In this episode of The Sustainable Business Podcast R. Edward Freeman, a distinguished professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, joins Prof. Dr. Laura Marie Edinger-Schons as her guest. As a leading expert on stakeholder theory and stakeholder management, Ed’s expertise has been pivotal in shaping these concepts. Over the course of his career, he has gained a wide range of experiences and has worked in a variety of areas. His journey includes examining stakeholder theory during his PhD in Philosophy, working as a consultant, teaching at Darden University, writing influential books such as “Strategic Management and Stakeholder Approaches” (1984), and being a speaker. During the interview, Ed sheds light on the significance and key components of stakeholder theory in the business sector. The conversation explores whether the paradigm shift between a shareholder and stakeholder view of firms has already happened or not. Ed also describes the challenge of navigating heterogenous stakeholder preferences, especially when companies address politically controversial topics and geopolitical conflicts. Additionally, he shares his opinion on whether proactive players can drive the global adoption of sustainability management and reporting.

Uwe Bergmann, Director ESG Business Integration at Henkel, joins Prof. Dr. Laura Marie Edinger-Schons as a guest in this episode of The Sustainable Business Podcast to discuss past and current challenges in sustainability management. Based on his experience of more than twenty years at Henkel, he was lucky enough to build on the expertise of important sustainability pioneers, working towards standardization and certification approaches, formulating sustainability visions, and implementing them in strategy and practice. For him, achieving the vision of 9+ billion people living well within the limits of our planet requires data transparency, efficiency improvements, and the smart use of digital tools. However, he finds it most essential to engage employees and other stakeholders in the journey towards sustainability, navigating between clarity of purpose and employees’ willingness to support.

Prof. Dr. Andrew King, Questrom Professor in Management at Boston University, is Prof. Dr. Laura Marie Edinger-Schons’ guest in this week’s episode of The Sustainable Business Podcast. He elaborates why, despite potential positive effects on the management level, the concept of ESG does, per definition, not imply positive effects of a firm on the planet. He shines light on the conditions that pose challenges to impact measurement and valuation: economic, environmental, and social dimensions are all embedded in their own systems, and complex dynamics make complicate the search for a single metric that centrally captures the entire impact a company has. Facing these challenges, Andrew King understands himself as a “truth-telling” academic who sets the knowledge base for decision making and policies instead of advocating for specific solutions that are often adapted too quickly. In the current momentum around standardizing ESG and sustainability reporting, he emphasizes the importance of honestly and carefully communicating the state of knowledge, acting as “stewards” of the knowledge base that is being used for decision making.

In this week’s episode of The Sustainable Business Podcast, Axel Berger, HOW Digital & Sustainability Lead at Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH, is Prof. Dr. Laura Marie Edinger-Schons’ guest. In the completely family-owned busuiness based in Duisburg, his mission is to make all the company’s investment portfolio “enkelfähig”, i.e., sustainable and value-creation for future generations (“grandchildren”). Axel Berger discusses the synergies between sustainability and digitalization, as well as potential emerging threats to sustainability that arise from digitalization yet emphasizes how the past years have shown that society is capable of quickly creating digital solutions to drive sustainability. To him, fostering innovation is essential to promote sustainability. At the same time, he discusses the opportunities associated with for profit companies in order to scale sustainability and make it effective and efficient, as well as the need for legislators who push these developments.

Reducing the pace of fashion: how can a business model for a sustainable fashion retailer look like? What are the biggest challenges along the way towards slow fashion? And why should you stick with that favorite pair of jeans as long as you can?

ristina Jeromin is Prof. Dr. Laura Marie Edinger-Schons’ guest in this episode of “The Sustainable Business Podcast”. Since 2018, Kristina Jeromin is Managing Director of the Green and Sustainable Finance Cluster Germany, acted as Vice Chair of Sustainable Finance Advisory Board of the German Federal Government from 2019 to 2021 and continues to be a member. During her prior work at Deutsche Börse Group in sustainability communication and as Head of Group Sustainability, she experienced the transition from sustainability approaches rather focused on charity to an increasing ESG materiality focus in the financial sector. Kristina Jermonin emphasizes the importance of a close dialogue between the financial market and the real economy to foster data transparency and a common understanding of goals towards enhanced ESG management that drives sustainable change.

Currerntly, Kristina Jeromin and Prof. Dr. Laura Marie Edinger-Schons collaborate, among others, on the Sustainability Transformation Monitor, a three-year survey where practitioners from the financial market and the real economy can participate at any time to give insights on the collaboration of both sectors.

Practitioners are invited to share their experience: https://www.sustainabilitytransformation.org/

How to steer a company towards positive impacts for the environment and society? How to help executives grasp the impacts their company has? And how no quantify these impacts? Vikram Nagendra, Director of Corporate Sustainability at SAP, is Prof. Laura Marie Edinger-Schons’ guest in this episode of “The Sustainable Business Podcast”. He explains what he considers the necessary requirements to maximize companies’ social and environmental impacts to be, and how to enable them to steer towards an overall positive impact. Although he feels like the acceptance of understanding the holistic impact still needs to mature further, he highlights promising trends in impact valuation, such as translating non-financial performance measurement in monetary terms, and discusses hurdles that companies face in this regard.

In this episode of “The sustainable Business Podcast”, Prof. Dr. Laura Marie Edinger-Schons meets Sonja Haut, Head of Impact Valuation at Novartis, to discuss the significance of impact valuation that goes beyond ESG ratings and pure outputs. Sonja Haut explains how impact valuation can serve as an invitation to the discussion table, and why perfectly complete datasets are not always without alternatives. Her past experiences, for example as one of the first participants at the Impact Valuation Roundtable, have taught her that attempts of creating a yardstick for social impact can already go a long way, taking out the burden of guilt and moralism in sustainability responsibility debates.

In this episode of The Sustainable Business Podcast, Elin Ljung, Director of Communication and Sustainability at Nordic Capital, discusses the changing regulatory landscape surrounding impact investment with the host Prof. Dr. Laura Marie Edinger-Schons. She gives insights into the opportunities to take active ownership as a private equity firm, as well as challenges, such as lacking definition clarity and standardization, how to translate societal change brought by companies in monetary terms, or responding to the risk of impactwashing.

How can investors be guided towards integrating sustainability considerations intro their investment decisions? Why is ESG data essential to doing so? And what are current challenges for regulators in ensuring ESG data quality and consistency?

Prof. Dr. Laura Marie Edinger-Schons’ guest in this episode of The Sustainable Business Podcast is Margarita Pirovska, Director of Policy. Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). Having started her career in the natural gas and energy sector, she then worked in the sustainable finance sector in the USA and has thus experienced both reporting to ESG agencies, as well as relying on their provided data. Her roles have inspired her take on the importance of reliable and standardized ESG data and continue to help her in the policy department of the RPI today.