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Indra (BME:IDR): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Pinky Cole, Founder and CEO, Slutty Vegan, Brice Klein, Co-founder and COO, Choppy, Brent Young, The Meat Hook Moderator: Indrani Sen, Fortune

Impact Initiative 2024: Green Cuisine: The Future Of Sustainable Meat

Photography by Rebecca Greenfield/Fortune

Conferences

Great to see everyone again. Um So we're gonna start uh with a few questions that I have, but as always, I would love to have some questions from the audience. So please think about your uh what you would like to ask our um our our guests here. Um You know, I think everybody knows the companies that you're that you're from, but there you're doing such innovative and interesting work each of you and so different from each other. I'd love to start by just asking you for kind of the 32nd elevator pitch to explain the idea behind your company. Um Pinky, could I start with you? Um You've built an empire slutty vegan based on making delicious vegan food accessible. It's a movement as much as a chain as Brent found out on his way in because he was hearing about it from all the cab drivers. Um And I wonder if you could tell us about the idea that started it for you. Um Great question. First of all, everybody, hello, I got married in this room last year. So this is my first time back here. OK. Um So it feels good. I'm still married. God is good back there. So, um I started this concept in 2018 and at the time I had my dream job. I was a casting director and a former producer for the Maury Show over three years wild. Um But I did a lot of production work. Um And in my two bedroom apartment in 2018 is when I came up with this wild crazy idea. That was so good that I didn't want to share it with the world. And it was creating a concept that would merge sex and food. And I'm like, oh damn, this is a good idea. And from that moment, not even knowing what I was doing, I came up with Flo and in six years, we've graced the covers of almost every magazine. I have 12 plus locations. We've had great partnerships. We built a concept that was just bigger than burgers and fries, but something that rallies the community together and I'm proud of the work that I get to do every single day and it gets ghetto sometimes. Um But the beautiful part of entrepreneurship is we get to do it and inspire people every day. So that's lady loves that. Um I'm gonna go to Brent um The Meat Hook which is a butcher shop in Brooklyn and in the Hudson Valley champions ethical and sustainable meat production. Can you elaborate on your approach to butchering whole animals um rather than buying parts and how that contributes to a more sustainable meat industry. Yeah, absolutely. So, um, Meat Hook is now 15 years old and we are a whole animal butcher shop, which means that we buy whole animals from local farms, butcher them on site and sell them to customers. It's a retail business and it's as simple as that with the simplicity being, you know, the foundation of the business, we wanna know our farmer, we wanna know our customer and we want there to be transparency along the way. Um utilization is the foundation of our business. So we work with regenerative farms. So the product is very expensive. Um It's very sustainable, very ethical. Um But we got to use all of it. It's very expensive. So, um you know, from an entire cow, maybe only 20% of that cow is actual steaks, 50% of it is bones, the other 25% 25 to 30% is ground beef. So with that, OK, what do you do? You make cheeseburgers? So therefore I started a restaurant pork. Same thing. Our specialty is sausages. So what is like the, you know, the through line with all, all of us, we make a whole variety of sausages. If you have an idea, like we probably made it into a sausage. We make a Banh Mi sausage, we make a Philly Cheesesteak sausage. We make a beaten onion sausage and, and uh like all of these things are to infuse different flavors, you know, into the product that we have so that we can sell all of it because we don't make any money unless we sell the entire animal. Um The mission of our company is rebuilding agriculture one cheeseburger at a time. And Bryce, uh Chappy offers hybrid protein options. Could you explain that? And, and then also tell us a little bit about what problem that solves for people who are looking to eat more plant based foods in their diet. Yeah. So we're making products that are like 90% plant proteins, 10% beef fat, bone broth and collagen. And in particular, focusing on kind of the processed meat category and what you get there is you get a product that tastes like it should is high in protein most importantly, pre seasoned and you just have to throw it in a pan to heat it up. And so with that, you're then no longer focusing on appealing to a consumer on sustainability reasons, but you're then able to treat or excuse me, Trojan Horse sustainability by appealing to consumers for actual consumer problems. Things like I've got hangry kids at home. I wanna make a quick case you got a car, I thought I can throw into it. And so trying to again, Trojan Horse, the sustainability problem of food, right? So it might look like we're about to have like a brawl on stage between all these different ways of eating, but there's actually so much in common um between your three businesses, high quality, healthy, ethically sourced food comes at a premium. Um At the same time, customers are experiencing sticker shock in this high inflation era. What are your thoughts on balancing sustainability and affordability for your consumers while also trying to run profitable businesses? Um I can go first. Um Can I be honest? Absolutely, because that's the only thing I can have it any other way. Um The the the plant based world is at a consistent decline just holistically, if you pay attention to the tickers, right? Plant based companies, it's just not in a good space right now. Um And I don't know if it's specifically because the trend a trending like how it used to be, right? Or if you know the the beef companies are like putting out messaging like who knows? Right. But the reality of it is, is as an entrepreneur in a plant based space. Obviously, it's affected us. The reason why I say that is, is because just quite naturally plant based foods are more expensive. So at the height of the business where, you know, pre and pro um right after COVID, we got lines down like every single day, people are willing to pay $18 for a burger. But then when you have all of these plant based companies and non plant based companies, now everybody got a burger and you go to Target and you look on the shelf. And if 10 companies are selling the same thing, there's so much saturation in the market. So now people aren't willing to pay $18 for a burger like they used to because they can get the same thing $3 over here. Or if they can go to Burger King, they can get it for four dollars. So there's been a challenge in trying to navigate through those things and what I've been focusing more on which I've always done. But I'm putting more of an effort on the experience because people pay for good experiences and if you can get people to pay for good experiences, it don't matter what the food costs, what we're gonna promise you is we're gonna give you a quality product, you're gonna be happy when you leave and you'll get the ultimate experience that'll make you wanna come back. Alright. Yeah. Can I um just a um piggyback on that? I feel like um everybody kind of wants to know your butcher and that is why we've started more retail locations because so much of what we do is built on trust. So we can tell the stories of the farms and we can look you in the eye whether you had a really good experience and you had like, you know, amazing short ribs. Ok. Those were fantastic or if your steak sucked, like there might be a reason for like, did it hang long? Did it hang long? Enough. Was there another issue in the animal itself? Like we're here for that? So, um the hospitality experience is very, very important to us. But to answer your question, like, I don't think the prices are going down. Like the beef industry, you know, the big three packers learned that they can control way that we eat meat in this country through COVID and it was maniacal and like really freaking messed up and the way and so those prices aren't going down and beef commodities in general, like you can't grass fed and commodity beef are like calves are the same price, finishing same price. Ok, so like why would you necessarily go grass fed well, because it's better for the environment, it tastes better and you know, it's better for the earth. Ok. The those are, those are great reasons to do it but like the New York Times did a great little article last week about the environmental costs of um lots of foods, but most specifically beef because if, and it's a really easy cool little infographic, please check it out that um the hidden environmental cost. The cheapest beef in Walmart across the United States right now is $5.38. You can't buy anything cheaper than that. The environmental cost is an extra $22. So that actually should be, you know, whatever. I'm not gonna be able to do math on stage. I'm sorry. Thank you so much. That's 20 $27 for ground beef. Like the meat hook, like ground beef is a loss leader for us. Like I keep the price low because I want to have something that everybody can afford. Sausage is the same way. Steaks aren't going anywhere. They're easy to sell, keep selling them. But like the hospitality aspect of making sure that people are met where, where they are at and understand the costs behind it and where their money is going is super important to me. And then my, my thoughts there are that the alternative, the beat industry has made a lot of, I think perhaps missteps in this realm and trying to sell products at a premium under the guise of being more sustainable, which when you have a worst tasting product that's nebulously healthier is a really hard pitch. And so we see there's white space. Then in that we think we need a strategy shift and see a lot of white space again in processed meats, ground beef, heavily subsidized, hard to get the cost on processed meats. There's an upcharge for them because they're more convenient for the end user. So it's easier for us to get to parity. And then also we are solving problems for the consumer and saying, hey, it's convenient, it's healthy and with that, you can have a bit more flexibility in terms of price as opposed to again, ground beef, which is more ubiquitous, ok. Um You know, that people often say you are what we eat, you are what you eat, right? Uh Increasingly food and the food choices that we make aren't just consumer choices. They're becoming kind of central parts of our identity, parts of the tribes that we belong to, whether you're a vegan or a carnivore or a flexitarian. How do you think about and speak to those identities and your customers? Or, you know, you may even, you may dispute the premise of my question also, I'll, I'll dispute it. Uh I like these guys but I, we have so many customers that come in that were, you know, vegan or vegetarian, say my doctor needs, you know, said that I need iron in my, in my diet. I need to introduce something and they're like sheepish to come in. So like we're, we're here for it. Come come talk to us like the all of these solutions need to exist in our food system. Like, you know, I am definitely not a 100% carnivore diet like that's crazy. No, no one caveman didn't eat like that. Like, you know, we've always had vegetables in our diet. So like how can we promote better farming practices to raise cleaner food, not mono crop it but you know, create more biodiversity and better farming practices to raise more high quality food for all of the things that we support. Yeah, I would agree that very much there aren't really these tribes like, you hear a lot of Liver King or Joe Rogan on one side of the spectrum. But in practice people, they just want things that taste good, meet the right nutritional profile and are sufficiently convenient. And if you can meet that, it's great. I was doing a demo at a grocery store in Omaha and sold a bunch of product to a guy wearing a backwards mega a F hat who, you know, ostensibly wouldn't be excited about this, but like was with his family, like our teriyaki steak because it was easy for his family. And so I think where you can provide the value would provide that experience, you can cross party lines. You know, it's interesting. I did a mckenzie brand equity study. Are y'all familiar with? Ok. Um I did a mckenzie brand equity study. Um, and what they said is 70% of the people who come to flooding vegan are not vegan. Right. And I knew that just with my simple math. Um, but, but what's interesting about why slutty vegan has been able to sustain so long is because I'm not attracting the vegan. Right. Right. I don't care if you eat vegan. I don't care if you are a meat eater, if you would like to eat pork. That's your prerogative. I married to somebody who got a chain of meat restaurants. I know it makes no sense. It would be a great TV show, by the way. But the reality of it is, is, uh, it's almost like we've been to the hospital before, right before you go into the back, before they admit you, you go into the triage, right? So everybody slutty vegan is like the triage. So you come as you are and however you come, we will meet you where you are. And I think that that is a part of the reason that has allowed us to just really navigate as a brand because our audience is not, we want the person that's just eating salad all day. That's not a person. We want the person who's eating vegan for the first time and wants to see what the hype is all about. And then when it tastes like the vegan, like, OK, I could do this right. And then tomorrow they can go to his restaurant and then they can go to grocery store and buy some teriyaki uh from him. And, and that is the person that is going to keep the business to continue to grow. And I like to keep it that way. Absolutely. We in our last couple of minutes. Um What do you see as the biggest challenges ahead for sustainable food? And, and also what makes you feel optimistic? I said one of the biggest challenges for us has been funding. Um and uh like we tried our hand at AC PG brand a couple years ago and it was actually a very disheartening um experience because everybody loved the product. We make all of these interesting sausages, like the green chorizo. Cool. My kids will eat this, like, it's bright green. But, um, the only funding available for these products was venture capital funding. And everybody wanted to know, you know, our pathway to 5 million in five years. It was like, we're the exact opposite of the type of agriculture that we're supporting here. So everybody loves the idea. But they just, you know, the finances just don't work like banks, like just don't want to take a big risk on that. And it's slow money and there's some slow money, angel investors out there. But, um, it, you know, when you need a million dollars and someone's willing to lend you 10,000, not particularly helpful, um which is, you know, why I just wanted to start more retail locations so that people know the brand, trust, the brand, know the butcher and hopefully we can see it grow from, from there. I think very much agreed on the funding side. And then that ties in. I think one of the biggest challenges right now is consumer trust. There has been a lot of venture capital or fill in the blank dollars thrown at various companies across the alternative meat landscape, many of whom have not met consumer expects stations. And it's hard to convince people to come back and try something that might be notably better when they've already had a slightly soured experience. And so overcoming that is a challenge. I think things I'm optimistic about are a lot of these kind of more regenerative approaches. There are now many more brands taking that strategy. And then also, you know, there are a lot of somewhat more upstream companies doing things like algae based feed to give the cows to reduce emissions. And so I think there are a lot of compelling solutions across the value chain there. I think the story line is that we all need money. Yeah. Ok. I see. Um very much so. Um I think that uh access to resources and financial resources especially is a lot different today than it was in 2020 21. Would you all agree? Right. People are clutching their money more than they did before. Back in 2021 everybody was throwing out cash, throwing out valuations. It was great like it was a party. But now people are unsure because the economy, there's so much instability that's happening. So for me in my industry here I am, I asked chat GP T by the way, I said, who's the most notable vegan restaurant? And they said slutty vegan. I'm like, ok, cool. I'm cool. But I see all of my peers closing their doors. Yeah. Every week there's a different vegan restaurant closing. So it's a blessing and a curse. The blessing is like, ok, I get to monopolize but the curse is that like, am I next. And it's, it's a hard reality that you have to ask yourself. But it's because people, especially private equity firms and investors. I don't honestly believe that they believe in the plant based movement like they did before because there's not many comps like I am the only cop left, right. So I'm creating a blueprint by, by also trying to make people feel comfortable and it's difficult, but it's worth every step of the way. And I wouldn't stop it for anything in the world. Love that. All right, we're gonna end on that note. Thank you so much to our team panelists and to our audience for engaging.

Beck Bailey, Global Chief Diversity Officer, Managing Director Accenture Charlotte Burrows, Chair, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Chief Diversity Officer, Corporate Vice President of Talent and Learning, Microsoft  Moderator: Indrani Sen, Fortune

Impact Initiative 2024: Building An Inclusive And Future-Ready Workforce

Beck Bailey, Global Chief Diversity Officer, Managing Director Accenture Charlotte Burrows, Chair, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Chief Diversity Officer, Corporate Vice President of Talent and Learning, Microsoft, Indrani Sen, Fortune

Beck Bailey, Global Chief Diversity Officer, Managing Director Accenture Charlotte Burrows, Chair, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Chief Diversity Officer, Corporate Vice President of Talent and Learning, Microsoft

Beck Bailey, Accenture, Charlotte Burrows, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Microsoft, Indrani Sen, Fortune

Welcome. So wonderful to be here with you all. Uh We're gonna start with some questions that I have for our esteemed guests. Um But I want to just kind of put the word out that we will be. We're hoping that you all will, will ask some questions too. So start thinking about them. We're gonna have some mic handlers coming around a bit later on. Um So we're gonna jump right in and um I'm gonna actually start with you chair burrows. Uh a recent analysis of diversity in the tech industry from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had some rather dispiriting conclusions. Uh It found that racial diversity has only slightly improved over the last two decades in, in tech and that women still make up less than a quarter of tech workers, which is basically the same as in 2005. Um That's far less than their representation in the workforce at large, which is closer to 50%. Um I wonder if I could ask you Chair Barris to kind of set us up in this conversation. You've called this like a snapshot of the industry. That's right. We had a lot of interest in the tech industry in particular because it has been growing jobs. That's great news and we had done in 2016, a snapshot of the industry and diversity there um There in so, unfortunately, what we found when we came back and did this, um you going up to 22 2022 data and the report's title kind of tells you the bottom line, high tech low inclusion. So while there was a lot of growth and a lot of hiring, what you saw was that the needle moved only a little bit since tw 2005 to 2022. So women, although they are almost half of the workforce in the United States are only about 22 to 23% of those who are working in the high tech workforce and also in the high tech sector. And by that, I mean, industries that have a fairly large concentration of um tech workers. At the same time, we did see some unfortunately very modest but some improvement for people of color, um vastly underrepresented, underrepresented for Latinos and for African Americans. Um African Americans are about 12% of the workforce, a little right around just under 7%. Um is what we found with respect to the workforce and the tech sector, um the tech workforce and uh the tech company and uh sector of the industries as well with uh Latinos, we saw some more progress over the last two decades. So, but still very underrepresented. We're talking about 9.9% of tech workers and in the tech workforce. And then, um they are, of course, something like 18.7% of the um entire US workforce. So there's still some work to do. And because we are the primary, um, you know, agency charged with looking for discrimination, we are thinking about this in a whole host of different ways. Um And to, to really understand what is going on with the industry. Um What I will say is that we're 60 years on since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and of, since our agency was created, our anniversary is next year. And so we see this as there has been progress and I mean, that very sincerely, but we have a long way to go and I'll stop there because I, I'm excited for the conversation. So I'm gonna actually turn now to, to Lindsey Ray and Beck, you guys have been both working on this issue and kind of living it for many years now. Um I wonder if you could add some nuance to these pretty stark numbers that we're hearing from chair burrows. Um Are you seeing differences across tech in different sectors? Are there any outliers or success stories that you could point to? Um And what can we learn from those? Yeah, I think if I pick up where, where troughs sort of started the conversation you know, at Microsoft, we're gonna be 50 next year, right? And if we look at sort of the example of women in tech, you know, we have uh not yet published our recent report that will come out later this month, but, you know, women representation in tech roles alone is at 27% which is above the averages that were just mentioned. And women for the company are over 31% And that's on purpose, right, that we've been able to slowly grow, you know, year over year for at least the last five years. But it's as a result of a holistic strategy and, and in partnership with many partners, customers, not for profit organizations that are in our broader ecosystem so that we can grow the workforce, not only sort of bringing people into tech, inviting folks into the technology profession who maybe wouldn't have considered tech otherwise, but then making sure that once they arrive in tech, we are growing them intentionally and investing in their careers and their mentorship and their sponsorship so they can stay and thrive in tech. And I would just add that, you know, it's part of our business, right, that having representation in the technology industry allows us to create products that people love. And so when you look at sort of Microsoft's evolution from software to hardware to cloud to now A I being able to advance representation along the way through those industry shifts, has you know, been really bolted to the fact that, you know, for Microsoft, we have this huge inclusive mission that, you know, calls on us to empower the people and organizations on the planet and we can't do that without representation inside Microsoft too. Do you want to weigh in on this one? I will um I think similarly to our friends at Microsoft, our commitment to inclusion and diversity is central to the business strategy. And I think that's a key takeaway for all of us that we have to be thinking of. How does this tie to our business results for us thinking about um just 10 years ago, really moving to a skills driven organization because we wanted to be the leading provider of digital related services that meant we would have to recruit differently and build our workforce differently in order to achieve that. So we sat alongside that ambition, the ambition to be the most inclusive and diverse company in the world. Now, a great example of that is in India where we were in hyper growth, breaking through the myth that there weren't women available for those tech driven roles. And at that time, maybe 31% women in our workforce to today, over 49%. And just this year, we reached 50 to 50 parity in our accenture technology centers for women. And that required thinking differently about recruiting, measuring the recruitment process and our performance achievement process for equity, right. Where people are experiencing an equitable outcome and then really focusing on our culture and the ways that we support people to be successful. You know, listening to them, what do they need in order to thrive if it's return ships for women, coming back into the workforce, better parental policies, better flex work policies, whatever is going to actually help them thrive in that role. Yeah, I mean, hearing both of you talk, it's, you know, this is, this is such difficult work, it's difficult work to do and it's difficult work to express to explain. Uh sometimes success can be kind of incremental. Uh And yet, you know, it's still important. Um One of the big questions swirling around today, not just on this panel in the whole country and the panel previous to us is um do these efforts work uh does being intentional about de I and ESG more broadly make any difference? Um I wonder if you could talk about some of the biggest challenges both in doing and in showing this work. And, and I, I would love for chair burrows as well to, to weigh in on this, you want me to start. So I, what I would say is um the federal government obviously uh is a national employer. We're I think the biggest employer in the United States. And uh we also believe that this is important to our mission. So what does work? And I wanna be clear even though I gave you some, um, you know, not happy news at the beginning that this does work. And one of the things that, uh, particularly, and you intuitively, you know, this, but what we have also found and what research has found is that everybody does better if they feel respected and valued in the workplace and they're given those tools to really contribute. And that's how, as an employer and I'm speaking both as someone who has been working in civil rights employment for a long time, but also as the head of a roughly 2300% organization that, that gets people able to contribute and do well. And we have seen that over and over our mission makes it easy to bring people in for, you know, a diverse group of folks really interested in our work, but to keep them there and keep them feeling like they are valued and contributing, that takes more. And so I do wanna make sure that not withstanding that. I think that there are some difficulties that if this does work and it's really important. I think in this moment, I know there's a lot of pushback to understand that and to stay the course, um whether it be a diversity equity inclusion accessibility program or whatever one is calling it to be intentional about making sure every you get the best talent in the door and make sure that they all feel included and um able to contribute I I would add that, you know, it does work but it does require strategic patience and operational urgency, right? That making sure that at least when I look at Microsoft's journey, the work that we do in partnership with schools as early as middle school up through high school and university and then reimagining those on ramps to tech for adults who want to have a career change. All of those pieces of the puzzle really matter. And, and it is the totality of the system as well as the many things that sort of you and, and beck both pointed to that allow progress to be made, right? And I think it's, at at least for us it is about really learning and listening to sort of the employee experience and the ways in which people are feeling like they do have access and opportunity or not. And then really thinking creatively and collaboratively, I mean, the beautiful thing about this work is that, you know, we all partner with so many of our peers and our colleagues across industries across, you know, small companies, large companies to try and make progress together. Um And I think it's something that's really special about sort of this work because it, it does require all of us. Absolutely. Yeah, I think, you know, I'll have just that I think it is important to be evidence based right, to have the receipts. And for us that's thinking about um the measurement of our progress. And I know that this works because I can measure it. And we think really holistically about the quantitative and qualitative data, we need to know whether what we're doing is working or not and adjust our approach accordingly. The only thing I would add is, you know, uh accenture and other companies, Microsoft, we do release our data, right? And so the transparency and accountability to point on places where we are making progress, but also to be accountable where we know we have more to do. I think it's really important, you know, as I said, we're about to publish for, you know, the sixth year or DN I report but 11 years, you know, consistently and I think that that's part of the rhythm of being able to keep the conversation moving. Right. Right. And as you say, it's the, it's the areas for improvement as well as the successes, right? And the learnings from failures sometimes too. I won, I wonder if we could uh open this up. Uh We have some mic handlers here and if anyone has a question for our esteem, panelists, we would love to uh to hear from the rest of you. Um If we don't have any questions, I also have more questions. Um You uh Lindsay Ray, you touched on the need for a kind of a collective uh or at least like collaboration across industries. I know that Beck, this is something that you've thought a lot about also um when we're facing these kind of these, these huge intractable problems, do you see potential for collaboration across industries or for sharing of some of those learnings that we've been talking about? I mean, I would say absolutely right. As a company who's been doing this work for four decades, I often look to smaller organizations to see how they're innovating with sort of less of a legacy or less history because they can do innovative creative things that big companies can't. Um And then I have the opportunity to also share, you know, decades of love learning and best practices that would benefit smaller companies or places to start around data or learning or, you know, sort of transparency, motions, engagement of senior leadership and grass roots. And so, you know, it really is that sharing of information and sort of wisdom and, and uh creativity that I think keeps the conversation well and Lindsay Ray is on the top of my text chain. So, you know, um but I would say, you know, it is that collaboration, it's a space where the natural competition of companies can be suppressed a little bit because we are invested in what is, you know, societal good as well as good for our businesses. And, you know, we look at things like uh what you've done at Microsoft Lindsay Ray with accessibility and how widely you share that so that all of us can learn, you know, that's really appreciated that leadership role and that sharing and collaboration or a project that our companies undertook together with the prince's trust. Like we have to think about NGOS and governments and how we partner together in the UK. We looked at, you know, how is generative A I going to impact the youth population. And from that, we've been able to create a project that's going to scale up 1 million folks in the UK from socio economically disadvantaged communities to use gen A I to build their skills, to have mentorship, but also to use those tools to get their jobs. And so it's that collaborative energy that allows us to do that singularly, we wouldn't be able to do that on our own. I love that you brought up skill upping. It's obviously an issue not just for the next generation, but for those of us already in, in uh you know, decades into our careers, we might need some, some retraining or upskilling. How do you think about that challenge for the, for this A I driven era? Well, for us, I think the first question we ask anybody coming to accenture is what was the last thing you learned? And we do that because learning is so critical to staying relevant in our, in our field. And we want people who have both an appetite and an ambition for learning. It doesn't matter if what you learned was Python or generative A I or how to play Chapel R on the guitar. It just really doesn't matter what, what is important is that appetite for learning. Because we know that the talent market is constrained as, as chair Burroughs research shows. But we're not constrained. We can invest, we can skill, we can grow the skills that we need to drive the business forward and keep everyone skill relevant. And at the pace of change we're in, that's just, it's hypocritical. You can't allow people to lag in their skills to add on to Beck's point. I would say like it's, it's not only important that tech workers get upskilled and res skilled on the new era of A I, but we will only be successful if everybody has access and benefits from that technology. It's part of why we need representation in the engineering of A I but also access to and so you see corporate partnerships on, you know, making sure that we continue to invest in broadband and access to devices and access to digital skilling beyond the workplace through linkedin learning and other platforms. Because I think like accenture, there are lots of companies who are deeply committed to making sure that this next era of tech really does leap frog inclusion. So more people benefit. Absolutely. And if I could just add on that, the EOC has had I launched in 2021 an initiative looking at artificial intelligence and how that is affecting employment um both in terms of recruitment, et cetera. But also this question of, you know, the entire lifeline and making sure, you know, that as A I becomes more important and to how we work, the people who get the opportunity to learn how to use these new tools in their jobs will have a um running start. So as those opportunities who gets trained in an institution and organization really matters to the future of their ability to succeed, to being, you know, able to contribute and for the organization to that talent from everybody. And so that's another thing that we're looking at and reminding people about. But we've also done um a couple of quick documents that are on our website eoc.gov on disabilities and a um I'm so glad you raised that and how to make sure that as you use A I particularly for recruitment that you don't leave people out, don't leave talent on the table unintentionally um with disability issues. And then also for race, gender, national origin religion um under title seven as well as um color, I guess. I love that note to end on that. Don't leave talent on the table. Um So I would like to thank so much our esteemed panelists and the audience for your engagement with these super important issues going forward. Thanks for having you so grateful for you.

Jason Buechel, Chief Executive Officer, Whole Foods Market Calvin Butler, Chief Executive Officer, Exelon Moderator: Indrani Sen, Senior Features Editor, Fortune; Co-chair, Fortune Impact Initiative  

Impact Initiative 2024: The Price Tag Of Sustainability

We're going to start out with some questions that I have for Jason and Calvin. But we also would love to hear some questions from the audience. So I hope you can all start thinking of questions for our esteemed guests. Um We'll be sending uh mics around a little bit later on. Uh I'd love to start Jason. Um You've talked about democratizing healthy grocery shopping in this era of high inflation about price reductions that whole foods has carried out kind of across the board. Calvin. I know that affordability is also very important to you. Given that 22% of exelon's customers are economically disadvantaged. How do you balance your sustainability goals with addressing the needs of financially stretched customers or put another way? How do you resist the temptation to compromise on your sustainability goals in order to offer your customers lower prices? Maybe we could start with you, Jason. Yeah. Yeah. Happy to and, and thanks for having me here today uh for us, you know, balancing and finding those win, win win solutions has been a really important part of whole foods market since we opened our very first store 44 years. Ago and practicing things like climate friendly agriculture have been an integral part of our company's offering, whether it was organic back when we first started to supporting things like regenerative today as well. And for us, it's finding the balance of how do we make sure that we can support value and quality for our customers. So I've been really proud of the work that we've been doing in reducing over 25% of prices across items within our stores, doubling the number of promotions from 2020 3 to 2024. And for us doing all of that without sacrificing quality. So ultimately, holding to our high quality standards and our goal is to find those win, win wins where we can balance impacts to the environment, do great things for customers, suppliers and the environment alike. Thank you, Calvin. Do you want to dive in on that one? Sure. First off, let me begin by saying good afternoon and thank you for having me. Thank you so much for being here. And I love the way you frame the question because it's not a either or it's definitely an and you started off with a statistic that was 22% of my customer base is from under resource communities. So as a utility, if I'm going to serve my customer base and recognizing the 22% and then I also have some of the highest income zip codes in the country as well. And my number one job as the CEO of a utility company is to serve all of my customers. So for me, it's definitely an and, and I have to do this in an equitable manner. And what I mean by that is that as we begin this energy transformation and I'm investing capital, I can't leave any neighborhood behind. We have the privilege of serving the nation's capital and I'll use them as an example for those of you who go to DC. The second ward is one of the most affluent wards in the nation's capital. The eighth ward is one of the most under-resourced. Their needs are very different, but I have to serve both of them and that's why afford affordability must be at the top of that list of everything I do. But this is what I also know. And we talked a little bit about this, all the things that I get to do and all the things that I'm being asked to do, if I don't keep the lights on and the gas flowing, it doesn't matter. So that reliability and resiliency also must be at the list. So when you talk about priorities, it's a one in one a and depending on who I talk to, it's what their priority is and how I need to show up. Right. Right. We talked about storytelling quite a lot. Um Calvin, some of Exelon's initiatives like rec conductor or investing in battery technology are kind of backend changes. Um, they're certainly hugely important but they're not necessarily that visible or easy to explain to customers. Um, and I'd say the same Jason, um, of initiatives at Whole Foods, like your approach to food waste. Um How do you think about telling customers those stories? And I guess as a part of that, like how much appetite and curiosity do your customers have for, for hearing these stories? Depends on the customer. Some of you want to hear about it each and every day and you want to start with, hey, what are you doing to help me get a battery charger at my home to charge my car? Some of you are saying, what can I do to get my solar panels put on my house quick enough. But once again, different customers have different priorities and I love the way you framed is that so much of what we do? You don't even know, but it's setting it up for the future of that grid, the resiliency of that grid. You think about what's happening right now and I heard one of the panels a couple of panels ago, talk about Hurricane Helene and now Milton coming through, that's when you talk about the grid and it's at the forefront, you're feeling it right now in real time. And you're saying, why wasn't that utility ready for this? Because that's the question that everyone's gonna ask when they get to the third or fourth day without power. And by the way, you're all very impatient right about now and you, you know that hurricanes coming and after about 48 hours, you lose all patience, but that's ok. We know that. So having said that, what are our investments that we're making today to make that grid more resilient? And I look at resiliency as the ability to get back online sooner rather than later. And that's what we're trying to do. And I think for us, you know, we're fortunate, we have probably some of the most passionate consumers as it relates to sustainability, uh you know, sustainable seafood sourcing animal welfare standards. And so in many cases, we've got a set of customers who are coming to us because we do the homework for them in this space. There's a lot of customers who are, you know, coming because we have great deals because we have high quality food. And so being able to tell the story of the why, why we're doing the work that we are, I think becomes really, really important. And I think whether it's whole foods and other brands, our responsibility is to help tell that story and bring the transparency to customers. So they understand the impact that they have based upon their decisions and whether it relates to, you know how we're reducing food waste to reducing our carbon emissions to ultimately helping support sustainable waterways and oceans, that impact is really important to understand as we make those buying decisions. And so I think it's our job to help tell the story, work with brands and producers and farmers and understanding why we're doing the work that we are. Right? I guess, I think sometimes customers can become a little cynical about this. We, we talk about these things so much. You hear terms like greenwashing thrown around. How do you, how do you kind of factor that in to these conversations? How do you, how do you make it, you know, make people feel this is important without necessarily kind of making them feel that they're lectured to or uh are kind of being uh being told off in some way. Well, I think that's a really important uh balance that we have to strike. And, you know, one of the things that we put into place is we require, you know, third party certification. So take, for example, Regen, if we're the only national retailer right now that we have to ensure that all of our products that have regenerative on our labels are third party certified. And so we've got a series of certifiers that we work with in this space. And so what we believe we need to do is make sure that there's integrity that stands behind it. Um And so customers don't have that distrust. And as I was saying earlier, we want to do the homework for our customers, so they don't have to is the ultimate goal. And so our goal is to help build that trust. And I think one of the other ways we can do is start to talk about the impacts of us not supporting this. You know, one of the things that is the true reality here is, you know, our food systems are under jeopardy right now. Uh If we don't do something different in the next to 100 years, the products that we know and love today, we're not going to be able to grow all of them. And at the same time, we're losing the nutrient density in these products. So every single year, we're losing that nutrient density from our soil. And so we have to bring different practices in place. And so I think a big part of it is at the same time not being alarmist, but also also like pointing out if we don't do something different, this is a situation we're going to be in. And I would just say for Exelon, our goal is to lead with transparency. Every year we issue our sustainability report, we just did it and you can go online and pull it up. And in that sustainability report, you will see that we've reduced our business driven emissions significantly since 2015. And we focus on that. We were also one of the last companies we were slow out the gate in announcing our path to clean our uh emissions driven goals. And we did that for a very uh very real reason, is that anything that we said we wanted it to be measurable and attainable. So when I tell you that we're going to be net zero business driven emissions by 2050 the first reaction I got when I came out the gate was that's kind of late. But I said I got a line of sight to 80% of that. By 2035 the last 20% is going to be technology dependent. So I didn't want to state a goal that I didn't have a clear line of how I would achieve it. And then I also challenge people that once we say we're at someplace, ask us and we can show you the data to back it up and that's what's important for us as a utility company because we're never going to tell you something that we cannot do or have a line of sight to achieving. So a boa our chief sustainability Officer is here and we take very, we're very diligent about what we put out in the public space because we never want that credibility to be eroded. So it's very important for us. Absolutely. I'm gonna now say if there's anyone who has any questions, I, I see a question over here. Um I'd ask that we have some mic handlers who are gonna come over. I just ask that you stand and, and please state your name and the, and the company that you're representing here. Sheikh uh fascinating panel. Uh We are an era where the businesses and the government should work together for the value creation. Now, in the context of uh the, the electric industry, Exelon or in the food industry and in the, the things that are going on under the Department of Justice, the Trust Arena. Um What are the one or two strategies that uh you are looking into to make sure we work with the government to drive value because we alone cannot do it together. Because at the end of the day, the customers, communities, education institutions, every stakeholder matters. If you don't mind, I'll, I'll start, you go ahead. Let me just capture to your point. Public private partnerships are critical to any level of success we're going to achieve. And I give this administration a lot of credit for the passing of the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act because that is those were critical elements to spearheading everything that we did and how we partnered with our communities directly. I don't benefit from that. But what it has done is accelerated, the adoption of electric buses, it's accelerated buildings going all electric, it's accelerated um decarbonization in urban areas and rural areas that would not have happened because of the expense of getting it done. And what I've shared with Secretary Granholm and others is that not only are those billions being put to work, we're partnering and putting our own capital on top of that. And it's a true example of one plus one equaling three. And that's the benefit of that partnership. And we talk regularly with not only Secretary Granholm at doe, but Secretary Romano at Department of Commerce. I noticed you had Ali Z up here earlier. Those are conversations on a weekly basis that we're doing and we're having because this administration is all into it. Um Now I wish it was happening quicker and the challenge for it happening quicker is that there's not always an alignment between federal legislation and what's happening at the state level in terms of the regulatory policies. So the utilities may be looking to run and put that money to work, but state policies are slowing it down and we're working to get that done. And I love this question. I would love to just throw in. Also. How are you thinking about November? I'll jump in on the food side. I'm gonna jump in on the food side. So for us to be able to protect the future of our food system, we have to change our farming practices and it's going to require the public and private sectors to work together, you know, today that we have so many different incentives and subsidies that are actually incenting the wrong behaviors of where we need to go. And so it has to be a collective set of work. And I think what's more important than November is we need bipartisan collaboration to support this. You know, I oftentimes share, you know, we have red and blue states that are some of the largest producers of produce and goods that we have in this country from our farms and we have to work together to find solutions so we can help bring these changes and put them into place. Um Just picking up on that. One of the things that you've said, Jason is uh that there's a danger of a kind of whack a mole approach across industries where efforts to solve one problem in one industry can end up causing problems in the other. In another industry. A classic example is uh corn ethanol, the biofuel uh leading to uh they were impacting food production, um government uh you know, working with the government as a part of that. Do you see any kind of path of working across industries as the Kia Car Johnson talked about a little bit earlier also? Yeah, I think we have to, you know, and some of the examples that you just mentioned, you know, we're in a situation right now where across this country, only 1% of our family farmlands are certified organic and the pressure in many cases of farmers to, you know, move to producing corn for the purposes of energy is increasing and the demand is going to get higher. If you look as an example, the airline industry has got a number of solutions where corn is going to be a major dependency in helping support some of their sustainability goals. And it's great on things that they're able to do. But we have to say, what is that going to be doing in our food systems? And so we need support both across industry, but we also need help from some of our government partners here to make sure that we've got the right incentives in place so we can protect our food systems and continue to support other industries in meeting their goals as well. Do you want to weigh in on that one? Kelvin? I'm teasing. So I think it applies to, is there a part of that from the energy perspective, you'd like me to dig in on? Well, I mean, I think that the the collaboration across industries in particular, do you see, I mean, is that real or is that kind of pie in the sky? No, it's definitely realistic. I mean, you look at we're at the forefront for at least the last 40 to 50 years where we're seeing load growth in the electric sector and you talk about uh data centers, the load growth, depending on who you talk to and doing that in a sustainable way in a clean way is critical because depending on once again who you talk to could be 3 to 5 X over the next decade. And data centers for our National Security for information flow based here in the US is going to be critical and how we do that and still manage to provide adequate clean energy to those uh data centers is important. So that's where the collaboration and partnership really shows and the security of the system. And fortunately, most of you don't have to think about protecting the grid, but the grid is critical infrastructure. When you look at any major disturbance across the world, the first thing they go after is the grid. And so that's also something that we put at the forefront. So not only with the data center developers, but also with the national gov federal government in terms of making sure those assets are protected, that collaboration and partnership is critical. Absolutely. So with our, our last couple of minutes, um I'd love to just end on a note of, you know, what are your biggest concerns about the future? But also what makes you feel optimistic? Yeah, I'm happy to, to jump in. I kind of mentioned, you know, a little bit earlier, we have to protect the future of our food systems for future generations. And that's going to require us to implement more climate friendly agricultural practices overall. And I'm hopeful that we're actually going to be able to achieve that because as I look at some of our future generations and specifically Gen Z, this is something they really care about. 70% of Gen Zers support climate friendly agriculture practices. 55% of them even will pay more for those products. And they really want to make sure that there's authenticity behind it. And so I'm very hopeful that we'll be able to help address this in the future. I love that. So I will tell you my, my biggest concerns and it wouldn't surprise you is the reliability and resiliency of this system, affordability and resource adequacy, meaning that having enough power to supply all the things that you as our customers want. And depending on the audience, it could be 11 A and one B because at different points, different customers. But those are the three issues that I think about on a regular basis. Why am I optimistic? Because here in the United States, we operate one of the most reliable and resilient grids across the world. Sometimes it may, may feel that way, but we have to get better because you as customers, your expectations are very different for us today than they were a year ago. And we're being asked to do different things with the grid today and tomorrow than we ever had to do so, we have to get better. So I'm optimistic because I think we, I know we'll be able to step up. And the last thing I would say I'm optimistic is the workforce of the future picking up what Jason just said, I started my opening a stem center in an elementary school in Prince George's County and to see those young elementary kids just really go to those stem packages with the teachers, not read the instructions and go right in where the rest of us my age were looking like, OK, what do we do here? They're excited about science, technology, engineering and math. All we need to do is empower them and give them the resources and they will be our future scientists and mathematicians in the future. So that gets me excited. Love that. Well, thank you so much for the panelists and thank you so much to our audience for your.

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