IRA Pearl is the Vice President of Environmental Sustainability at Cox Enterprises. Ira is responsible for leading Cox's sustainability strategy, including driving ambitious goals to achieve zero waste to landfill by 2024 and to become water and carbon neutral by 2034. IRA has more than 25 years of experience, both in consulting and leading environmental departments at large Fortune 500 companies, as well as in operational leadership roles. He spent most of his career developing and executing strategies in the areas of renewable energy, sustainability, climate change, and environmental compliance.

Ira Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss:

How being a private company impacts the way sustainability is handled
How Cox establishes sustainability goals and targets - ground up process
Cox's approach to employee engagement and the benefits of having top down support
Sustainability reporting at Cox and the emphasis on transparency
Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders

Ira's Final Five Question Responses:

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

Understand the business side of things. Having a passion for sustainability is great, but you need to make your work economically sustainable as well.

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

So many companies are now coming to the table and seeking to reduce their footprint. The accompanying level of investment is driving innovation and cost reduction and it helps all of us get there faster.

What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read?

I would recommend Confessions of a Radical Industrialist by Ray Anderson, who was the CEO of interface. It talks about how running your company sustainably is just good business. I think Cox has proven this by delivering double digit returns on our sustainability investments.

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

There's so many it's difficult to list them all. My web browser has so many bookmarks, but one of the ones I use a lot is the EIA website, because it is such a credible source of truth and data that helps identify trends and lends credibility to the analyses behind these resources. I also listen to a lot of business news, which more and more is covering ESG. I keep abreast of a lot trends and what other companies are doing and evolving technology by subscribing to a bunch of email list servers that that give me that data and feed it to my inbox every day.

Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work being done at Cox?

They can go to coxenterprises.com/cox-conserves where they can learn more about our programs. If you want to learn about the investments we're making in Cleantech, you can go to https://coxnewinvestments.com. Our vision there is to take the problems facing the world and transform them into business opportunities. At Cox, we want to run a business that gives employees a better life, gets the return on investment and has a positive impact on society.

Ira Pearl: Leading Cox Enterprises' Eco Sustainability