Kelly Eisenhardt, a writer for a number of publications including ours, is ascendent.  Over the next few years, we’ll be hearing much more of her.  Her specialty is sustainability and the environment.  Here is her story:

1. Kelly, you’re becoming a world authority on sustainability and compliance.  Our readers would like to know: ‘Who is Kelly Eisenhardt’?

As Co-Founder and Managing Director at BlueCircle Advisors LLC, my firm is focused on providing product compliance programs and sustainability strategies that meet global regulations and corporate requirements. In addition, we partner with software and training companies to enable compliance management and data collection, along with supply chain education.

I have more than 20 years’ experience in IT and Compliance Software Development and the last 10 years have been part of a dual career in technology and compliance management. I’ve been fortunate to have key positions with global companies that assisted my personal mission of operationalizing compliance and sustainability into standard business operations.

Some of those positions include being the Executive Director of Environmental Programs, at Fair Factories Clearinghouse; Environmental Compliance Management and Design for Environment programs at EMC Corporation; and Director of Product Management at PTC Corporation for Windchill Product Analytics.

Part of my mission to get the word out about compliance and sustainability has been achieved through becoming a journalist. As an accomplished writer for industry trade publications such as 3BL, JustMeans, Social Earth, CSRwire, Ethical Performance, and CSR@Risk, I’ve been able to share some of the great stories going on in corporate social responsibility. I’ve done this by interviewing C-suite executives from some of the world’s leading corporations. In addition to consulting, I’ve been taking on journalism assignments that connect me with the United Nations and the messaging around the U.N’s Sustainable Development Goals.

2.  So, let’s start at the beginning: ‘What is CSR’?

In the most basic terms, it means a company’s sense of obligation to the community and environment in which it operates, primarily focused on environmental, ethical, and social contributions. This includes a wide scope of topics including: hazardous materials compliance, fire and factory safety, fair labor conditions, proactive waste policies, human trafficking prevention, capacity building, infrastructure, and education. This by no means is an all-inclusive list. The definition continues to broaden and each day incorporates new examples and expanding global regulations and policies.

3.  Tell us a little about your self?  What passion or interest pulled you into the area?

I guess it really goes back to my childhood, my love of technology, and my passion to help business make choices that positively impact the bottom-line and the planet.

I grew up in a mill town in central, Massachusetts and for the last few generations, my family was part of the manufacturing industry that made New England famous. We weren’t the owners of businesses. We were part of the labor force. I was that kid who grew up in a row house on the other side of the railroad tracks from the factory.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was getting a lesson in the deep connection between manufacturing and the impact it has on society, the environment, and communities. I sort of stored all the sounds, images, and smells away in my head. Things like wandering around in dangerous conditions looking for my dad to bring him his lunch, covering my ears because the machines were so loud, seeing  how dangerous it was for workers with no protective gear, and the smell of the dye house which was toxic to the lungs. I could never forget the rainbow of colors dumped into the river behind the mill.

This was during the late 1980s before factories had left the U.S. in search of cheaper labor. At the time, I was studying computer programming in high school and decided that technology would be my path. This was way before companies were being pressured to be socially responsible. So I filed the factory memories away in my head and took the path toward technology. I moved on to a solid and fruitful career working for companies like Fidelity Investments, State Street Bank, John Hancock Insurance, EMC Corporation, and PTC.

It was at EMC and PTC, where my career would become a dual path in technology and compliance/sustainability.

4.  What are the biggest challenges companies (big/small) face regarding CSR?

From my experience the biggest challenge is prioritizing which CSR programs to engage in and then sizing and scaling them appropriately.

Just to compare and contrast, many Fortune 500 companies have upper management buy-in, funding, and resources to address issues and mitigate risks. They have access to expensive tools that align with their product development lifecycle and enable processes that help them to collaborate with the bigger players in their supply chain.

When these requirements are pushed down the supply chain to mid-tier suppliers it causes hardship.  Mid-tier suppliers are forced to take on programs and initiatives that they do not have the budget or resources to complete. Deals are lost because of an inability to prove due diligence for key product regulations, to show an audit trail of supplier data collection, or to demonstrate supply chain transparency.

There is a gap between what Fortune 500s expect and what mid-tier, smaller suppliers can deliver. Communication between the two usually shows up in the form of a request for data, which falls silent because the supplier is unsure of what to do next.

5.  Well said.  So, how do you see these challenges can be addressed? 

Small to medium business need to protect future sales and revenues. Without that, the chance to make a better planet doesn’t exist.

Protecting sales and revenues requires understanding and implementing programs that meet regulatory compliance and align with customer expectations. This involves a mapping exercise of the top revenue generating customers with high-volume or high-revenue products, then correlating that to the associated suppliers in order to maximize resources and budget.

Next a company must know what their competitors are doing and where the specific industry is as a whole on these issues. Understand your competitor’s value proposition and if they are leveraging their compliance and sustainability efforts as a branding opportunity.

Lastly, a gap assessment needs to be done to determine compliance and sustainability requirements and to develop a strategy that addresses risks, creates internal protocols, and implements data collection and reporting standards.

6.  So, risk management is a key element to the solution.  Can you share an example on how you would approach a compliance or risk challenge?

A quick story may illustrate the challenges and solutions…

Blue Circle Advisors recently finished Phase 1 of building a set of product compliance programs and tools with a distributor in Massachusetts for RoHS, REACH, and Conflict Minerals. Working closely with the client, we enabled them to meet customer requirements and gain a competitive edge by making their policies downloadable on their company website.

We mapped out which 20 customer accounts represented the bulk of their revenues and which products and suppliers were associated. Then we did a deep dive into the compliance and sustainability requirements of each customer and found the common denominators. Next we looked at their internal ERP system to determine what we could modify for queries and data storage and then gathered free industry tools, as well as created our own tools to begin a comprehensive data collection strategy.

We were able to minimize the stress of responding to requests by creating compliance policies and documents that could be sent to customers and suppliers directly, along with building a compliance tab on their web site for self-service information.

I’m happy to say that they’ve asked us to come back for Phase 2 and to assist in their counterfeit parts efforts. They have also engaged us for quarterly training to stay up to date on regulation changes and to help mitigate potential risks.

7.  What do you envision as the future of the field and how will you help to shape it?

The future is filled with new ways of thinking that incorporate CSR into standard business operations. Not everyone will be convinced by the positive spin of making a better planet but that’s OK. Our challenge is to show how businesses and stakeholders can benefit by implementing compliance, developing key sustainability programs and metrics, along with open disclosure, and supply chain transparency. We’re headed in the right direction.

Thank you Kelly for your personal commitment to make the world a better place.