Author Archives: Kathee Rebernak
On March 11, Norma Menis-Croxall, a close colleague, friend, and tireless champion of sustainability/CSR at the Hershey Company, was killed in an auto accident.
I first spoke with Norma in April of last year, as she was preparing to launch the process for developing the Hershey Company’s first report. By the time we met in person in July, she and I had developed a close working relationship, often talking late at night after our children were fed and goodnights said. Often we talked about our children, balancing our work and home lives, and the challenging and exciting work that always seemed to lie ahead. By my rough count, we spent easily more than 100 hours in conversation from the time we first spoke through last Thursday.
She had a terrific sense of humor and an ability to bring people together around sustainability, about which she was passionate. She was always engaging,… More
The invitation
Recently a Very Large Company (known hereinafter as “VLC”) invited us to participate in an RFP process for its upcoming sustainability report. Now, RFPs are tricky: they often are impersonal, offer no opportunity to see if there’s a fit, and provide little insight into company culture or potential pitfalls. And yet, I thought, it might be interesting to work with this company. So I say yes, we’d love to participate.
We receive the RFP invitation in an email that begins “Dear Valued Suppliers” and provides a link to an online procurement platform, along with log-in instructions. I log in and am greeted by a document entitled “Terms and Conditions”, to which I am required to agree before accessing the site.
I read the document with growing amazement and dismay. To even participate in the bidding process, I am required to represent and warrant that my firm “has the financial… More
We moved into new, bigger office space on December 23. In an old bank building in downtown Stamford, our new space is open and light and, thanks to some serious cajoling on my part, has low-VOC carpet and paint.
After receiving the equivalent of a shrug in response to my initial request for low-VOC carpet and paint, I began, over the course of several conversations, extolling the virtues of sustainable building. I rattled off some ballpark cost-reduction/payback percentages and facts on tenant health and productivity for green buildings. Then I relayed a comment by Manuel Patino, Director of Strategic Planning at JP Morgan Chase, during a panel I had recently moderated, that went something like this: companies that don’t build to LEED standards better plan to hold those buildings for a very long time, because there will be no market for them. Having finally piqued his… More
