THE 1990s were early days in the sustainability movement, when Dr Darian McBain, founder and chief executive of Outsourced Chief Sustainability Officer (OCSO) Asia, decided she wanted to pursue a degree that married science with her love for the environment.
She became one of 40 students enrolled in the University of New South Wales’ first Bachelor of Engineering (environmental) degree programme. Her pursuit of environmental qualifications turned out to be prescient.
As the existential threat from global warming becomes increasingly dire, demand is growing for executives who can strike a balance between the often-competing pressures of a business and the need to do right for people and the environment. Add into that mix scientific and technical proficiency.
Dr McBain’s career of over two decades spans several environmental roles, including in the UK and Australia in diverse industries such as health and palm oil. By far the highlight was more than six years with seafood processing group Thai Union, where she led a major multi-pronged commitment to sustainability. She also had a brief stint as the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) first chief sustainability officer from 2021 to 2022.
Earlier this year she established OCSO through which she hopes to help Asian companies in various stages of environmental and social commitments.
“One of the challenges is whether businesses in Asia realise that climate change is an existential threat, in a way that they need to change their businesses.’’ The commitment, she says, needs to happen “at the C-suite or board level to really have a net-zero transition plan’’.
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“A transition plan involves not just the sustainability team; it must involve the whole organisation. Not as many Asian businesses as I hoped realise that sustainability is a strategic direction and a risk management process. It’s not just communications and public relations. It can’t just sit within one small team; it must be everyone’s business.’’
Through OCSO, Dr McBain hopes to work with a broad spectrum of companies, ranging from family conglomerates in Asia, to mid-sized and smaller businesses.
Her stint at the MAS gave her a macro view of the gaps in sustainability talent. “At the MAS there is a strong focus on how to develop sustainability skills so the real economy can be transformed… The MAS was developing a roadmap for these skills. I started thinking about ways to scale up.
“My business is based on my research into the question of how you can scale up talent when there is broad demand across Asia. If a company can’t find the one CSO (chief sustainability officer) who can operate at the C-suite level, maybe it can have access to advisory services to help build its team and capacity.’’
Most companies, she says, would rather hire their own CSO. But mentorship is an area of potential demand. “Some people may have come into a sustainability role, but they don’t feel they have the knowledge that they should. Mentorship helps people to grow into the CSO role. That’s something I didn’t envisage when I started (the company).’’
Facing the right direction
The process of creating a sustainability strategy starts with a discussion of where the company stands, and where they aim to be. “I always start with the question of what the most material issues for the business are, where do the risks lie, and we take a risk management approach.’’ The service can be tailored to what businesses desire, and the objective may well be to meet the base regulatory requirements.
“I’ll be quite clear that this isn’t just a project. I don’t want to write a strategy that would just sit in a file somewhere, and isn’t implemented. My preference is to engage with the company for at least a year. It may be that the internal team needs to get up to speed, and we understand the organisation well enough to get them to face the right direction for the future.’’
Companies’ objectives will span a spectrum, such as compliance with the minimum requirements to more lofty – even global – sustainability ambitions. “It’s an important question. Where does the company want to be? Not every company wants to be a leader. Some just want to survive or meet requirements. It could be to meet finance requirements as well.
“We have to understand – Do you want to lead in a particular area? Is there a group of stakeholders you want to engage with? Depending on the answer, the strategy will vary.’’
She believes some attributes are key to helping a CSO lay the groundwork for constructive discussions as companies cobble together a sustainability strategy. One is the understanding that the CSO role involves change management, and not just the top-down implementation of a one-size-fits-all strategy.
“As businesses develop a net-zero transition plan, you can’t have the plan on one side, and your business strategy on the other side. The two must be brought together. That involves engaging people and a change management process.’’
Two, C-suite involvement is a must. “People often argue whether the process should be top down or bottom up. But if you don’t have the top management engaged, you really will be limited in how much progress you can make.’’ C-suite and board engagement flag “how seriously a company takes it’’.
Three, it helps to have talent in the team with a science background. “Many challenges, like climate change, changes to the water cycle and biodiversity are topics embedded in science. The CSO doesn’t necessarily need a science background. He or she could have a team with that background.’’
Four is the ability to listen and apply a cultural lens to the issues. “Critical thinking is important for these complex problems which are problems within problems. You need to be able to think of different ways to challenge existing behaviour to get a different outcome.’’
Thai Union: a sustainability success story
Her work with Thai Union Group was pivotal with synergistic impact for industry, as well as social and environmental impacts. Thai Union, founded in the 1970s by the Chansiri family, is today one of the largest seafood processors globally. It is also at the forefront of marine sustainability. In her time at Thai Union from around 2015, she initiatiated the group’s iconic SeaChange sustainability strategy, which committed to sustainable sourcing, among others.
“There were four pillars in SeaChange and we took action in each. We trained all the group’s spokespeople on different talking points and ways to speak about sustainability.
“I spent a lot of time meeting with customers, so I understood what their requirements were, with suppliers and supply chains to understand their challenges with different regulators in different markets. These were the listening parts to get all inputs, and to make sure the approach met all the stakeholder requirements. No one person can do that.’’
Her goal was to get Thai Union into the top 10 of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) within five years. “Within three years we reached No 1 in the DJSI in food products. It was amazing, but it’s an amazing company. It can’t be the work of one person; all of the company has to get behind it because there were so many changes in many different areas.’’
Thai Union has been on the DJSI for eight straight years, and is currently number one in the food industry segment of the index. It is ranked No 1 on the Seafood Stewardship index of the World Benchmarking Alliance, in recognition of its contribution towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Dr McBain believes Asian families behind established conglomerates play a key role in leading the region’s sustainability drive.
“I think families have a really unique perspective on sustainability because they are inter-generational. They grasp the concept because they will pass the business to their children and grandchildren. They’re in it for the long term and are willing to make the commitment.”
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