Catherine Sheehy - Global Lead of Sustainability Partnerships, UL Environment & Sustainability

Sheehy brings to clients, 20 years of project and program management experience. She manages a range of advisory projects including sustainability training initiatives, sustainability risk assessments and greener market positioning support.

Sheehy’s other work experience included updating and growing the Corporate Equality Index for the Human Rights Campaign and served as director of Corporate Benchmarking Services at the Investor Responsibility Research Center, where she provided social and environmental screening data on companies to institutional investors.

Sheehy holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Notre Dame, an Master of Business Administration from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, and is a certified Project Management Professional.

Catherine joins Sustainable Nation to discuss:

• Background on UL and Catherine's role within UL
• Health impacts and reopening workspaces during Covid-19
• Sustainability certification space and importance of pursuing certifications
• UL 3600 (circularity) standard
• Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders

Catherine's Final Five Question Responses:

What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?

I think that sustainability professionals exist everywhere in an organization, whether or not they have a title with sustainability in the name, but for those who are a sustainability by title, I would say, n my experience, a lot of folks are influencers more than they are purse holders, right? So they are advising and guiding the organization toward the tools and the solutions that are going to help make a difference to their organization. And so, learning about change enablement and, being engaged in networked in your organization is going to be key to the success of any sustainability professional. When I've talked to those who hold those kinds of roles in organizations, one of the things that recurs in terms of what they describe as their role, it's that of an influencer it's that of, a person who's really skilled at change enablement and someone who is trying to help people see a different way of viewing the same information. So, network influence, be connected within your organization.

What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?

Hmm. I think I mentioned earlier when my excitement is really about what I see as the potential for integration, hearing the investors talk about ESG, the way that they are, it's not about necessarily making the world a better place, but that obviously is part of it. Those are the outcomes that we're all trying to achieve, but they really do see this as part of investment risk analysis is simply the non-financial data that they need to incorporate into that analysis. I see product managers, human resource managers all now having that conversation about these issues that some of us have been working on for decades. So to your point, you know, what has happened over the past 10 years, I've seen a sea change and I'm hopeful that that's going to accelerate because it needs to, because the issues that we're all also trying to address are pressing and urgent.

What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read?

Yep. I think in light of recent events, I am trying to educate myself about equity issues. More than some of the issues I've paid attention to, to date. So certainly I'm engaged as an employee in my organization, in our diversity and inclusion efforts. I've focused a lot of attention on sustainability or environmental issues, and I've known that there are environmental justice issues that relate to those things, but I'm not very well educated about those things. So I've actually just started this book by Mary Robinson. Who's the former President of Ireland, a UN special envoy on climate change and UN commissioner for human rights, titled Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future. She published last year. It's an engaging read and so I'd recommend that. I will say I'm on my own journey and finishing it, but it's so far it's good and engaging and really good connector across the issues that we're all much more aware of these days in light of Black Lives Matter. And some of the reasons that people are in the streets protesting.

What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?

I look at a lot of blogs and this was hard for me to think of because I look at a lot of blogs. I look at a lot of articles from various publications. I go back to a lot GreenBiz waste dive because we have a strong practice in circular economy. We're looking at the recycled content, newsletters, and magazines. So those are the ones that I go to with regularity.

And finally where can our listeners go to learn more about your work and the work being done at UL?

Well, the main website, ul.com is where you can find a lot of information. We have a presence on LinkedIn and a Twitter account as well. And we show up on other sites like GreenBiz and elsewhere. So I'd start at ul.com and go out from there.