Rachel Kaufman - Senior Director, Global Sustainability at Avantor
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Rachel Kaufman is the Senior Director, Global Sustainability at Avantor, a leading\\xa0global provider of mission-critical products and services to customers in the\\xa0life sciences and technology industries. In this role, Rachel is responsible\\xa0for establishing the company\'s environmental sustainability strategies and\\xa0targets related to operations and products. She also oversees Avantor\'s broader Science for Goodness Sustainability Program and leads ESG reporting\\xa0and customer and investor ESG engagement.
Rachel\'s sustainability industry experience spans over 20 years. Before\\xa0joining Avantor, she served as the Global Director of Environmental\\xa0Sustainability for Johnson & Johnson\'s Consumer Health and Vision Care\\xa0segments and managed communications and environmental policy for non-profit\\xa0and government agencies in Washington, DC. Rachel holds a B.S. in NaturalResources from Cornell University and an MBA from the University of North\\xa0Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Rachel Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss:
- Avantor\\u2019s internal sustainability program: Science for Goodness
- Achieving consistent GHG reductions year over year
- How Avantor is addressing product use
- Avantor\\u2019s responsible supplier program
- Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals
Rachel\\u2019s Final Five Questions Responses:
What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?\\xa0
Hopefully this doesn\'t come across as something that is obvious, but I would say, I view corporate sustainability quite differently than I view nonprofit work, environmental, conservation work. There is a business side of it. I decided to go back and get my MBA. I\'m not saying that\'s what you need to do, but somehow really beef up that understanding of: what are the challenges that your functional and cross-functional partners are facing. What is it like to be the CFO? What might be their barriers to being able to approve the investment that you need to achieve your sustainability goals? Getting an understanding of the Head of Sales and HR and where their challenges are I think is really key to being able to have those conversations and progress quickly on sustainability goals.\\xa0
What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?\\xa0
It\'s the spotlight, the debate and the day-to-day. The fact that in mass media right now, when you hear about these severe weather events, there\'s a mention of climate. When there\'s talk of the economy, there\'s a discussion of equity. It\'s really encouraging to see these topics get into the mainstream conversations on the related topics because they are so integral and so interrelated.\\xa0
What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read?\\xa0
I actually am not a huge reader of books. I get a lot of my information from reading articles, current events and podcasts. I would recommend folks follow some of the newsletters such as GreenBiz, Corporate Eco Forum, Sustainable Brands, and a top one I really like is actually the New York Stock Exchange. They do a top five ESG weekly roundup. I find that that\'s just a really great quick summary of what\'s happening in this space, particularly from that investor perspective. So I\'m going to actually do a surprising plug for some of those email newsletters\\xa0
What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?\\xa0
One answer is the newsletters and the distributors that I just mentioned, but actually the sustainability network. We all have it, but I\'ve joined a couple of sustainability groups of peers where we\'ve been able to have these honest conversations of the challenges in a safe space. It is so helpful to hear that you are not alone in these challenges, and to be able to share learnings you have and be able to share confidentially and hear from others on how they have overcome some of the challenges. Find that network. Some are more structured than others where you can ask for those honest conversations. There\'s a few that I\'m a part of that other folks you\\u2019ve had on the phone are a part of and we have spoken to about achieving these targets together.\\xa0
Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Avantor?
Our corporate website, which is avantorsciences.com. It\'s actually getting an overhaul soon, but it has a bunch of sustainability information under the \\u201cAbout Us.\\u201d Then of course you can follow myself or Avantor on LinkedIn. We do post quite a bit about our sustainability, DEI, and the work that we\'re doing in this space on LinkedIn.
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