Car Rentals Reinvented & Sustainable – with Page Motes, Chief Compliance & Sustainability Officer, Hertz
Release Date: 10/29/2025
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Your job isn’t to know the answer. Your job is to ask all the right questions of where the business is going and…Don’t be afraid…(Align) with people who could see the possibility of (your) experience…Take that stretch job and just remember you’re in the room to ask different questions, and that’s perfectly fine. So, take the stretch and then lean into your experience that allows you to have a different lens and a different perspective.” , Chief Sustainability Officer at Workiva on Electric Ladies Podcast When the economy feels tough or you feel like things are...
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“(Climate modelling)…it's being used in things like insurance companies. It's being used by companies for their ESG assessments. So, when you get your insurance premium at the end of the year, there is some kind of climate model that has said something about the risk of your house to flood. It has said something about your risk to fire. And so that might be driving up your insurance premium…And so it's being involved in your lives in many different ways. The food you consume, those grocery bills, there's prices behind it that are being driven by people using climate models saying...
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“Regardless of what's happening with kind of the ESG backlash conversation here, especially in the US, our other jurisdictions are coming hard and fast on regulatory…It doesn't matter what's happening in the broader ESG backlash …The other piece is, our corporate customers that have their own set of goals and expectations have absolutely not led up on us on wanting to see us continue to progress and move forward and drive change and help them drive change, because that is their expectation of us as a large scale supplier.” Page Motes on Electric Ladies Podcast If you're thinking...
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“An estimated is expected to change hands (globally) under the so-called ‘great wealth transfer’, with women set to inherit nearly 70% of that amount. Combined with rising educational attainment, stronger diversity and inclusion efforts, and ongoing progress in closing the gender pay gap, this moment signals a transformative rise in global female affluence… What does it mean to be wealthy in this world? What are the type of behaviors? How do we put into practice the values that we have?” Silvia Bastante de Unverhau on Electric Ladies Podcast You might not have heard about...
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“We were the first to lightweight our bottles. So, if you think about a typical bottle of soda, it's about 27 grams of plastic. Our bottles, this year, I think they're coming in at 6.6 grams. So it's incredibly lightweight. I always say, you know, it's a Niagara bottle if it crinkles…We've created label-less bottles so they're easier to recycle. …And, we're now running lines that are in entirely recycled content. So we are very committed to creating bottles that that do not harm the planet, and also that allow for the most circular of products while we also think about what the bottle of...
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“Essentially what carbon accounting is doing is it's using a mathematical equation to come up with a standardized unit of measure that we call a carbon dioxide equivalent of how you can, um, measure and track all of the different greenhouse gases that your business emits through various activities. There's actually seven distinct greenhouse gases that are included…So what carbon accounting is doing is it's using it's using math to take those different greenhouse gases and normalize them into a standard unit of measure, which is carbon dioxide equivalent… (to measure) its warming ability...
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“We did do a study where we shared the story of the careful thought that went into products that were better for people and the planet … Then we administered the standard guest satisfaction survey, and what we found, Joan, was 150% increase in satisfaction, loyalty numbers… Why?...They equated it to service. They said, a hotel that goes out of its way to choose products that are better for me and the planet is a hotel that I have confidence is going to take better care of me while I'm there.” JoAnna Abrams on Electric Ladies Podcast As conference season begins and then the holidays, a...
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“I like to think about ESG not only as a risk management tool, but also as an opportunity. I think the, the flip side of risk is opportunity. So if we think that a diverse team is what will bring more innovation, more ideas, more, let's say different ways of looking at needs and products, then this is an opportunity….What about if we think about the way that people consume, what is the carbon footprint that we have?.... And how do you reduce it? Or maybe build technology that helps reduce your impact on the planet, or helps you reduce the amount of AI or cloud usage that you use? So I, I...
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“The theme of the expo is ‘designing society for future lives.’ And it is just that from the foundations, from the buildings to the exhibits, each country showcasing what they're doing for our future, in technology, healthcare, sustainable, living energy…The Japan pavilion's exhibit…is about the circular economy and…the theme is between life and life. So the pavilion, and its circular structure, is about life and how everything is connected and flows, again, the circular economy.” Yvonne Burton on Electric Ladies Podcast Japan is one of the countries most vulnerable to the...
info_outline“Regardless of what's happening with kind of the ESG backlash conversation here, especially in the US, our other jurisdictions are coming hard and fast on regulatory…It doesn't matter what's happening in the broader ESG backlash …The other piece is, our corporate customers that have their own set of goals and expectations have absolutely not led up on us on wanting to see us continue to progress and move forward and drive change and help them drive change, because that is their expectation of us as a large scale supplier.”
Page Motes on Electric Ladies Podcast
If you're thinking of renting a car on your next trip either for business or the holidays, you may think differently about which company to rent from and why after listening to this episode. As many companies that want to be environmentally sound and climate resilient twist due to a potential ESG backlash, Hertz is pushing full speed ahead on their commitments. Why? How?
Listen to Page Motes, Chief Compliance & Sustainability Officer at Hertz explain in this fascinating conversation with Electric Ladies Podcast host Joan Michelson.
You’ll hear about:
● How Hertz is expanding its fleet of EVs – and why demand for them is growing.
● What corporate sustainability reporting and compliance look like in this day of ESG pushback and A.I., especially in an industry being reinvented while they drive.
● Where the risks and opportunities are today in this industry at the intersection of the automotive and travel sectors.
● Plus, career advice, such as:
“I think a lot of times people in their mid-career have a very specific idea of this ladder that they have and this path specific to either the next job they want or if they want to be in an impact job. That impact job looks like X. And what I have learned is that there are lots of different types of jobs that make a direct difference, and there's a lot of different types of jobs that can drive impact. And so kind of the first thing is open the aperture and have lots of conversations with a lot of different kinds of groups. …Shadow, (ask) do you need help with that project? Experience what it is for a little bit, get a taste of it. Maybe you won't like it. Maybe you will love it, and then plant seeds early.” Page Motes on Electric Ladies Podcast
Read Joan’s Forbes articles here.
You’ll also like:
· Business Leaders Bridging The Gap – Women business leaders from The Earth Day Women’s Summit on the unique role of business in addressing the climate crisis.
· Leveraging AI For Sustainability – with Mandi McReynolds, Chief Sustainability Officer at Workiva, software company
· How GM Is Going All Electric – with General Motors Chief Sustainability Officer Kristen Siemen.
· Reducing IT’s Carbon Footprint – with HPE Chief Sustainability Officer Monica Batchelder.
· How Businesses Unlock Value With Sustainability – with Kristen Sullivan, Audit Partner and head of Deloitte’s Sustainability practice
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