What are some unique challenges that you ’ ve faced as a woman in the sustainability sector and how have you overcome those ?
Christina Shim I don ’ t know if I fully overcome them , so I ’ ll start there .
If you look across the board , there ’ s a lot of CSOs who are women , but it ’ s not a woman or man thing – this is existential . This is everybody . It ’ s all our communities . It ’ s all our families . It ’ s everybody , all our businesses .
As an executive in a large company , there are just a lot of challenges .
The only way that we ’ re ever going to make the progress we need to is by creating business value . It ’ s cost cutting and revenue generating as a growth enabler if you allow it to be part of your business .
Our roles are more of an influencer role – I don ’ t have a thousand people on my team running sustainability around the company . It is a small group and what we have to do is tentacle out and make sure that we are touching every function and business unit in the company .
Especially with sustainability being increasingly important in how we think about our businesses , it is challenging when you ’ re not necessarily in every room to make sure that you have influenced all the discussions .
Kristen Siemen I ’ ve been at GM for more than 30 years and 27 were in product development . As an engineer I was definitely a minority , especially early in my career . So coming into the sustainability role , I think two things are nice :
• There are a lot more women
• It ’ s very collaborative
I ’ ve made some great friends – we learn from each other and are natural collaborators . It ’ s really important in the role to understand the business and to be able to drive and communicate that within the business .
THIS IS EVERYBODY . IT ’ S ALL OUR COMMUNITIES . IT ’ S ALL OUR FAMILIES . IT ’ S EVERYBODY
104 January 2025