Welcome to the Daily Compliance News. Each day, Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, brings you compliance-related stories to start your day. Sit back, enjoy a cup of morning coffee, and listen to the Daily Compliance News. All from the Compliance Podcast Network. Each day we consider four stories from the business world, compliance, ethics, risk management, leadership, or general interest for the compliance professional.
Stories we are following in today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:
*This episode first aired as episode 182 of the ESG Report.*
Tom’s guest on this week’s episode of the ESG Report, Richard Blundell, discusses the risks and opportunities associated with growth in the insurance industry. They talk about how to finance a company’s growth by understanding their risks. Business financing is trending towards sustainability, and Tom and Richard explore how companies can access capital by implementing sustainable practices and strategies.
A global environmental services and technology consultant with over 35 years’ experience, Richard Blundell has extensive experience in senior executive management and consulting. Mergers and acquisitions, corporate and market development, and operations management are among his areas of expertise. His experience includes launching new businesses and managing growth-stage businesses around the world. He is also an advisor to the Prince of Wales Accounting for Sustainability charity.
Here are some key points Tom and Richard talk about:
KEY QUOTE:
“If I am going to finance a company’s growth, I want to finance a company that’s in the insurance industry as well. I want to finance the company’s growth by understanding the risks associated with that growth.” – Richard Blundell
Resources
Richard Blundell | LinkedIn
Tom’s guest on this week’s episode of Innovation in Compliance, Richard Blundell, discusses the risks and opportunities associated with growth in the insurance industry. They talk about how to finance a company’s growth by understanding its risks. Business financing is trending towards sustainability, and Tom and Richard explore how companies can access capital by implementing sustainable practices and strategies.
A global environmental services and technology consultant with over 35 years of experience, Richard Blundell has extensive experience in senior executive management and consulting. Mergers and acquisitions, corporate and market development, and operations management are among his areas of expertise. His experience includes launching new businesses and managing growth-stage businesses around the world. He is also an advisor to the Prince of Wales Accounting for Sustainability charity.
Here are some key points Tom and Richard talk about:
KEY QUOTE:
“If I am going to finance a company’s growth, I want to finance a company that’s in the insurance industry as well. I want to finance the company’s growth by understanding the risks associated with that growth.” – Richard Blundell
Resources
Richard Blundell | LinkedIn
In this episode of the ESG Report, Tom Fox discusses the regulatory movement towards mandatory climate disclosure requirements. Guest Jared Connors explains why product liability, previously viewed as a negative for sustainability, is now viewed as a positive.
Jared Connors is on the regulatory team at Assent. In his role, he supports and analyzes the market, engages standards and framework makers and regulatory agencies to help understand what companies will face and how they can comply.
Resources
Jared Connors on LinkedIn
On this special edition of the ESG Report, I repost a recent webinar hosted by Assent. In this webinar, top Assent SMEs looked back at key ESG, supply chain and sustainability topics from 2022 and into 2023. Speakers included Cally Edgren, Director, Regulatory & Sustainability Experts; Dr. Bruce Jarnot, Regulatory & Sustainability Expert, Product Sustainability; Jared Connors, Regulatory & Sustainability Expert, ESG & Responsible Sourcing and Travis Miller, General Counsel.
Topics covered include:
Resources:
For more on Assent, click here.
For the full webinar click here.
Tom Fox’s guest on this week’s show is DeeJae Durante. DeeJae is a livestream strategist and coach, helping individuals with disabilities get their messages out through marketing tools like podcasts and livestreams. She joins Tom to talk about creating accessibility for disabled individuals in the corporate world, and the true meaning of inclusion.
DeeJae’s Mission
Tom asks DeeJae what started her on the path of disability advocacy. DeeJae gives an anecdote about watching her father navigate life after a traumatic brain injury. It sparked the advocacy within her. She is very passionate about helping businesses realize the importance of providing diversity options for people with disabilities, as well as being open and considerate of everyone.
The True Meaning of Inclusion
There is no inclusion without accessibility. It is impossible to be inclusive or diverse in an organization if there is no consideration for disabled people. DeeJae talks about helping businesses create systems that accommodate disabled people and building different types of accessibility. “That’s why I really focus on accessibility and understanding what that concept is, because that will lead to inclusion,” she tells Tom. Creating different options for individuals within the organization to access information is another key component of accessibility. “Communication is so fundamental, and accessibility to information is communication.”
Accessibility Builds Loyalty
“By having a policy of accessibility and inclusion for disabled employees, you not only create a very loyal workforce, but you can actually make your business better,” Tom remarks. This holds true for every aspect of business. Accessibility builds up social worth in your employees. Taking the initiative to be observant about the processes in your businesses and making sure that they are accessible to everyone is going to enhance your business. There is no excuse anymore, and there is no other option than to be accessible. “It’s something that we really need to implement into our businesses and our processes as soon as possible. The sooner that we do that, the better off we’re going to be and the more beneficial it will be to our business,” DeeJae stresses.
Resources
Tom Fox welcomes Page Motes to this episode of the ESG Report. Page is the Head of Global Sustainability at Dell Technologies. In this conversation, Page and Tom talk about sustainability, how Dell oversees it, and where sustainability may go in the future.
The Role of Sustainability
Tom asks Page to elaborate on what role sustainability plays at Dell. “The way we define the sustainability role and purview at our company is around all things environmental and then an aspect of social, really the human rights piece,” Page says. Human capital management, diversity, equity, and inclusion are also part of how Dell defines sustainability.
Moving from Compliance to Sustainability and ESG
There are skills that compliance professionals have that individuals in the field of sustainability can develop. Page specifically points to the ability to understand ambiguity, especially when dealing with the ethics side of ESG and sustainability. On the ethics side, there are more gray areas, so you have to have a set form of values and morals to help you navigate them. In sustainability, not everything is regulated, so you have to understand what works. “You’re working on a global scale. You’re having to understand all aspects of the company and the business. You have to understand the balance between what the business needs for business acceleration and growth,” Page stresses.
Sustainability of The Future
Tom asks Page where she sees sustainability going in the corporate world. Page expresses that companies, as well as Dell, are thinking about how the solutions they offer their user and customer base can help them achieve their goals. “How can technology be used to create systems of change? How can we decarbonize our technology?” These are questions companies are thinking about intently. Currently, ESG and sustainability are more focused on structures and programs to meet regulatory requirements, but Page hopes that in the future, they will be more focused on innovation and collaboration.
Resources
Page Motes | LinkedIn
Fariyal Khanbabi is the CEO and chairman of Dialight Group, an LED industrial lighting technology company that services the maritime industry. Dialight’s LED products provide lighting solutions that deliver reduced energy consumption and create a safer working environment. Fariyal joins Tom Fox to talk about her company’s product and services, as well as her thoughts on ESG.
What is Dialight?
Tom asks Fariyal to tell listeners more about Dialight. Dialight is the global leader in sustainable LED lighting solutions for the industrial market, she responds. Wherever there’s a harsh environment or a plant where some kind of heavy industrial work is going on, Dialight is there providing “the next generation of lighting solutions that deliver reduced energy consumption, and most importantly a safe working environment”. As a company in the 21st century, Dialight is focused on promoting and executing sustainable practices and solving the climate crisis, using technology.
Environmental Protection Declaration
Fariyal defines Environmental Protection Declaration (EPD) and how Dialight utilizes them. An EPD is a verified document that communicates transparent and comparable information about the life-cycle environmental impact of products. Approximately 2 years ago, Dialight began using an independent agency to issue EPDs on their products, which verifies the environmental impact of all their major product lines. They focus on the materials they use, and it helps them understand what they should use for the next generation of products. They have incorporated the use of EPDs into their sales program as it helps them get products made with recyclable and sustainable materials that are approved by a board of environmental experts.
Workforce Sustainability
Tom asks how sustainability, environmental consciousness, and governance are incorporated into employee acquisition. Fariyal explains that statistically, the next generation of employees does not want to work for a company that does not have a social conscience or is not doing something to help the environment. Even though Dialight is the most sustainable lighting company on the market right now, they actively try to make their employees feel that way. They participate in various initiatives based on environmental and gender-based activities and actively try to encourage women to find their space in the industrial industry.
Resources:
Fariyal Khanbabi | LinkedIn | Dialight
In part 3 of the Supply Chain and ESG – What You Need to Know series, Cally Edgren and Devin O’Herron of Assent join Tom Fox to discuss product compliance and sustainability. They explore how the two worlds are starting to intersect.
Making sure products meet regulatory requirements is what product compliance is all about. In recent years, the requirements have been changing. There used to be a focus on safety features like mechanical and electrical safety, but things changed with the RoHS Directive in 2002. That directive was meant to make sure electronic waste from third-world countries was safe. It was one of the first times a regulatory rule had more to do with sustainability than traditional product safety.
Manufacturers need to understand that their customers are no longer just concerned with what they hold in their hands at the end of the process – they want to make sure that their suppliers are using responsible processes. The two worlds of operations compliance and product compliance are starting to connect. As we become increasingly aware of the importance and relevance of the social and environmental costs associated with manufacturing processes and the barrier they present towards sustainability, ESG metrics represent another way of managing and measuring these externalities.
Resources
Tom Fox is joined by Jed Yueh, founder and CEO of Delphix. They discuss his newest passion project with SustainableIT.org and their mission to advance global sustainability through technology and leadership.
The Work of SustainableIT.org
Many people believe that sustainability is somebody else’s problem to solve, but Jed makes it clear that we cannot keep thinking that way if we want to make a difference. At SustainableIT.org, they collaborate with esteemed technology leaders to drive sustainability forward across the world’s largest organizations.
The Link Between Technology and ESG
Jed tells Tom that companies must “take a hard look at how you govern technology programs so that they don’t have adverse impacts on society and the environment.” Most companies view ESG as something in-demand, and so they independently chart the course they will take on ESG initiatives. At SustainableIT.org, they create and identify the best programs that can actually digitize the way a business functions while decreasing its carbon footprint.
Making an Impact
Facilitating change is not about one technology company being pro-environment. Jed names a number of SustainableIT.org’s board members, explaining how many of these great technologists work for some of the world’s biggest companies. “That’s how we can have the biggest impact,” he says.
RESOURCES
Tom Fox’s email
Jedidiah Yueh | LinkedIn | Twitter | SustainableIT.org
