CSO BACK STORY - Weinreb Group

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Best Practices: The CSOAlthough Cognizant’s Mark Greenlawhad a slightly different point of view:“I don’t get hung up on the reportingstructure and never did in my career asa chief information officer. Tackle the jobcollaboratively, focus on creating realbusiness value and the recognition andproper reporting structure will eventuallyevolve.”Strategic InfluenceThat the CSO title does bring withit strategic influence, however, isundeniable. As PG&E CSO Steve Klinenoted, “The creation of this position hashelped integrate a number of things thatwe were doing and gave impetus to anumber of efforts that we already hadunderway. Besides, the role helps givesustainability a much higher profile in thecompany.”These executives aren’t solely focusedon sustainability strategy either. Theyemphasized that they participated andweighed in on company strategy, evenwhen it wasn’t related to a sustainabilityinitiative. This gives them -- and theprofession -- the much-needed strategicoversight and credibility required for atruly well-embedded effort.As Peter Graf framed it, CSOs should“work on making corporate strategy asustainable one rather than only creatinga sustainability strategy.”Measuring ValueLinda Fisher, especially, stressedthe importance of constantly tyingsustainability strategy to the overallstrategy, while Pinnacle West CSOEdward Fox advised those in the positionto, “articulate sustainability as a businessstrategy. Speak in economic terms andbe prepared to show the ROI.”Cynthia Curtis, CA’s chief sustainabilityofficer said she couldn’t emphasize theuse of metrics enough. “Provide factsand show the financial impact,” she says,“and then use the basis of these metricsto influence overall company strategy.”Alcoa CSO Kevin Anton called it theclassic case of improving only what youcan measure. If sustainability efforts andstrategy don’t have a demonstrable return,pushing anything cross functionally inan organization can be an uphill andineffective task, sidestepped as soft,unnecessary or--worst--as an “avoidablecost.”PioneerLinda Fisher isn’t the only pioneer amongthese CSOs.While she was the first CSO, all 29have championed significant change,leveraged their experience and skillsto influence companywide efforts, andhelped push sustainability to the forefrontamong their industries.Lake called it the “figure it out” factor.“Being able to make something workwithout a textbook is valuable in adeveloping field that sometimes meetsresistance,” she says. A lot of thecredit SAP continues to receive for itssustainability work goes to CSO PeterGraf because he was the internal pioneerwho saw an opportunity and jumped at it.“I realized that building sustainability intoSAP’s products could change the world,”he says.Today, 11 groups are in charge ofimplementing SAP’s wide-rangingsustainability strategy, all with dotted linereporting to Graf.Every CSO has a different story, but theyall meet at the core: Recognizing thepotential and catalyzing change to makethat potential happen. AECOM’s GaryLawrence developed a new commerciallyoriented definition of sustainability forenterprises while Curtis established agovernance model including a reportingstructure to the board of directors.Verizon’s James Gowen created thecompany’s first Carbon Intensity Metricto resolve the gap between all the energyuse and carbon emissions the companyhas been tracking since 2001 and its corefunction: information. “Since 2001, wehave used a ratio of metric tons of CO2per million dollars in revenue to measureour energy efficiency. While this hasproven useful, we always felt that it wasnot closely aligned with our key businessindicators. We are a network companyand our core measure is the amount ofinformation we transport,” he says.CSO Back Story24 Weinreb Group
RANKINGS VS. TITLE: IS GREEN THE RIGHT MEASURE?We decided to compare our listagainst the Newsweek Top 100 GreenCompanies list 18 and Fortune America’sMost Admired 50 Companies list 19 .We found five of our companies listed ineach of these lists. Note that UPS andCoca-Cola show up twice.Newsweek: UPS, Coca-Cola, PG&E,EMC, and VerizonAmerica’s Most Admired: UPS, Coca-Cola, DuPont, General Mills, YUMBrandsEight CSOs among a list of 150companies together—a fact that begsseveral questions:Who is leading sustainability at all theother admirable green companies?If their title is not Chief SustainabilityOfficer, do they have the same level ofinfluence?Is the methodology of these rankingsbiased or are companies treating thesurvey as simply another data-drivenexercise in outdoing their competitors?Are the rankings flawed in theirlinear definition of “green” and “mostadmired”?And if so, is there a better test to judgethe effectiveness of a sustainabilityprogram?Furthermore, is the CSO title alone abest practice representing the mosteffective and impressive sustainabilityprogram? What makes the Chief titleeven attainable at some companies andnot at others?If the rankings’ methodology were toadd a question such as “Does yoursustainability leader report to the CEO?”might we see a fast emergence of manynew CSOs?While there is no denying that there area multitude of rankings today measuringeverything from environmentalsustainability to volunteering, diversityand inclusion, as well as corporategovernance, there remains no clearrelationship between top-rankingcompanies and sustainability as anexecutive function.As this research makes clear,sustainability is truly embedded acrossorganizations when led by focused andstrategic leadership. A strategy thatextends sustainability beyond recyclingand energy conservation to businessoperations is the one that will win inthe long term. The absence, then, ofcompanies who ensure that sustainabilityis indeed an integral part of their culture,strategy and operations from a wellrespectedranking like Newsweek, is adisconnect that must be resolved.That’s not only because this givesconsumers a linear message ofsustainability but also because it leadsIs the CSO title alone abest practice representingthe most effective andimpressive sustainabilityprogram?companies to do a lot less with theirresources and strategy. Industry-widerankings like Newsweek’s have the powerto lead real change among individualsand companies.Two years ago, perhaps a “green”ranking was apt but today’s marketplaceis more mature, knowledgeable andsophisticated about choices andperception. Raters owe it to consumers-- and the companies being ranked -- toevolve their methodologies accordinglyso that corporate sustainability can finallybe truly measured.18Newsweek Top 100 Green Companies http://www.thedailybeast.com/topics/green-rankings.html19America’s Most Admired list http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostadmired/2011/full_list/CSO Back Story25 Weinreb Group
Page 1 and 2: Weinreb Group presentsCSO BACK STOR
Page 3 and 4: Foreword ByEllen WeinrebCEO, Weinre
Page 5 and 6: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:TOP 10 FINDINGS &
Page 7 and 8: THE FIRST CSOThe title, Chief Susta
Page 9 and 10: Peter Graf, SAP:Business Veteran, S
Page 11 and 12: Candidacy: what makes a cso?CSO: In
Page 13 and 14: Corporate Governance And Strategy:W
Page 15 and 16: Scott Wicker, UPS:Engineer, Company
Page 17 and 18: ORGANIZATIONAL Structure:The Nuts A
Page 19 and 20: Makings Of A Successful CSOWhat mak
Page 21 and 22: Makings Of A Successful CSOmultimil
Page 23: Best Practices: The CSOBest Practic
Page 27 and 28: Call To Action: Sustainability Mana
Page 29 and 30: ACKNOWLEDGMENTSWe owe many thanks t
Page 31: About Weinreb GroupWeinreb Group is

CSO BACK STORY - Weinreb Group

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