Prior to joining JCPenney almost two years ago, Jim Thomas had been with Novartis for 20 years.
1. How does your department spread awareness of environmental sustainability issues within your company and to your customers? Communication is a key aspect of our CSR program and we have a number of initiatives underway. We just published our first CSR report in April and followed it up with a CSR brochure that is available in our stores for our associates and our customers. We have launched an internal CSR blog where I lead the discussion on CSR issues. I recently joined our chairman & CEO on his monthly "jTalk" forum (which is broadcast to all JCPenney locations) to discuss our CSR program. In addition, we utilize our internal web communications and newsletters to get our message out. To increase our associates’ involvement, we have started Green Teams at our logistics centers and a voluntary CSR Associate Resource Team at our Home Office.
2. What do you think is the biggest opportunity today for retailers who want to become better stewards of the environment? At JCPenney we see many opportunities to become better stewards, including working with our suppliers to decrease the environmental impact of the production of our products, working to decrease the impact of transporting our products and developing products that allow customers to make a purchasing choice that decreases their impact on the environment. Finally, we want to get our associates, no matter what their job, to be aware of the environmental impacts of their actions (on and off the job) and to look for ways to improve our environmental performance.
3. How do you think corporate attitudes and action towards environmental sustainability will change in the next five years? The next 10 years? Because of the potential impacts of climate change, the increasing costs and decreasing availability of energy, the ever-increasing global population and rise of the middle class in developing countries like China and India, there is no question that corporations, especially large national and multinational ones, will be increasingly called upon to play a major role in dealing with the challenge of environmental sustainability for the next five to ten years and continuing into the future. One aspect of this will be increased collaboration with other companies (through efforts like the RILA Sustainability Initiative), with government (we are starting to work with the DOE’s research labs to develop more efficient building designs) and with NGOs.
4. What is the biggest challenge your department faces right now? As a department of one, the challenge is prioritizing where to best invest my time. As a department of 155,000 (our total associate population), the challenge is getting everyone in the organization to realize that they have a role to play in corporate social responsibility and sustainability.
5. If your department's budget for next year was doubled, how would you spend it? My wish list would include additional CSR training and communication activities, as well as supporting joint environmental sustainability projects with suppliers and NGOs.
6. What led you to pursue a career in retail environmental sustainability? I started my career many years ago as an environmental chemist, then moved into health, safety and environment, and then expanded into environmental sustainability. I started to be involved in corporate citizenship/CSR about 10 years ago and then got involved in retail about two years ago when I came to JCPenney (though I spent my last two and a half years at Novartis working in their Gerber Products business unit, which gave me some exposure to retail).
7. Who do you feel is today's most influential public figure regarding environmental issues? To the general public, it is probably Al Gore (though Gov. Schwarzenegger deserves a mention). However, to those of us in the environmental sustainability field, it would probably be a toss-up between John Elkington and Paul Hawken.
8. What is your favorite non-work pastime? Watching my daughter’s soccer games.
9. What book are you reading now? Thomas Friedman’s "Hot, Flat, and Crowded"
10. What is one thing your co-workers don't know about you? That I am both a Longhorn (University of Texas-Austin) alumni and an Aggie alumni (Texas A&M graduate school).