1. How does your department spread awareness of environmental sustainability issues within your company and to your customers? H-E-B utilizes many different platforms for information sharing around our environmental initiatives. We spread awareness within our company through our intranet, which all 72,000 Partners (employees) can access, weekly newsletters, monthly newsletters, videos and presentations to various departments. Many of our stores and corporate and retail support areas have developed their own sustainability programs. One of my favorites is the Store Partner that makes pins, barrettes and rings from used H-E-B cola cans. She also designed and makes aprons out of one of our original reusable bags that the checkers wear during Earth Month.
We also have an environmental brochure, give presentations at various conferences, seminars and meetings, and have articles in our monthly magazine, My H-E-B Texas Life which is available to all customers. We promote our environmental initiatives on television and newspaper ads during April. We donate five percent of our pre-tax profits to the communities we serve through our Community Investment Program that supports environment, education, hunger, disaster relief and volunteerism efforts.
2. What do you think is the biggest opportunity today for retailers who want to become better stewards of the environment? The biggest opportunity for retailers to become better stewards is through energy efficiency and conservation. Energy management not only decreases our carbon footprint, it lowers our utility bills, as well. Finding quality solution providers from our suppliers that understand the initiative to the same level as H-E-B is important.
3. How do you think corporate attitudes and action toward environmental sustainability will change in the next five years? The next 10 years? Just in the past couple of years the recognition of the value of environmental sustainability to the business has grown by leaps and bounds. I see it continuing, but at a much quicker rate, over the next five years. In 10 years, environmental sustainability will be ingrained in every business decision made.
4. What is the biggest challenge your department faces right now? Probably the same challenge that we all have no matter what our sphere of accountability is – not enough resources.
5. If your department's budget for next year was doubled, how would you spend it? I would spend it on devoting more time on outreach and the education of our Partners, customers and elected officials. We each have a personal responsibility to care for our environment. It’s important that each person understands how even small things, such as turning out a light, can make a big difference if we all work together.
6. What led you to pursue a career in retail environmental sustainability? I followed in my father’s footsteps and started working in department store retail right out of undergraduate school. After a couple of career changes, I started working for the state of Texas and ran some environmental programs. My first environmental position came about because I was in the right place at the right time, and I realized that I had finally found my passion. My move to H-E-B, and back in to retail, came about when I was part of a state committee studying the commercialization of fuels cells in Texas. At one of the meetings, I met my original H-E-B boss, and the rest, as they say, is history.
7. Who do you feel is today's most influential public figure regarding environmental issues? Amory Lovins, founder of Rocky Mountain Institute, because he looks at environmental sustainability from the business side as well as environmental.
8. What is your favorite non-work pastime? I love playing tennis and wish I had more time to do so. I also love traveling and hiking, especially in Big Bend National Park in Texas.
9. What book are you reading now? I just finished reading two excellent books. One is Made to Stick and the other is The Help. With environmental sustainability being such a dynamic field, it is my responsibility to develop our sustainability strategy, explain it to our officers, make sure it “sticks” and becomes a part of the way we do business every day. I learned a lot of very good tips for doing so.
The Help is the African-American experience of working for white families and raising their children.
I am just beginning The Wilderness Warrior, about the positive effect Teddy Roosevelt had on environmental conservation. I found it interesting that the last person who was profiled, Ryan Williams from Home Depot, was reading the same book.
10. What is one thing your co-workers don't know about you? My co-workers and I have close relationships and probably know much about me. For those who don’t, I would like for them to know that I’m a 15-year breast cancer survivor, and climbed Mt. Fuji in Japan to raise funds for breast cancer awareness and research. The other thing that probably no one knows is that I was Queen of the Humans at the summer camp I attended before going into fourth grade. The Humans fought the Robots. I wore mosquito netting as my crown. And, the Humans always won, of course!