Christopher Wellise, Global VP of Sustainability at Equinix: Taking Calculated Risks to Drive Sustainable Change

WEBVTT

1
00:00:02.450 --> 00:00:10.899
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Hi, I'm Shannon, Lucas. I'm the co-CEO of catalyst constellations which is dedicated to empowering catalyst to create bold, powerful change in the world.

2
00:00:11.080 --> 00:00:20.399
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: This is our podcast move, fast, break, shit burnout. Where we speak with catalyst executives about ways to successfully lead transformation in large organizations.

3
00:00:20.490 --> 00:00:27.689
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: And I am thrilled today, and I intentionally sought him out to have Christopher Wallace with us. Welcome, Christopher.

4
00:00:27.690 --> 00:00:30.889
Christopher Wellise: Thanks, Shannon. Great to be with you here on this afternoon.

5
00:00:30.890 --> 00:00:37.180
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: A little bit of background. Christopher is the global Vice president of sustainability for Equinix.

6
00:00:37.180 --> 00:01:01.640
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: He and his team set the sustainability, strategy and key targets for the company. They collaborate with the CEO, the Cfo, the Cro operations, and the board super important to interpret changes in the external sustainability strategy prior to Equinix he led Aws's global sustainability effort focused on improving company performance and of course, at Aws meeting customer needs.

7
00:01:02.010 --> 00:01:16.210
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Prior to that, he was the Chief Sustainability officer at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where he led the setting of the 1st science-based supply chain climate target and built a customer facing sustainability team to deliver revenue.

8
00:01:16.210 --> 00:01:36.399
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: He began his career, which is super interesting because not all sustainability. People have this as an environmental environmental slash. Physical scientist working for the Us. Department of Interior, studying the impact of investment in pollution control systems on river and estuary ecosystems. You have an incredible sustainability background. I'm so thrilled to have you?

9
00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:48.240
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: All right. So let's jump in, because that's just sort of the clinical bio. But we would love to hear from you about your catalytic journey, maybe sharing a few career highlights that you're proud of, that help us see your catalytic nature.

10
00:01:48.780 --> 00:02:00.759
Christopher Wellise: Yeah, thanks, Shannon. Well, as as you sort of lay that out. It all sounds very intentional, but I assure you a lot of it was sort of quite a bit of stumbling and accidental circuitous pathway. That's.

11
00:02:00.760 --> 00:02:01.160
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Yeah.

12
00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:08.977
Christopher Wellise: Got me to to where I am today. But you know, I think you know as we sort of spoke about briefly before.

13
00:02:09.560 --> 00:02:13.799
Christopher Wellise: you know, I've largely had this north star of

14
00:02:14.480 --> 00:02:26.509
Christopher Wellise: really working at the intersection of business and environment, you know, and I got involved in that, you know, at a time when really sustainable green companies weren't really a thing.

15
00:02:26.750 --> 00:02:49.569
Christopher Wellise: But my passion was how to have impact at scale and how to really move the needle within businesses. I mean, I actually remember in grad school, I think, a round table my 1st day when people were talking about what they intended to do from a career perspective. There were lots of folks going into the Ngo community and policy, and so on.

16
00:02:49.730 --> 00:02:57.449
Christopher Wellise: And I talked about what I thought was the need to really work within business. And people really thought, you know, that I was, you know.

17
00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:06.300
Christopher Wellise: going to work for the devil at the time, because business were not viewed as a positive thing, particularly in the environmental space.

18
00:03:06.850 --> 00:03:13.229
Christopher Wellise: So you know, worked my way through research, working with the Federal Government as you had mentioned, and

19
00:03:13.350 --> 00:03:30.490
Christopher Wellise: got into what was largely a compliance. Driven career in those days, working with small and medium sized businesses, air permitting water permitting, and you know, in kind of the early days of sustainability. Some of our customers, as I was working as an environmental consultant, began to ask questions like.

20
00:03:31.147 --> 00:03:36.202
Christopher Wellise: You know, what does your supply chain look like? Where are you getting your raw materials from?

21
00:03:36.930 --> 00:03:41.410
Christopher Wellise: And these were really kind of the the origins of the sustainability movement

22
00:03:41.946 --> 00:03:52.680
Christopher Wellise: and and then began to continue to do that work, and then went to work and jumped over and worked for one of my clients who was some some microsystem at the time.

23
00:03:52.850 --> 00:04:04.429
Christopher Wellise: a big tech company who got absorbed by oracle, but was really a big player back in the early 2 thousands and late 19 nineties, and have been in tech ever since.

24
00:04:06.150 --> 00:04:27.540
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: How it's a fascinating journey, and so many catalysts have, like a circuitous, certainly non-direct route. I'm wondering, you know, you mentioned having this North Star and then thinking about where you could have the most impact. And you were comparing that to what some of your other graduate school colleagues were thinking about.

25
00:04:27.810 --> 00:04:38.170
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: What advice do you have for people about how to align their North star in a way that maximizes impact? Because there's a lot of potential routes that you could go through.

26
00:04:39.921 --> 00:04:47.250
Christopher Wellise: Yeah, I mean it. It, you know. Often I think the intentional path is is the most

27
00:04:47.630 --> 00:04:48.409
Christopher Wellise: well.

28
00:04:49.330 --> 00:04:53.609
Christopher Wellise: it's difficult, right? Because it largely becomes sort of accidental.

29
00:04:53.710 --> 00:05:11.950
Christopher Wellise: So you know, I think I've had these brief sort of lucky moments in time like. For instance, when I went went to work for. HP, I I really thought, Okay, here is an opportunity. At the time the company was huge before they split they were selling 3 or 4 products.

30
00:05:12.140 --> 00:05:24.270
Christopher Wellise: you know, a minute everywhere in the world. And I thought if I could change one process in one of those products that I could really have an impact.

31
00:05:25.470 --> 00:05:51.280
Christopher Wellise: But I think it was also largely process of elimination. Right? So I had this vision, this north star of working at the intersection of business and environment and kept pushing my way into these scenarios where I thought I'd be able to have impact. And sometimes I was able to. And sometimes I wasn't. So I think it's it's don't get frustrated in the immediate or near term.

32
00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:54.430
Christopher Wellise: But understand where you want to be.

33
00:05:54.983 --> 00:06:03.249
Christopher Wellise: And it's okay. If you stumble or make mistakes, or feel like you're not in the right place. You're learning something

34
00:06:03.290 --> 00:06:04.790
Christopher Wellise: every step of the way.

35
00:06:05.750 --> 00:06:30.340
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: It's really good advice, the not getting frustrated piece, and that it's not going to be a clear path, and you hit on something like when I was working on my sustainable Mba. People were like, Oh, Walmart is the devil, and you can have that opinion. But I had a similar thing which was like, if you changed 1% of how they operate, you're going to make more impact than all of the social enterprises combined. Potentially.

36
00:06:30.340 --> 00:06:37.579
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: So I'm just wondering if you have advice for people navigating. Some of those sort of, you know North Star value trade-offs

37
00:06:37.580 --> 00:06:44.000
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: about how they work with large organizations and navigate that? Are we making enough progress at this point?

38
00:06:44.980 --> 00:06:51.789
Christopher Wellise: Well, we're never making enough progress right? I think you know most of us in this field.

39
00:06:51.980 --> 00:07:06.117
Christopher Wellise: you know, tend to be missionaries, not mercenaries right? I mean, I never thought a Chief sustainability officer job would ever exist. When I 1st got into this field. I never frankly even thought about. You know.

40
00:07:07.550 --> 00:07:13.178
Christopher Wellise: you know, salary or income or lifestyle is kind of part of what I was doing.

41
00:07:13.940 --> 00:07:16.860
Christopher Wellise: I thought more about how could I have impact.

42
00:07:17.690 --> 00:07:21.140
Christopher Wellise: And you know, I think

43
00:07:21.180 --> 00:07:44.749
Christopher Wellise: impatience is is good, right? You want to have that impatience. And and I think you're always in these situations where you're sort of torn and forced to make decisions and reflect upon your own personal values. And in the end it's a very personal decision for all of us, and it's sort of about it's about balance in the end. Right?

44
00:07:45.170 --> 00:08:03.709
Christopher Wellise: You know. I certainly have a tremendous amount of respect for my colleagues in research that continued down that path and are in the jungles of Central America, or wherever they might be. You know today, continuing to do that work with insects or ecology, and and so on, and so forth.

45
00:08:03.760 --> 00:08:05.970
Christopher Wellise: For for me it was

46
00:08:06.270 --> 00:08:09.280
Christopher Wellise: having to, I think, adjust to

47
00:08:09.620 --> 00:08:16.119
Christopher Wellise: what it's like to work within a large corporation and understand that there are fundamental aspects of

48
00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:21.951
Christopher Wellise: capitalism and production and manufacturing, and those impacts

49
00:08:22.640 --> 00:08:25.729
Christopher Wellise: and then adjust and decide

50
00:08:25.870 --> 00:08:27.940
Christopher Wellise: where you can make a difference.

51
00:08:29.320 --> 00:08:42.870
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Super cool. Yeah spot on. So you sort of touched on this. But in your own words, how do you relate to the concept of catalyst, and maybe how do you see that connecting to you, being a successful catalyst executive.

52
00:08:44.330 --> 00:08:57.069
Christopher Wellise: Yeah, I mean, I think we're all probably catalysts in our own way. Right? It's a matter of scale, I mean, there, you could be a catalyst within your own family unit. Or if you're a teacher within a school

53
00:08:57.490 --> 00:09:02.730
Christopher Wellise: it doesn't necessarily need to be at a global large scale within a big company.

54
00:09:02.730 --> 00:09:03.210
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Totally.

55
00:09:03.210 --> 00:09:20.429
Christopher Wellise: I think it. It's sort of a way of thinking. It's not a matter of measurable impact necessarily, because sometimes that impacts hard to measure. I mean, if you impact one student in a class as a teacher that could have a ripple effect that can last for generations.

56
00:09:20.740 --> 00:09:28.650
Christopher Wellise: So I think it's more of a mindset. And I, when you and I talked about it, I think I've always probably been born with sort of this

57
00:09:29.040 --> 00:09:36.429
Christopher Wellise: healthy, or maybe sometimes a bit annoying level of impatience, that things just don't move fast enough.

58
00:09:37.650 --> 00:09:39.920
Christopher Wellise: I've had to kind of learn to adjust

59
00:09:40.050 --> 00:09:44.059
Christopher Wellise: in some settings that, but I think it's it's about

60
00:09:44.310 --> 00:09:48.859
Christopher Wellise: seeing how to connect dots where they haven't been connected before

61
00:09:50.160 --> 00:09:50.800
Christopher Wellise: and

62
00:09:51.570 --> 00:09:54.849
Christopher Wellise: make progress toward a vision

63
00:09:55.180 --> 00:10:03.129
Christopher Wellise: that you can actually see having an impact at some point in the future. And and I think that's what being a catalyst is all about.

64
00:10:04.270 --> 00:10:23.819
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: How do you navigate? I mean, that sense of impatience is so prevalent in the community, and there's a fine line you can't get too complacent, or you're not driving enough change. But if you're too impatient you might be moving too fast and leaving the organization the system behind. How have you navigated walking that knife's edge.

65
00:10:24.590 --> 00:10:28.043
Christopher Wellise: Yeah, I mean, it's been a learning process, and it still is for me.

66
00:10:28.310 --> 00:10:38.340
Christopher Wellise: right? I mean, I think one of the things that I'm not always great at is bringing others along, because I sort of you know, when I get an idea, I get really excited about that idea.

67
00:10:38.450 --> 00:10:44.650
Christopher Wellise: And I I kind of want to force that forward. But you recognize the importance of

68
00:10:45.210 --> 00:10:50.400
Christopher Wellise: clearly communicating and articulating your vision, bringing others along with you.

69
00:10:50.510 --> 00:10:52.859
Christopher Wellise: Collaborating.

70
00:10:53.000 --> 00:11:02.010
Christopher Wellise: creating the right coalition of team members, partners, mentors, and others to really help you

71
00:11:02.050 --> 00:11:08.789
Christopher Wellise: move your vision forward. So that's always a learning process for me, and it still is today.

72
00:11:09.244 --> 00:11:13.360
Christopher Wellise: So I think you know, that's that's a large part of.

73
00:11:13.420 --> 00:11:17.959
Christopher Wellise: I think, what it takes. And you know we all have our blind spots.

74
00:11:18.180 --> 00:11:19.570
Christopher Wellise: so do you.

75
00:11:19.570 --> 00:11:20.160
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Have

76
00:11:21.060 --> 00:11:30.660
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: sorry. Do you have someone, or a system, or a way that you can sense when you're not sort of straddling that lead. You know that path.

77
00:11:31.380 --> 00:11:48.299
Christopher Wellise: Yeah, I mean the way I you know, I'm fortunate enough to kind of mentor a lot of younger career folks in the sustainability space, and it's probably true in any field, not just sustainability, but often the analogy I use it really is like pushing a boulder up a hill, and when you're

78
00:11:48.490 --> 00:12:00.644
Christopher Wellise: totally exhausted and you feel like it's gonna roll back over you. Sometimes it slowly starts to roll down the other side and create that momentum. That's really exciting.

79
00:12:01.260 --> 00:12:05.800
Christopher Wellise: so I think it's it's really persistence. And

80
00:12:06.100 --> 00:12:14.180
Christopher Wellise: you know, it's a it's a matter of kind of taking calculated risks. Right? I think you always run the risk of

81
00:12:14.550 --> 00:12:23.129
Christopher Wellise: maybe over collaboration over socialization which can venture into stagnation.

82
00:12:23.130 --> 00:12:23.530
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Correct.

83
00:12:23.530 --> 00:12:35.930
Christopher Wellise: So. I think it's it's a lot of it's intuitive, right? And it comes with sort of experience. But I think you get a couple of the right people in your corner.

84
00:12:36.130 --> 00:12:38.859
Christopher Wellise: you begin to push your ideas forward.

85
00:12:40.170 --> 00:12:51.689
Christopher Wellise: You stop, check yourself, make necessary adjustments when that resistance comes about, and then you just keep moving forward until you really start to see things accelerate.

86
00:12:52.910 --> 00:13:18.940
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: I love. It's something that hasn't come up in other conversations honestly, is the calculated risks and sometimes the over collaboration and socialization. And I'm wondering. I can imagine how people get there, especially around sustainability, because a lot of people will be in the room like shaking their head like who doesn't want to say yes to that, right? But at the same time it doesn't mean that someone else is helping to pull the trigger.

87
00:13:18.940 --> 00:13:30.300
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: How do you know. I mean, I hear the burnout part. But how do you know if you're spending too much time on the socialization and bringing people around versus like, let's go get something done soon.

88
00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:44.730
Christopher Wellise: You know. That's a it's a great question. I mean, you know I sort of think about. We've been fortunate in this field over the course of the last 10 years, because I think we've really had some tailwinds. But you know, when I started my career I was just talking to a

89
00:13:44.830 --> 00:14:13.032
Christopher Wellise: a young person on my team, I said. I remember when having sustainability in your title was a scary thing, and we sort of avoided Ceos because we really appeared to be a cost center. It's like, Well, what is that? You're the tree, you know. And so it was really kind of a dangerous place to be at 1 point in time, and now everybody wants it in their title. It's an exciting sexy place, which is magnificent and really cool, and couldn't be better.

90
00:14:14.650 --> 00:14:18.738
Christopher Wellise: But I think sort of how do you know? And I think you know

91
00:14:19.810 --> 00:14:24.500
Christopher Wellise: you know, when you start to feel like a drag on whatever organization

92
00:14:24.800 --> 00:14:41.370
Christopher Wellise: that you're that you're in. When you feel like you're not providing value. You're you're not able to measure success or the success that you're bringing about those around you. I think that's when you know you're going too slow.

93
00:14:42.680 --> 00:14:56.589
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: It's fascinating like measurements and performance and incentives are so critical to creating change. So what are some of the biggest challenges that you've had, being an executive driving change in large organizations.

94
00:14:56.590 --> 00:15:06.039
Christopher Wellise: Yeah, we just add to that, too, Shannon. And and you know, because I am in business, I mean, I don't always mean you know, success like measured by revenue.

95
00:15:06.100 --> 00:15:13.139
Christopher Wellise: for instance, it could be change in culture. It could be change in strategy.

96
00:15:13.552 --> 00:15:37.169
Christopher Wellise: The way that you measure success or your impacts that you're having as an organization. Those could also be successes. Right? So I think that's important. You know, a number of challenges. And I think a lot of it comes down to preparation, too. I mean, I remember, you know, speak about. I worked for a really big company unnamed at this point. But

97
00:15:37.640 --> 00:15:45.900
Christopher Wellise: I remember working for leadership. And this is some years ago, when we really started as kind of the beginning of kind of the climate change movement

98
00:15:45.980 --> 00:16:02.069
Christopher Wellise: and the shareholder movement around Esg, although they didn't really call it Esg yet. And going into an analyst call and being told by a leader. Don't worry. We're gonna have you there. But no one ever asks about

99
00:16:02.660 --> 00:16:08.429
Christopher Wellise: no one ever asks about sustainability. Any of these calls, so you don't need to worry about it. You probably won't need to say anything.

100
00:16:08.710 --> 00:16:16.419
Christopher Wellise: but I had sort of a prepared answer in my head that I had practiced for about 4 years if it ever came up.

101
00:16:16.760 --> 00:16:21.160
Christopher Wellise: and one of the biggest shareholders actually asked a question

102
00:16:21.390 --> 00:16:27.680
Christopher Wellise: about sustainability and the rise in shareholder resolutions at the time, and

103
00:16:27.770 --> 00:16:37.330
Christopher Wellise: the chairperson of the board, the CEO, and the general counsel. All looked at each other, and no one knew how to answer the question. And I was this unknown

104
00:16:37.610 --> 00:16:41.339
Christopher Wellise: guy sitting in the corner and stood up

105
00:16:41.400 --> 00:16:44.849
Christopher Wellise: and said, Here's what we're doing about that. And

106
00:16:45.170 --> 00:16:52.999
Christopher Wellise: it it really accelerated my career, and I think, even more importantly, it accelerated the investment at that particular company

107
00:16:53.310 --> 00:16:55.610
Christopher Wellise: around that movement. So

108
00:16:55.770 --> 00:17:00.840
Christopher Wellise: that was a tough time, like I said. I mean, there were sort of the sustainability. Dark ages, you know, kind of

109
00:17:01.090 --> 00:17:07.750
Christopher Wellise: the early 2 thousands, you know, where a lot of things weren't happening. So I think that was a tough time.

110
00:17:07.960 --> 00:17:12.840
Christopher Wellise: Another tough time is, you know, I worked for a CEO that

111
00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:22.460
Christopher Wellise: ran for governor in a big state in the country and part of their platform was anti-climate change

112
00:17:23.308 --> 00:17:29.039
Christopher Wellise: and then I had to not only convince that person, but the rest of the organization.

113
00:17:29.080 --> 00:17:33.690
Christopher Wellise: that this was not only important for society, but important for us as a company.

114
00:17:33.790 --> 00:17:35.800
Christopher Wellise: and I think was able to

115
00:17:35.900 --> 00:17:49.770
Christopher Wellise: make some of that. That change happen internally to the point where they ended up really becoming an advocate for for climate and the importance of climate to drive business value. And that was that was a big success.

116
00:17:50.080 --> 00:18:00.339
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: That's a freaking, amazing story. Are you kidding to help us understand how you did that? Because if you can do that in that kind of polarized context. It has to be easier in a lot of other contexts.

117
00:18:00.340 --> 00:18:11.043
Christopher Wellise: Yeah, well, I mean, I'm just, I think part of it is just. I'm stubborn, right? So I've always been stubborn. So just really not giving up

118
00:18:12.510 --> 00:18:20.170
Christopher Wellise: improving your communication skills, I think, is really really important in this field. I think they're becoming even more important.

119
00:18:20.550 --> 00:18:46.780
Christopher Wellise: You know, I think, as I kind of emerged from education, all my counselors and we were constantly being told by professors, you really want to specialize in a given area, become a technical expert, particularly in the environmental sciences and so on. It's absolutely that opposite advice that I give to young people today, which is, you want to be a meter deep and a kilometer wide.

120
00:18:46.820 --> 00:18:49.919
Christopher Wellise: You want to have the ability to go deep when you need to.

121
00:18:51.140 --> 00:18:57.690
Christopher Wellise: You don't want to be an inch deep or a couple centimeters deep. But you want to be a meter deep, which is why I use that term.

122
00:18:57.750 --> 00:19:00.630
Christopher Wellise: and you also need to have breadth.

123
00:19:00.840 --> 00:19:03.069
Christopher Wellise: and I think you know.

124
00:19:03.240 --> 00:19:04.690
Christopher Wellise: persistence

125
00:19:05.040 --> 00:19:12.479
Christopher Wellise: does pay off. And and I think, you know, figure out how to align incentives within an organization.

126
00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:18.930
Christopher Wellise: What? What are the things that other people are measuring their success on.

127
00:19:18.940 --> 00:19:26.660
Christopher Wellise: What are the performance driver for that particular organization that you're working for and figure out how to align the things that you're working on

128
00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:28.200
Christopher Wellise: with those elements.

129
00:19:29.500 --> 00:19:55.309
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Yeah, I totally agree. And I'm wondering because it is a unique case, I guess, for catalyst in general, but also sustainability. People like, if you have a CEO, we're not always reporting, or whoever the senior executives there might be a couple of layers in between us and that person, and things that you said really resonate, which is like understanding their personal motivations or the business motivations, etc. But it's not always easy to

130
00:19:56.060 --> 00:20:12.249
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: find those insights like. It's not like you have a friend. Everyone has a friendly relationship with the CEO or the key stakeholders. I'm wondering how you've successfully navigated understanding what the motivations were so that you could use your communication skills to speak specifically, to get them on board.

131
00:20:13.990 --> 00:20:27.610
Christopher Wellise: You know, it's it's about, you know. I hate to say it. It's so cliche. But it really is about building relationships right? And and developing your own network within the organization that you're working in.

132
00:20:28.530 --> 00:20:33.430
Christopher Wellise: And I think you know, developing your own credibility.

133
00:20:33.500 --> 00:20:36.940
Christopher Wellise: building your own political capital

134
00:20:37.190 --> 00:20:48.359
Christopher Wellise: within an organization, you know, is is super important. I'm really fortunate to work for some amazing leaders at the company I work for now at Equinix, and

135
00:20:48.370 --> 00:21:03.499
Christopher Wellise: and for the 1st time actually in my career. You know, I work within the office of the of the chief financial officer. Which is a really special place to be for a sustainability professional. We talked about it, you know, kind of.

136
00:21:03.510 --> 00:21:06.380
Christopher Wellise: I can almost talk to

137
00:21:06.630 --> 00:21:08.300
Christopher Wellise: a sustainability

138
00:21:08.950 --> 00:21:17.040
Christopher Wellise: professional within a company, and if they tell me where they work, I could tell you where they are in the maturity curve along that particular journey.

139
00:21:17.501 --> 00:21:20.549
Christopher Wellise: I think things have changed over time, but

140
00:21:20.620 --> 00:21:22.230
Christopher Wellise: it's a great place to be.

141
00:21:22.690 --> 00:21:36.719
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Well, and I mentioned to you in our earlier conversation, it's so fascinating what you guys have done with green bonds. And now that I understand that you report into the Cfo. That makes a lot of sense. Do you want to talk about that for a minute? Because it's not something that a lot of companies are doing.

142
00:21:37.100 --> 00:21:52.710
Christopher Wellise: Yeah, sure, I think it is super innovative. And I think you know, I really you know the woman that I work for, who's the senior Vice President of Corporate finance, treasury and sustainability. She's an exceptional leader, and I think it was really her idea and her innovation

143
00:21:52.980 --> 00:21:56.680
Christopher Wellise: to to bring it about within within

144
00:21:56.990 --> 00:22:03.049
Christopher Wellise: Equinix, within the company. We're now one of the largest issuers of green bonds in the country.

145
00:22:03.390 --> 00:22:16.699
Christopher Wellise: and you know it's green bonds for those that aren't aware. It's, you know, it's a type of fixed income investment that finances, projects that have positive environmental impact. And you have to create a framework

146
00:22:16.850 --> 00:22:22.270
Christopher Wellise: for which types of investments that debt will fund. And then kind of track

147
00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:33.200
Christopher Wellise: those investments. And there's there's a slight marginal benefit that you get from a cost basis by by doing that and driving

148
00:22:33.790 --> 00:22:38.660
Christopher Wellise: driving investment that does have a positive environmental impact. So

149
00:22:38.740 --> 00:23:08.319
Christopher Wellise: we're at, I believe, over 5 billion now in terms of overall. We've allocated those investments toward, you know, we build data centers at Equinix. That's what we do build and operate data centers. So you can think we use a lot of energy. So building our buildings in a more sustainable way, operating in a way that reduces our energy and water consumption. These are all critical ways that we power, digital infrastructure and power. The way that we all sort of communicate, transact

150
00:23:08.350 --> 00:23:11.500
Christopher Wellise: and crunch data today in modern society.

151
00:23:11.970 --> 00:23:22.819
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Yeah, and we're not even going to go down the AI rabbit hole. But I saw some articles about you, and it's like there's just more complexity on top of that system any other final challenges that you want to share.

152
00:23:24.340 --> 00:23:39.219
Christopher Wellise: I mean, the challenges are many, right? And I mean, I think sustainability is such an exciting space. I mean, it's it's just really continues to rapidly evolve and I think, you know, we're at a really critical junction in time.

153
00:23:39.370 --> 00:23:52.359
Christopher Wellise: You know. I think you know, it's it's really hard to ignore the symptoms of the warming of our planet, things like biodiversity loss, and so on. So I mean, I think you know.

154
00:23:52.690 --> 00:23:56.469
Christopher Wellise: the space needs lots of smart dedicated

155
00:23:56.971 --> 00:24:03.838
Christopher Wellise: folks to get in to get into it in order to really have a positive impact. So I think,

156
00:24:04.950 --> 00:24:12.439
Christopher Wellise: you know, I would encourage. I would encourage, you know, young people or or folks that are mid career or or so on, that

157
00:24:12.600 --> 00:24:17.129
Christopher Wellise: if you're passionate about it, you think you can have an impact that that jump right in.

158
00:24:18.390 --> 00:24:22.750
Christopher Wellise: you know, even if your job doesn't have sustainability in the title, figure out.

159
00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:26.110
Christopher Wellise: figure out how you can have an impact in your day to day. Job.

160
00:24:26.310 --> 00:24:35.960
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Totally. I was just going to say that it's like we need more sustainability professionals. But we need all the other professionals to embrace sustainability. So I love that and the catalyst. I think that'll totally resonate.

161
00:24:36.010 --> 00:24:54.030
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: So, moving on to the next question, what wisdom do you have for other catalyst executives in the context of, we often get called the troublemakers or the disruptors. Yeah. Any wisdom to share, to help be successful and be seen as successful by your peers.

162
00:24:54.700 --> 00:24:59.463
Christopher Wellise: You. You know this is an interesting one. It's probably somewhat controversial.

163
00:25:00.260 --> 00:25:01.260
Christopher Wellise: but but

164
00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:03.060
Christopher Wellise: you know

165
00:25:04.350 --> 00:25:15.219
Christopher Wellise: and I don't know. Maybe my boss will hear this. Maybe she won't. But you know, I think there have been these sort of moments throughout my career

166
00:25:15.950 --> 00:25:24.109
Christopher Wellise: where I look back, and I think I've had the biggest breakthroughs were probably moments where I actually thought I was going to get fired

167
00:25:24.300 --> 00:25:26.999
Christopher Wellise: because I was really.

168
00:25:27.150 --> 00:25:29.659
Christopher Wellise: I thought, pushing the envelope and

169
00:25:31.410 --> 00:25:35.876
Christopher Wellise: you know, and I think it disrupted the status quo at certain times.

170
00:25:37.390 --> 00:25:39.740
Christopher Wellise: you know. But it didn't happen.

171
00:25:40.290 --> 00:25:45.070
Christopher Wellise: I you know it's all about calculated risk. Right? So I think you know.

172
00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:48.669
Christopher Wellise: the biggest risk in your career is not taking risks.

173
00:25:50.560 --> 00:25:51.800
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Totally.

174
00:25:51.810 --> 00:26:15.059
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: It's so true. Any advice for people about the evaluation of that. So my motto is to live without regrets. But a couple of the regrets that I have are about that I was choosing between going bold and saying something to the CEO based on a lot of success. Right? It's not like you're going to go bold with no data points and push an issue like you're going to be building on it

175
00:26:15.060 --> 00:26:22.670
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: or exiting. And I'm just wondering if you have any guidance for people, especially in middle career. It's like you've got the family. You've got the mortgage. You've got all of this stuff?

176
00:26:22.720 --> 00:26:24.450
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: How do you calculate the risk?

177
00:26:25.030 --> 00:26:38.719
Christopher Wellise: Yeah, that's a tough one. And I think, and the further you are along in your career, and if you've got a family and so on. It's a little bit those risks become, you know, your risk. Tolerance tends to go down, I think, sort of over time.

178
00:26:39.520 --> 00:26:44.439
Christopher Wellise: I think I've always largely indexed on and centered on.

179
00:26:44.580 --> 00:26:50.309
Christopher Wellise: Is it absolutely the right thing to do? Is it the right thing for the organization?

180
00:26:50.430 --> 00:27:01.029
Christopher Wellise: Does it make sense? Is it the right thing to do, how you know, aligning your values across all things like. So for me, it's you know, my environmental values. I

181
00:27:01.230 --> 00:27:07.250
Christopher Wellise: I I enjoy working within businesses. So, and you know, and I recognize the fact that

182
00:27:07.280 --> 00:27:17.399
Christopher Wellise: you know, businesses need to move forward. They need to progress in order to be able to afford to have positive impact, right? So they can't be countercurrent to each other.

183
00:27:17.500 --> 00:27:23.960
Christopher Wellise: But if those values align, and you truly believe that it's the right thing for the organization.

184
00:27:24.170 --> 00:27:34.089
Christopher Wellise: Then I would absolutely push as hard as you can until you feel like you're up against a wall where you know you might, you might risk your livelihood.

185
00:27:34.574 --> 00:27:40.749
Christopher Wellise: But I have found in those few times where I've actually done that

186
00:27:41.307 --> 00:27:43.319
Christopher Wellise: even if I've had to back off.

187
00:27:43.660 --> 00:27:45.150
Christopher Wellise: There's been

188
00:27:45.700 --> 00:27:52.840
Christopher Wellise: enough of the message that's been heard to where it begins to sort of break through that wall

189
00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:56.469
Christopher Wellise: and replicate in a very positive way.

190
00:27:56.670 --> 00:28:16.280
Christopher Wellise: So I mean, you got to be smart about it right? I mean, essentially, you don't. You know, you have to be context aware. And you don't want to go talk about spending hundreds of millions of dollars. If a company is, you know, maybe going through a downturn and so on. So obviously, being context aware is is really important. But

191
00:28:16.430 --> 00:28:25.229
Christopher Wellise: if values align, and it's the right thing to do for the company at the right time, and so on. Then I think absolutely. You need to continue to push forward.

192
00:28:25.520 --> 00:28:49.690
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: There's a nuance in what you just said, which I really love, which is, it's also like we were. I was setting this up as sort of very black and white. But what you shared was you can go there. You might not get 100% approval, or it might feel like you didn't get total support. But as things start to break through, you never know like what you've dislodged or what might move. So I love that framing all right. Fun. Question last one.

193
00:28:49.690 --> 00:28:56.700
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Who's your favorite famous catalyst, past or present, that inspires you? And why do they stand out.

194
00:28:57.260 --> 00:29:12.781
Christopher Wellise: Well, I've got a few of them, I think, particularly in the environmental space. So you know, one's definitely passed. But Rachel Carson, for sure for me. Younger folks may not know who she is, but she was really.

195
00:29:13.460 --> 00:29:39.819
Christopher Wellise: I would say, kind of the initial catalyst for the modern environmental movement. She wrote a book called Silent Spring before I was born. Well, before I was born, on the harmful effects of pesticides and the interconnection of ecosystems, and it inspired a whole new level of activism and really spurred on the environmental movement. So she's a really important one for me. Another. Even longer ago, 150 years ago would be John Muir.

196
00:29:39.820 --> 00:29:44.030
Christopher Wellise: his fight to save the Hetch Hetchy value. The valley, although

197
00:29:45.500 --> 00:29:54.529
Christopher Wellise: he failed, resulted in the creation of the National park system within the United States, huge, huge hero

198
00:29:55.500 --> 00:29:59.970
Christopher Wellise: of mine. And then a modern one, would be David Attenborough.

199
00:30:00.040 --> 00:30:05.830
Christopher Wellise: who has really managed to figure out how to create global awareness through media.

200
00:30:06.020 --> 00:30:07.639
Christopher Wellise: So those would be my 3.

201
00:30:07.820 --> 00:30:18.859
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Amazing, and the storytelling of David Attenborough just reinforces some of the things that you said earlier, Christopher, I could talk to you for hours. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us today.

202
00:30:18.860 --> 00:30:20.900
Christopher Wellise: My pleasure, thanks so much.

203
00:30:21.230 --> 00:30:33.459
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: And to our audience. Thanks so much for listening. If you'd like to learn more about how to create bold, powerful change in the world. Be sure to check out our book, move fast, break Shipburn out, or go to the website at catalystconstellations.com.

204
00:30:33.650 --> 00:30:47.380
Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: I know you enjoyed this conversation today. So please take 10 seconds to rate it on itunes, spotify stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcasts and of course. If you have other catalysts in your life. Hit the share button and send a link their way. Thanks again.