Verizon Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) and SVP of Global Supply Chain Jim Gowen has been the 5G operator's sustainability leader since 2009 – a role he posits as "the best job at Verizon," he told SDxCentral.

By day, Gowen is responsible for Verizon's global supply chain and sourcing operations, including negotiating contracts on behalf of the telecom operator. But in the afternoon, he puts on his "green hat" as Verizon's CSO to focus on "everything from the way we run our networks ... all the way through the devices that go into your home," he said.

Although the role of CSO began as a compliance function, the position has evolved over time to meet changing business needs, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Chief Sustainability Officer Monica Batchelder told SDxCentral. "Our customers have various sustainability requirements," and the CSO role initially focused on putting "the right programs and metrics in place to track and meet them," she noted.

But now, CSOs hold "a business transformation role," Batchelder said. "It's no longer a siloed team that drives isolated strategy from the business strategy. It's a team that works across the entire organization to actually drive our business strategy through sustainability."

Gowen noted corporate sustainability currently exists in the "immature" stage of the product lifecycle curve, which points to the ample opportunities for new leaders in sustainable business who are shifting the traditional mindset and leading by "invoking the passion of your employees, listening, being transparent [and] realizing that it's a long road," he said.

One area of Batchelder's focus as HPE's CSO, for example, is improving employee attraction and retention by shaping the organization into "more of a purpose-driven company that young folks want to work for," she explained. To that point, sustainability at HPE "is really about how we can enable other business leaders to meet their own goals," she added.

Sustainability business leaders should also prioritize organizational involvement and support for company-wide programs or goals. Gowen is far from the only person involved in managing the telecom operator's environmental impact, and whether you're an employee at a large company like Verizon or within a smaller organization, "every step [toward sustainability] matters," he said.

Shifting toward a career in sustainability

For individuals looking to enter sustainable business leadership, "regardless of what your area of study is," Gowen highlighted the importance of a shift in traditional business mindsets to include environmental sustainability as an integral piece of all larger solutions.

"Going forward, that's what we're going to need as a society — as a globe," he said. "Everyone has to change that mindset, and that's going to be so important for business leaders in the future."

As key to her success in leading sustainability at HPE, Batchelder cited "close stakeholders across the entire business" who helped her understand the company's broader objectives "and how sustainability can be an enabler," she said. "That has been the most valuable."

Current business leaders who implement sustainability in their personal life (maybe they compost food scraps, drive an electric vehicle, or use solar energy to power their home) should consider "bringing that passion to work, and then bringing what we do at work to your backyard barbecues," Gowen added.

That advice stems from the idea that "sustainability is not a competitive sport," Gowen said, adding that he sits on boards with Verizon's telecom industry competitors to collaboratively "drive solutions that are going to better the long-term society, the long-term environment and the impacts on climate change," he said.