What challenges and strategies are top of mind for you in sustainable business?
I am fascinated by the creative tension between innovation and standards in the field of just and sustainable business.
When I entered the field, there were very few standards, so we had to create them to help guide practices. This is no longer the case: today, the field is full of well-established standards that have been thoughtfully developed, tested, and refined, and increasingly implemented in practice.
However, an overemphasis on standards can constrain our thinking and lead us to neglect pathways we might otherwise pursue; meanwhile, pursuing innovation without regard for well-established standards can be a recipe for unnecessary risk and failure.
The challenges faced in the technology industry today – such as how to develop and deploy AI responsibly or how to moderate content amid competing factors – illustrate the importance of pursuing both innovation and standards. With so much in flux, standards can be a valuable starting point; however, they do not always translate well in novel contexts.
I believe that innovation and standards can reinforce each other. When done well, design constraints (i.e., standards) enhance innovation by forcing us to think differently and support risk-informed growth.
What should we be doing differently today?
I believe we should place greater emphasis on systems, business incentives, and context, and less on distinguishing “good” companies from “bad” companies.
I do believe that every company has its own responsibility to respect human rights, address climate risk, and treat its workers with dignity. However, I have seen far too many situations where one company chooses not to make a sale, pursue a new technology, or extract fossil fuels, only for another company to step in and fill the void. My client may have done the right thing, but the world overall was no better off.
In these scenarios, the responsible business practice doesn’t change; however, it implies greater emphasis on multi-company approaches, industry-wide norms, thoughtful regulation, and an understanding of the broader context in which the company operates.
If you could reset sustainable business, what would you emphasize?
I would emphasize listening to, learning from, and engaging with those people seeking to lead change inside companies, who are often stuck between a rock and a hard place, viewed as disloyal by internal colleagues and as sellouts by external activists. However, they enjoy a front-row seat to the decisions companies make, the incentives that drive them, and the strategies that truly make an impact. We’d be wise to take note of what these practitioners have to say.
WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
I have played a leadership role in developing the leading standards and most important collaborations on key human rights concerns for technology companies, including the Global Network Initiative (a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on freedom of expression and privacy) and the Responsible Business Alliance (a multi-company effort to promote good labor, health, safety, and environmental standards in global supply chains). I also led the human rights assessment and strategy during the creation of the Meta Oversight Board, which remains one of a kind.
I have been proud to have achieved a range of “firsts” in my career -
the first human rights impact assessment in AI, the first sustainability report at a company, or the first standards for a new challenge. Being the first typically also means being the worst, but I have always had a thrill in the innovative spark that gets a much bigger fire going.