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APRIL 12, 2024
Telesto Strategy Leadership Featured in Illinois Green Alliance Women’s Day Event
As part of its annual event, panelists led a discussion on the major hurdles of decarbonization, the importance of engaging local stakeholders and communities, and how women can inspire fresh perspectives in a male-dominated industry
CHICAGO, IL, USA, April 2024 – On April 10, Illinois Green Alliance convened nearly 200 leaders from the green building industry in Chicago to explore the theme of Fresh Perspectives and consider how we as a community can infuse new ideas and innovations into our workflow to set the groundwork for a greener future. Telesto Strategy’s CEO & Founder, Alex Kruzel, was featured in the Illinois Green Alliance’s Women’s Day Summit panel, alongside a diverse array of business and community leaders.
One of the foundational principles that Alex shared was the need to first build executive buy-in about where you are going and what good looks like for Sustainability, Climate, and ESG. When Telesto works with its clients, it leverages its proprietary ESG maturity model to establish an ESG/Sustainability baseline and help to delineate aspirations across a number of parameters.
As companies look to advance their decarbonization strategies, Alex urged companies to do everything possible to foster a top-down mandate, “I read a report that has stayed with me. [It said] there are 100 companies on the planet that account for 80% of GHG emissions. That’s it. We can work with that. The question becomes why are they not doing more [on Sustainability?] The executives often do not have a mandate from their board. They don’t have the budget. They don’t have the teams they need to make the impact on emissions reduction.”
The conversation spanned global and local topics, and the panelists highlighted that the impacts of climate change disproportionality affect socially and economically marginalized people. Therefore, the fight against climate change can’t come solely from the C-suite and board room, instead, it also must be balanced with a bottom-up, community-driven process that engaged the voices of those bearing the brunt of its impacts.
As a final call to action, Alex reminded the audience that we need to do big and small things every day that advance global decarb and climate goals. It takes everyone. She reminded everyone of Chicago’s ambition to be a “City in a Garden,” in accordance with its city motto, even though at the time of its origination, it was a murky brown swamp. “We have to see and believe in what can be and not what is. We need to go after those things with everything we have. Chicago and Illinois has a proud history of this, and we need to carry on that legacy.” Global decarb starts with local decarb, and Alex offered best practices for how companies can get started and work with government and non-profit partners to accelerate the energy transition.
Alex was featured alongside Joanne Rodriguez, CEO & Founder, Mycocycle, Inc., Juanita Garcia, Senior Project Manager, High Performance & Sustainable Construction, Pepper Construction, and Karen Youngblood, CEO & Founder, Center for Environmental Justice.
See other key takeways from the luncheon here.
About Telesto Strategy
Telesto Strategy, a certified Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE), is an ESG-focused strategy consulting firm founded with a bold vision to support businesses and governments in the regeneration of the planet’s health, resources, and wellbeing. Telesto aims to achieve this ambition through its dual missions: (i) reframing how businesses, organizations, and countries can achieve enduring and inclusive growth, and (ii) redirecting corporate strategy to solve the biggest challenges of our time while delivering a positive ROI.
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