I read those books and I did a mind map of those four books. And what jumped out to me was how sustainability and carbon accounting is nothing but project, program and portfolio management for carbon emissions.

00:08:15:16 - 00:08:40:20
Gerald Leonard
And so all of that background I had of 25 plus years doing large projects and working for, organizations like the National Archives, Del Monte, blah, blah, blah, just a bunch of big companies. As a consultant, it was like, oh, this is what this means. And so it led me down a road to find a company called Greenlee that has a database that I can leverage, that it all makes sense now because I can capture a footprint and so on.

00:08:40:22 - 00:09:08:22
Gerald Leonard
But one of the best ways, through a one of the books I read that explains the sustainability, right, this carbon sustainability, corporate sustainability process was think of it as a three legged stool. So just visualize sitting down and you're sitting on a three legged stool, and one leg is for your environment, for the planet. The other leg is for the people, right?

00:09:08:22 - 00:09:35:15
Gerald Leonard
The economy, the economics of it, and so on and so forth. And then the other leg is for the profits of the business. And so when you think of ESG, you know, environment, social and governance, think of it as sitting down on a three legged stool. And so if any one of those legs is not correct or shorter than the other from a sustainability standpoint, you're wobbly and you're going to fall, right.

00:09:35:15 - 00:09:47:01
Gerald Leonard
You're not going to be able to have a good, comfortable seat. You're gonna have to balance and so on. But if you have a really solid platform that you can sit down on, that's a three legged stool, then it makes sense. Does that make sense?

00:09:47:03 - 00:10:12:12
Rob Napoli
It does. Absolutely. And there's a lot to unpack there and on a few different angles. I took got out and I, I really liked how how you talked about this idea of all these lessons starting from being a musician and. Yep. As I was prepping for this interview, I did, check out the Ted talk, which was just, last year, 2023.

00:10:12:12 - 00:10:13:04
Rob Napoli
Right?

00:10:13:06 - 00:10:16:14
Gerald Leonard
That was in 20. That was in 2018.

00:10:16:14 - 00:10:40:16
Rob Napoli
2018, Yeah. If I’m niot mistaken, right, it was around, What if practice is the performance? It's falling in love with practice, and I and I love this. As a former athlete myself, I played in college and coached, professionally in Europe for a couple of years. Is. And even you think about it and everybody's working day is so much of work is.

00:10:40:18 - 00:11:01:15
Rob Napoli
And I always like this you know I use that they additive chop wood carry water. Right. So much of your day is practice and it's practice leading up to whether you're in sales. It's doing all the things to lead up to when you finally get to the sales call. Yeah. And can you close it? You spend all this time to, to get to that meeting point and then are you ready for it?

00:11:01:17 - 00:11:19:05
Rob Napoli
And you do that if you're not practicing and every step of the process is practicing for the final thing and that that's actually your job. But we look at our job is, oh, it's my job. It's not practice. But really so much of our job is practice in theory to the ultimate goal of where you're really doing. And it's why.

00:11:19:05 - 00:11:32:19
Rob Napoli
So many people love it when they when they talk about the jobs they do. Many people, about 80% of the job they do, they hate doing this administrative stuff. And I that's that's part of the grind. That's the practice part

00:11:32:21 - 00:12:01:11
Gerald Leonard
Practice. It's like it's like you said, you know, your football guy, so you like that's part of the grind. And that was the essence of my TedX’s. If you remember I said a line in there says that 95% of a professional musicians life is practice, that literally, even if you're an orchestra musician and you're performing on stage 3 to 4 times a week at 2 or 3 hours at a time, the rest of the time is practice.

00:12:01:13 - 00:12:22:21
Gerald Leonard
And so if if all you love is just being on stage, I mean, think about professional football players. They only get 60 minutes, right? Or maybe three hours doing that, that game. But 60 minutes of play time if if all you are looking for is that being in the spotlight and the rest is is is not, then you're really in a miserable position, right?

00:12:22:23 - 00:12:48:14
Gerald Leonard
And it's really those who I think the greatest ones that shine on stage are those that really love. They don't just like what they get to do, they they've embraced it. And they really love, learning, growing, developing themselves in whatever, field that they've selected. And so for them, it's not practice, it is the performance because they know when the lights are on.

00:12:48:14 - 00:13:14:22
Gerald Leonard
If I've been doing this correctly the whole time, then it's going to come off and I'm not going to have all the butterflies and I'm going to perform under the pressure. Right. And it also works when it comes to, you know, this area of sustainability, right. Because, you know, in the U.S. right now and it's getting better. But we still look at sustainability, at a really high level and, and really don't have a lot of knowledge about it.

00:13:14:22 - 00:13:36:11
Gerald Leonard
And that was one of the things that drove me to read those books and do that mind map was because, you know, I would go to workshops or meetings about sustainability. And it's like, you know, you walk into the hotel and it's like, hey, recycle your towels. I'm like, okay, great. How does that apply to saving water? What what's the metric behind that?

00:13:36:13 - 00:14:00:04
Gerald Leonard
And, you know, as a guest, I would never know. But as a consultant, I would want to know, what are the metrics for for those behaviors that's driving those behaviors? And how is that going to benefit? And how can we we we communicate that to the market that, hey, by doing this, this is how much water you say, well, this is the impact that this has.

00:14:00:09 - 00:14:19:08
Gerald Leonard
And some hotels are doing those kinds of things. But when we take these principles and practices and really hone them, it allows us to be able to, you know, go to that next level and really play out at a high level and, and really, you know, keep things moving forward.

00:14:19:10 - 00:14:42:21
Rob Napoli
Yeah. Yeah. And I like how you kind of brought this full circle because as I was going to kind of take next is, you know, anything about different things, like if you want to launch a new website or run, launch a new product, you have so many things that lead up to taking that live. Right? Right. So, you know, corporate responsibility, sustainability especially, like we just talk about at hotels.

00:14:42:21 - 00:15:00:13
Rob Napoli
Right. Like there's a lot of little things that we could do that we can also pass on to the guests. Right. A lot of times if I have a short stay, I don't need to turn down my room. If it's a single night or two nights. Right. And a shorter stay versus if I'm at a resort on holiday and a longer time.

00:15:00:15 - 00:15:11:18
Rob Napoli
And so there are certain times when I'm more than willing to reuse a towel or not have that turned down. So you're saving, you're doing you're making a small contribution, although a small contribution is, as we know, make a big impact.

00:15:11:18 - 00:15:13:02
Gerald Leonard
But exactly how.

00:15:13:05 - 00:15:35:07
Rob Napoli
How does that affect on a bigger scale? How does my small action improve? Or what is the reward for a small action in some hotel. So again, like a free gift, usually like a one time as a hotel and the Netherlands and it said if you hang this up by 9 a.m., you'll get a free gift. When I came back in my room, had it been turned over or anything, but they had left me and says, thank you for, being a part of our cause.

00:15:35:07 - 00:15:57:08
Rob Napoli
And it was a really nice, pastry from the Netherlands. Right. And I was like, oh, this is kind of cool. Like, that makes me feel good for doing my small part. Right. And so there's waste there. But if we look at it for the bigger picture on this practice to play example in the three, the three legged stool is that so much of it is talk, and we always talk about it, and we talk about the things we're doing and the things we want to do, but it's always hard to put in action.

00:15:57:08 - 00:16:17:23
Rob Napoli
So, you know, as a consultant, when you work with bigger brands, how do you go in and how do you approach this conversation? Because, you know, bigger the company, the more layers that you have to discuss. So what is your methodology for bringing up this topic of sustainability, and how do you get them to start putting action to their words or to their vision?

00:16:18:00 - 00:16:41:17
Gerald Leonard
Yeah, I think with any large organization, across the board, it it really is kind of one getting a clear picture of where you're going and then looking within the organization based on what you're trying to accomplish for low hanging fruit. Right. If it's, you walk into a large organization and they're struggling with getting all their projects done.

00:16:41:19 - 00:17:04:21
Gerald Leonard
So you look at their project methodology and you go, wait a minute. You know, you have five different ways that people report on their projects. So it really becomes confusing. Or not all the projects are in a single repository. So it makes it really hard to know what people are doing because you can't see it. And so if you just take the steps where they're doing things, but maybe they're halfway there, right?

00:17:04:23 - 00:17:32:08
Gerald Leonard
It's half baked and you help them to bake a process all the way through, you know, i.e. everyone's now using the same process for sharing their reports or everyone's putting their their data in a specific system and you're able to pull data right out of it. Many times, what I've discovered when I went into large organizations, they were just 1 or 2 process steps away from having a world class process.

00:17:32:10 - 00:17:57:16
Gerald Leonard
And when they, you know, one, get that visualization and understand that and then, take those steps, it really makes a difference. And one of the best ways to do that is to do a maturity assessment. And so I love doing those because one, it's like when we go to the doctor. Right. You know, you don't want a doctor who just says, oh, take these two pills and call me in the morning.

00:17:57:18 - 00:18:16:13
Gerald Leonard
You don't want that. You want someone who's saying, hey, take this blood work, do this, do that. Let's run these tests. Now, do we have all of this data about you? And we have a baseline of what is normal. And we see that what is going on with you is not normal. Now we have something to talk about right.

00:18:16:15 - 00:18:36:00
Gerald Leonard
And you feel good as a, as a patient, if you will, and you're open to now because now you're seeing. Wow, my numbers are not equal up to where they should be. Well, how do you know that unless you do some sort of an assessment of, hey, from a sustainability place, where are you?

00:18:36:00 - 00:18:57:24
Gerald Leonard
You know, are you doing all the things? Are you capturing all the data? Are you educating your staff? Are you doing all these things? If you can track that, at least do a high level assessment and you can see a few areas where you're off. I'll also look at it as going into a company and turning the lights on, you know, before you start throwing darts at the dart board.

00:18:58:01 - 00:19:18:16
Gerald Leonard
For many companies, if they don't do an assessment like that, they are simply, you know, it's either the executive that has the loudest voice or the the biggest budget. They have their pet projects and everybody has to get behind it. And because of that, not everybody's going to get behind it because people will get behind what they helped create, right, with that buy in.

00:19:18:18 - 00:19:45:19
Gerald Leonard
But if you can use an assessment or some form of something along that line and turn the lights on. Yeah, now I can see the dart board, I can I know where to throw the dart, I know where to put the project. I know where to focus is to make the biggest difference. And I think that's the biggest challenge when it comes to how do you get in and make a big difference, is you need visibility, you need insight.

00:19:45:24 - 00:20:06:20
Gerald Leonard
And whether it's an assessment or you need baseline data about where you are on your carbon journey or your sustainability journey or your social journey. Once you have that data or that assessment, now you have you've got the lights on in the room and you can begin to clearly see where is the low hanging fruit that you can quickly make.

00:20:07:00 - 00:20:32:24
Gerald Leonard
Get some wins. And when you get the wins like that, you get people behind it, right? Because there's this kid. This kid runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars of activities to, you know, from a portfolio standpoint, you know, and, and, and also project standpoint, which means there's an opportunity cost of things that I'm not able to get to do if I'm doing these things, you know, around sustainability.

00:20:33:01 - 00:20:55:14
Gerald Leonard
But if I know that the things that I'm doing around sustainability is going to have a great impact. And sustainability is not just about, hey, we're saving the planet. It is about that, but it is also it's good business. It's being efficient. It's being effective. And so by doing that, what I've seen is companies increase their revenue.

00:20:55:16 - 00:20:56:08
Rob Napoli

00:20:56:10 - 00:21:18:21
Gerald Leonard
Right. Because if they, if their employees and their customers know that they are sustainable, they're going to want to shop there more, they're going to feel like okay these guys are really getting it. They're smart. They've optimized their processes. It makes it easy for me to do business with them. That's going to increase your revenue while at the same time, because you're being more efficient, you start reducing your expenses.

00:21:18:21 - 00:21:31:22
Gerald Leonard
You may reduce your energy expense, your waste expense, your material experience. Your employees become more engaged and more productive. You probably have less turnover, which means at the end of the day, for the business, higher profits.

00:21:31:24 - 00:21:32:19
Rob Napoli
Yeah.

00:21:32:21 - 00:21:35:11
Gerald Leonard
Even if you don't increase the cost of the product.

00:21:35:13 - 00:22:00:11
Rob Napoli
Yeah. I think that's really interesting. Right. As we look at sustainability as a whole, and there's a lot of conversation out there and a lot of talk and a lot of companies are doing cool things. And, and a lot of companies aren't. I think the thing is, is not to undervalue what that ROI looks like, whether that's ROI in terms of an LTV, of a customer.

00:22:00:13 - 00:22:27:19
Rob Napoli
I don't know why the give me the thumbs up there. I've never seen that on Riverside. But LTV of a customer, right. Having more loyal repeat customers. Yeah. To to what is the reduction in energy and how does that turn into an ROI to actually the impact you have on the planet? And what does that mean from whether it's a grant or a, tax deduction or whatnot?

00:22:27:21 - 00:22:50:16
Rob Napoli
And it's really easy to think about, oh, bottom line ROI, but what is the true impact that happens there? And that's where I think so much can be, can really drive. And that's why I use the example of, you know, getting the pastry for not using towels. Like it's a small thing. But the ROI to me is I feel valued by that hotel for doing something that can make a wider impact over time.

00:22:50:18 - 00:23:16:05
Gerald Leonard
Exactly. And think about it this way. When you go back to that country and you need to stay somewhere, what's that? And you see that hotel in the list of hotels, what's going to come up for you? It's not going to be the fact that this is how much the hotel costs me compared to this hotel. It's going to be the emotional experience you had walking in the room and seeing that they left me a pastry.

00:23:16:08 - 00:23:18:09
Gerald Leonard
Whether you ate the pastry or not. Right?

00:23:18:09 - 00:23:22:23
Rob Napoli
Oh, I did though

00:23:23:00 - 00:23:48:17
Gerald Leonard
It's the fact that they made you feel valued. Yeah. And we as human beings respond more to how people make us feel. Yeah. Than not. And, you know, if I go to a certain restaurant, on a certain shop, at a certain store, if even if it may be more expensive, then, you know, the local McDonald's or some other place that's kind of equivalent to that.

00:23:48:21 - 00:24:09:22
Gerald Leonard
It may not be a McDonald's, maybe something else. Right? But if they make me feel valued and I feel I like the food, I like the service, I feel comfortable, I feel welcome. Guess what? They got my dollars right. They got my wallet. And when I'm thinking about going out, I bring some friends, you know, in town and saying, where do I want to go and eat?

00:24:09:24 - 00:24:35:20
Gerald Leonard
I'm going to think about all the places that are providing those values, but also places where I feel good about being there and spending my money. Right. And so, you know, it's it. When we think about sustainability, we don't always think about, you know, the feel goods of the customer, but really it really gets down into, you know, from a business case standpoint, you know the the sustainability benefits.

00:24:35:22 - 00:24:36:10
Rob Napoli
Right.

00:24:36:12 - 00:24:47:23
Gerald Leonard
Yeah, like for instance I'll fly Delta or United and on my receipts I'll normally will get what is the carbon footprint of my seat.

00:24:48:00 - 00:25:10:08
Rob Napoli
So I was just actually going to ask you, that's a big push that you look at when you look at these flights, they'll tell you if a flight, reduces emissions and, and I actually because you're in this data world of sustainability, do you think that actually has an impact on the consumers? Like I've never really thought about it too much.

00:25:10:08 - 00:25:32:23
Rob Napoli
I mean, I have to say I've seen it and I, you know, we'll try to make a conscious effort if it's possible to pick the one that reduces carbon footprint. Right. But sometimes if you're traveling like it's, it's there's a lot of factors. But when when we're seeing these things happen and we're seeing these things being shared with us on our seat, do you think that has a huge impact on the consumer and and the larger impact for those brands?

00:25:33:00 - 00:25:56:14
Gerald Leonard
So if it matters to employees, it really does matter to employees because they are a part of the overall supply chain. And here's what I mean. Fortune 500 are being asked around the world to comply with, sustainability practices. Right. And a part of that is to have their suppliers also, provide the that information.

00:25:56:16 - 00:26:20:05
Gerald Leonard
The suppliers and the employees of these companies are also now being asked, hey, tell us about your commuting. Tell us about, what do you do for lunch? Tell us about your travel. Tell us about your energy use. Tell about your commuting. Or are you driving an EV or gas vehicle? And so quietly they're being educated. To understand that hey, wait a minute.

00:26:20:07 - 00:26:48:10
Gerald Leonard
This sustainability stuff is having an impact on me. It's having an impact on my company. It's having an impact on my clients. And so I think over time, just through that education that's happening quietly, that people are looking at, you know, hey, you know, is that a sustainable company? And I can tell you who's really looking at it, because we do a lot of work with college graduate kids who are part of what we call our crew program at Turnberry.

00:26:48:12 - 00:26:58:05
Gerald Leonard
And one of the things that that this generation is really interested in is, Will I have a planet to live in?

00:26:58:07 - 00:26:59:16
Rob Napoli
Yeah. Well, I have.

00:26:59:16 - 00:27:17:19
Gerald Leonard
A planet to live in. As I get older, will it be too hot for me to live here? One of the storms that that that are happening, you know, tear up my whole home and in my neighborhood, in my, my country. So they're very invested in the idea of having a place to live on earth, you know, that's that's livable.

00:27:17:22 - 00:27:43:06
Gerald Leonard
So they're very interested in the concept and they're interested in it from a standpoint of not only just the the economics are the environmental piece of it, but I think they're a lot more socially conscious, a lot more because they're they're growing up in a space where, it's much more diverse. It's much more, you know, changing. And irregardless of what's the climate and temperature around the world here and there are different pockets.

00:27:43:08 - 00:28:04:13
Gerald Leonard
We live in a very diverse place, and we have to learn how to work together. We're the human race, you know, and we have to be able to do that in this whole concept. Again, it's part of the three legged stool. The social component is a part of that three legged stool. And again, if that leg is short, even though the profits may be there, the environmental stuff may be there.

00:28:04:13 - 00:28:11:05
Gerald Leonard
If it's short on the social side, you're sitting on a wobbly stool and your business will begin to feel it.

00:28:11:07 - 00:28:28:01
Rob Napoli
Yeah. Now, I think that's really interesting. And especially when we think about, you know, the, the generation up and coming generation is paying attention to this. And, you know, it's something like I said, when it comes to a great example is, you know, if I, I'll give a no free shout out to, to United We fly United for business.

00:28:28:01 - 00:28:51:09
Rob Napoli
And last year I did I did fly a lot. And it is something where I always kind of noticed it and would try to make a conscious decision if it made sense. But a great thing, too, is if you want people to be more socially conscious since this kind of continuous evolution, but also thinking something like what if for people who fly over X amount of flights with a certain airline per year use in the hey, here's a report.

00:28:51:09 - 00:29:12:06
Rob Napoli
You chose this many flights that was more sustainable because of this, and maybe reward them with some air miles or them with an upgrade or, voucher for a future flight to really reinforce positively the impact that you can have because, you know, it's also great about the world that we live in today, is that things are much more accessible.

00:29:12:06 - 00:29:37:03
Rob Napoli
We are, especially after what had happened in earlier in 2020. People realized that they wanted to get out and travel more, and it really pushed people to want to go experience the world and and not wait. And so you're seeing these things happen with especially in hospitality, with airlines, with hotels, with resorts. And it's really cool. But also how do we turn that into something that's high impact and educational.

00:29:37:03 - 00:29:57:03
Rob Napoli
And that's something I think is kind of cool, but also things that I wonder if you've ever, like, thought about or have conversations with brands about thinking about how does that also downhill impact the consumer or provide some sort of, something nice for the consumer or to make more sustainable decisions while traveling and using hotels and restaurants and the like?

00:29:57:04 - 00:30:15:12
Gerald Leonard
Right, right. I was just in Nashville at a hotel. And, we did have an early flight, but they also sent me a note saying, hey, if you're doing these things around, not ask for the room service to turn over your room and so on and so forth.

00:30:15:18 - 00:30:27:07
Gerald Leonard
And, you know, we have another conference coming in if you can check out early. We will, we will. Are you with some additional bonus points? Right.

00:30:27:09 - 00:30:46:02
Rob Napoli
Hey, y'all how we doing? Rob Napoli? Back again, as I wanted to close out this episode, it seems like we may have had some technical difficulties and lost Gerald. At the end, there. The conversation with Gerald was a lot of fun. We talked a lot about sustainability and putting action into practice, and wanted to share how to get in touch.

00:30:46:02 - 00:31:07:24
Rob Napoli
If you would like to learn more about Gerald or connect with him, you could go to Gerald J. Leonard.com, which will have this episode to learn more about what he's working on. You can also go to Gerald J. Leonard.com to get access to his books he's got a few of them all of his media, all of the things.

00:31:08:01 - 00:31:27:16
Rob Napoli
So if you'd like to follow up as well as all his contact information Gerald J. Leonard.com, click the show notes and they'll be right there for you and as always, if you're a tier one, please like rate, subscribe, review do all the things to help make this podcast grow. Really appreciate you for tuning in and until next time, stay well.