According to Jenny Geddes who started as chief executive of Clean Up Australia (CUA) on Monday, there is a growing drive for environmental social governance strategy to be embedded in business, as more individuals take personal accountability for the waste crisis.
Geddes who takes over from retiring Terrie-Ann Johnson after Johnson’s 10 years in the job, has a background in leading nonprofits – she was previously chief executive officer of Workplace Giving Australia (WGA) for four years, and also held the same role at The Australian Charities Fund for nine years.
She is replaced at WGA by David Mann, previously managing director for mergers and acquisitions at Accenture APAC, Middle East and Africa, as WGA recently merged with Good2Give to attempt a recovery following a difficult two years for Australian charities.
Three days into the new role, and Geddes says she is excited about this opportunity.
“I loved my role [at WGA] but I was there for 10 years. Thinking about personal values, the opportunity [to work at CUA] fits perfectly with how I live my life. An opportunity like this was too good to miss, so I jumped at the task.”
Talking to The Fifth Estate from a rainy café in Sydney (the city is currently seeing the wettest year on record – thanks, climate change), she says the fires and the floods of the past few years were the catalyst that motivated her to make the change into a more environment-focused charity.
“Sometimes it can be so overwhelming, the problems can seem so huge.”
Growing up in the outback, the environment has always been front of mind for Geddes, as it is for many Australians.
It is in this context that Geddes has been guiding non-profits in the business world – a world which she says is increasingly engaged in environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG).
In the past 10 years she has seen the “voice” of environmentalism “get louder”.
“ESG strategy is top of mind for so many organisations.
“We are all devastated with the state of our planet and we want to make a difference. It’s all about practical action.”
In 33 years since the organisation was founded, it’s attracted around twenty million people (one million people annually) who are involved in a range of ways. Part of the driver is the growing trend for businesses looking to understand their place in the circular economy, she says.
“It has to be a mindset that there is no waste and there is no ‘throw away’ – where is ‘away’? We’re all on this planet together. We need to start valuing waste.”
Then there is the pressure from consumers, which is also growing.
“Buyers want recycled products… Most job seekers want to work in fighting climate change, and that’s only going to increase.”
The organisation runs the famous Clean Up Australia Day in March, as well as ongoing business awareness programs that happen “every day”, support for container recycling schemes, and educational programs for schools and community groups.
The model is built on the twin pillars of business engagement and individual action.
Geddes believes that individual action is key to solving the waste crisis: “Instead of [waste] being someone else’s problem, [people are asking] ‘what can I do about it?’”
There has been some criticism recently against the power of individual action against the power of big corporations.
There are other views that disagree on laying the problem at the feet of consumers.
We recently wrote that the idea of a personal carbon footprint, for example, was created by PR firm Ogilvy & Mather for clients BP in order to reposition the oil and gas company in the face of rising public concern about climate change.
And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that CUA’s founding partner and major funder is McDonalds, which has been identified as a notorious polluter.
Just last week Yahoo News reporter Siobhan Graham penned an article praising the fast-food chain for providing a Good Samaritan passer-by with a garbage bag so she could pick up the burger shop’s own discarded packaging from the sand on her evening walk along Sydney’s Coogee Beach.
But Geddes says such corporate sponsorship is vital to moving the needle.
“McDonalds, Coles, Sodastream, Cleanaway, the Australian government – they’re organisations who are looking to see how we can all be part of that solution.
“Clean Up Australia has a vision to work with businesses to learn together and make change together. It’s a sensible strategy.
“Better to have people in the tent than out of the tent,” is the argument from Geddes.
Besides businesses and individuals alike are getting more uncomfortable with sitting back and doing nothing, she says.
“I think the voice will get louder. We see it with businesses, with political action, with a change in society.
“I feel we’re on the cusp of making change happen.”