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Starting and running a business or managing one isn’t for the faint of heart. You’re balancing internal and external forces in a continually changing landscape. You’re building strategies, and banking on the future – no matter what it holds. This is where Cadence Bank’s In Good Companies comes in. We share our wealth of knowledge, and insights from noted industry experts, to guide you through the forces shaping business today.
We’re back for Season 6, and this time, we’re setting our sights on the future of work. We’re asking the big questions, like:
What will your career look like in 2030? Or 2050, even?
How is ESG shaping the future of companies?
And how can we leverage AI to our advantage?
We bring together experts from across the board, from Silicon Valley to multinationals like EY, to help you stay on the cutting edge of business. And we get to know those who are building the future of our companies; because at Cadence Bank, we want to hear the human side of every success story.
Hosting our stellar range of guests this season is our new host, Ari Marin. He is a Cadence Bank Senior Vice President and family enterprise advisor, whose specialty is consulting with family-owned and small businesses. Ari’s idea of “good company” is being around creative, insightful people with unique and inspirational stories. For Season 6, he brings in his curiosity and ambition to In Good Companies, to lead discussions with our guests, and bring listeners across the U.S. all the information they need, in one place, in under 30 minutes.
Ready to launch into the future? Then join us!
In Good Companies
S6E6 - Marie Johnson & Brandon Sutcliffe | VO Script
1. Intro
[00:00:00] Marie Johnson: By prioritizing sustainability, I think businesses can not only contribute to a healthier planet, but can also improve their bottom line, enhance their reputation and create a more sustainable future for their business.
[00:00:00] Ari Marin: I’m Ari Marin, and you’re listening to Season 6 of In Good Companies, from Cadence Bank: The podcast where we talk about the future of business — to help you get where you want to go. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur, or a seasoned leader… We’re with you. Our priority is your success.
[00:00:00] Ari Marin VO: E - S - G.
Do those three letters ring any bell? Oh I’m sure.
Environmental, Social and Governance is an area of investment that is focused on sustainability and social impact. And over the last ten years, it has exploded.
By 2030, global ESG assets are set to reach 40 TRILLION dollars. You heard right. With a T
And the thing is – that won’t just change our financial services. It will also impact customers, suppliers, employees, leaders…
So we better be on it. But the thing with sustainability is… Whether we like it or not, it’s a touchy subject.
I mean for many, it’s still the elephant in the room. Which is why … Today we’re having this conversation with some very high caliber guests.
[00:00:06] Marie Johnson: I'm Marie Johnson. I'm a partner at EY in our risk consulting practice located in Washington, DC.
[00:00:11] Brandon Sutcliffe: And I am Brandon Sutcliffe. I'm in our sustainability practice out of New York.
[00:00:18] Marie Johnson: I co-lead our global sustainability risk management practice handling the commercial side, while Brandon handles the financial services sector.
[00:00:26] Ari Marin VO: Marie and Brandon are part of Ernst & Young – yes, the EY. I’d be surprised if you’d not heard of this global consulting firm – it’s one of the big four and its mantra is quite simply: shaping the future. So – you know – we had to go there for Season 6.
And by the way “shaping the future”? That’s exactly what Marie and Brandon are doing.
Every day, they help businesses integrate sustainability into their core strategies and operations. From stakeholders, to customers and long-term goals… Bottom line – they show leaders how sustainability can bring value to their business.
And they get them to the next stage of their development; reaching for bigger & better.
So today: they help us along the way too.
Now, before we dive into everything sustainability – just a quick introduction of our two guests.
So we have Marie – astute, well spoken, to the point.
Marie Johnson: Most of my career, I've focused on the energy and industrial sectors, which – the last few years have become super interesting as the sector is focused on energy transition and electrification. And that sort of led me to get into the topic of sustainability. Now I lead it from a risk management perspective for EY.
As a partner for EY, Marie speaks to hundreds of clients about their ESG journeys. And you know what they call her? The “translator”. Because she can get everyone on the same page.
And then – there’s Brandon. He might not make a big deal out of this, but… He’s kind of a pioneer in the field.
Brandon Sutcliffe: I actually began my career, and I'm going to date myself here for a minute, but I began my career in 1993 right out of school helping large commercial industrial customers save money on their energy bills. So I did that for about 10 years. And really, that was carbon footprinting before it was actually a word and before the GHG protocol.
Now, he’s in charge of sustainability for EY’s financial services across the Americas. Yeah, big role. And in the financial sector – it’s needed. Because there’s still work to do when it comes to decarbonization.
We’ll get to that in a minute – but before we do, you know the drill: let’s define some terms.
So we know that ESG stands for Environmental Social Governance - but what does that really mean for businesses, on the day to day?
2. What is ESG? and why now?
[00:00:45] Brandon Sutcliffe: From a financial services perspective, our clients have made commitments, whether those be net-zero or other, and it's really how do we help with their new target operating model that they need to put in place to measure and monitor against those commitments? How do they embed the frequency of climate events in across those financial institutions so they can manage and monitor those activities on the going forward basis? With firms have been focused on it for quite some time on the corporate social responsibility side of things, so maybe more internally focused towards their own organizations.
But governance, what the board of directors are involved in, accounting and how you're reporting out things, you have to have that right governance in place, the right roles in order to affect change. And so other non-financial institutions that now have an ESG controller as an example, and what's their role and responsibility to overcome the challenges and implement change as it relates to how they're reporting their environmental, social, and governor activities across their particular organization.
[00:02:01] Ari Marin VO: So with ESG – we’re talking about making new strategies and goals for our companies. That might mean sourcing new materials, aiming for carbon neutrality... One way or another – we want to have an environmental impact.
Once we have set our goals, we follow up with actions. New investments or governance structure, for example.
So essentially… ESG is an invitation to revisit our business model. And do more with less.
[00:02:23] Brandon Sutcliffe: At the end of the day. We always seem to talk about the supply side of things, but the demand for energy is only going to continue to increase, especially as we get into AI and other things. But in the developing countries in particular, what's the first thing that you need to do? You need to generate electricity to have the light to be able to perform just daily duties. So I think it's important that we think about decarbonization or doing things in a much more efficient way as we continue to grow as a society all around the globe.
[00:03:12] Ari Marin: Understood. Marie, any alternatives or things you'd like to add to that definition or how do you see it yourself?
[00:03:20] Marie Johnson: Yeah, I was just going to add to put a spotlight on it. There's an urgent need to focus on climate change. And a big part of that that we see in practice is greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon, and the impact of those on the trajectory of climate change transition, adaptation, and mitigation.
So for example, banks play a really pivotal role because their actions impact both the investment side of the house and the financing side. Banks can support financing the energy transition by providing loans and investments, for example, renewable energy projects and efficient technologies, or they can provide the same funding to fossil fuel projects, and we call that financed emissions. Additionally, as Brandon said, banks and insurance companies have to deal with the impact of climate-related extreme weather events. And so their underwriting criteria now must incorporate these risks as they decide who to provide loans and insurance projects products to and who to invest in.
3. Different business needs, different ESG needs
[00:04:26] Ari Marin VO: ESG is growing because our climate is changing; that’s the hard part of the conversation. We can’t sugarcoat it.
BUT. What we can do is – think of sustainability as a new lens for our companies. One that… Holds a lot of potential.
So how do we get leaders interested in that opportunity? I put that question to Brandon and Marie.
[00:04:52] Ari Marin: How do you open the question with small business?
[00:04:55] Brandon Sutcliffe: I would say that most small business owners already have a pretty good sense of what they can do with regards to their business because they're probably doing it with their own homes. A lot of these small businesses are individually owned. And so they may be involved with putting solar on their own roofs or they may be involved at home and putting in electric heat pumps or the like. So there's in tune with that. So it's more of a home-based type of angle that they can take with their discussions with their clients.
[00:05:33] Marie Johnson: That's great, Brandon. And I would just add to that, that we're seeing a lot more mature organizations creating board accountable committees, and I think that that governance structure provides a mechanism to proactively communicate a well-aligned strategy throughout the organization, as well as to the key stakeholders, including customers. Performance is then driven by this proactive culture with oversight from a committee, ensuring that there's a balance between risk and strategy and that that's in sync with long-term corporate goals. And so I would recommend that as a really good first step for small business owners.
[00:06:15] Ari Marin VO: So for small businesses: Marie and Brandon recommend going with the “home-based” approach; and restructuring our governance. That’s noted.
Now, for the middle market, it's a whole different conversation. Here’s Brandon again:
[00:06:21] Brandon Sutcliffe: There are a whole host of corporate clients, small medium enterprise-type clients that probably don't know where to get started because they're thinking about how they can run their business and remain profitable, grow their business, and that they don't necessarily think about as an example, the requirements that they may have to meet for the California rule and reporting out their scope 1 and 2 emissions. So how do you help those institutions in an efficient and effective way?
It's like with everything, you need to get a better understanding of what it is they're doing today, establish the baseline of their specific activity, understanding what their strategy and goals are and how they're aligned to meet those objectives. And then you can talk a little bit more how they operationalize what they want to accomplish, whether that's changing the portfolio of investments that they want to make away from the more fossil fuel-related type industries into others, or helping the fossil fuel-related industries transition to more sustainable production.
[00:07:46] Ari Marin VO: For mid-size companies, the real challenge is: finding out how to implement sustainability, while looking further down the line – to the next growth milestone.
Large corporations are not in the same spot.
[00:07:54] Brandon Sutcliffe: The large corporates are well attuned to what they need to do from a sustainability perspective. They have their own sustainability initiatives already in place. They've been doing reporting out on their corporate social responsibility type initiatives from the social perspective primarily in their foundation efforts, but now they're really focused on how do they deploy additional capital to help support the transition and work with those corporate clients to make much larger investments in things like renewables and the like.
[00:08:33] Marie Johnson: I would just add, we see companies taking a multi-faceted approach that's based on what their key stakeholders care about. So first focusing on the customer. We really encourage our clients and friends to start by grounding in sector. That sort of helps you define what's important to your key stakeholders such as customers, investors, and employees.
So for example, if you're an energy company where I come from who's very likely focused on the energy transition and resiliency versus a bank who's likely focused on finance emissions versus a consumer products company who is also likely focused on social impacts associated with raw material sourcing. And in this space, we see consumers in general caring more about buying products that promote sustainability, particularly in the millennial and Gen Z generations.
In terms of investors and lenders, we continue to see a focus on risk identification related to climate, specifically as I mentioned before, and focusing on investing for long-term value in many arenas. Basically, companies big and small need to incorporate the demands of all of these key stakeholders and determine how they can address them while creating long-term profits.
4. Drivers of change
[00:09:57] Ari Marin VO: Marie’s last point is interesting. The way consumer demands impact the product we create... It’s classic economics… But it asks a key question about sustainability: who or what can drive change?
[00:10:06] Ari Marin: So it seems like there's a couple motivating factors. There's their stakeholders, their clients, their shareholders, but there's also, I think, the governance component when they're looking internally to see from a long-term vision, what's the optimal way to establish that vision. Am I correct in saying that, Brandon?
[00:10:23] Brandon Sutcliffe: Absolutely. And I think it goes back to the long-term value of these organizations. Boards of directors and management of these institutions are thinking about how are we going to help support the transition to a more sustainable economy and what is our business going to look like in the future? And how are we going to serve our customers in potentially a different way than we are serving them today?
[00:10:49] Marie Johnson: Yeah. I was just going to add to that, Microsoft actually came out with a report a couple of years ago called Closing the Sustainability Skills Gap. It's a publicly available document on their website. And it discusses this integrated model that we were just talking about and how to get started on the education journey to upskilling your existing talent. It's really a fantastic study with a lot of practical suggestions in it. And personally at EY, we've done a lot of education and training on this topic, both internally as well as on behalf of our clients. And I think the thing that really resonates with people is actually getting some real life working experience on a project because they quickly realized that sustainability or non-financial topics really aren't rocket science. And while environmental engineers still play a very critical role, the topics are fairly intuitive, and there's a lot of guidance and frameworks that can be referenced to help them along the way.
[00:11:49] Ari Marin VO: So that's the recipe to implement ESG: client input; organized governance; and education. If even Microsoft can buy into it – surely everyone can get on board.
Well except… It takes a lot to convince people.
[00:11:59] Ari Marin: So you mentioned the different actors, the financial services sector, the government customers, but how do you convince and even the board, how do you convince the shareholders that it's in their best interest, Brandon?
Brandon Sutcliffe: I think it goes back to what Marie was talking about earlier in the long-term value of these organizations. If companies are not thinking about how they're going to serve their clients in 2030 or 2050, then they may be left behind when it comes to this transition. And because certainly, our customers are pushing us in that direction to make sure that we're more sustainable institutions focus on it.
What could be the impact to your customers and your business if you're not offering sustainable related products to them? We might be left with stranded assets and other things that just makes us not viable from an investment perspective. But also, it's very situational, but sometimes you need to lead with the opportunity. We have a huge opportunity here. This is what that opportunity is. By the way, it's related to sustainability. There's a lot of companies out there that took that approach, whether it was specifically to make money or to protect the environment, the culture that they had, but you have companies that are all sustainability, whether it's Patagonia or Allbirds or you name it.
There's companies that have made it their business at the end of the day. And so maybe you think about in that conversation, you can think about it a little bit differently and provide examples as to why it would be beneficial for their business.
5. Implementing Change & Reporting
[00:13:41] Ari Marin VO: What Brandon is saying here – it’s really impactful.
Because, to be honest… Sustainability is not really an option. It’s just what the future is.
So what happens if we embrace it now?
Let’s say we’ve listened to our stakeholders, our clients… They're asking for more sustainable choices. Our board is pivoting and our bankers – they’re backing us. They've done their homework, and they’re going to advise us differently from now on.
Everyone has their eyes on 2050 -- we want to make it work. Now what? What's an effective strategy to implement ESG?
Well, Marie says: get ready to collect your data and do some heavy duty reporting.
[00:14:11] Marie Johnson: One of the most effective ways to effectuate change in a business is by linking executive compensation to sustainability goals. This creates a culture of accountability and incentives, but this also presents quite a few challenges. First, many of the goals and targets that companies are seeking to achieve are necessarily long-term in nature, such as achieving net-zero by 2050, for example. And it's hard to hold the current executive management team accountable. So it's necessary to break these longer-term goals down into achievable shorter-term targets.
Second, the data availability to actually measure progress against those goals is really tough. And so most companies don't have ready access to accurate data to measure their current state, let alone progress over time against these goals. So the first step here is to assess the current state and develop a roadmap for improving the availability of accurate and useful information.
[00:15:13] Brandon Sutcliffe: Yeah. And maybe just one thing to add on the reporting side of things, I think one of the reasons why it's important for firms to be reporting what they're doing from a sustainability perspective is so that other firms that may be investing in them can understand what those activities are and make better informed decisions, right? I mean, if you think about the investment community as an example, I mean, they've been investing in ESG-related funds and other things for quite some time now, and one of the reasons they've been doing it is because of the actual returns. But if they don't have accurate reporting on what these firms are doing, it's very difficult for them to make an informed decision on whether that company should be part of that fund or not. And especially as we get further into this journey from a decarbonization perspective, if we don't have an understanding of what those firms are doing, it's hard to understand where we are as far as the targets that have been set and actually funding that transition. Right?
6. Challenge: The Sustainability Silo
[00:16:24] Ari Marin VO: You can’t make informed decisions… If you’re not informed, right? So when it comes to sustainability: make sure everyone is accountable. Because… You’re going to meet some challenges along the way.
[00:16:26] Ari Marin: Let's talk about some of the challenges that you typically see in implementing sustainability. What are some of the typical obstacles? I know we mentioned reporting, but what others are there?
[00:16:37] Marie Johnson: Marie Johnson:
So a few years ago, we generally saw most companies sustainability functions operating in a silo and really not integrating with the rest of the organization from a functional standpoint. The sustainability function within the organization included an end-to-end strategy and operationalization of that strategy and reporting of that strategy. And they might've had an environmental engineer if they were lucky. But mostly, it was led by either legal or compliance or even marketing departments.
[00:17:09] Ari Marin VO: Structurally, we needed to implement sustainability differently.
[00:17:18] Marie Johnson: So from a governance standpoint, what we're seeing now is a trend where companies are moving more towards an integrated approach where each function still does their core job. But then they also incorporate into their broader competency a sustainability lens as well.
So for example, in finance, they'll look at financial and non-financial reporting and operations. They'll look at improving their core operations, but also incorporating sustainability into that operational strategy day in and day out from a data and information standpoint, focusing on existing business needs, but also incorporating data collection aggregation and reporting capabilities around sustainability topics.
[00:18:04]Ari Marin VO: At the end of the day, whether you hire a specific person, or you make sustainability a company-wide question… Brandon says:
[00:18:12] Brandon Sutcliffe: Brandon Sutcliffe:
A lot of this overcoming of obstacles comes down to the governance you put in place, the roles that you put in place, and how you manage and implement change across your organization. In financial services, we're probably a ways away from it. But ultimately, this will get into the BAU, business as usual type activities that these firms run.
[00:18:34] Ari Marin VO: Business as Usual… Hard to know what it means these days. But here is a specific example:
[00:18:41] Brandon Sutcliffe: Financial services firms onboard clients all the time, right? They ask them specific questions around what's called as, know your customer, KYC. Well, why not ask them a few more questions about what that company is doing around their sustainability and ESG-related activities and gather that information when you onboard them Now, there's a whole host of customers that you're trying to get that information from today, and I think we will get there because data is a huge issue and challenge for these organizations. But eventually, it'll become just part and parcel of the current activities that a firm performs.
7. Challenge: Perceptions around ESG
[00:19:22] Ari Marin VO: Another big challenge is the perception of ESG in the public sphere. You know, what we said earlier, the “elephant in the room”? Well, it’s time we acknowledged it:
[00:19:27] Marie Johnson: The term ESG has become a bit of a four letter word in the US recently. But in my opinion, sustainability shouldn't be a political issue because the impacts of climate change are felt by all of us, particularly with extreme weather events such as hurricanes and wildfires. We also are seeing the impacts in our day-to-day lives from energy transition in most states, as utilities are upgrading their grid and commercial and retail customers are moving towards more renewable power sources.
What we need to focus on is the impact to business in this context and how business can improve their long-term returns and minimize the risks at the same time associated with climate in both of these areas, extreme weather and energy transition.
[00:20:15] Ari Marin: I was just going to mention that from watching the news, there seems to be a bit of a backlash when it comes to ESG. So it sounds like you just make a bottom line type of argument.
[00:20:24] Marie Johnson: That's right. And I can give you an example from my viewpoint as well if you want. We really need to be shifting to supercharging customer engagement and really focusing on the customer. I think this is a really important part of the ecosystem for me and the energy sector, particularly as we are starting to see some lower adoption rates. And you hear about this in the news all the time recently around residential customers being slow to adopt EVs and heat pumps and other things that will have a positive impact on the environment.
But what's missing here is better incentives for incentivizing customers to take these behaviors because green for the sake of green isn't cutting it. What we need to do is get customers more involved and change that narrative with utilities taking partially the lead here on how they manage customer services and two-way connectivity.
So to your point, the customer's bottom line as well as the broader community. Maybe, it's a shift in terminology that we're using. Instead of calling it ESG, we should be talking about energy transition because that's really what is a non-political topic. We need to transition our energy, if nothing else, but for energy security, when you look at what's going on in the Middle East, for example, and protecting people from spiking prices that hit their wallet. And so maybe that's a better place to start is just a change in terminology from things that are politicized to talking about energy security and energy transition in that context.
8. Regulation & Beyond
[00:22:10] Ari Marin VO: ESG, sustainability, energy transition… Whatever you want to call it: it’s not a political issue. It’s a factor in our environment that will impact business.
If change doesn’t come from us, it will come for us.
So isn’t it better to take charge? A number of countries around the world are working towards that.
[00:22:17] Ari Marin: Globally, how is legislation, I guess, in the US and Europe, how do they compare with respect to ESG?
[00:22:25] Marie Johnson: So I can start on this one. What's interesting about the different approaches across jurisdictions is that the EU is very focused on behavioral change by requiring companies to set targets and goals, particularly related to greenhouse gas emissions. Whereas in the US, the goal is really around transparency and consistency in reporting and just letting the capital markets decide on whether companies should align to goals or targets or not.
The level of regulation associated with sustainability topics worldwide is increasing and increasing exponentially over the last few years, whether it's the EU's CSRD or the ISSB or the SEC's proposed rule.
[00:23:09] Ari Marin VO: If this sounds a bit like alphabet soup -- don't worry, basically all you need to know is:
[00:23:15] Marie Johnson: We recommend companies start with the regulatory framework impacting them the most, and then aligning their compliance efforts accordingly. In the US, we're seeing companies moving pretty slowly and performing only certain no regrets moves that either align with other frameworks that they must comply with or with reporting that they already do voluntarily.
[00:23:39] Ari Marin VO: What she means here is: you might find it easier to start by reducing your scope 1 emissions for example. That's your fuel, your vehicles… The stuff that you, as an organization, can control or own directly.
It might feel easier to make those changes, because we’re sensitized to them. Often, they’re even mandatory already. But Marie says we need to look beyond that.
[00:23:57] Marie Johnson: I think public-private partnerships are one of the keys to energy transition in general. The issue isn't that there's no capital. The issue is that deploying that capital may include too much risk for a typical bank or other funding entity or mechanism to work, or taking on that risk alone won't necessarily comply with the underwriting criteria that's in place. Therefore, from my perspective, the government getting involved to help de-risk these projects will help accelerate investment.
We've seen a lot of innovation in the last 20 years, and particularly in the last few years. And government can play a role in providing incentives and lowering cost of funding to spark investment by business and accelerate what would take a lot longer to accomplish without it. Let me provide an example here. So energy demand in the US has historically grown only one to 2% per year. And with electrification that's now going to be three to 5% per year with generative AI and the increase in data centers that are necessary to support them. If you combine that with a grid that in many places is more than a hundred years old, there needs to be some pretty major investment in order to support this growth.
Some estimates are showing upwards of 20 plus trillion just for grid support. And without any governmental intervention, rate payers will need to pay this entirely and potentially with outdated technology, but a public partnership can create incentives so that there's mechanisms to add speed on the innovation side to address technology that's needed, but with better R&D support, which will ultimately reduce the amount that customers have to fund through rates or through income taxes.
[00:25:48] Ari Marin VO: I think what Marie said there – it’s one of the biggest take-aways from this discussion. When it comes to sustainability: we have the means. Financially, we’re solid. The main question is: how do we redistribute.
And really… The main reason why we hesitate is… We want our money jar to stay safe. But the only way to make a safer investment is to get people in that space.
Looking at the future, that means… It’s time to get to work.
10. The Future of ESG & Final Thoughts
[00:26:12] Ari Marin: So looking at the bigger picture, do you think that ESG is headed? Where do you think it's headed in the next five to 10 years?
[00:26:17] Marie Johnson: By prioritizing sustainability, I think businesses can not only contribute to a healthier planet, but can also improve their bottom line, enhance their reputation, and create a more sustainable future for their business. With the macroeconomic uncertainty that we've seen the past few years, there seems to be sort of this race to the bottom for business, meaning who can spend the least on sustainability in order to maintain market share and short-term profits.
But I would say that the time for action is now. Globally, public policy framework updates are needed to accelerate the energy transition, and this will ignite more of a worldwide race to the top, if you will, from an acceleration of financing, permitting grid, supply chain, and unleashing the potential of renewable energy, which is one of the keys to success. And all of this is going to be opportunity to drive business profits if they can get involved in this conversation.
[00:27:27] Brandon Sutcliffe: That's extremely well said. I think the one thing that we tend to miss when we're thinking about sustainability and the role it's going to play is it seems like we're thinking about it from a risk management perspective, and we're not looking at it from an opportunity perspective. And I think the opportunities here, as Maria indicated, are endless. And sustainability is going to be part and parcel of how you do business and the types of things that you're going to be providing your customers tomorrow are going to be very different than what you're providing them today across the board, whether that's financial services or other.
[00:28:06] Ari Marin: You touched on this earlier a bit, but for our business owning listeners who might be thinking about sustainability, do you have any recommendations?
[00:28:16] Brandon Sutcliffe: Stay informed. It's no different how you're running your business than how you're running your home. Now, that's where I think you were referring back to. You want to make sure that you're running your home in the most efficient and effective way. You're reducing costs and also protecting the environment at the same time. That's how you need to be thinking about how you're running your business
[00:28:36] Ari Marin: And leading by example.
[00:28:36] Brandon Sutcliffe: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
11. Conclusion
[00:28:38] SFX: Outro Music IN
Ari Marin VO:
What a rich conversation with Marie and Brandon today. It’s hard to know what the biggest lesson is because… In some ways – ESG is a whole new world. But I like the way Brandon framed it just now:
You have to start within your own purview. Look at your business. Ask yourself: how can I run my home efficiently? How can I make sure I’m still up and running in 10, 20, 30 years?
If you take into consideration the field you’re in, the people you’re serving… Your stakeholders, your board, your clients… That will lead you to sustainability.
Answer the bell and consider how you can improve your business. Will you be transitioning to a sustainable energy supplier? Sourcing your product differently? How will that change how you operate your company? Make a plan of action, and gather a strong team to govern with you.
It won’t happen without education. You want everyone from your banker to your marketing team spreading the message. So learn, and start reporting.
That means gathering your data, and being transparent: how are you doing? Good? Sustainable? Not so much? Well, then how are you going to change that? The more you share, the more companies and services can rally around you to support your efforts.
Remember: sustainability is an opportunity. And it’s a work in progress. But our regulations, our partnerships… They’re already changing… Our world too. You don’t want to watch the train leave the station.
[00:31:23] Brandon Sutcliffe: Everyone is going to be coming from different parts of their career. But sustainability is going to become part and parcel of everyone's career at the end of the day. And I think that's what I've learned, that anytime you're having a conversation, it can be in a financial services firm with a chief credit risk officer, you can talk about how are you embedding the impacts of ESG into your credit underwriting decisions. We are all impacted by the things that are happening around us on a day-to-day basis. We all need to think about what role we play in our existing careers and what role sustainability plays in it versus the other way around.
Ari Marin VO:
I’d like to thank Brandon Sutcliffe and Marie Johnson, from EY… For opening this important conversation with us today.
I have no doubt they left you with some serious food for thought. I know I’m not done having sustainability on my mind.
Back in next week, for another episode of In Good Companies. Until then!
[00:31:23] SFX: Outro Music Out
[00:31:23] Ari Marin: This was In Good Companies, from Cadence Bank, the podcast where we do business on your terms. If you liked this episode, and want to hear more, why don’t you follow us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen. And when business is hot – you’ll be the first to know. You can always leave a review or a five star rating… Or share this podcast around! The more, the merrier.
In Good Companies is a podcast from Cadence Bank, member FDIC,
Equal Opportunity Lender. Our production team is Natalie Barron and Eydie Pengelly. Our executive producer is Danielle Kernell. This podcast is made in collaboration with the team at Lower Street. Writing and production from Lise Lovati. Sound design and mixing by Ben Crannell.