Sustainability is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution, you have to meet people where they are in their journey. This means listening first.
According to the University of Colorado, “Those who are most affected and have the fewest resources to adapt to climate change are also the least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions — both globally and within the United States.” Promoting climate justice is an incredibly important environmental responsibility that is slowly becoming more and more recognized. In this interview series, we are talking to leaders who are helping to promote sustainability and climate justice. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Emma Cox.
ClimeCo’s EVP of Commercial, Emma Cox, has been in the sustainability industry for nearly 20 years, driving meaningful action across environmental and social initiatives. From impact storytelling to environmental strategy creation, she has worked for and with some of the largest and most recognized brands in the world and is passionate about making sustainability easy and accessible, for everyone. In addition to leading ClimeCo’s Commercial Team, Emma is a podcast host on ESG Decoded where she and her cohosts delve into the intersection of business innovation and sustainability.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I grew up in a progressive town in Boston called Jamaica Plain as an only child with ‘hippy’ parents. I went to a small, very diverse school in a house called “Neighborhood School” — some of the core values that drive my work today were instilled in me from an early age: that the world is bigger than ourselves as individuals and that we must leave it in a better place than when we found it. My parents were big on traveling — some of my core memories are experiencing different cultures — eating different foods, hearing different music, seeing different environments, and ultimately, I believe that is why I have such a deep appreciation for the diversity of perspective and the beauty of the world. I can vividly remember when I started my undergraduate degree at Columbia University, meeting with my college advisor and her asking me: “what would make you feel good about waking up and going to work every morning?” And I knew I had to do something with my life that involved making the world a better place for everyone. Ever since then, I’ve chosen my next opportunity based on what will give me a new perspective on making the world a better place.
Everyone has a cataclysmic moment or marker in their life which propels them to take certain actions, a “why”. What is your why?
I can, unequivocally say that having children was the cataclysmic marker that changed my perspective on life. More than anything, when you have children, you realize that everything you do is for them — and that rings true especially when I am searching for motivation in my work. Outside of that cliché answer, I would say that being given the opportunity to drive impact behind such a large brand like McDonald’s is one of the proudest and most pivotal initiatives I’ve led. When I first took on the role, McDonald’s had done very little in renewable energy, and I can remember having a conversation with someone who had been at the organization for a long time before me saying, “there’s no way you’re getting this approved. I hope you succeed, but McDonald’s is a very risk averse organization.” His words fueled me to succeed. I worked for one year to build the strategy and align the internal and external stakeholders, and then implemented the VPPA strategy (VPPA is a financial contract between a buyer — usually a business — and a renewable energy project) for the following two years to execute five VPPA agreements on behalf of McDonald’s and its franchisees- the size of the contracts was equivalent to planting over 50 million trees, and enough renewable energy to put McDonald’s in the top five US corporate buyers list. The scale of that impact is my legacy, if I accomplish nothing else in my career.
You are currently a leader at an organization that is making a difference for our planet. Can you tell us a bit about what you and your organization are trying to change?
ClimeCo is a global sustainability company helping organizations decarbonize, wherever they are in their journey. I’m incredibly proud to work alongside our team of experts who are consistently innovating and optimizing solutions for our clients. This is a shift in the marketplace as sustainability has historically been seen as complicated or not a value-add, thus deprioritized or an afterthought. We are actively chipping away at that mindset, making sustainability easily accessible AND a valuable business driver.
To give a bit of background, ClimeCo’s President & CEO, Bill Flederbach, Jr., founded the company in 2009 with a powerful and focused goal — to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) through high-quality scalable abatement projects that create value for customers. With that focus in mind, ClimeCo pioneered the development of the first U.S. emission-reduction projects at bio-digester (facilities that process organic waste, such as agricultural waste) and nitric acid (a key component in fertilizers, explosives, high-performance plastics, and other chemicals) plants; and the generation of high-quality industrial-based carbon credits (also known as offsets).
What makes us unique is not only that we have a long-standing history of expertise (we’re over 15 years old!), but also that we are vertically integrated, helping organizations set their climate, environmental, sustainability strategy AND we have the expertise and levers to implement that strategy — whether it’s insetting, carbon offsets, digital carbon solutions, or product certification. We are extremely proud to collaborate with brands such as Hello Fresh, Hilton, and Lenovo, helping them reach their sustainability goals, drive value, and ultimately, support planet resilience. Decarbonization looks different for every organization, and we have a solution for everyone.
I have the honor of leading ClimeCo’s Commercial Team, working closely with our clients to solve problems by creating customized solutions for their needs with the end goal to maximize positive impact and value to the business.
I recently heard former Secretary of State and Senator John Kerry speak at a sustainable finance conference and he said: “I am not a doomsday person, I know we have the technology today to get there, we are just lacking the motivation… I do not preach doom, I preach opportunity.” I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Kerry — it’s ClimeCo’s mission to create that motivation for our clients.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading the Commercial Team at ClimeCo?
Perhaps not the most interesting to everyone, but most formative for me and hopefully a helpful anecdote for others reading this: I joined ClimeCo in October of 2023 and was originally hired to help grow the advisory business of ClimeCo, which I was uniquely positioned to do, given my background and network. I was pleasantly surprised, when six months into that role, my then boss, Emily Damon, advocated for me and Bill Flederbach, ClimeCo’s CEO asked me to lead the newly formed Commercial Team. I flew out to Houston to spend some time with Bill — to get to know one another more, and to strategize about the commercial priorities of the business. At the end of the visit, he asked me how I was feeling. I responded with “If I’m being honest, I have a little bit of impostor syndrome. Why me? Why do you think I can do this?” He was gracious and immediately put my mind at ease, by sharing his own feelings of impostor syndrome and he said “Emma- I know you’re the right person for this role. There isn’t a doubt in my mind.” From there on out, I’ve never looked back and I couldn’t do what I do without the support of the amazing leaders around me.
None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?
There are too many formal and informal mentors to mention but I will forever be grateful to one particular leader at McDonald’s, Marion Gross, who advocated for the renewable energy initiative I was leading. She was a key stakeholder in the strategy from the beginning and when it came time to announce our first ever VPPA publicly, she got me time with McDonald’s full senior leadership team, including McDonald’s now CEO Chris Kempczinski, to present the work to date. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my career and I have never forgotten the support and advocacy she extended to me. Too often, women see one another as competition and miss opportunities to lift each other up. This is something I have always been mindful of in my own career and will always be an advocate for the women around me.
Thank you for that. Let’s now move to the central part of our discussion. Let’s start with a basic definition of terms so that everyone is on the same page. What does climate justice mean to you? How do we operationalize it?
To me, at the core of climate justice is the intersection of environment and people, specifically the marginalized and under-represented communities that experience the consequences of climate change. Climate justice highlights the inequality of who faces the consequences of climate change and seeks to identify inclusive and sustainable solutions. It’s part of the ‘why’ we aim to make sustainability easily accessible- to everyone.
Operationalizing it can take different forms; I’ll provide a specific solution as it’s an intentional way that we bring climate justice to life at ClimeCo, and that is through what we call our ‘Environmental Asset Innovation.’ Our team that leads these efforts is helping to create economic and environmental resilience to the local communities across the globe, now and in the future.
For example, we are helping to restore one million acres of degraded forest land in the Mississippi River Basin with Restore the Earth. The forest in the project area has been lost over the last six decades due to a combination of intensive logging and hurricanes and the people in this South Louisiana community have been adversely impacted as such. Restoration of degraded lands is one of the most critical project types that society can undertake to meet the challenge of climate change as reforestation provides a clear and enduring Greenhouse gas mitigation impact for generations to come.
When I worked at McDonald’s, I heard our Chief Sustainability Officer at the time speak on a panel about our sustainability initiatives and she said: “We must democratize sustainability. We aren’t an organic, natural food store that charges a high premium on their products to consumers. We embed sustainability into how we do business, how we source our ingredients, so that when the customer comes into our restaurant, they know they are buying a sustainable meal. That’s what it’s about: making sustainability accessible to everyone.” I’ve never forgotten that.
Science is telling us that we have 7–10 years to make critical decisions about climate change. What are three things you or your organization are doing to help?
- One of the problems I identified is that across the industry, we are making sustainability difficult. Unpopular opinion, perhaps, but we get in the weeds with our acronyms, jargon-heavy elevator pitches, and given our highly technical industry, it has all been for the right reasons because sustainability is complicated, layered, and customized. We want to help change this at ClimeCo. One way we are doing this is through a stop-motion animation video series, Insights for Impact. Each Insights for Impact episode takes a difficult to understand topic, such as insetting or N2O abatement, and not only breaks the concept down, but invites everyone to take action, easily.
- I’m incredibly excited about what our team led by Emily Damon, ClimeCo’s Chief Growth Officer, is doing with ‘insetting’- which is essentially ‘the flow of dollars for decarbonization measures within a value chain’ as opposed to offsetting, which can take place outside of a value chain. I mentioned that sustainability is a valuable business driver and our insetting service does just that. We are helping companies make direct investments in environmental projects within their own supply chains, helping to reduce their Scope 3 emissions (also known as indirect emissions) and also progress towards net-zero, so important in the fight against climate change. Insetting can create a new revenue stream for manufacturers and improves project economics for low-carbon technologies.
- ClimeCo’s Environmental Asset Innovation is another solution worth mentioning again. We ensure that our projects have a clear activity change, the baseline is well-defined, and that the project positively impacts the community in which it is located. We believe methodologies must be robust, transparent, verifiable, and accessible to bring much-needed funds to decarbonization opportunities. Since starting the company in 2009, we have helped reduce over 40 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions through our various projects, equivalent to eliminating the emissions from over 4.5 billion gallons of gasoline consumed. We need companies who believe in this work as much as we do, to continue supporting these high-quality projects.
Are there three things the community, society, or politicians can do to help you in your mission?
- We are at an interesting inflection point for sustainability with the consequences of climate change rearing its ugly head with natural disasters across the globe and climate justice coming to light now more than ever as a result. Regardless of where you stand — politicians, community leaders, or within the general population — we all want a similar outcome: a planet that is safe, thriving, and has a future. That outcome requires collaboration. Collaboration across the aisle, across industry sectors, and across the globe. We have to be willing to work together to integrate sustainability into everything we do. I have always maintained that sustaining and growing the businesses of our future is a bipartisan initiative — everything else is a communications exercise.
- Find unlikely partnerships to drive change: what I mean by this, is that change makers and influencers may be hiding in unlikely places. Here’s an example: Gen Z is a largely untapped force for change in the climate space — how can large corporations or government leverage their voice and their platform for positive environmental and social impact?
- And to the company leaders, future leaders, and rising stars at companies that have not started or been afraid to delve into sustainability, it’s time to take that step. Done well, it will drive business value, brand reputation, and set you apart in measurable and significant ways.
How would you articulate how a business can become more profitable by being more sustainable and more environmentally conscious? Can you share a story or example?
In a study by IBM, 77% of consumers said they want to make more sustainable choices, but they don’t find it easy to do so. And Sustainable Brands shared that in a survey of 1,000 adults in the U.S., 66% were willing to pay more for sustainable products. The headline? There is a massive opportunity for businesses to be profitable, do the right thing for the planet, and reach consumers where they are.
A great example of this is with a client of ours, a fashion rental service that allows customers to rent designer clothing and accessories for a fraction of the retail price. The platform offers both physical rentals (clothing and accessories) as well as subscription-based services, where members can get a set number of items to rent each month. We work with this client to offset 100% of their carbon emissions for all rentals and purchases on their platform, this means that they are compensating for the emissions produced by investing in carbon reduction projects. Not only are they making a meaningful impact on the environment and community resilience by supporting these projects, but this has positively impacted their bottom line. They reached their highest Net Promoter Score in years and a 10% year-over-year increase in customer loyalty.
Or another client that has integrated our digital carbon solution (an offset of the life cycle emissions associated with the product) into their product purchase path — making it easy for consumers to make sustainable choices for a small additional cost. This approach has won this company competitive RFP’s and added an entirely new revenue stream for their business.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started promoting sustainability and climate justice” and why?
- Sustainability is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution, you have to meet people where they are in their journey. This means listening first.
- Sustainability does not have to be complicated, and it can be fun! Digestible, easy to understand storytelling is the key to reaching the right people to inspire action. Insights for Impact is a great example of this.
- Reflecting on Bill’s quote I mentioned, sometimes doing the right thing takes time. The right thing doesn’t always come in the form of a singular quick decision- I’ve found it can be a series of small actions that ultimately make a big impact. ‘It’s a marathon, not a sprint’ is my mantra in this industry.
- Working in this industry requires the mindfulness to prioritize who you spend your time with. I had a conversation with Rainn Wilson at Climate Week (he is one of the co-founders of Climate Basecamp — an organization created to influence climate action through media and storytelling), where he explained to me that Climate Basecamp is focused on influencing the ‘moveable middle’ — which is the population in between the two extremes of climate activists and climate deniers. We can’t spend our time trying to influence the climate deniers, but instead focus on the movable middle that often lacks the information needed to take action.
- We must always lead with value in this business. It took me a long time to come to terms with this approach (as a long-time do-gooder and environmentalist), but it’s the only way to drive meaningful impact. The private sector holds the power to make the changes we need to avoid catastrophic environmental and social destruction, and it’s up to companies like ClimeCo to deliver the ‘easy button’ solution.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
This question was an incredibly difficult question for me to answer. Some of the criteria I considered were: how much influence does this person have to affect change? How successful has this person been? How big is this person’s platform? How much good has this person done for the world to date and how much ambition do they have to continue? Many people fit the bill: Melinda Gates, Malala Yousafzai…even Taylor Swift (all of whom, I would be thrilled to have lunch with, by the way). But I’m going to go with someone who I believe has all these qualities and can affect future change: A woman by the name of Yara Shahidi — she’s an actress, a producer, and a Harvard graduate. She’s a Gen-Zer (Gen-Z is among the most active in climate conversation and the most likely to actually do something about it) and I’ve heard her speak about climate and gender equality with a grounded and thoughtful approach. We need future leaders like Yara and I would consider it an honor to partner with her and others who share a common purpose.
How can our readers continue to follow your work online?
ClimeCo is active across social media platforms, especially LinkedIn and Instagram, and you can follow my sustainability musings on LinkedIn as well (https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmagillespiecox/, plus subscribe to ESG Decoded, where I host many interesting guests to discuss all things ESG (https://www.climeco.com/podcast-series/)
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
How Emma Cox Of ClimeCo Is Helping to Promote Sustainability and Climate Justice was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.