Fireside Chat: Building a Sustainable Supply Chain
About This Talk
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calls for cutting carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 and getting to net zero by 2050 to avert the worst impacts of climate change. Emissions attributed to the supply chain - also known as Scope 3 emissions - often account for more than 80% of a companys total carbon footprint, and can be challenging to act on, given they require influence over third party organizations.
In this session, we will discuss the business value of working with your suppliers to reduce carbon emissions. We will cover real-world examples of implementation challenges and best practices for companies working to reduce their carbon footprint. Attend this session to gain valuable insights on how companies are raising the bar on their ESG goals and successfully decarbonizing their supply chain.
Speakers
Christian is co-founder of Watershed, the enterprise climate platform. Watershed works with leading companies to help them measure, report, and act on their carbon emissions.Christian studied mathematics and physics at Harvard before building and running engineering teams at Stripe. While there he helped launch Stripe’s climate program, and experienced first-hand the pain of tracking, compiling, and structuring the carbon data needed to make everyday business decisions. Watershed was founded to make it easier to meaningfully reduce carbon emissions with modern tools.At Watershed, Christian leads a team of data scientists and engineers developing the systems and mathematical models that make sense of the scattered, unstructured data that makes up a corporate carbon footprint. He lives in San Francisco where Watershed is based.
Nicola J. Acutt, Ph.D., is Vice President, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) in the Office of the CTO. Nicola is a change maker, thought leader, and strategist whose leadership experience spans business, government, and nonprofits. She is responsible for sustainability across operations, product, and people, and is passionate about a business-focused approach to corporate sustainability strategy.
Hired in 2010 to launch the VMware Foundation, Nicola implemented a novel approach that calls upon the companys 18,000-plus global employees as “citizen philanthropists” to shape the direction of VMwares corporate giving. In 2014, she assumed additional responsibility as Vice President for Global Community Affairs, chartered with leading an effort to revitalize the companys values and employee experience. This work culminated in VMware being named one of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” for the first time in 2015. Nicola now leads VMwares Sustainability Strategy focusing on the companys product impact as well as stronger operational efficiency and performance.
Prior to joining VMware, Nicola was a faculty member of the Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco, where she led Curriculum Development and rose to rank of Associate Dean. Earlier in her career, she worked as a consultant to the South African Government on natural resource policy and, as a Ph.D. candidate, undertook research at the Center for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment in the UK. Originally from South Africa, Nicola received a Commonwealth Scholarship to complete her Ph.D. at the University of East Anglia in the UK and has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley.