Interview with Christina O'Keefe

Transcript

Sheldon Young
Welcome to the No Footprints podcast brought to you by Alfa Laval, I’m Sheldon Young.

Jason Moreau
And I’m Jason Moreau.

Sheldon Young
And we’re here to talk about impact and to share the efforts and people behind making sustainability real.

Greetings, my friend. Hello, hello. It is winter, but it’s starting to look like spring, which is nice.

Jason Moreau
It is nice. I would say for the majority of people who might be listening to this, this has been a decidedly intense winter in a lot of regions.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. Yeah. Well, particularly for Virginia.

Jason Moreau
For us. We’re not used to this stuff. No.

Yeah. No. Not when it stays below freezing for, you know, a week or more.

Yeah. Yeah. That was, uh, that was pretty intense.

So I’m, I’m, it does feel like we’re maybe on the other side of it. I hope so. Knock on wood, but yeah.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. So it definitely has been a severe winter in most of, most of the U S if I recall. Yeah.

So yeah. Interesting times. But, um, we got fun stuff to talk about today.

What a guest we have. I’m very excited about this one. Uh, I have a couple other topics first, Jason, though.

Let’s talk in here. All right. Okay.

Uh, but you want to go first? You want me to go first? Yeah.

Jason Moreau
You go first. No.

Sheldon Young
I like it when you go first.

Jason Moreau
This one’s a quick. Okay. This one’s a quick one.

Sheldon Young
Yeah.

Jason Moreau
Um, but I, I thought it was, uh, apropos, uh, since our guest works in food, uh, to come up with a food story. Very good. Uh, so this one is out of the University of Queensland, uh, and scientists discover a gene that could save bananas from deadly Panama disease.

So for those of you not in the banana, no, uh, that is me. I am not in the, but I am banana ignorant. So there are many, many varieties of bananas around the world.

However, the one that we’ve standardized on, what you probably are picturing in your mind is that just sort of typical yellow banana. It’s called the Cavendish. That’s the variety of banana.

Little factoid for you, but that, um, there’s actually, it’s been, uh, kind of a, uh, a nervous time for the banana industry because there is a fungus that is a threat to the Cavendish specifically. And so much of the, of our like supply chain is like, it’s the Cavendish and nothing else that this could be bad news. Um, so researchers at the University of Queensland basically discovered in one of the wild, uh, banana varieties, a gene that has proved resistant to the fungus that’s threatening the Cavendish, which is more of that industrialized banana.

Um, so it’s still early days, but it looks very positive that if you’re a fan of the Cavendish, that, um, this could prove to be a solution to what could be a pretty big calamity, uh, for that sector.

Sheldon Young
So, yeah, I thought that was really cool. So basically keeping bananas sustainable, good.

Jason Moreau
They would take that, they would take that gene and yeah, crossbreed that with the Cavendish and give it that natural resistance that they found to the fungus. Super interesting.

Sheldon Young
Why I have a follow-up is what my big topic is. Remember, remember way back last episode, we talked about a pharmaceutical industry and I talked about the, the, the recycling of some of the plastic wastes. Well, I found the information that I had on it.

Uh, the particular one I was like, I’m probably other agencies that do this, but the one I was looking at was a company called triumvirate environmental. They take that medical waste and turn it into like, uh, lumber essentially. And, uh, park benches was kind of the product they were making with that.

Uh, at least that was the one particular case that I, that I’d read about. And, um, it’s again, proprietary process. They take it, they sterilize it, they recycle it, and then they, uh, take that and make usable plastic lumber.

And so it was triumvirate T R I U M V E R A T E, uh, environmental. That’s the people that were doing it. And I think there’s a case out there.

It can be, but I just thought, again, it’s like anything you can do to upcycle that stuff. It’s very difficult. And so finding people that, how to do it, it might be option for some customers, uh, people out there that are looking to, uh, do something with their plastics and it could be an interesting, uh, way to, way to kind of upcycle that.

Jason Moreau
Yeah. Nice followup.

Sheldon Young
Thank you. And I actually remembered, I don’t usually remember these things. It’s like, I’m going to do this thing.

And it’s like, I’ll follow up next time. But then next time turns into five times out. Right.

Um, the other thing I just want to remind people, uh, this is a little bit of a teaser for an upcoming episode. I’m not sure if this will be in, uh, uh, the one right after this, or maybe a month or two out when, depending on timing of when you’re for episodes and approvals and all that good stuff, uh, it is Girl Scout cookie season and the Girl Scouts, what we’re going to talk about, I’m not going to spoil it too much, but there is a strong connection between Girl Scouts and sustainability. And so it is Girl Scout cookie season.

And I just want to say, you know, go, go read up and understand what’s happening with the Girl Scouts. You’ll be ready to listen when we have, uh, uh, someone from the organization, uh, on the show soon. And I’m excited about that.

Jason Moreau
It is not Pim, the adorable six-year-old who sold over a hundred thousand boxes. I will, I will let that cat out of the bag. It’s not PIM, but you know, Jason, maybe I scored the interview.

Maybe I did. All right. Well, I’ll, I’ll leave everybody with the teas.

Uh, I will, I will wait to see who shows up. That’s right.

Sheldon Young
We’re going to interview a six-year-old for the podcast. Tell us about sustainability. I’m sure she knows a lot.

She knows a lot. Absolutely. Okay.

So, but just, uh, yeah, so I just said, go, it’s girlscouts.org, um, is, is the place to go find that. Okay. So our guest, uh, I enjoyed the meeting, this person, uh, at climate week, uh, this past year.

And, uh, what a wonderful person. I think I talked about being on a game show at some point. Uh, and, uh, it is because of this person that I was able to be on that, uh, at, at, at climate week.

Intelligent, delightful human being. And I so look forward to interviewing them and, uh, can’t wait to share it. So what do you say we do that, Jason?

Let’s dive in. All right. We’re diving in.

I’d like to give a warm welcome to Christina O’Keefe, Regional Head of Sustainability for North America at Kerry. With a background in agricultural engineering and an MBA, Christina brings over a decade of experience driving sustainability in the food and beverage industry. Since joining Kerry in 2011, she’s led efforts to minimize environmental impact, champion sustainable nutrition, and help Kerry reach its bold goal of nourishing 2 billion people by 2030.

Christina is passionate about building a better food system for both people and the planet. And we are absolutely thrilled to have her here on the no footprints podcast. Christina, welcome.

Christina O’Keefe
Thank you. I’m so excited to be here.

Sheldon Young
I know it’s a full disclosure. I met Christina at climate week this past year, and, uh, you were a breath of fresh air. You were so inviting and so kind to me.

Um, you know, it was our first climate week and, um, it was so great to just, you know, I was introduced through one of, one of your, uh, teammates. Um, and, uh, immediately we sat down, have a conversation and all of a sudden I’m on a game show.

Christina O’Keefe
It’s like my job recruiting contestants.

Sheldon Young
I proudly am wearing my champion pin, which I will show up for the, for the camera, um, but so thank you so much for coming on our, our, our little podcast here, uh, about how we make sustainability real, just, I guess, start off, tell us about your journey to sustainability and how, and what brought you to carry.

Christina O’Keefe
Yeah, I think, um, I think everybody has their own story when they say they’re coming to sustainability. I think, especially us that maybe have been around a little bit longer than others is sustainability really wasn’t a thing when we went to college or, you know, worked on our further education. So I was actually have a formal education around being an engineer, an ag engineer.

And then I really just built my career in manufacturing and environmental, and then just kind of gradually gravitated towards more sustainability topics. Um, and really broadening that through passions and which ultimately led me to leading sustainability for the region. I would say that that really early career has grounded me in operations.

It’s given me tools to help me translate sustained strategy and governance into really practical plant applications and how to translate that to our customers for value. Um, I came to carry through an acquisition. Uh, so that was a really interesting.

Part of my life when you’re working for one company and then the next day you’re working for somebody else. But I think the big part is that I chose to stay right with Carrie. And that’s because they really personally aligned with my values and, and really fostered my own ambitions and they really matched with the company’s ambitions.

So, and I get to work some with some pretty awesome people at the same time. Um, and we’re all, you know, trying to make things better for the planet, for society and for people.

Sheldon Young
Great. I mean, fantastic story.

Christina O’Keefe
Thank you.

Jason Moreau
Yeah. Oh, I was going to ask. So, uh, as regional, so North America, you have, um, colleagues covering other regions of the globe.

So how do you collaborate? What’s the, you know, is it 80% the same, 20% different for us here in North America? How do you like, what’s the balance there?

And what are some of the, what are the, some of the sustainability things that are unique here in North America for you?

Christina O’Keefe
Yeah, no, that’s a really good question. So I do cover when we say North America, that’s U S and Canada, um, which have their own different things going on, but for the most part, very closely aligned. Um, and then the other regions, which we have a European region and, um, we call it apnea, so Asia, uh, Africa, and then Latam, so Latin America, I would say globally, I like to say that we are, um, globally aligned, but regionally led, so what that means is we kind of have top level goals and things that we’re executing together.

But there was a lot of nuances from region to region and things we’re trying to solve for, and they do differ. So. Although I work very closely with my global colleagues, we are more of talking through the challenges, how can we solve them together, but also know that there are going to be those kind of tailored applications or nuances that we have to, um, work towards within our own regions.

Sheldon Young
Nice. Yeah. Yeah.

Um, so sustainability itself is a word that we all see a lot and we can mean lots of things. What does it mean to carry into yourself?

Christina O’Keefe
So I thought a lot about this through my career and I think, you know, maybe when I first started and I think when you see a lot of people think about sustainability for the first time, the first thing that probably comes to mind is waste, right. Or packaging. Um, but really if you take a deeper dive into sustainability, to me, it’s a, it’s a growth strategy.

It’s a business model. Um, so it’s not a side program or a reporting exercise at, at its best. It’s about creating value by enabling better outcomes.

So that could be healthier nutrition. That could be lower. Impact environmentally having more transparent sourcing, but it’s all needs to be built directly into how products are developed and how markets grow.

So it’s about that business strategy. And when we think about strategy, you also have to manage those risks. So when a business brings customer solutions that are generally better for people’s society and planet, we need to make sure that we’re not just doing the right thing, but that we’re building resiliency so that we can keep it going.

And that intersection between people, planet and business, that’s the sweet spot, it’s where you’re in trust. Your supply chains are strengthened and you have long-term performance.

Sheldon Young
Wow. So I love, I love that answer. I think that it really boils it down into, into some things that are important.

And you, you’ve talked a little bit earlier in your career, so you make it very practical. So talking about your role, it’s a comprehensive one. It’s a pretty big role in terms of the scope you have to touch.

Tell us about, I guess, the things that are kind of under your purview here and why it works for you.

Christina O’Keefe
Yeah. So my role, I like to say is end to end or kind of enterprise leadership. So it’s really about making sure that the value of the sustainability strategy that we have set out actually pulls through the organization.

So with the ambition and the targets all the way through execution and that it’s solving real customer needs. So it doesn’t make any sense to put out those goals and targets if it’s not solving anything. So I really work very closely across all of our functions, starting with sourcing and operations and R and D.

And then very closely with our commercial teams to make sure that we’re translating sustainable nutrition into really practical solutions that customers can use. Whether it’s around nutrition or climate or operational efficiencies or resiliency. We want to make sure that it’s executionable and practical and is really, really solving a problem.

I think what also works for me and for Kerry is the way we’ve set up sustainability.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. Say more about that.

Christina O’Keefe
Yeah. So we have a dedicated team that works on reporting and disclosures. They’re good at it.

That’s, that’s their main focus. And that, and by the way, shout out to that team. That is not an easy thing to do.

Sheldon Young
No, no. You got California. You got this.

You’ve got North America.

Christina O’Keefe
As a global organization, you can imagine the amount of reporting we have to do.

Sheldon Young
I can imagine.

Christina O’Keefe
But because we have a team that really focuses on that, my team and myself, we really get to work on execution, which I like to say is the fun stuff, right? So yeah.

Sheldon Young
We like to say making sustainability real here on the podcast.

Christina O’Keefe
Yeah. Yeah. So embedding that sustainability into decision-making, helping other teams move faster, staying really focused on those customer challenges rather than just trying to get documentation and reporting done.

I think one of the things also I would say is that the sustainability team or function, if you wanted to call it that, but I don’t like to so much is that we’re very, very small. Like we’re small, but mighty individuals. And the reason we do that is because we want everybody else in the organization to take ownership.

And if I have a large team, they’re going to make sure that we take ownership and that’s not how you make sustainability sustainable. Right? So honestly, my goal is to work myself out of a job.

We’re trying to normalize that work. We want to make sure that it’s creating value every day, that our customers’ needs are met and the business operates in that same way day to day. And when that’s working, then you don’t really need a sustainability team, do you?

Well, maybe for reporting.

Sheldon Young
Yeah, maybe for reporting. And, but the job is never done though. It is always something more.

It seems it was every time. Oh, great. We made that goal.

Here’s what’s next.

Christina O’Keefe
Here’s the next what’s next.

Jason Moreau
With a, with a smaller team, do you find like individuals focusing on particular areas or everybody sort of flexes a little bit across maybe specific roles and things like that? I think we tend to operate the same way being small, but mighty. And I’m, I’m always curious, the, the sort of putting it together to get it done kind of aspect of it.

Christina O’Keefe
Yeah. Yeah. That’s a good question.

I like to say that we know a little bit about a lot, but not a lot about anything in particular. Right.

Sheldon Young
Proud generalist.

Christina O’Keefe
Yes. I love it.

Sheldon Young
Oh my gosh. We should make pins for that. Christina.

Christina O’Keefe
We need generalists. I joined a club. I think the data around that is though, and I really stress for my team that we are problem solvers or bridgers.

So what we, that, what I mean by that is we have the ability to network enough that we are able to bring the right people to the table to solve the challenge. We definitely are all very passionate about sustainability topics, probably some more than others, depending on who you talk to, right. Cause everybody’s passion is going to come out in different ways.

And the people I look for on my team are those that can bring others together and can use their passion to influence decision-making and action. So they, they are very generalist. I do have a couple that really concentrate on commercial.

So meaning they’re working directly with our account managers. They’re working directly with our customers to help articulate what the challenge is and also bring possible solutions or possible people to the table to figure out those solutions. And then I have a few people that more concentrate on operations.

So how do we improve operations? How do we improve eco efficiencies? They are engineers by degree, but they are problem solvers extraordinaires.

So that’s how we kind of break up the team within my region and every region is just slightly different depending on the needs of that region.

Sheldon Young
Oh, great. I mean, as I’ve had the privilege of working with some of your operation sides in my day to day, and I can only say, I truly wish every company had that because they are so good at just like thinking about, you know, how, you know, you know, your goals, you know, you’re aiming now, how do I influence and work with these, these, these factories in our region to get it done. And you know, it’s such a, it’s such a testament to the team you built for sure, because I’ve enjoyed very much my, my time with them for sure.

Um, so you work a lot with customers and I’m sure you have, you have your goals from the top and you have your demands from your customers, how do you work with them in terms of sustainability? And what do you discuss with them when you sit at the table?

Christina O’Keefe
Yeah, so we work with a lot of customers where we are right in the center of the food system. We get to work with CPGs and food service and retailers, emerging brands, anybody and everybody, even pharmaceuticals and pet food are under our, our belt. So, um, and that’s a testament to our technologies, uh, and their applicability to many different aspects of the food system.

I say that when we think about how we engage with, with customers around sustainability, um, our customers are really coming to us more with real challenges, so they have growth targets. They want to grow as organization. They have their sustainability commitments that they’ve made public to their consumers, their shareholders, their employees.

Um, they have cost pressures, uh, and all this stuff is happening at the same time. So what I’d like to do first with them is to approach a conversation that is just about listening, right? Trying to understand what their challenges and goals are and whether that’s reducing costs or meeting consumer demands.

They could want to improve the nutrition or maybe carbon is at the front of that. Um, maybe they’re concerned about the supply chain issues that are happening. Uh, or maybe they’re just trying to stay ahead of regulations.

Wherever they are, we look to how can we help them solve those problems and really back into practical solutions. So we want those solutions to fit their products, what they’re trying to put out there in the market, help their operations, maybe look at those commercial realities. So when we think about sustainability, it really becomes a growth conversation with them and it’s tied to execution.

Could be around reformulating their products, extending shelf life, improving sourcing and operations, um, and in this day and age, lowering total cost and use. So we really try to focus in on those customer needs and having sustainability just stop being a constraint and really become a lever for growth.

Sheldon Young
Now that Jason’s heard me talk a lot about this and it is, you know, sustainability, productivity, profitability. They have to go together or else it doesn’t work. I mean, it just doesn’t work.

Christina O’Keefe
You can’t have a separate conversation about it anymore. Right. I think as organizations mature and those who are mature understand that that is not a different conversation.

It is one conversation.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. You preaching to the choir on that one for sure. Yeah.

Okay. So like any, every person I’ve met in sustainability, one of the biggest challenges is how do you get it done internally and how do you get past the challenges of driving sustainability within the organization and actually getting momentum? So can you talk about your process with that?

What works and what are those challenges and how do you drive it to achieve these goals that you’ve set?

Christina O’Keefe
Yeah. Well, I think I have the benefit of sustainability being kind of part of our value proposition, which well is our value proposition, right? To our customers.

And so that’s the first step, right? It’s already built into kind of our, our values and our ambition. I think the other thing that works really well and it works with our customers too is that the biggest assumption is that sustainability costs more.

And that’s just not true.

Sheldon Young
Right.

Christina O’Keefe
And we have multiple proof points to, to show that. Um, and when it’s treated as an add on, it can look expensive. So if you’re only looking at that one piece of the puzzle, yeah, there may be a little added cost there, but if you expand out, right.

And, and look at the whole picture, you might be pulling costs from here and costs from here and, you know, over here. And then overall, you’re actually probably saving money. So we really want to make sure that when we bring solutions to the table, not only for our organization, but for customers that we’re unlocking savings and growth next to sustainability.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. Yeah. Sustainability is good business.

Christina O’Keefe
As I like to say, it makes business sense, right?

Sheldon Young
Yep. Or it has to, or else you shouldn’t be talking about that part of it, frankly, because it’s not going to get done.

Christina O’Keefe
Yeah. Or how do you, how do you even keep moving forward? Right.

Like I think, I mean, if you were running your own business, right. And things were starting to cost more for you, you would probably say, I shouldn’t be doing that.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. I think you’d at least have to question why, right. And step back and, and say, you know, I guess sometimes it is like it’s a value proposition you’re giving to like they’re giving to their customers.

Like, look, we, we use better materials. We’re going to cost a little more. And people, if long as the consumer will pay for that, it makes sense.

Right. And you can justify it through the whole calculation, but just to say, you need to use this piece of equipment or you do this thing just because it’s more sustainable and it doesn’t mean anything, the customer, they don’t want to pay for that. Tough sell.

Christina O’Keefe
Yeah. I think the big thing here is like, we need an internally and externally, we need to stop asking what does this cost versus what problem does this solve?

Sheldon Young
Right.

Christina O’Keefe
And that shift really turns the perception of sustainability and expense into competitive advantage.

Sheldon Young
Yeah, it is. If there’s one takeaway from this whole podcast, I hope people listen to that statement. Because I do think it’s, it’s, it’s so important in the, in the framing, the whole discussion.

It’s the only way you’re going to get things done and move forward. Uh, and eventually again, and thinking of the business case more out of this little myopic box into like, okay, there’s a benefit that’s going to pay off. And here’s what that looks like.

And here, who cares? And here’s how we fund it. All that stuff has to be a wider discussion.

It’s the only way it happens is to open the, open the question, open it up.

Christina O’Keefe
I agree. I agree.

Jason Moreau
I like that you do the, the research though, about your customers’ customers, right, because that’s where the demand and the pull is going to be generated. Um, one of the, uh, one of the pieces of content that I stumbled across on your website is the, it’s the, uh, sustainability, uh, persona archetypes. Um, the four personas of the consumers, uh, it was fascinating.

It was fascinating how generally some of that followed, uh, we’ll say demographic trends in terms of like, you know, are you Gen X millennial Gen Z kind of thing, but that the, the personas were across all generations. Um, my question was just, um, can you update the research? I’m super curious.

Cause it’s, it’s, it, I think it was done in 2021. Yeah. And I’m like, oh my God, that feels like 50 years ago.

Like there’s just been so much stuff that’s happened that I, and I think there was even a stat in there that, um, it was, it was, it was just about 50, 50, right? Like the personas applied to only 50% of the people surveyed because the other 50% said sustainability is not really a priority when they’re making purchases. But I have to believe that that is.

Like there’s been some shifts there, you know? And so I would, I would love, uh, I would love an update. So this is my, this is my plea request to redo the study and just, I would love to see, you know, the marketer, this is my, this is my shot.

I’m shooting it. This is, I want, I want more data.

Christina O’Keefe
Oh yeah. And we had so much fun putting those archetypes together. I think the thing is, yes, things have changed for the consumer.

I mean, the world has changed for us. How many times over at this point? Um, I think, I think one thing that we can say for sure is there more people do care about sustainability.

Um, and sustainability can mean multiple different things to different people. Right. So I like to just use the word attributes.

Um, and, and, and they want those things, but there still is what I would say a pay gap to it. Right. So they’ll say, I do want more sustainable products, but I can’t, or I will not pay more for it.

And that really has changed our conversations because instead of sustainability being a premium, it needs to be accessible and, um, accessible. So they have to be able to be lower cost or at cost or at par, um, inavailable. Right.

So no longer should you just be able to go to one part of the supermarket to get products that have sustainability part of it. The world is tough right now. And for consumers, it’s very tough.

So if you want to sell more product, if you want to meet the consumer, you need those sustainability attributes, but you need to do it at cost or at cost parity. Right. And so I think you could go redo those, those personas, but I think that’s the number one thing that will continue to come out is cost sustainability.

Need to go hand in hand.

Sheldon Young
It’s the pair. It’s the challenge. I think like the, when you look at plant-based foods and you look at some of the, uh, uh, you know, other, I call it new food groups, it’s like, yeah, but I don’t want to pay more for it.

Right. And so that’s the struggle they’ve had. But fortunately, I think some of them are starting to catch up a little bit.

Also the other side of the market’s getting more expensive. And so you’re starting to see that switch on a little bit, which is an interesting dynamic to watch from a, from the sidelines, I guess, from that perspective, um, yeah, go ahead.

Christina O’Keefe
I was going to say, I think the good thing about that though, is that by having premiums, you’re, you’re going to be stuck in pilots or in small productions or a small part of the consumer segment. By making it accessible, by reducing the cost of it overall, um, you’re going to be able to go at scale. And when we think about really shifting the food system, scale is where we need to be.

Right. And we can’t afford, nobody can afford to keep putting premiums to try to scale. It’s unsustainable and we won’t be able to achieve what we’re trying to achieve.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. Great. Great insight.

Great insight. Um, so challenges, we would keep talking about challenges here. Uh, what are some of the most important ones that the industry, the food industry kind of faces today?

And how do you think we don’t get over them? Is it, I guess you kind of nailed it a little bit here, a little bit, but scale and, and, uh, and, and costs. Is there anything else that you feel that, uh, people are gonna have to kind of dive into?

Christina O’Keefe
Well, I think there’s a few things I would say when we think about like food operations, manufacturing, I think people think we have to do these really grand projects, right? Like we need to change everything to electrical. Uh, if you live in the United States, you know, that, that we, we can’t even do that because our infrastructure wouldn’t be able to handle it at this point.

Um, but there are things that you can do when you look at operations on how do you make it more sustainable? It’s about eco-efficiency. It’s about, um, consistency and that makes you resilient.

Um, and so I think people always think it’s these really big things that you have to do. And I think it’s the small things. Um, I think one of my colleagues from Asia likes to say small acts matter.

Uh, so it’s one of my favorite lines that like, especially in manufacturing, it’s the small things that make a huge difference. Um, it makes you much more sustainable as an organization on the bigger topics like scope three and supply chain, where it’s all about partnerships. It’s all about influencing.

Um, I, I think when we think about that, we think a lot about farmers. We think a lot about agriculture, but I also think about consumers. So if you don’t have a consumer poll, you’re not going to get any changes in in the back or the upfront in the, in the supply chain.

So I like to say that you’ve got to always have the consumer in mind. You always have to have cost in mind if you’re going to scale. And I would say that’s probably the number one issue in the food system right now is going from that pilot to scale.

Sheldon Young
That’s a such good stuff. You’re bringing Christina. I love the way you think.

I mean, again, you’re again, right to my heart when you started saying the little things matter. It’s like, when I, I, you know, you know what I do for a living. I talk to a lot of customers around, Hey, you know, you don’t have to like necessarily swap out that boiler, right?

You can, you, you ha you can do this, the little valve thing. And Oh, you, by the way, you have 200 of these valves. And by the way, when you add that all up, it’s a lot, right?

And so it’s, it is, you can do amazing things through just asking the right questions and, you know, looking under the little rocks and finding it. So it’s, it’s a great.

Christina O’Keefe
I think the other driver for that is data, right? I think as we look at AI and digitalization, like the amount of data we can use to actually make decisions now, and we make them faster is one so fascinating for me. Once again, just a generalist.

So I know enough to be dangerous, but those things have helped make decisions so much faster and actually get a more realistic picture of what is happening. In manufacturing, in the supply chain. And by having that data, you can make better decisions faster.

Jason Moreau
I was curious about the Kerry Health and Nutrition Institute and how that generally sort of dovetails or aligns with like the larger sustainability initiatives and just how that came about and what, what, you know, how it may be different and its own unique thing.

Christina O’Keefe
Yeah. So the Kerry Health and Nutrition Institute, which we lovingly call KHNI, they have been around for over 10 years now. We were celebrating 10 years at climate week this last year.

They were really created to put science at the center of decision-making, so for our customers and for just the broader food industry. So its purpose is really to really translate credible evidence-based nutrition and health science into practical guidance. Kerry created KHNI because there was no shortage of science.

There’s tons of science, right? But there is a gap between research and real world application. So KHNI really exists to bridge that gap by bringing in leading scientists, academics, practitioners, looking at those complex topics like nutrition, health, sustainability, and put them into really clear, actionable insights.

And probably the most importantly is that KHNI is public service. They are free to subscribe to, mostly because the goal is to scale impact, not gatekeep that information. It’s very important that that is available to all.

And a huge credit to the KHNI team, its contributors, like these are scientists, nutritionists, they’re academic partners, they’re industry experts who really ensure that the work is rigorous, objective, and relevant. So it’s not about Kerry. It’s about the science.

And if you’re looking for a great example, I got to give another shout out to one of their latest articles, which you may find very interesting. It’s the five key health and nutrition megatrends for 2026. So it’s looking at the science.

It’s showing that there are shifts shaping the food system right now. And those are from health and longevity to affordability, which we just talked about, technology, which we just talked about, and resiliency across the food system, right? So I think it came out that, you know, maybe not, we didn’t think we were talking about those megatrends, but they naturally came out in the conversation.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. Well, we certainly will put links to a KHNI in our release of the podcast. I mean, it’s such a fantastic thing that you do there, right?

But again, making that stuff available to folks, you know, how else are you going to learn, right? How else are you going to understand? It’s expensive to do research.

It’s hard to get that information. And if we want to move sustainability, truly move it as a society, we have to share, we have to be open to sharing what we learn. So others don’t have to go through the steep, steep curve of just getting over the hurdles, right?

Christina O’Keefe
There’s so much information coming at us today, right? Like, and how do you know what’s real and what isn’t real? And, you know, even your Chat GPT or AI functions can give you wrong information all the time.

So it’s great to have a resource like that, that, you know, puts it into context for those who maybe aren’t as science savvy and to make it into really actionable items that they can do and look at. And I, you know, even on nutrition, there is so much information coming out. And some of that information today is differing the information you got a week ago.

So a service like this is so important to our customers, but also just to consumers in general.

Sheldon Young
Yeah, definitely. So you have had a fantastic career in sustainability. You’ve built a really, really strong, diverse team.

You’ve gone through a lot of, I’m sure, iterations and pain and all of that. What advice would you give someone in the industry that’s kind of early on in their journey, their sustainability journey, about how they could start to make sustainability real in their organizations?

Christina O’Keefe
Oh, yeah, that’s it. I get this question all the time. And I think I always kind of go back and look at my own career and where things really started taking off for me.

And I, I used to work in beef, beef manufacturing, beef harvesting, if you will. And I used to run environmental systems for a very large beef plant really, really early on in my career, like right out of college. And they were making some promotional marketing videos or whatever.

And so they’ve asked me to stand in front of these anaerobic lagoons with these big tarps that were blown up because of the methane underneath them. And my line was, just one line, which they gave me a T-shirt for to thank me for saying it, to make to make a sustainable future. That was my line.

And I was probably like 12 months out of college that I that I had to do this. And at that point, I was like, am I am I making a sustainable future? What am I what am I doing?

And that was probably the first time I even heard that word. And it was like a buzzword at the moment. Right.

It wasn’t even like this thing you could study or this thing that people considered every day. Right. And so when I look back at that, I was like, well, am I making a sustainable future?

And the answer was yes. Like I was working on manufacturing efficiencies. I was working on environmental assurance.

I was managing risks, keeping operations running safely and reliably. And at the heart of that was taking care of people. Right.

So the person thinking about the person next to me on the plant floor or in my community or even those that within the supply chain that affect it. So sustainability for me has always been about solving those real business problems. And my advice is you’re probably already doing sustainability in some way, somehow, and you’re just not connecting the dots.

Yeah. Right. So we spend a lot of time with our teammates, our other functions.

One, first getting kind of anchoring everybody in the same language. Right. So when we say sustainability, what does that mean?

And all the terms that kind of go into that. But then we really sit with them and say, all right, in your role and you think about those terms, what are you doing that are supporting it? And every role, every job is doing something, even the finance people.

Right. So it actually probably more than others. They just don’t think about it.

Sheldon Young
Right. Yeah.

Christina O’Keefe
So I always think and I think a lot of people also come to me and be like, how do I make a career in sustainability? And I say you need to make a career out of business. Right.

It’s it’s solving challenges and sustainability is a buzzword, but it’s always been around in some way or another. It may not be that word 10 years from now. But the impact that you’re making, the the work that you’re doing, the problems you’re solving will remain.

So that’s kind of my advice. I’m like, don’t get bogged down on titles. Don’t get bogged down on what function you’re in.

Take your passions, your ambitions and apply it to what you’re doing or where you want to go.

Sheldon Young
I love it. No, I think again, you’re always so practical thinking. I love it.

It really makes sense. It makes sense. And you can approach any job you have with a mindset of, you know, how do I make sure that I’m keeping that North Star of of of a better future?

Right. And if you just think about that as you do the work you’re doing, no matter what it is, it’s funny. You made me giggle a little when you said finance here at Alfa Laval.

Someone on the finance team said, hey, can you come talk to us about sustainability? I said, well, sure. And one of the things I tried to make sure to do is I connected the dots for them, how their job helps drive a more sustainable future.

And this is how this is how it matters. What you do matters. And, you know, and so I think everyone plays a role.

I mean, you said it beautifully, as usual. And I appreciate that. I think it’s someone that’s listening to this, I hope, as they sit here saying, how do I move forward?

It’s like you already probably already are. Yeah. Yeah.

Just just having the mindset of wanting to be sustainable. Right.

Christina O’Keefe
Yeah. I think the other thing that people wait for is perfection. And the biggest lesson I’ve learned is it’s progress over perfection.

Right. We can’t wait for everything to be fully defined before you act. So momentum comes from doing the work, learning and then improving over time.

I had a consultant one time or recently that I loved. He he used to say that it’s perfectly good enough. So let’s move.

Sheldon Young
I always like the do not let perfection be the enemy. Of good. Yes, yes.

Christina O’Keefe
So to tell you the truth, I don’t know if it’ll ever be perfect. So if you wait for it, you’re you’re going to get sidelined. Somebody else is going to keep moving.

So you might as well be at the front than waiting behind. What is that? It’s like Hamilton, like in the room where it happens type of thing.

Sheldon Young
Yes, yes, yes.

Christina O’Keefe
If you’re waiting, you’re never going going to be in the room.

Sheldon Young
That’s true. That is so true. Oh, what a wonderful conversation.

I could speak to you all day. But OK, so wrapping up, we’ll put some links. You sent a couple of links to us.

We’ll make sure that goes with the podcast. But how can people learn more about Carrie and connect if they want to, if they do want to learn more about what you’re doing?

Christina O’Keefe
Yeah. So obviously our company website at Kerry.com Kerry with a K. E R R Y.

It’s Irish. If you want to check out KHNI, that’s at KHNI.kerry.com, you can find Kerry on LinkedIn. We are always posting new science, new information, new solutions on there and following our sustainability journey.

And then, of course, you can always follow me on LinkedIn, too. I’m always talking about my own journey and the things I’m working on there. So you’re welcome to to follow along and and go on the journey with me.

Sheldon Young
I have I do and I enjoy it. It’s a lot of fun. Well, thank you so, so much for coming.

I know footprints and your delight. And thank you for being on. We appreciate it.

Christina O’Keefe
Thank you for having me.

Sheldon Young
Absolutely. Bye bye. And we are back.

Nothing really went anywhere in the eye of the podcast listener. We really didn’t go anywhere.

Jason Moreau
It was just a little blip of continuous thread of us chattering. Yeah.

Sheldon Young
So maybe I shouldn’t say we’re back because we never really left in terms of the let’s not spoil the illusion. What do you say? But magic.

Well, speaking of magic, magic was a great way to describe Christina. Right. Amazing.

Yeah. Such a such a fun conversation. And it’s truly is having fun talking to someone that has.

Personified, I guess, is the word I’ll use. The whole concept of what we talk about in making sustainability real. Right.

Jason Moreau
Absolutely.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. The practical approach.

I mean, she has the both the I would say I call it the theoretical is not the right word, but it’s I guess it’s the more. Administrative aspect of sustainability, which is the accounting and the reporting and all that stuff, and then she has this team that goes and dives in and gets their hands dirty on, hey, we’re going to make it happen at these, you know, almost 40 facilities here in the U.S. or whatever it is. And it just really is interesting to talk to someone that has to look at it that way and actually execute on it.

To me, that was just such a fun, fun aspect of the conversation.

Jason Moreau
Yeah, I mean, in terms of somebody who really does embody that ethos of what problem does this solve and what are the practical solutions to get it done? Yeah, her and her team really, really amazing. I found myself just.

Almost everything she said, I’m like, man, that’s just a great way to frame that. That’s just a great way to think about that. And then even just beyond sustainability, just in terms of how do you attack a problem?

How do you you know, how do you build a bridge? How do you like everything? It was just it was just it was it was a master class.

Sheldon Young
I’ll use the word.

Jason Moreau
Yeah.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. You know, it’s like, you know, you and I know the world that I work in every day. And it’s like I strive to find people like her that are just like the ones that are just, you know, taking it and executing and getting it done.

And that’s the the conversation that, you know, my my job works with is finding someone like her is like a unicorn. You know, hopefully it becomes more like a herd at some points. Right.

But right now, it’s hard to find people that have, I guess, are that far along the journey. That’s the way I’ll put it. We talk about the journey all the time.

Some people have walked it and they probably wrote the book on it. And she’s one of those people.

Jason Moreau
Yeah. But but I mean, I think long term and you heard her say it. I mean, her her long term goal is to sort of work herself out of a job where this way, this this method, this approach, this way of thinking just becomes normalized.

It’s just what everybody in an organization does. And it’s just sort of the water they swim in. And yeah, I yeah, I just think it’s her approach is just so practical is the word that I keep coming back to.

Sheldon Young
Absolutely. And you know, the things a couple of things notes that I wrote down, it’s that sustainability is a growth strategy for them, right? It is.

It is actually part of the strategy. And they believe in it as a way to succeed. It’s not like it’s it’s not a thing we do to to, you know, meet sustainability goals.

It’s their strategy. It is like part of it. And that’s you don’t hear that as much.

I mean, a lot of people will put it as frosting on the cake and she’s made it the cake, right? At least it has, at least the way she describes it. And then, you know, they see it as a way to like lower cost and use for their customers.

And to them, it’s not a it’s not a constraint. Yeah, it’s exactly right. It is a lever.

And to me, that is really the things that, again, if I’m listening to this from from from my seat and from the outside, it’s like, oh, wow. That’s a just a I’m going to call it a very healthy way of framing sustainability, not looking at it as something we have to do. It’s a thing we want to do because we know it’s good for business and we know that’s how we’re positioning ourselves as that alternative, because we know if we do sustainable things, it’s going to lead to profitable things.

It’s going to lead to longevity for the organization and it’s going to lead to a better relationship with the customer base that they’ve set up. And so just again, masterclass to listen to. I just really, really liked it.

Jason Moreau
Yep. And as you can imagine, as a as a marketer, I really appreciated her sort of like market back approach to all of this. Right.

So the practicality is grounded in. What are the needs, wants of the market? Right.

So there is a section where she talked about premium being an unsustainable strategy when you’re talking about scale and the market. Right. So like if you’re starting with a pilot.

Great, like that’s what but if your true intent is to scale and have maximum impact, then you need to meet consumers where they are. And she talked about either cost parity or, you know, all of these other things that the consumer is going to demand. So, yeah, I just.

Again, I can’t practical, practical, practical and grounded and just. Yeah, masterclass. I yeah, loved, loved talking to her, loved relistening to the interview.

Like it’s one that I’m going to continually revisit, I think.

Sheldon Young
Yeah, I think so, too.

Jason Moreau
Absolutely. You know?

Sheldon Young
Yeah. And again, full context, I’m looking at this from a sustainability point of view, right? That is the lens I’m putting on this whole thing.

And again, it’s just when you when you have someone on that, that just talks sustainability and actually is living it. You know, you just have to appreciate it for sure. For sure.

Right. And I hope we meet many, many more people like her on this journey. Jason, that’s what I’m hoping.

I’m hoping like, wow, I hope I meet so many more. We’ve already met a bunch. Yes.

And this interview here for me in particular, just hit a few notes that are a little different for me. I’m like, wow, that’s I hope we’re setting the stage for more people like her because I think the world needs more people like like her and what she’s doing. For sure.

Jason Moreau
Yeah. And to learn from her example, right, whether it’s it’s how she has structured her team, where there’s like there’s sort of the engineer, you know, problem solvers. But then there’s more of the generalist problem solvers.

There’s the we’ll call it like larger community of sustainability where she’s in charge of the North American region. And there’s commonalities, but also nuance to how her and her colleagues approach sustainability for their particular geography. And then there’s just the umbrella of, as you pointed out, Kerry making it a priority, right?

There’s just there’s all these lessons and really just nice examples of I just a way to be, you know, in a way to approach it. That was just really refreshing.

Sheldon Young
Yeah, absolutely. So I guess I’ll wrap it up, Jason, say we liked that one. That was fun.

We did like that one. We did like that one. I like all of them.

But, you know, this one in particular, as I said, was just a lot of fun for me in particular. Oh, yeah, because I was like almost like I could almost use my ears. I was like, I could just tell what the next is.

I know what’s come out next. I know what she’s going to say, because it’s like it’s the way you and I think as well. So it’s a lot of fun.

All right. So I guess, Jason, let’s wrap this up. If you like this podcast, please follow like subscribe.

All those fun things. Share it with your network. We want more people hearing wonderful interviews like the one we just did.

So please share it. It’s easy to do. Click a little button to share.

Grab a link. Toss it on your socials. Tell your friends that I don’t know your curling club, whatever you want to do.

You never know. I bet you there are people there in curling club. Yeah.

And if you have you know, if you have ideas and want to send them away for a guest or a topic, please do. It is nofootprints.podcast@alfalaval.com. Alfa Laval is A L F A L A V A L.

And with that, Jason, I say have a wonderful, sustainable day.

Jason Moreau
You too. Talk soon.

Sheldon Young
We’ll talk soon.

Sheldon Young
Our guests come from many industries and companies, as we’re talking about how the world makes sustainability real. Our company, Alfa Laval, is a global supplier of process solutions. So it’s very possible that the organizations our guests are with may use Alfa Laval or even our competitors’ products.

This does not mean that we, the hosts or Alfa Laval, are endorsing any of the company’s guests or the specific ideas that we discuss.