World Wildlife Fund Sustainability Works

On the eve of President Biden’s Global Leaders Summit, where forty heads of state are convening to discuss their commitments to address climate change, WWF hosted “Scaling Business Action for Climate and Nature: A CEO Dialogue.” The event brought together top business leaders who have made significant science-based targets and climate commitments reflective of the Paris Agreement. CEOs from Walmart, McDonald’s Corporation, HP Inc., The Hershey Company, and Gap Inc. spoke about what the private sector needs from government to accelerate their climate action, and the support business can provide to the public sector in tackling climate change.

Snow-covered mountains, my inspiration.
The Creation in its raw state, untouched, strong yet so vulnerable.
Bridges between earth and sky, forcing contemplation and meditation.
Elevation, pointing to a higher mission.

Feeling of the top of the world.
Snow-covered mountains – but for how long?
Climate change is melting glaciers
– Mer de Glace near Mont Blanc has retreated by 800meters in the past 3 decades.

So I ask myself:
Before the Earth is too hot to handle, what can I do at Procter & Gamble?
Climate emergency is real
And we will be successful only if the planet remains wonderful.

We have committed to be carbon neutral by 2030 in our operations
and develop a roadmap to net zero in supply chain
We innovate so that people can reduce their emissions in their homes
– by washing their clothes in cold or skipping the sink before they run their dishwashers.
Homes represent more than 1/3 of global GHG emissions
and our daily actions can add up to meaningful impact.

We can make sustainable irresistible before climate change becomes irreversible.
We can slow down the melting and prevent snow caps from disappearing.
Let’s look up to the summit and step up to commit
From the mountain solitary meditation to the grounded collective action.

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This post is part of an Earth Week series, in which you will hear from business leaders how their personal connection to nature inspires the work they do to ensure a more sustainable future for people and the planet.

I grew up in Pennsylvania on an uncommon road that ran between deep woods in the back of our modest ranch home, and wide-open fields across the street with a stream that turned into a waterfall surrounded by caves made of shale along a hillside. It was an amazing playground.

Like most kids who grew up in the 70s, (think “Stranger Things”) when I got home from school my mother’s direction was to go play outside. So in the spring, summer and fall, that’s what I did, either with neighborhood friends or my four older siblings, and sometimes with my black Labrador retriever named Lightning. We would roam the woods, sit by the waterfall, and play inside the caves. Among this landscape I learned simple lessons about nature and gathered treasures: how you could hasten erosion by kicking in the dirt above the stream (not recommended), that garter snakes could be found under rocks (not scary), and a mysterious skull, probably that of a possum or raccoon (I never knew for sure). But I loved the endless discovery of my childhood, and thinking back, I never wanted to lose that sense of wonder.

But as I grew into a teenager, I wanted to understand how the world worked. I became mystified by shopping malls and restaurants, and television advertising and products on shelves, banking and the stock market – how does all of this work I wondered? As the time for college grew near, I knew I wanted to study business and figure it all out. This desire led me to a BA in Marketing, an MBA, and 17 years in corporate marketing. And then I made a hard right turn in my career when I joined World Wildlife Fund (WWF) where I now head our communications and marketing team.

In my youth, I thought I was studying business to figure out how the world worked, but I was only learning how business works, a small subset of the world. What I have learned at WWF is that all business depends on nature, our lives depend on nature, and the future of humanity depends on nature. It’s a much bigger and more complex world than I ever imagined.

We know we need to do more than think of nature as an input into the value chain. I was lucky to grow up with such a direct connection to the natural world. But you don’t need memories like mine to appreciate everything nature provides. If we collectively want humanity to have bountiful oceans, clean freshwater, intact forests, and abundant species – all living under the umbrella of a stable climate – we need to harness the most powerful drive within us. We need to love. We need to love nature so much that we will do whatever it takes to ensure it thrives for future generations. Or we definitely risk losing it. And that is not an option.

And so at WWF we ask everyone to do one simple thing: Love it, or lose it.

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This post is part of an Earth Week series, in which you will hear from business leaders how their personal connection to nature inspires the work they do to ensure a more sustainable future for people and the planet.

As a young boy growing up in rural Tennessee, I always appreciated the rolling hills, long trails, and majestic lakes of the state. Later in life, as I joined the U.S. Army, I carried this appreciation with me as a I deployed around the world, taking in various natural wonders, distinct and diverse environments, and engaging with local communities. Now, as President and CEO of FLIR Systems, I have the privilege of leading an organization whose technology and solutions play a vital role in conservation, including sustaining flora, environmental research, and protecting animals.

FLIR is a leading manufacturer of thermal night vision technology, and knowing most poaching happens at night, we felt it was our obligation to help fight against the global illegal wildlife trade. This criminal industry is devastating wildlife populations, damaging ecosystems, and threatening the livelihoods and security of local communities.

In 2019, FLIR announced the Kifaru Rising Project: a multi-year effort in collaboration with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to donate $3 million in thermal imaging technology to help improve wildlife ranger safety and stop poaching of rhinos across 10 parks and game reserves in Kenya. For the first time in over 20 years, we’re thrilled to report zero rhinos were poached in Kenya during 2020, with FLIR technology playing a vital role in helping rangers patrol more effectively at night. Additionally, the technology is helping rangers monitor animal behavior at night to ensure they stay within the park boundaries and reducing human wildlife conflict with neighboring communities.

I could not be more proud of the work by FLIR, WWF, and the rangers on the ground to effectively diminish the threat of poaching. As we continue our endeavor to support conservation efforts through the goodness of our corporate responsibility programs and customer applications, we remain committed to improving our technology and solutions to preserve and protect the planet, people, and wildlife.

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This post is part of an Earth Week series, in which you will hear from business leaders how their personal connection to nature inspires the work they do to ensure a more sustainable future for people and the planet.

The conservation community has long advocated that protecting or restoring the most charismatic and threatened species and ecosystems will halt—or perhaps reverse—the looming biodiversity crisis facing our planet. Today this remains the cornerstone of conservation. However, what this approach has lacked, principally since the founding of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 1961, is a nimble way to quantify the effects of conservation and restoration actions on improving the status of globally threatened species.

One of my most profound experiences as a child in Sri Lanka was watching a herd of elephants soundlessly crossing a river in the middle of the night. They were on their way to raid a sugarcane farm, a common occurrence driven in large part by drought. Another common occurrence while growing up was power cuts, again driven by drought combined with a national overreliance on hydropower. These are two small ways in which water has shaped my experiences.

From growing cotton for our products to dyeing and washing fabric, water is a resource the apparel and textile industry is highly reliant on. That is why, at Ralph Lauren, water stewardship is an integral part of our citizenship and sustainability strategy, Design the Change. We are in the process of transforming the way water is used in our supply chain, introducing new technologies that minimize consumption, waste and pollution, and helping to protect the water resources we all use in our daily routines.

Plastic waste is everywhere. Plastic waste has invaded our homes; it has been found in the deepest parts of the ocean, piling up in landfills and leaking into nature since the 1950s. The public is increasingly frustrated with how pervasive and unavoidable single use plastics truly is today. Consumers are aware that plastic pollution is a major problem facing our environment but are often unable to reduce their reliance on waste. The time to end plastic waste is now.

In fact, a recent study commissioned by World Wildlife Fund found that 86% of Americans agree we need to transition from an economy that throws things away to one that emphasizes reuse and recycling. This broad agreement across political affiliations and geographies showcases the need for not only reforming our waste management system, but for a reevaluation of the ways plastic is produced.

There are international themed “days” for everything, ranging from silly to somber. On March 22^nd, somewhere in between World Sleep Day and International Whiskey Day is one that I would encourage everyone to acknowledge and celebrate: World Water Day.

World Water Day, at first glance, may sound niche—something only conservation scientists like myself would bother celebrating. But that’s exactly why water needs its day in the sun. Most of us take it for granted. Every. Single. Day. In fact, the only time many of us truly appreciate water is when our access to it is threatened, for example in periods of drought.

The world stands to see $10 trillion wiped off the global economy over the next 30 years due to climate change. Extreme weather will be more commonplace, droughts and floods will increase in frequency and severity, and water scarcity will be an ever-present threat. Yet freshwater ecosystems can be one of our most effective tools in adapting to climate change. Wetlands are a natural buffer against the most extreme events—soaking up heavy rainfall and regulating water flows, as well as storing and releasing water slowly—protecting against the most severe impacts of floods and droughts. Safeguarding these resources is essential for increasingly climate-stressed agricultural communities.