Defining Sustainability at a Fortune 50
For Target's Kate Heiny, the first challenge as Sustainability Group Manager isn't driving sustainable practices within a Fortune 50 company. It's educating 355,000 people on what sustainability means. But she's up for the challenge.
Defining sustainability for thousands of employees nationwide might not be easy, but Target educates its employees by involving them in the conversation. The company developed an internal site that allows employees to suggest, view as well as rate and comment on each others' sustainable ideas.
Kate tells us more about what challenges she faces incorporating sustainability into a Fortune 50 company and what motivates her to dedicate her career to sustainability. You can hear more about Kate's career path at the 2011 Net Impact Conference. She's scheduled to speak at two sessions: Work for Good in Environmental Sustainability and Authentic CSR: The Future of Transparency.
What motivated you to focus more on the business side of sustainability?
To me, there isn't one side or the other; sustainability is inherently about incorporating more criteria into making the best decision for yourself, your company, your community, et cetera. I work for a Fortune 50 company because I believe that I can affect the most change by working for a company that touches so many people and communities every day in so many ways. Fundamentally, sustainability is not something to be added on, or a practice that decreases a company's success. It is about making the best business decisions, so I work for a great company that I want to see succeed for a long time.
You received your B.A. and M.S. in environmental science. How does that knowledge come into play in your day-to-day job responsibilities? What kinds of skills and experiences do you most lean on to do your job successfully?
I'm not sure that many people believe me, but I don't think my environmental science background really plays much of a role in my day-to-day job responsibilities - other than I have a knowledge base of what global environmental issues exist and have thought a lot about how business and those issues interact. My day-to-day responsibilities are focused on business strategy and implementation; helping my team to figure out new ways to run our business, because fundamentally that is what we do every day. Leadership is also a large part of my role - not only in leading my team, but also in reaching across the organization and influencing executives and other teams to be a part of this change.
What exactly do you do at Target? What's the biggest on-the-ground challenge for you at Target in terms of addressing sustainability throughout the company?
I lead a phenomenal team of individuals that laugh a lot! Our role within Target is to build and drive a culture of sustainability. We work across the enterprise to set the sustainability strategy for the company, figure out what that means in practical terms, and then work with partners to put it into action. The biggest challenge is probably all of the mess that comes with helping such a large company change business practices (small and large). From attitudes and behaviors to just the sheer size of the company (355,000 team members total, 10,000 at headquarters) and the wrangling of partners that needs to be done to accomplish the changes. Having and building executive level support is also integral to the success of our efforts.
What's been the biggest challenge for you in terms of getting to where you are?
The biggest challenge has been, and I anticipate will continue to be, explaining what sustainability is, what it means to various audiences and how it is connected to the long-term viability of the company. But that's also what I love about it, so I'll take that challenge.
