Sustainability is gorgeous at Estée Lauder Firms

Al Iannuzzi is vice chairman of sustainability at The Estée Lauder Firms, the place he directs enterprise-wide sustainability efforts and establishes and executes on the corporate’s sustainability technique, objectives and targets. He oversees the publication of the corporate’s company duty report, ESG scores and rankings and local weather and vitality applications. He’s additionally an adjunct professor at Indiana College, Purdue College, the place he teaches product enchancment and sustainability.  

Iannuzzi has greater than 30 years’ expertise within the surroundings, well being, security and sustainability subject. Previous to working at The Estée Lauder Firms, he labored for Johnson & Johnson, the place he led design for the surroundings and inexperienced advertising applications and developed sustainability methods for shopper product, medical system and pharmaceutical sectors. He served as chief architect of the Earthwards greener product improvement program. He has additionally labored as an environmental advisor and as a regulator for the New Jersey Division of Environmental Safety.  

Iannuzzi has authored three books, his newest “Greener Merchandise: the Making & Advertising and marketing of Sustainable Manufacturers” (2018) and has written quite a few articles on sustainability and product stewardship.

Bard MBA’s Jill Metzger speaks with Iannuzzi.

Jill Metzger: How does such a big world group like Estée Lauder navigate a quick paced, ever evolving sustainability panorama? 

Al Iannuzzi: One of many causes I actually love sustainability is it is ever altering, proper? Matter of reality, one of many issues I prefer to say every time I am doing talks round that is that my perception is that there is not any such factor as a sustainable firm. Sustainability is a journey. So each firm can enhance. The problems we’re managing right now weren’t even considered 5 years in the past. I am at all times amazed what number of new points are coming at us on a regular basis so this can be very quick paced, to your level, and we have to arrange processes to handle this stuff. 

We developed an rising sustainability developments course of the place we monitor what is going on on within the numerous points of our stakeholders. We take a look at the place shoppers are saying and we take a look at what traders are saying. We monitor what’s attention-grabbing to our staff. We take a look at what NGOs are saying and we type of monitor that to seek out out what the developments are and we attempt to keep forward of the developments. We type of plot them to see the place we have now the most important potential enterprise impacts and which of them have essentially the most pace. Then we attempt to put processes or pointers in to attempt to tackle these even objectives, or white papers to deal with these points. However it’s a daunting process. Sustainability is so broad, there’s so many points and there is at all times extra points to fret about and to handle.

Metzger: Are there any challenges that you have skilled both from an Estée Lauder perspective or simply for the wonder house or the patron items house, total?

Iannuzzi: All the things is difficult, however should you take a look at the most important challenge proper from an environmental perspective, and all people’s in the identical boat, it’s with local weather change and greenhouse gasoline emissions and the best way to cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions, and the best way to cut back them shortly. If you consider firms like ours, any manufacturing firm, a majority of your emissions are coming out of your provide chain and the uncooked supplies you are buying and from the products and companies that you just’re buying. Once we take a look at our emissions, that is the most important chunk of our emissions. 

So, how do you crack that nut? It isn’t straightforward and there is new accounting guidelines popping out as we converse proper now, and we’re making an attempt to grasp them. And we additionally need to suppose, “How are we going to get our suppliers to do the issues that we have executed?” We have achieved internet zero for our personal emissions and 100% renewable electrical energy for our personal emissions.

Metzger: Are you able to speak by way of among the different sustainability commitments you all have? 

Iannuzzi: Sure. After I was introduced on board, one other joke, that was October 2018, and I had a gathering with our CEO, and he is like, “I would prefer to have public dealing with sustainability objectives.” And I am like, “Yeah, certain. In a couple of 12 months we’ll most likely might have them. We’ll need to do materiality evaluation, determine what’s most necessary to us, and we’ll need to vet them and get their buy-in and value estimates, and so forth and so forth.” And he is like, “No, I would prefer to have them in March for our investor day.” And I am like, “OK, we’ll do it.” As a result of when the CEO says to do one thing, that is when all people, in some way magically, will get in line and issues can go so quick. 

We actually did it, we arrange 11 public dealing with sustainability objectives. There have been a few sustainability objectives we had earlier than I arrived, however we developed extra, and we have even added on extra only in the near past too. However one of many largest ones is within the space of local weather. So we had objectives for internet zero and renewable electrical energy, which we really met final 12 months, in November 2020, forward of schedule. Then we set a purpose to set a science-based goal: we did that for our greenhouse gasoline emissions and we additionally bought it accepted by the Science Based mostly Goal Initiative which is a 3rd occasion group of NGOs who approve of science based mostly targets. We set objectives on what we felt have been a very powerful areas to our firm. 

Metzger: Are you discovering that an increasing number of shoppers, over time, are inquisitive about understanding the sustainability points or parts, not simply of Estée Lauder as a model and what you all stand for, however of particular merchandise that they are buying? 

Iannuzzi: Yeah, we’re seeing a very robust want from our shoppers to wish to buy merchandise from an organization that they be ok with. So that they wish to buy merchandise from good company residents. They wish to be sure that it is actual, that there is not any greenwashing occurring. Once we are speaking about what we’re doing, we’re very cautious on what we are saying publicly and the way we interact our shoppers. However particularly the millennial shoppers, we’re discovering, are tremendous inquisitive about sustainability. But it surely’s throughout the board. It does not matter, the phase of the patron, they’re all tremendous . 

We promote status magnificence merchandise, so that they’re very excessive finish they usually command an excellent worth. So that they’re anticipating us to do this stuff they usually’re anticipating us to be good company actors, and excited about the kind of issues that I simply talked about, these varieties of objectives that we have set for ourselves.

Metzger: You’ve got over 30 years of expertise on this subject, which is large. I am curious to listen to how in your view, sustainability as a self-discipline or no matter you wish to name it, has modified over the course of your profession.

Iannuzzi: It is fairly wonderful really from after I first began. I additionally like to inform this story too. After I first began within the subject, my schooling was environmental science, and primarily what we labored on was in minimizing the impacts on the manufacturing facility and the R&D amenities: lowering waste, lowering water. That was our world. We thought, “Oh, that is actually superior… how is hazardous waste being disposed of?” and it began like that. 

We enabled a 22 megawatts wind farm to be inbuilt Oklahoma, which offers sufficient electrical energy to cowl our complete North American footprint.

Then the phrase sustainability began cropping up. And I keep in mind having this dialogue with one in every of my bosses again, perhaps 25 years in the past, and we’re like, “Do not say sustainability to the administration as a result of once you speak to them, their eyes gloss over they usually don’t know what you stated. Discuss company citizenship or one thing like that!” And right now, now all people talks about sustainability and there is all of those scores. You’re rated on ESG scores and rankings just like the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, for instance, and MSCI. There’s all these completely different scores which are on the market. And all people is aware of about it. I imply, our CEO, he is aware of about it, he’s on this stuff. 

So it is actually a fairly wonderful place with this journey of sustainability and the place we are actually, and the way necessary it truly is for individuals who lead sustainability in an organization. My boss reviews as much as the CEO, the chief government. I imply, that is how necessary it’s to the company.

Metzger: What do you hope to see in 2022, not only for Estée Lauder, however for the sustainability enviornment total? 

Iannuzzi:  I hope to see extra traction. Numerous firms have been criticized for setting long run objectives, like 2050 objectives, and never displaying actions, like a brief time period motion plan. So I feel what I would prefer to see, and I do know we wish to do that too, is transition plans to a low carbon economic system. And I wish to know, what are the levers you are going to pull? What are the initiatives you are going to execute on? And to see extra recordings of precise accomplishments and initiatives. 

For instance, final 12 months, we bought a digital energy buy settlement going. We enabled a 22 megawatts wind farm to be inbuilt Oklahoma, which offers sufficient electrical energy to cowl our complete North American footprint, so all of our electrical energy principally that we use in our dwelling base. We’re based mostly out of New York Metropolis and we have now massive manufacturing operations in Lengthy Island and elsewhere in the USA they usually’re coated by the renewable electrical energy that is going into the grid.

So extra of these varieties of initiatives, not just for ourselves but additionally for like-minded firms, or really all firms. I prefer to see it in our suppliers and people varieties of issues, so extra of those tangible, actual initiatives. I feel that is the place we have to go and I feel that is the place we’re all heading. So I would prefer to see much more of that and simply stronger commitments on sustainability typically and extra fact-based, science-based enhancements that you would be able to converse to.

The above Q&A is an edited excerpt from the Bard MBA’s Feb. 18 The Impression Report podcast. The Impression Report brings collectively college students and college in Bard’s MBA in Sustainability program with leaders in enterprise, sustainability and social entrepreneurship. Take heed to the full episode.