Businesses are uniquely positioned to drive meaningful climate action, making the role of Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs) and ESG leaders vital yet often challenging. Our column in collaboration with Four32 is here to inspire those working to make a real impact within their organisations. Each month, we’ll bring you insights from a CSO, sharing 4 strategies, 3 challenges, and 2 sources of inspiration to help you on your journey.

Businesses that stand the test of time do so by adapting through evolving their products and practices to meet the changing needs of it’s customers and the planet.

Founded in 1894 and part of Nestlé since 2001, Purina has grown into one of the world’s largest pet-care companies. Its reach brings influence, but also responsibility with producing food for millions of pets depends on agricultural systems, supply chains and packaging with significant environmental impacts.

In recent years, Purina has strengthened its sustainability strategy, committing to targets ranging from regenerative agriculture to ocean habitat restoration. The approach reflects a broader recognition that animal health is tied to environmental health.

Kerstin Schmeiduch, Purina Europe’s Director of Corporate Communications and Sustainability, explains how a heritage brand is navigating the demands of a low-carbon, resource-constrained future.

Four Wins

1. The planetary boundaries method

As a business, we know it’s important to grow in a way that doesn’t harm the planet. We found the Planetary Boundaries framework from the Stockholm Resilience Centre which looks at nine critical processes that are essential for maintaining a stable environment for humanity.

We could examine our outward effects on the environment and an inward analysis to understand how these factors, such as ocean acidification, affect our business operations – the resilience of our supply of fish byproducts for example.

2. Becoming storytellers

ESG can sound pretty technical, but really it’s about creating value that everyone can benefit from. While the business world might get it; the details don’t always click with consumers.  

Partnering with the BBC StoryWorks team on its Blue Horizons series helped us share the story behind our sustainability efforts and showcase our work with amazing organisations across Europe on the Ocean Restoration Programme.  

For me, the value was twofold: raised awareness of our goals and how we’re working towards them, and shone a light on a fragile and important ecosystem. 

3. Partnerships for societal challenges

None of the bold changes we want to drive are possible alone. Externally, teaming up with organisations that are the experts in areas like marine habitat restoration, or regenerative agriculture, is key for making real and lasting change. Working alongside our partners on initiatives such as pet adoption, responsible pet ownership, and support for individuals in vulnerable situations can also help address societal challenges.

4. Meeting and exceeding commitments

We were the first pet-care company to publish a full set of commitments to pets, people and the planet with our Purina in Society (PinS) commitments. A public statement has galvanised all of our employees internally. It also gives the outside world something to measure us against, which has kept us accountable and more determined than ever to make real progress. Since launching, we’ve achieved huge success in meeting, and even exceeding, our commitments in some cases, making a positive impact in areas like sustainability, pet adoption and pet health.

Three Challenges

1. Embedding a true cost mindset

Creating a business which is resilient for years to come means investing in its transformation. The challenge is in managing a sustainability transformation whilst keeping costs under control, as you need to make choices to balancing short, medium and long term objectives. 

Sometimes it helps to think of Regenerative Agriculture as green capex (capital expenditure) investment into improving soil health, or Ocean Restoration as blue capex investment into ocean health, to change how we look at sustainability. Embedding this cost, resilience and mindset into our overall business strategy and making decisions based on it is a journey we are still on.

2. Making the rules as we go

For our Ocean Restoration Programme, we teamed up with organisations across Europe with the ambition to restore 1,500 hectares of marine habitats by 2030. Being one of the first to move in this space, we’ve faced some challenges together with our partners: from securing permits, scaling solutions to measuring biodiversity in an ecosystem that is far more exposed to human and environmental factors compared to land. But, by working with our partners, we’re learning together. Working on such a large scale is new for all of us, we’re developing new frameworks to succeed together.

3. Making sustainability visible

A lot of the work we’re doing isn’t fully visible to consumers. We want our pet parent community to feel empowered that their buying choices are making a positive impact for their beloved pets, society and the planet, but how do we bring our customers with us on the journey? 

We want to tell a meaningful story that pet parents can connect with and it’s not always possible to share this on packaging. We’ve been leveraging our websites and electronic customer management systems to share informative content, and to create interactive experiences that highlight our commitment to sustainability and social responsibility.