What challenges and strategies are top of mind for you in sustainable business?
Much progress has been made over the last two decades in advancing international human rights and environmental norms to create just, sustainable businesses. However, we are currently navigating significant turmoil in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and human rights: political resistance, the swift expansion of AI and associated workforce impacts, escalating climate risks, and eroding adherence to international standards.
Too often, organizations operating in this environment lapse into damage-limitation mode—focusing on minimizing harm rather than driving forward-thinking practice.
To counter this, two core priorities shape my work:
- Mainstreaming Responsibility: The most resilient organizations embed sustainability and human rights directly into their governance, strategy, culture, and leadership. Issues like climate resilience, supply chain integrity, workforce well-being, and community trust are not peripheral compliance burdens—they are central to long-term performance and organizational health.
- Bridging Internal and External Divides: Since the introduction of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, companies have built internal capacity to guide risk assessment, due diligence, and stakeholder engagement. Simultaneously, civil society, investors, and international bodies have applied growing external pressure. Yet engagement between these groups often falters when external advocates view internal leaders strictly through the lens of corporate interest rather than as potential allies for meaningful reform. Building constructive, collaborative bridges across this divide is essential.
What should we be doing differently today?
To drive real impact in sustainable business, we must evolve our approach across four areas:
- Navigate the Impact of AI: Recognize that AI is reshaping business in fundamental ways, presenting novel risks and opportunities that require proactive, ethical governance.
- Embed Sustainability End-to-End: Move past viewing sustainability as an isolated departmental or reporting function. It must be integrated into core strategy, operational execution, leadership development, and organizational culture.
- Listen and Engage Authentically: Rights-respecting solutions arise from genuine engagement. Organizations need to spend significantly more time actively listening to—and acting upon—feedback from employees, local communities, customers, investors, and civil society.
- Invest in Human-Centered Leadership: Technical solutions alone cannot solve modern, complex challenges. We need leaders equipped to navigate ambiguity, foster alignment across competing interests, build lasting trust, and lead change with integrity.
IF YOU COULD RESET SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS, WHAT WOULD YOU EMPHASIZE?
Strong governance, ethical leadership, a healthy culture, and respect for human rights are the foundational bedrock of environmental and economic sustainability. Without accountability, trust, and shared ethical values, even the most innovative companies will fail to deliver durable results.
Sustainable business is fundamentally about recognizing that commercial success, environmental stewardship, social impact, and human rights are interdependent—and having the courage to make decisions that honor and strengthen those connections.
WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
My work has taken me into complex environments around the globe—advocating with rebel leaders in South Sudan, nuns in Kolkata, government officials in Mozambique, community elders in Sudan, UN diplomats in New York, and product engineers at Meta.
Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of collaborating with and advising leaders across the humanitarian, human rights, public, and private sectors—including organizations as diverse as the Missionaries of Charity, UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, and Meta.
Across every interaction, my focus has been to keep human rights and humanitarian values at the center of strategic decision-making, while remaining deeply sensitive to the perspectives and priorities of every stakeholder. The goal is never to score points, but to drive tangible progress—empowering organizations and leaders to succeed by making principled, high-integrity decisions. That remains the core mission of my work today as a business and human rights advisor and executive coach.