Mike Robinson on Bridging the Sustainability Gap Between Retail Brands, Investors, and Consumers

In this episode of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic, Ted speaks with Mike Robinson, an Industry Vertical Advisor for the Retail and Consumer Goods practice. He provides expert advice regarding digital retailing, and brings over 30 years of experience from both management consulting and executive operator perspectives. He and Ted discuss his background, growing up in Northeastern Pennsylvania, in a small, rural town. He is a proud alumni of Penn State University, and shares that he has had a varied career, starting in the pharmaceutical industry in Philadelphia, which brought him out to Southern California, and later jumped into consulting, which led him to digital retail, now the focus of his career. Previously, Mike was the EVP/Digital Business Leader for Macy’s, where he and his team were responsible for 10x revenue growth over 8 years, and firmly established Macys.com as the #5 Digital Retailer in the U.S. Currently, Mike is acting as both an angel investor and strategic advisor for numerous early stage AI-enabled startups, specifically focused on critical components of the ever-evolving retail customer journey. In addition, he is the Head of Retail Operations and a Founding Member for The Eighth Notch (aka T8N), an early stage startup in the Logistics-tech space.Mike discusses the how and why behind an urgent need for the retail industry to adopt more sustainable solutions and critical insights into how both small and large-scale retail brands are beginning to align with demand from investors and consumers for eco-conscious alternatives and operations. He shares the mission of Eighth Notch, which is to reduce the number of deliveries and create a more sustainable supply chain by ensuring the most sustainable mile is the one never driven. The Eighth Notch is working with retailers and carriers to reduce the number of deliveries and optimize routes. This not only results in significant operational savings for retailers but also contributes to a more sustainable environment by cutting down on carbon emissions. Mike emphasized that the avoidance of emissions, rather than offsetting, is a crucial part of their approach.