Purpose and Profit with Kathy Varol Kathy Varol

Fawn Bergen leads Intel Corporation’s Corporate Sustainability Group. In her role, Fawn directs the implementation of Intel’s sustainability goals across their manufacturing operations and office facilities around the world, including Intel’s commitments to reach net zero GHG emissions by 2040, 100% renewable electricity by 2030, net positive water by 2030, and zero waste to landfill by 2030.
Fawn’s 24+ years of experience in the environmental field has spanned multiple industries and specialties including air quality engineering, environmental engineering, global strategy, and environmental management roles. Prior to leading Intel’s sustainability group, she led their climate change, water stewardship, and corporate air programs globally.
In this episode, we discuss:
●      Intel’s ESG Framework called RISE
●      Why water is a key sustainability focus for Intel
●      How Intel has reached 93% renewable energy across its global operations 
Key Takeaways:
●      Gone are the days of vertical integration, which meant a business handled all aspects of production internally, from raw materials to final assembly. The Ford River Rouge complex, completed in 1928 in Dearborn, Michigan, was the largest vertically integrated factory in the world. River Rouge was a mile long and 1.5 miles wide. It contained over 100 miles of internal railroad tracks and housed everything from its own energy plant to an integrated steel mill. The factory took raw materials like iron and turned them into fully assembled Fords. Today companies rely on expansive supply chains to create their products, a horizontal integration across many companies. This change in business structure means there is an interconnectedness across companies and stakeholders when it comes to reaching individual corporate ESG goals. Take greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as an example. There are 3 different scopes for GHG. Scope 3 emissions tend to be the largest emissions category because it covers all the companies up and down your supply chain whose emissions you are indirectly responsible for. A company can’t reduce Scope 3 emissions without collaborating across the supply chain.
●      If your company is just beginning its ESG journey, consider starting where you have the most control. To be a great corporate partner requires cleaning up your own operations first. Today no company is an island, and the improvements you make to your own operations will benefit the footprint of the companies you work with across the supply chain.
●      Communities are asking for transparency and accountability from the corporations that operate near their homes. Fawn shared great examples of the questions Intel gets from the communities they operate in, as well as the work they’re doing within these communities.  If you don’t know the role your company is playing locally, ask. Challenge your leaders on how your organization can leave the community better off by virtue of being there.  
References:
●      Connect with Fawn on LinkedIn
●      Intel’s RISE Strategy and Goals
●      The 2022 CDP A-List
●      The Nature Conservancy
●      National Forest Foundation
●      Trout Unlimited
●      World Resources Institute Aqueduct page
●      WRI’s fact sheet on Renewable Energy Certificates
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Lata Reddy is Senior Vice President of Inclusive Solutions at Prudential, and chair of The Prudential Foundation. In these roles, Lata harnesses the power of capital markets to drive financial and social mobility. By combining diversity strategies, impact investments, philanthropy, corporate contributions, and employee engagement with Prudential’s full business capabilities, she helps position the company to promote inclusive economic opportunity and sustainable growth. 
Under Lata’s leadership, Prudential became one of the first institutional investors to grow and manage an impact investing portfolio with $1.2 billion in assets under management. Additionally, she oversees a yearly grant-making budget of over $40 million through The Prudential Foundation, and a $17 million corporate contributions budget. 
In this episode, we discuss:
●      What it means to be an anchor institution (in your corporate HQ geography)
●      How the revitalization of a Newark mansion is supporting equity and access in the city
●      The importance of a learning mindset, and systems for continuous improvement 
Key Takeaways:
●      This conversation reminds me of how small the world is, and the beauty that lies in finding overlapping connection points with others. Lata and I both have immigrant parents. Both of Lata’s parents are from India. My father, and his parents and siblings, were refugees from Lithuania after WWII. When my family immigrated to America, they moved to Chicago. My grandmother found a job as an office cleaning-lady in the Prudential building downtown. Through employment, Prudential played a significant role in supporting the agency and financial security of my family, helping them integrate into a new community. I share this story to highlight the generational ripple effect. If my grandparents couldn’t find work as refugees, my story would be drastically different. During this conversation, we discuss many ways that Prudential supports inclusive growth through its operations, investments, and grants. As Lata defines it, inclusive growth is about creating agency within people’s lives so that they have the ability to make the best decisions for themselves and their families. These actions create ripples.
●      Over the course of history, our expectations for the timeline an investment should take has drastically shrunk. The Great Wall of China was built over the course of more than 2,000 years. Notre Dame took more than 100 years of major construction, and work continued for hundreds of years after. The Giza pyramids were built over the course of three generations. In contrast, modern-day shopping mall takes 2-5 years. With these shrunken timelines, the beauty and joy the end result delivers has also plummeted. The same immediacy mindset has happened with financial investments. The existence and growth of day trading is an illustration of this. In day trading, a trader buys and sells a financial instrument within the same trading day. The truth is, most things in life don’t maximize over a day, or even a year. Getting a college education. Having children. Growing your career. Starting a business. If you’re only focused on immediate returns, you can miss out on some of the most rewarding and impactful opportunities. From an investment standpoint, Prudential bucks this immediacy trend. They use a different approach called long-term investing, or patient capital, which means making a financial investment with no expectation of turning a quick profit but an anticipation of more substantial returns down the road. As the saying goes, good things come to those who wait.
References:
●      Connect with Lata on LinkedIn
●      Corporate Social Responsibility at Prudential
●      My Brother’s Keeper Newark (and nationally)
●      Makerhoods
●      L+M Development Partners page on the Hahne’s department store redevelopme

Amy Terpeluk leads the CSR & Social Impact Practice at FINN Partners, a values-based marketing and communications agency. FINN Partners helps brands share their stories in ways that drive business value and make a positive impact in the world. Amy has created initiatives in education, DEI, public health, economic inequality, sustainability, climate change, and veterans’ well-being.
Amy also helped launch the NO MORE Foundation, a global campaign galvanizing greater awareness to end domestic and sexual violence and continues to serve on its board of directors.  
In this episode we discuss:
●      The process FINN Partners uses to help clients assess the potential risks and rewards of publicly taking a stance on an issue
●      The importance of authenticity and transparency in corporate communications
●      The impact of company and employee value alignment
Key Takeaways:
●      Authenticity is an inside job—for a person and for a company. It means being clear on your values and acting in alignment with them. It means standing up for what you believe in, as well as standing up for yourself. It means staying true to your values, regardless of the pressures you are under to act otherwise.
●      One litmus test for authenticity is to ensure that what your company says externally is in alignment with how your company shows up internally (i.e. how your company treats its employees). For example, if your company says they stand behind equality externally,  make sure they stand behind equality internally. Ask questions. Here are two examples: has your company ensured that pay and benefits are equal across gender and race within each salary level; has your company instituted hiring practices to remove cognitive bias?
●      When a company has strong values, it’s easier to navigate an unexpected PR crisis. When values are referred back to habitually, and used in daily decision making, the shared knowledge of what decisions are right for your company grows across the organization. That means, when hard decisions come your way (as they inevitably will) deciding what to do becomes a little less hard. Values make it easier to land on a clear direction even in the middle of a storm. One classic example of values in action is the Tylonal recall of  1982,  after capsules laced with cyanide killed 7 people in Chicago. The Johnson & Johnson CEO at the time, James Burke, credited the Johnson & Johnson Credo—their company value statement—to helping navigate the crisis, and giving him “the ammunition to persuade shareholders and others to spend the $100 million on the recall. A move that would name him as one of history's most outstanding CEO’s. (Read more on that crisis here.
References:
●      Connect with Amy on LinkedIn
●      FINN Partners
○      Societal Return on Investment Index, with The Harris Poll
○      FINN Purpose Alignment Index
●      Miami Lighthouse for the Blind
○      Learn more about FINN’s work with Miami Lighthouse here
Connect & Share:
If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! 
If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!
Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes. 
This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

Chuck Templeton is a Senior Managing Director at S2G Ventures, the direct investment team at Builders Vision—an impact platform providing philanthropy, investment, and advocacy tools to organizations that are building a more humane and healthy planet. S2G Ventures has 4 focus areas for investment: Clean Energy, Food & Agriculture, Oceans & Seafood, and Special Opportunities. 
Once an entrepreneur himself, Chuck founded OpenTable. He is many things: an ultra-runner, a former Army Ranger, a father, a businessperson. Most importantly, he is a citizen of the world who is dedicating his expertise to build, fix, and support a healthy and sustainable ecosystem.
In this episode we discuss:
●      The meaning of systems investing
●      The importance of real market feedback on a minimal viable product (MVP)
●      How to manage risk when investing in new technologies  
Key Takeaways:
●      The oceans and the air we breathe are shared worldwide. We either all have clean oceans and air, or no one does. When the oceans die and the air is toxic, all humans die. But food stability and access to clean water are not shared worldwide. Food and water instability thrives among the world's most vulnerable populations, not the ones setting regulations. That doesn’t mean rich nations are safe from future insecurity. Climate change is already impacting agriculture in once “safe” geographic environments. Once food and water insecurity hits the doorsteps of the most privileged, it will be too late for all of us. But more importantly, we have a responsibility to look after each other. A responsibility to support our fellow humans who are experiencing food and water instability NOW. A responsibility to leave the planet better off for the next generation than we found it. There are actions each of us can take now to support the transition to sustainable systems, and a healthy planet for future generations. Action can look like buying from food companies that use regenerative farming, sustainable fishing practices, and humane animal welfare. Action can look like supporting companies that have switched to renewable energy (and switching your household to renewable energy too).  Action can look like voting for more regulations around emissions. Action can look like switching your financial investments out of harmful industries and into sustainable businesses.
●      Chuck sets a great example for all of us. He assessed his skills, then found a way to use them in a capacity that gives him meaning, and that builds a better future for his kids (and everyone's kids). Consider how you can follow Chuck's example and use your energy, skills, and time to support what’s important to you. How can you push your current company to be a better global citizen? If your company doesn’t light you up with meaning, consider finding a company that’s purpose aligns with what’s important to you. Or look into volunteering your skills to a non-profit whose mission you believe in.
References:
Connect with Chuck on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ctemp/
S2G Ventures: https://www.s2gventures.com/
Once Upon a Farm: https://onceuponafarmorganics.com/
Learn more about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org/
Connect & Share:
If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! 
If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!
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This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Plea

Stephanie Benedetto is the Co-Founder and CEO of Queen of Raw. This award-winning company is turning deadstock pollution into profit through two major channels: 1) its proprietary inventory management software Materia MX, and 2) an integrated deadstock marketplace. Queen of Raw enables fashion companies to sell their excess inventory, while at the same time supporting sustainability compliance measurement and reporting.
Stephanie is a member of Pledge 1% and a founding member of the New York Circular City Initiative. An advocate for women in business and sustainability, her companies have been featured in Good Morning America, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.
In this episode we discuss:
●      Why deadstock clothing and textiles are often landfilled or incinerated
●      The $280b+ excess inventory sitting in warehouses worldwide
●      Why the fashion industry is the 2nd largest contributor to global water pollution
Key Takeaways:
●      There is an incredible opportunity for new marketplaces to enable value creation by tapping into unused resources and capacity. These marketplaces allow supply to meet demand. This is what Airbnb does. This is what Uber and Lyft do. And, this is what Queen of Raw does. What makes Queen of Raw’s marketplace stand out is the sustainability component at the heart of what it does. With their focus on unused textiles that would otherwise be burned or end up in landfill, the company is enabling a circular economy across the fashion industry by keeping resources in use longer.
●      The early success of Queen of Raw shows the power of a compelling vision that benefits all stakeholders. A key part of this success has been Queen of Raw’s ability to bring in strategic partners—like SAP and UPS—by aligning on values and clearly adding value.
●      Currently, 1.1 billion people worldwide don’t have access to clean water. The World Wildlife Fund has stated that by 2025 two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages. That’s in just 2 years. That statistic is shocking and hard to absorb when 70% of the world’s surface is covered by water. Water seems abundant. The problem is, only 3% of global water is freshwater, and 66% of fresh water is unavailable to use (i.e. frozen in glaciers or otherwise inaccessible). That leaves just 1% of total water as fresh water that we can use. Currently, 70% of that freshwater is used in agriculture, and the amount of freshwater is declining. The fashion industry contributes to water scarcity in two major ways: 1) through agricultural products used to make textiles like cotton, wool, and leather—as well as any pesticide runoff that contaminates waterways; and 2) through pollution from toxins used in the textile production process—like fabric dyes—that contaminate waterways. Not contaminating what little freshwater we do have is incredibly important.
References:
●      Connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn
●      Queen of Raw
●      Queen of Raw’s low-volume marketplace
●      New York Circular City Initiative
●      MIT’s Solve 
Connect & Share:
If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! 
If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good! 
Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.
This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com. 

Lindsey Hoell is co-founder and CEO of Dispatch Goods, a women-founded reverse logistics company building the infrastructure for circular packaging. Dispatch Goods enables direct-to-consumer brands to offer their customers’ meals and groceries in completely reusable packaging, again and again. Their mission is to make single-use waste a thing of the past, with the motto of “better, cheaper, greener”. Since 2020, Dispatch Goods has kept over 2 million single-use items from entering waste streams.
In this episode we discuss:
●      Why reusable packaging is the gold-star ambition over compostable packaging
●      The moment that inspired Lindsey to tackle single-use plastic
●      The immense opportunity in reverse supply chain solutions
Key Takeaways:
●      Mastering logistics is HARD. The reason Amazon has turned into one of the first (and few) trillion-dollar businesses is because they mastered logistics: get everything shipped anywhere fast. While Amazon’s logistics mastery is pumping out packages to homes, Dispatch Goods is building reverse logistics, returning packaging from homes so that it can be seamlessly reused for future orders. While it’s difficult for individual companies to build a circular capability in-house, there is a huge opportunity for Dispatch Goods to be a plug-and-play option across companies and become the third sustainable option: recyclable, compostable, or Dispatch. It’s time to keep packaging out of our waste streams.
●      There aren’t many women working in logistics. According to JBAndrews Insights, of the 125 million people employed in Logistics & Supply Chain globally only 2% are female. The female-founded Dispatch Goods is a great example of the disruptive ideas that are possible when industry outsiders, and diverse perspectives, enter into a historically homogeneous field.
●      I hadn’t thought much about single-use paper products, since all of the paper products I purchase are recycled, bamboo (which is more sustainable), or have been replaced entirely by reusable cloth options. But the other week, single-use paper products floated into my mind. I was driving through the national rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, admiring the beautiful trees lining the road. I realized that the fate of many trees is toilet paper. What a depressing fate for such a majestic living and breathing thing. The average American uses an astounding 141 rolls of toilet paper a year. If the “tree to toilet pipeline” seems wrong to you too, consider switching to a bidet (Tushy is an easy-to-add option to a standard toilet), TP made from recycled paper, or TP made from bamboo (I have a subscription to Rizzi).
References:
Connect with Lindsey on LinkedIn
Dispatch Goods
Oceana
Surfrider Foundation
-Ocean Friendly Restaurants
“Plastic Recycling Is A Dead-End Street,” Greenpeace Report, October 24, 2022
World Centric
Imperfect Foods
Yay Lunch!
Connect & Share:
If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! 
If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!
Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes. 
This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.