William Sisson, WBCSD's Executive Director in North America sat down with Amy Senter to ask her a few questions and introduce her further to our readers. Amy took on the role of Director, North America at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) this September, bringing extensive experience in having led global environmental and social sustainability functions for a Fortune 200 corporation — Kellogg Company. She is an expert in sustainable food systems, nature-based solutions, sustainable manufacturing, cause marketing, sustainable development, and the circular economy.
She is now leading the programs and projects that will enable our North American corporate members at WBCSD to improve their sustainability performance, collaborate across sectors pre-competitively, and truly help drive industry transformation. Focused on the work areas of Food & Nature and Redefining Value — she is highly passionate about bringing ESG management inside the boardroom and into the finance sector's management systems.
Here, I ask her a few questions as a "get to know you!"
Q: WBCSD recently introduced Vision 2050. How will it help corporations transform their businesses?
A: WBCSD’s Vision 2050 is right on the mark for what the world needs to do. We need to prioritize and take action against the really critical imperatives that the world is facing, like climate, equity and nature. I hope that I can bring some of that prioritization and implementation lens to the work that we do at WBCSD, and be able to contribute to some of the global conversations on these really important issues.
Q: What will you specifically be responsible for in your day-to-day activities?
A: One of the key things that I’ll be working on is how can I help support the North American members and bring to life some of the work that we do on food and nature. There’s so much tremendous work that the organization does in this space and so vitally important to all of the key imperatives that we have.
Q: In addition to food and nature, what else will you be doing?
A: The other part of the work that I’ll be leading for the North America team is around redefining value. As we all know E.S.G. topics are just exploding. The interest from finance communities to unlock new green financing to Green portfolios--it’s everywhere in the news and it’s something that’s so important to our members. Members who are publicly traded or who are being invested in, as well as members who are asset managers themselves.
Q: What role will WBCSD play in redefining value?
A: We help create the right tools and the right measurement techniques so investors and financial institutions can really make educated decisions on their portfolios to take action on climate, nature and equity. For corporate and investors, we need to help them move away from just “what risks do I have” and focus on “what opportunities do I have.” I think sustainability can unlock a lot of opportunity for growth for businesses, if we think about things a little bit differently.
Q: What role will WBCSD members play in addressing the issues of food and nature, and redefining value?
A: Our members are thought of as North Stars within their industry. So, they are able to deliver and execute against their commitments. Importantly, they also can influence others within their industry sectors, share their learnings, and bring others along so they too can take action and take the steps that are necessary to achieve their ESG goals.
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Amy (Braun) Senter recently joined WBCSD – World Business Council for Sustainable Development North America as Director. As a former VP and Chief Sustainability Officer for Kellogg Company, she brings extensive experience in sustainable food systems, nature-based solutions, sustainable manufacturing, the circular economy, and other key areas. For WBCSD, she’ll specifically focus on Food & Nature and Redefining Value, which are critical #ESG issues today inside the boardroom and throughout the nation’s financial industry.
