Corporate Diplomacy & Climate with Leah Seligmann

“Have a point of view and get comfortable sharing it.” http://media.blubrry.com/womenindiplomacy/content.blubrry.com/womenindiplomacy/Leah.m4a Subscribe to the #WomeninDiplomacy Podcast Join Leah in Washington, DC on Saturday, April 29th for the Climate March! LEAH SELIGMANN leads the B team’s climate change efforts as the Director of the Net-Zero Initiative, which aims to drive CEO commitment to climate action. You can follow Leah Twitter at @LeahSeligmann  and also learn more about the B Team’s work @thebteamhq. Formerly the Chief Sustainability Officer of NRG Energy where she lead the sustainability program for the largest competitive electricity generator in the United States and a leading retail provider of electricity and energy services. During her time at NRG, the company produced about 50,000 megawatts of power from a diverse portfolio of solar, wind, nuclear, coal and gas facilities at roughly 140 locations. Leah developed the strategy and managed the evolution of NRG’s sustainability efforts from reporting and compliance to vocal leadership and investment on climate change. During her tenure NRG set industry leading, science-based carbon reduction goals to reduce their footprint 50% by 2030 and 90% by 2050. becoming a leader in practical and innovative solutions that address the toughest societal and environmental issues affecting NRG’s business. Leah’s experience spans a broad range of industries and sustainable strategies, including energy, sustainable agriculture, waste reduction and recycling, employee engagement, valuation of ecosystem services, packaging innovation, supply chain transparency and innovation, sustainable merchandising, and greenhouse gas reduction. During her tenure, NRG achieved several awards including the NASDAQ OMX CRF Global Sustainability Index top 100 company, Intelex’s Environmental Stewardship Award, the CDP Award for Water Leadership and the Corporate Eco Forum’s C.K. Prahalad Award. Before joining NRG, Leah was a consultant for Blu Skye Consulting, which advised leading companies such as Alcoa, Walmart, and Microsoft and engaged their top executives in their corporate sustainability efforts. During her time at Blu Skye, some of her projects included helping Alcoa to bring together the recycling industry in an effort to align 77 organizations on the goal and plan to increase recycling of consumer packaging by 20 percentage points by 2015; supporting Walmart’s sustainable Palm Oil initiative; and Microsoft’s Carbon Reduction strategy.