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The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2022: #RedefiningPower - Philippa Cross, Sustainability Lead, Barkley, United States
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"To combat the three C’s of Covid, Climate and Conflict - we need to embrace Complexity and Caring. In practice this means a whole-system thinking approach to leadership that incorporates more diverse perspectives that balance masculine and feminine, along with people and planet" - Philippa Cross, Sustainability Lead, Barkley
Philippa (Pip) Cross leads Sustainability at Barkley where she helps brands combine purpose & culture to drive sustainable business. As a leader at Barkley, Pip is on a mission to build a world with more whole brands, brands that put purpose and sustainability at the center of everything they do. Barkley is a certified B-Corp that believes that business should be a force for good.
Pip is the co-author of ‘The Purpose Advantage 2.0 - How to Unlock New Ways of Doing Business’*. The workshop from the book has been adapted and offered through the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). Pip has a Masters Degree in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge. She is a collaborator and assessor on their executive business programs, including the most recent Sustainable Marketing, Media & Creative online course - designed to help marketers build practical strategies for sustainable change.
Pip earned her stripes working at Unilever developing the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. Prior to that she worked on creating N’Ice Dairy Air aka Carbon Neutral, Fairtrade ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s.
Q: What is the importance of women's leadership in today's society plagued by the triple crises of COVID, Climate, and Conflict, and their deadly consequences?
To combat the three C’s of Covid, Climate and Conflict - we need to embrace Complexity and Caring. In practice this means a whole-system thinking approach to leadership that incorporates more diverse perspectives that balance masculine and feminine, along with people and planet.
Q: What role do you believe women in leadership positions have to play in helping companies and brands transition towards sustainability and circularity, and why is this important?
Transition towards sustainability and circularity doesn’t come with a readymade play book. It requires a multi-disciplinary approach and a leader who can link multiple disciplines together inside an organization and build bridges to outside experts to find new solutions to emerging problems. Today successful leaders must have empathy to build relationships and the courage to fail fast, and learn faster. In my opinion, these skills come second nature to women and it’s no wonder our gender dominates this field.
Q: What can be done to improve women’s participation in corporate and leadership positions? How do we achieve this?
We can’t support women’s participation in the workforce without recognizing the whole person - supporting life experiences and roles as caretakers of children or parents for both men and women. The pandemic made this stark, as the lines between professional and personal lives were blurred as many worked from home. Our Purpose-Up research shows that worker well-being is a top priority for consumers and business leaders. And as offices reopen around the world, what both sexes need is continued flexibility and support so they can enjoy the joy of connection with those closest to them and a fulfilling, rewarding career.
Q: What does this award mean to you and what significance does it hold to you personally and/or professionally, and your company?
I am humbled to be recognized by The SustainabilityX® Magazine alongside so many other women I admire and am inspired by. But I also want to acknowledge the women of Barkley who support and inspire me everyday to add good for our partners and clients creating whole brands. The work is never done, but without you it would never be. Thank you.
*From eye-opening interviews with some of the world’s most successful CEOs to a step-by-step workshop, The Purpose Advantage 2.0 - How to Unlock New Ways of Doing Business is the ultimate guide for turning a brand’s purpose into a competitive advantage. Learn more.
The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2022
The SustainabilityX® Magazine proudly announced the release of The SustainabilityX® Magazine’s inaugural Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ 2022 on Oct 4th, 2022, an inaugural annual list celebrating the powerful work of women in sustainability leadership around the world.
The non-profit digital magazine’s Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ high-level, invite-only program graciously sponsored by the award-winning Canadian construction and engineering firm Belnor Engineering Inc., recognizes achievements of the world’s powerful, groundbreaking female sustainability leaders who’re bridging the gender gap by breaking barriers, shattering traditional stereotypes, and taking the world of sustainability by storm. This campaign is in line with the magazine’s third pillar of sustainability upon which SustainabilityX® is based: social inclusion, which involves marginalized populations and vulnerable communities such as women, persons with disabilities, unemployed youth, LGBTQ+, the elderly, and BIPOC minorities.
“As both a female and one of Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 In Sustainability Leadership myself, I know how important this is,” says Supriya Verma, founder of The SustainabilityX® Magazine. “The number of women in positions of leadership – from business to politics – are relatively few. With society plagued by the triple crises of COVID, climate, conflict, and their deadly consequences, how can the world advance and achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals without having women in decision-making positions at major organizations, political parties, and academic institutions?”
In The SustainabilityX® Magazine’s quest to ‘redefine power’, this is the first international power-list bringing together women around the world involved in sustainability celebrating the power of their work – not their position. This list brings together a diverse group of accomplished women across business, entertainment, academia, law, politics, and beyond ranging from some of the world's leading companies, to independent unsung heroes with one thing in common: using their power with purpose –the power to create change and influence lives to make the world a better place. After all, that's what sustainability is all about. The meaning, or ‘the power’ of one’s work matters, not one’s position in a corporate hierarchy, particularly during this crucial era.
View the full list: The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2022
About The SustainabilityX® Magazine
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is an award-winning, digital, female-founded, and female-led non-profit initiative bringing the environment and economy together for a sustainable future through dialogue. Founded on May 8, 2016 and inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability Leadership awardee, Supriya Verma, the digital media initiative focuses on approaching the world’s most pressing challenges with a holistic, integrated, systems-based perspective as opposed to the traditional and ineffective siloed approach with a single lens on interdisciplinary topics like climate and energy. This initiative ultimately seeks to explore how to effectively bring the environment and economy together through intellectual, insightful dialogue and thought-provoking discussion amongst individuals across sectors taking an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to untangling the intricate web of sustainability.
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is based upon the four pillars of sustainability: Environmental Stewardship which emphasizes improved environmental health, Economic Prosperity which emphasizes economic growth without the element of capitalism, Social Inclusion which emphasizes EDI for BIPOC and LGBTQ communities and marginalized, vulnerable populations, and Just Governance which emphasizes the equal rule of law via responsible political leadership to create fair systems for all. Identifying the diverse factors involved in sustainability, how they interact and how the disciplines are interconnected will help accelerate local, national, and international sustainability goals – in simpler words, aligning with The SustainabilityX® Magazine’s mission of bringing the environment and economy together for a sustainable future through dialogue for a sustainable future. Whether you have a background in science, engineering, business, law, politics, media and entertainment, or beyond, your voice matters.
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The SustainabilityX® Magazine is a proud member of the Sustainable Journalism Partnership, serves as a cause-based media partner for various events such as Circular City Week New York, and officially delivers remarks at international conferences such as UNESCO’s annual World Press Freedom Day Conference. SustainabilityX® is a brand of the non-profit social business SPSX Group.
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