 equipping the CFO with these some of these tools, it's amazing in terms of the space that we're doing with the SG. I especially thought Hermit's conversations with Levi Strauss and the cannabis industry and the regenerative nature of ag and stuff was amazing. Paul Hermann, he's been with us for years in the SB community and with the new metrics. Integrate 2020 is sort of the new name for new metrics, but how stocks outperform in the capital markets when we look at all of this. And then of course, last but not least, Bob Willard just finished with us in his tool sets that he's got for CFOs and how he incorporates natural capitals into that thinking. That's just, you know, amazing. For the people that are on this session, I would like you to remind you to go to your campaign chain link and sign up for that. It's free. It's, it's quite compelling what they've built designed in a set of initiatives, they call them collaborative ventures for various aspects of the SDGs generally, and the targets specifically and we've teamed up with them this year so that we can keep this community working together over the next year and seeing how we can cross collaborate. So with that, welcome here this morning to the breakout session on this linkage between the CFO, the CSOs, Chiefs of sustainability officer and IR professionals, in terms of multi capital collaboration. We are developing conversations within business and society at large as to what's becoming known as balanced stakeholder capitalism within this newest thinking are the six capitals, and just for reference human natural intellectual, social, manufactured and financial and finding that balance state. Our panel today will discuss how the CFO and the C-suite engages in creating collaborations related to multi capitals model and the practical side of what to do and how to do it. So, I'd like to welcome Suzanne and john and Kathleen. And thank you very much for being with us here today. I'd like you to please introduce yourselves and who you work with and then begin with just a couple of things tell us how your organization is looking at this problem from a reporting perspective. There's one practical example of what you're doing specifically in terms of the integrated reporting. And Susan, would you mind kicking us off. Thanks. Sure, happy to and really happy to be here. And for this discussion. So yeah, so I'm Suzanne calendar I lead Intel's global corporate responsibility office at Intel, which really works on strategy integration across the company stakeholder engagement including and I'll talk more about this outreach with our investors on ESG issues, and also reporting and disclosure again with an integrated approach with our IR and corporate governance teams. Really, it's been interesting for me, especially this morning's kickoff because I started my career on the investor research side worked on social investment research at institutional shareholder services for many years so it's been really interesting to see how things have continued to evolve, especially in the last 18 months. Well, ourselves, we've been doing reporting and integrating corporate responsibility and sustainability across our business for many years. We did our first voluntary environmental health and safety report back in 1994. But over the over time have continued to evolve our disclosure and I'd say that the key theme in how our disclosures has evolved has been around this concept of integration, embedding different corporate responsibility and sustainability functions across the organization, and really a much tighter partnership with investor relations, our CFO, our executive leadership team and also our corporate secretary's office, really looking at that connection to the board of directors. One practical example, and we can dig into this too, is we have across our external reporting, financial team, our governance team that does the proxy statement and my team that does the corporate responsibility report. We used to do them separately and keeping each other informed. Now we really do put together these different disclosures using an integrated approach. We're all part of the same teams that look at these and make sure that we're driving a consistent look and feel, consistent indicators, consistent messaging with different levels of detail based on the audience. But we actually have been using for the last couple years the six capitals. So we've used that in our 10k in the proxy statement and across the corporate responsibility report and gotten a lot of good feedback from our investors as we do integrated outreach directly with our largest shareholders and a broad range of different types of investors on these issues. So thanks, I'll head back to you. Thanks Suzanne. The, when you and I first talked I loved that idea of how you've integrated that process and if we have a minute or two later, maybe talk about in the proxy statement how the company looks at assurance but we'll, we'll hold that for later. Kathleen, would you do us the honors please. Sure. Well, Scott thanks for having me here with you all today. I'm Kathleen McLaughlin I'm the chief sustainability officer at Walmart. And you know similar to Suzanne at Walmart, we've been reporting for many years now in our case we first came out with our, what we now call ESG report back in 2007. And then reporting on a whole range of environmental social and governance metrics and strategy since then. We have a ESG disclosure committee, and we take a holistic view across financial and non financial disclosures, because for us, we're very much grounded in this notion of sharing value. So some of the topics that we're taking on, whether they're environmental issues or social issues or even governance issues. We're always doing it through the lens of what does it mean for value creation for the business and in a traditional financial sense. But then what does it mean for creating value for stakeholders and making progress on whatever that issue is externally. And so our reporting tends to reflect both the sort of business impact and then the societal impact and I can provide a bit more detail as we get into the discussion. Yeah, and given the global scope of Walmart and your supply chain integrating that, especially thinking about it from a societal point of view and people that maybe are indirectly engaged in the supply chain that just the magnitude of that just is over the top and stunning. Thank you. Thank you for being here Kathleen. John. Yeah, that's Scott. Thank you again for having me here. I'm john handsome and I'm the CEO of Vanguard renewables. We are the largest food waste recycler in the US. We recycle food waste into renewable natural gas and renewable electricity and low carbon fertilizer. So very interesting model we as a as a practical example of how we've been working with reporting. So back in 2016 we joined a strategic alliance with the dairy farmers of America, who had done a fantastic job actually kind of analyzing and benchmarking what they had in terms of their conditions and their all of their, their different ESG concerns around dairy and renewables, and we were able to work with them. And we kind of come on on the practical side where we help them set an understanding of what they could be doing with with those different streams. We then reached out and worked with several announcement next week, several large food producers and retailers to kind of set the goals and objectives as to how they can attain those those different levels, and then worked internally and obviously the challenge for us is, it's multi stakeholder. So you've got facilities, the facilities management side procurement, and setting those benchmarks milestones, and be able to communicate them throughout the organization is really the most challenging part of what we do. A lot of our stuff again kind of we deal with some of the externalities but we we try and make it as direct and measurable as possible so being able to put that that measurable data back in front of them as to current status and what you could see if you and start to institute the recycling and the reusing of the renewable natural gas has been the big challenge for us. So quick before we jump into the first questions that you're, john, without getting too technical. How do you deal with the data integration problem. It's a, it's a huge challenge. And again, really what we did is kind of at the beginning we were learned the hard way I guess is the best way to put it. And we try and identify all the stakeholders up front. So being able to say, you know, who's got the different data on on different way streams on the energy utilization energy product and then get all those folks at a kickoff kind of at the beginning and that's that's really been our big learning, which is start by identifying everyone and understanding what where we're going to get before you start even doing the data collection. There's an organization associated with the Institute of Management Accountants the IMA that has a task force with I think it's over 70 people now with just looking at data taxonomy. We got gentrification of the data elements across industries. It's just a huge, it's a huge issue, especially when we get into interoperability and comparability and so forth. Well, so with that, thank you for for those introductions let's sort of jump in. I didn't want to be able to sort of decide who wants to go first because we didn't sort of pre select that in advance but how does one in organizations go about bringing the issue this issue where ESG innovation and investment is and then reporting to the front in an organization in terms of a it's importance and why we should be doing the first place and then be how to go about it organizational how do you how do you approach it or maybe set a little differently. What are the some of the internal processes that you use and or recommend that can bring this you know together. Yeah, I can start I can jump in I think the couple things one, maybe a good example is we just launched our new long term 2030 strategy and goals around corporate responsibility and sustainability and and for that, you know, we really did want to take much more of a complicated approach, which I think is really the way that you can help get this embedded and get the buy in that you need from all the different functions and really tap into the expertise that exists in all the different functions across the company so we went through this really in depth process of really looking at what was changing the external environment what was changing the minds of our stakeholders so thinking about how investors were looking at these issues differently what our customers were doing so if you think about our customers, setting new long term goals, also looking at what house was changing in the calculation for our employees and our future talent. So, that was a really at the forefront of those discussions as we went through the process of closing out under 2020 goals and saying what would it take to lead over the next decade. So that stakeholder approach, you know, really kind of bringing that in and as a data driven company bringing it back to the data, how we were compared to where we needed to be in terms of where we wanted to be to lead, but then also how does it connect to value so wherever possible, making that business case and being able to quantify the link between, you know, the investments we're making in sustainability with financial return so one good example is on on climate. And finally, we've done a lot to invest in renewable energy, our new 2030 goals, or have a goal to get to 100% for global manufacturing operations we're already at 71%, which for manufacturers is quite significant but we're pushing to do more. But on the energy side we've been able to quantify how much we've invested in energy projects over the last, you know, several years, and then how that's translated into dollars saved in addition to the kilowatt hour so we invested 200 million in since 2012. We've saved 500 million in costs and 4.5 billion kilowatt hours of energy so that that resonates you know when when you're talking with different groups across the company who are engineers and or financial teams of that this is not something separate that they're interlinked. One other thing I'd say is that helps internally is really helping different teams to know where they can play a role in your strategy or in the disclosure so it's really this whole process has helped us to not just think about the CFO's office or investor relations but thinking about other teams within the finance organization and tapping into their expertise to help the other teams across the company, you get the best data. So I think it's it's about external outside in views and helping make that and that connection to value and then internally, you know really kind of focusing in on how the teams can specifically help. And very much focused on science based metrics, the collection of that data and then the output of that data. There's a question here from Paul, I'll address this in the second John give us your take on this for a minute would you please. Yeah, absolutely. So I think where we've been most successful with this is picking a very specific entry point, a project with the champion where we had a measurable starting point so we could collect all the data. And understand kind of where we were starting the process and then have a very quick, kind of achievable goal where we can show a significant change. And that's been really helpful for us and and being able to have that measurable attainment for something for us I think, but especially with food waste and converting to renewable natural gas natural gas. There are such kind of immediate and quick measurable changes on greenhouse gas and emissions and then we kind of said okay let's deal with going to supply chain partners and deal with scope three emissions and things like that but but keep it as a very focused initial program where you're kind of instantly got all the stakeholders to have a vine and to have a win. So that was a big piece for us. And then john when you do that you then help these, these various companies with sort of how to feed it back into their system. Absolutely. A big part of what we do is then kind of all the metrics on on, you know what what's the conversion what is that recycling creating. What is the greenhouse gas reductions. Feed that back, and then, and then talk about future plans, you know what are the things you can do next and next and next and where else can we mine and it is, it is complicated. So again, you've, again, you've got manufacturing, you've got distributed and all those folks have their own silo information, they're kind of silo of, or their, their own preferred practice so we're asking them to change sometimes, not in a major way and other times in a significant fashion and so you're, you've got to feed that stuff back to them otherwise. You can get an initial adoption and then and then it kind of Peters out quickly if people don't see this as something that's helping them achieve their, their goals and metrics. You know, it's interesting. I'm just picking up on that. Don, we have a similar effort underway with emissions scope one two and three, and I think it relates to reporting a bit, and that, you know, Scott the broader point I make is, you know, the reason we're trying this panel is we're not in a fully integrated world yet today, right when it comes to reporting we want to get there. Yeah, we're probably at different levels, you know, on different issues, and one of the ones that maybe, you know, out of the gate faster than others is climate and emissions reporting. And so one of the ways we've tried to come at it is lay the groundwork so that when the day comes when we can have fully integrated reporting we're ready in terms of the quality the metrics the consistency the assurance everything else. So, what we tried to do on emissions is set a science based target under the science based target regime for scope one and two and scope three. For scope one and two, we actually just recently kind of elevated that ambition to kind of go beyond even the one and a half degree trajectory zero emissions in our operations in our fleet by 2040. But then to your point John for scope three and how you go beyond your own and work with suppliers. And so as a retailer, just given the nature of our business there's a lot of emissions and supply chains food supply chains apparel everything else. And then as we lined out across all categories and suppliers, kind of a platform where people can come and set goals and then we can support them in different ways in six different arenas so energy waste plastics product design agriculture and deforestation. And then what we did from a reporting perspective is build into our platform the ability to report through CDP. At the same time they're engaging in our efforts so that way you know we're trying to encourage more people to disclose through CDP and follow that protocol. We're also encouraging folks to align with TCFD risk assessment for your own company, making your strategy, get your actions going reported out in this way. So we really are trying to think through convergence and how do we drive to a solution that would be consistent across industries across sectors and so on. And you know beyond that to answer your question about how do we kind of come at it more broadly at Walmart. We start with this idea of shared value that environmental social governance financial issues and metrics are all integrated. And that for companies to maximize financial value creation they need to be creating value addressing the needs of stakeholders, because you don't do that you don't have a business. And that's the whole reason you're in business in the first place obviously for the customer for your employees for suppliers for communities that all has to work together. So it's pretty integrated in terms of our assessment, we step back and we say okay, what are the material issues in the environmental social governance arenas for our business. And then for the most material or most relevant issues, whether or not they would fall under SEC reporting requirements today or a strategic perspective. So the issues that are most relevant we then create strategies to get some type of outcome that, you know, our stakeholders are asking for for society, and that makes sense for our business. So in the case of emissions it's about emissions reduction and we do it in a way that makes sense for operations or fleets buyers mentioned. And then those strategies typically involve actions we can take as Walmart using the assets we have our products, our services or operating model could be jobs could be purchase orders relationships advocacy. So they're pretty robust strategies as robust as our, you know, customer strategies to go after those things, and then they're embedded all throughout Walmart. So the real estate people are the ones that are driving the renewable energy, you know, power purchase agreements, and the merchants are the ones that are working on packaging. And, you know, the people teams and the operators are the ones working on upward mobility of entry level people, you know, training and so on. So whatever the issues are they're very much embedded right in the business so the relevant methods get reported from an operations perspective right on people's day to day management scorecards. And then some of those, depending on SEC requirements and so on end up in our actual 10 K, and the ones that don't that are still relevant for making progress on these issues and relevant for our business those are in our ESG report. It's still you know I think as Suzanne you were saying they're two different reports very much related and shaped together for slightly different audiences and different standards. And then we do see that converging more and more over time. Wow, we had all talked before this session and put together some notes and now I'm finding this could go so many different directions. But I want to go to what Paul asked a minute ago and then I'll come back to a couple of points here. Paul asked up in the chat what's sustainable slash ESG metrics will do any of you think will be reported on in the earnings calls quarterly. And that insight is the is it directly related to her adjacent. As it relates to to traditional Wall Street. Any thoughts on that. Yeah, I can happen. We've been actually integrating different ESG topics into our earnings calls over the last year. In terms of having a standard, you know, set of core metrics it's changed a bit each time, but we have made sure to integrate that in. So when we launched our 2030 strategy and goals you know working with the IR team in terms of making sure it ladders back to that and the strategy and which is in support of our purpose to create world changing technology that enriches the lives of every person on earth. So, if you have kind of your purpose. Here's how the ESG strategy is integrated and helps advance that then having that be part of the CEO's presentation at earnings, make sense. The other thing we just recently redid our investor relations website, you know, to make sure it was a bit more integrated there as well. But I do think one of the things that we've found in our outreach so earnings calls was one piece of the communications outreach but making sure it's integrated in all the outreach that you do. One of the things that we've found very helpful is doing outreach with our executives and with our largest investors as a team. So people say oh well investors never ask about these questions when we meet with them. Well, I think what we've found is by talking about it and showing how it's important to your business. It actually is generating more, you know, comments and questions. And so I think it's a little bit of a chicken and egg piece. If you don't talk about it, then maybe you're not going to get those questions and also the other pieces thinking about just as Kathleen and I were talking about the integration that continues on that journey on the corporate side. We're seeing that happen on the investor side as well. So if you think about there's different functions within a large investment firm you have your fundamental analysts you have your governance teams you have your environmental and social analysts. And they haven't always been as integrated on their side and what we're seeing is much more deliberate integration there and sometimes we're now in calls with those teams together in the same meeting. That's driving I think more of that connection to value so I think it's it's about really thinking holistically. How does the earnings call fit into the rest of the communications. It's been really interesting hasn't it like last five years there's been a big evolution, you know, even in the investor community and who they bring to meetings and how the conversation goes, much more integrated today. And yeah, it's the same thing for us you know in the earnings calls. Doug and a leadership team tend to talk about whatever that quarter is is most relevant. And it flows but typically what you'll hear us referring to would be the latest stats related to the topics that are most relevant for our purpose as a company and so you will hear about climate. You'll get different targets around emissions reduction you'll hear about waste diversion and waste avoidance. You'll hear about human capital side. What's been happening with the promotions of our frontline people internally something new track very closely. And just the broader proposition for our people in terms of training and educations you'll hear about that how many people have we been developing in jobs for advancement. And the potential equity is something that we've moved now to disclosing twice a year, very much more granular data about the advancement the hiring the retention of women of people color broken down by race and ethnicity and that's every six months because we think that will help us go faster. Those tend to be some of the things we'll talk about and you know some quarters is not a lot of news to report and others there is a year and that's when we do our big assessment of the total years we tend to talk more about it at that time. I love the transparency of that that is just huge and it's a testament to a good governance model. Any, any other thoughts on this first question. I think I can only speak second hand to it but what's interesting at least from our standpoint is, you know, we have over the last seven or eight years been working kind of with a lot of the early movers and in the ESG movement and what's remarkable now is that even in some of the more traditional oil and gas customers as far as they are 100% focused on being able to bring forward metrics and data about what they're doing and what their plan is going to be over the next decade to meet all the goals of on climate. Before we cascade into some of the science based stuff to two quick questions. Do the three of you. Have you seen a marked change in interest levels in the last two or three years, compared to years before in other words does it feel like it's crossing that knee of the curve. That's the first one let me let me just stop there. Are you seeing a change. Yeah, I mean do you think it's hit the knee of the curve. Yeah, I think we're in the hockey stick part, at least from my perspective. Yeah, I think it's been steady from for many years but I think the level of conversation and different types of conversation I've seen both internally and then the types of conversations we're having with our investors. So on the investor side where we do are in addition to the year round outreach we do, we do kind of a focused outreach in the fall as we get ready to think about the next 10k the proxy the corporate responsibility report. And so we've been having meetings last week and into next week, including some of the meetings had at our chairman of the board in the meetings with us, because I think directors are now increasingly having these direct discussions with but I think what I've seen is is the engagement increased with our CFO and our CFO is office, our CFO sits on what was mentioned this morning the accounting for sustainability group, but also having the engagement from the Treasury's office, you know, other, there are internal audit external reporting, all these different groups, really starting to have that discussion of, you know how do we take this in the next level. And if you think also one of the big things about our, and this goes back to what Kathleen was saying our strategy for 2030 is different than our, our goals for 2020 where they're much more collaborative and aspirational in some of these areas. It's, we do have a clear quantitative goals and we're going to do ourselves to reduce our footprint of Intel's operations and our supply chain. We've also set out these collaborative initiatives to work with others in the tech industry to advance work on diversity and inclusion more broadly throughout the technology sector to work on how do you get more companies to adopt, be able to adopt science based targets given that our industry had done a lot of early action before and how do we continue to really look at that product impact. We make, you know, one one part of the technology system but we really can enable sustainability across, you know, all of our technology customers, but also for a whole other sector so really driving those different conversations that means you're talking with sales and marketing more regularly I mean as you're talking with different product teams and some of the deep, deep experts kind of in our, in our R&D areas of how do we really rethink conceptually how do we move the market so that I think is what gets me excited and I think, you know, makes it that there's so much more opportunity ahead challenges and the complexity increased dramatically in that so doesn't mean it's getting easier but it is definitely think creating more opportunity. Any other thoughts on that one. Yeah. Yeah, just, you know, picking up on what Suzanne just said, you know, so many of these issues that we're tackling in the environmental or social arena certainly maybe a little less so in terms of governance are about transforming systems. You know, these are not easy things right to decarbonize business to you know john what you guys do right to avoid waste and make something good out of what would have been waste otherwise you know waste energy, that's a big thing. Equity, when goodness it's a systemic transformation right and so from a reporting perspective. One of the things I like about the six forms of capital as a framework I think it's really interesting is it does help you, perhaps focus on some things that could be leading indicators or might take some time to show movement. And then of course if we consider the broader system around something like climate or equity there's many other factors to consider and report on. And so I think even if we get to a world where we have truly integrated reporting in terms of outcomes environmental social governance financial and a nice, you know, succinct 10k. I still want to have some other companion, you know materials and reports to get deeper into other elements of the system that are shifting and evidence that things are moving and these things are so complex. It's one of the things that makes it a little bit challenging to come up with the one metric for making progress on climate emissions yeah I guess but all the things that sit behind it that have to shift to sustain that you know there's there's 20 other elements that we need to consider. Yes, one. I'd fall on I think with what Kathleen saying is remarkable we see is is kind of at the staff level. You know everyone is accepted, or most folks have accepted climate based targets they've set some set of goals and criteria. At the CFO CSO level. What is interesting about the reporting is it's now forcing folks internally to kind of look at their standard practices as Kathleen was saying, you know what are the things that we can we can change and what you see or what we're seeing kind of at the ground level is an understanding that these things actually now matter, and that need to be in that reporting structure they're in the KPIs there in the things that the people are doing. The people are doing to kind of on their daily work schedule and that's, that's a big change. And that's I think where you can kind of see that hockey stick kicking in, which is where we're really everybody on the team has an understanding that this is something they've got to do. I think, as both Kathleen and Suzanne said, not small. These are hard things the easy stuff is already done. You know, now it's like, okay, what are the component pieces where we can really make dramatic change still. And again, I think it's not only in house but with your supply chain partners and say okay how do we get that those scope three emissions to start trending the way that you want to see them go. I'll touch on science based metrics here in a couple of seconds. One final question here, you know, on in Sarbanes oxley. There is a new standard of attestation that's made by the CFO and the CEO that has really like very big teeth in it. It's very powerful. Do you see that standard and the related assurance items, getting in the way of people disclosing this stuff because there's a concern. Hey, maybe we can't get it to the same standard. Or, and if so, would you have any recommendations or what are your recommendations about how you deal with it in your companies. I think I would say about what we're trying to do. As I mentioned earlier, we're trying to lay in the infrastructure so that we could be ready for fully integrated reporting on environmental social governance metrics and so on. And it is true that a number of the metrics. Historically don't rise to the Sarbanes oxley level of standardization across industry, you know, do people use the exact same definition for that metric company to company industry to industry. The quality of the data gathering and the controls environment that sits behind those metrics can be highly variable. And so I do think we have a ways to go to where we have every company being at the same definition and level of quality and so on. So there's a lot of work going on in many places, many companies to try to move in that direction. So for example, for us on the question of assurance. We have started with things that are easier, you know, things that are quantitative metrics like emissions right somebody can come in and look at that and validate it and measure it and, as I mentioned we disclosed your CDP and we have. So Lloyd helping us with various pieces of the city and coming in to assure the numbers of you and that sort of thing. You know, there are a lot of other arenas where we work where we're still even trying to figure out what the metrics are, you know, for example. It's something like forced labor in the seafood chain. Okay, that's an issue way back in the Chinese East Asia, it's pervasive it's certainly not like a Walmart issues, it's the whole industry. And what would you measure, you know, we funded studies to look at prevalence and incidents of slavery way back in the. It's the part of the chain where they literally catch the food that they then feed to the seafood. So we've done like the one I've studied to do like prevalence and incidents for the field. But would you do that every year and how do you know if that like, and that's that's clearly not, you know, it's going to show up in the 10 case soon but you just use it as an example to show probably the hardest thing to measure which would be human rights in seafood. How would you ever know and you've got everything between so from that to emissions, all kinds of levels of complexity right. That's the direction of travel. So we you know what we're trying to do is put in place the processes so that when people have a number that they want to disclose there's a claims process a validation process it's get it gets vetted at least internally we want to start vetting it externally like that's the direction of travel for sure. And I think we'll see more and more things going that way to where we could say yep ready to put that in the 10k you know it when that day comes. We've we've touched on this a little bit but Phil Clausen in the audience asks a question related around racial equity and specifically blacks in the US and maybe broader social justice and inclusion. Question is, has your engagement with your CDO and with your finance and I are changed and or accelerated in this past year. And are you in what way are you making or are you making bigger commitments in terms of targets and goals. And are you getting ready to share those commitments. Yeah, so I can start. One of the things that we actually had released our 2030 goals, two weeks before George Floyd was killed. And we already had set out pretty big ambitious goals to not only double the number of women in our senior leadership but also underrepresented minorities in our in senior leadership so we had had that out but right after that occurred. Certainly our CEO was very vocal in those those early days a lot of deep engagement internally across our employee base, especially in the United States but globally. We've done some additional acceleration of the work that was already, you know, planned underway, but by really kind of engaging with our employees directly. You know, one of the things that has been important for us is being really open and transparent on where we are and where that we're not satisfied where we have been and understand the complexity of what it's going to take to continue to drive inclusion, not only help it across the industry so in terms of my engagement directly with her I've always had a very strong relationship with our Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer as well as our Chief People Officer. And actually the last two months we reorganized a bit and now I'm actually working directly for her in that organization so that we can elevate all this work together, because we do think that human capital management, engaging around all of our 2030 goals not just in the social space but in the environmental space is really going to take that driving that accountability throughout the whole company at all levels so I think that's you know, no matter where CSOs or CROs sit in an organization I think we always try to figure out where does it need to sit a certain time so that we can go faster. And one thing I'll just say also on the assurance piece, because a lot of what Kathleen said I think reflected our journey as well. We started actually doing third party assurance back in 2012. And over the years have really we could start more on the environmental side and we really have been moving into the more social metrics, starting with health and safety but then actually doing assurance over some of our diversity metrics as well. And we are happy we've done that because I think it's continued to strengthen our internal systems just as there's more and more focus on the investor side around, you know, the S of ESG. So I do encourage it's it's certainly a learning process it's it's you know you're not not one of Don you talked about human rights and seafood certainly we learned a lot through the conflict minerals process of something is way down in our supply chain and really understanding how do you engage into assurance over all of that work as well that then helps across the rest of the more process and long term. But I just add on the racial equity question is, you know, similar to what Suzanne said we've had goals and programs efforts underway for quite some time but there's no question this year represents an acceleration I think for so many in society which is good. It's needed, because obviously the outcomes when you look at disparity space by black people and African Americans in any system you want to pick health, education, financial, criminal justice, massive gaps. So, so yeah, we, we have absolutely redoubled our efforts and we're looking at it in a couple ways so one is our own associate base and advancement we have 6.8% this year and it hovers in around 7% the last couple years. Representation of black and African American people in our officer ranks. And it's more like 20% at entry level. So, like anything else you look at women you look at indigenous people, Hispanics black people, you tend to get that pipeline attenuating where senior you go. 6.8 is not bad compared to like the average company but it's certainly not where we want to be if you consider 13% of people in America or black or African American we got a ways to go. But we're focused on that first and foremost and as I mentioned earlier we're now publishing twice a year our stats on that pipeline at a much more granular level than we ever have before. You want to check it out just Google it and you'll find the most recent one online. Our first one I should say at that level of detail and we'll do that every six months now. So, we've redoubled that and then what we've also done is said okay well wait a minute, what about our customers, what about our suppliers, what about communities, we have so many assets as Walmart that we could be using, you know, more creatively to be at the table addressing systemic racism, you know, more head on we've always been addressing it as part of other things you know the supplier diversity program and we source 14 billion a year from diverse suppliers things like that. But we never said okay let's take head on this issue of racial equity as it pertains to the black and African community in America as a thing. What would that look like. So we've stood up for different teams. One is non criminal justice reform ones on financial disparities, health disparities and then education as it pertains to workforce. What we're trying to do is say okay well where do we have an asset we got a product we got a service we have jobs we have purchase orders we have our voice advocacy. What are the things that we could bring to bear in a different way that might, you know, help address the issue in partnership obviously with many, many other people were like this much of the solutions but we can be acting differently or better. So that's what we're trying to do we're just in the middle of it now those teams have been in listening mode the last few months. And we just launched a center for racial equity at the Walmart Foundation which I also lead and that is earmarking philanthropic capital to put against what we do in our companies so these things could go together. You know philanthropy we've committed 100 million over five years, which on the one hand sounds like a lot of money on the other hand that is a drop in the bucket like the real action needs to be, you know through our business assets and then the philanthropy can come in a targeted way and you know, extend and expand that. So that's that's how we're approaching it and we'll be reporting progress. You know, as we as we go. We might have lost Scott, so we can. Equity diversity and inclusion have always been at the forefront of what we do, but there's no question that over the past year, you have to reexamine all of your base and understand your goals and those that are achievable and those are aspirational and really move towards those. It is certainly increased for us. So I have a question I'm just going to go right down the list here that will play great. The targets, you know, was her son was he coming back in. Anyway, how do you how do you ensure a science based approach to goal setting and external reporting. So how do you guys get close to the science, you know, in the work that you're doing when you when you said your goals does that does that play a role. Yeah, sure. I mean, for us, it is, it's 100% of what we do almost. So we're For us, it's, it's pretty straightforward. And then the wonderful thing about dealing with renewable natural gas and food waste and greenhouse gas emissions, which we're trying to impede, you have to set that that that base data. And so going in first and benchmarking, I'm sorry, setting your, your understanding of where you're starting from with any and all of our customers is kind of first. And then what has been surprising to us is kind of secondary and tertiary things that we can measure so you know what else what's happening on the farms. Are we, we've been able to bring this low carbon fertilizer the farm so being able to say okay, what's happening with their reduction on synthetic fertilizers and how do we then quantify that and I think there's what's what's wonderful about the science space goals is it kind of forces you to go back and say okay what are all the different levels in fact and can you measure those and can you report those. And it's been great fun for us to unleash a whole bunch of very, very smart, much smarter than me and go out there and look at each one of those sub components and saying, how do we quantify those and are they important and meaningful and how do we then report them up and out. Yeah, and then we've done some similar approach of really looking at kind of that that system level, and we're looking at our goals. We've been setting climate related goals for a long time and and also working together with others in the semiconductor industry to really drive that change you know if each company did it on their own you probably can't get to those those higher level of commitments and reductions we actually had led work back in the 1990s around pfc reductions. And then over time we've continued to invest, you know, in driving different investments and different technologies and really digging into the data and working with outside groups and understanding, you know, where are some of these opportunities. We've been able to drive a 31% decrease in absolute emissions, or last two decades, even as we've considerably grown our global manufacturing operations. One of the things we're looking at now with our 2030 goals is we've set out to achieve carbon neutral computing, a big global challenge where we know we have to work with all the other tech companies but also kind of a much broader ecosystem to drive that and really are going to work directly through a technology industry initiative as part of the goals around helping other companies to set science based targets when one challenge in the current methodology is doesn't always take into account all the reductions that have already taken place. Doesn't mean that you don't want to help everyone redouble their ability to get an approved science based target so we've continued to, even as we're working with others in the industry to move that discussion forward continue to set targets to reduce absolute emissions as we're growing so I think a lot of good learning we're in a data driven engineering company and a lot of external partnerships with academics so thinking about how do we keep moving that forward. So another question for you guys that I'd love to know more about is where do you think investors go from here so I agree with you Suzanne that we're kind of on the upswing of what feels like a hockey stick of interest and relevance. What have you been hearing is helpful or needed from investors as we seek to make decisions about where to put their money. Yeah I think the questions that most of the questions to date have been really just trying to get data to understand what how to even begin to really integrate that into the process I think it's been really focused on transparency and disclosure. It's been focused on government governance and oversight processes to really understand are these truly being integrated. You know is the board involved you know is senior management involved or is it you know just talking points. I think we're moving now especially as you have more of the fundamental analysts coming to the conversation you have more people really trying to dig in to understand what is the connection of this work to value. I think that's this next phase right so I think it's it's it's now really digging into the performance connection it's digging into does it reduce a company's risk. Is a company managing it better than their peers and you know does it are they actually investing that creates more market opportunity. You know and there was a really good research report by George Sarah theme recently that was really looking at you know right now a lot of the disclosure is getting everyone to kind of the same right and basic information everyone's put in place similar programs. Really how do you change this into more of like strategic advantage so really thinking about it through the strategy lens and how does this help you advance the business, not just, you know just doing what you have to do but how do you really turn it into that strategic. Yeah, I agree so much. And you know, one thing that I've been thinking about a lot is, you know, historically people who were in the investment community had some sort of investment thesis right they might look at a company like Vanguard renewables or Intel and go okay so here's my thesis here's the company here's the value they create this is how I think they're creating the value they go interview the manager team. Right they look at everything that you report and your and your progress, and they will come up with some sort of view that says hey I'm going to put my money and Intel or Vanguard renewables because I think I'm going to create value in this way. Right and that was the story. I think we need the same level of rigor around ESG. So for someone to go hey here's what I think Intel is doing around this issue of, you know, climate or Vanguard renewables for waste they're going to transform in these ways or and have a view that relates to the general or social or governance factors that are most of interest to them or their clients. And to do that, yeah you need the data and you also need to do the problem solving or the modeling right to have a view on the things. And it's not as simple as just, you know, tell me what your emissions is who that's good or bad like it has to factor into, you know, a view. You know, it reminds me early on this is like five years ago we got a report guard from an ESG ratings firm or a survey I should say and they said well tell us how much fuel did you use last year. Well we own our own long haul fleet in Canada in the US so the answer is a lot we don't outsource to a party we use a lot of fuel. And they literally sent back our report card and gave us a sad face and then we had that like the competitors had happy faces because they outsourced all logistics. Well that's the business model is critical right so that's why I think the more people can can look at that context we have the same thing with you know we sometimes we get compared against fabulous semiconductor companies of course our water is going to look higher or direct emissions so it's great exactly that example you said so I think that's the case. What do you do about it what's your strategy right and one of the reasons we have our own fleet is we think we can run it better we think we can be more efficient we think we can accelerate to a carbon zero, you know fleet and that's all those things. But you're getting hammered in the meantime right that's. Yeah, and I think. I guess I might, yeah, while while we're finishing this question john maybe just throw it out for anyone who wants to put additional questions in the chat, as I think we have. No, and I think that was interesting about Bob Willard's presentations before. And as more and more those tools can be standardized, where you can have that comparative reporting so that you're not getting crushed because you happen to actually have a better fleet and are using better engines and better fuels types, but you're actually still consuming at that level. It's fundamentally important. As we're all grabbing science based goals to make sure that that you actually create the metrics around that and understand the metrics and have them as comparable because I think that the ESG teams are growing significantly we see this all the time. Within all of the different groups. But they have to have a standardized kind of review platform so that you're not getting hammered as you're, you're actually doing some some virtuous work and getting penalized for it. Not great. You don't want to incentivize bad decision making. There are things going in terms of providing that data. So one of the things I've noticed is a proliferation of organizations that each have a different set of data requirements and questions, lots of surveys that we get kind of over the And I would say two, three years ago we used to answer each and every one of those right we get somebody who comes out at the survey can you give me this information. And what we found is we couldn't keep up. And we're now in this in between period where I don't think we're disclosing enough at the level of detail that would satisfy all these people yet we can answer each of them so we're we're trying to go more the direction of just disclosing as much as we can make it easy to And by topic, and that way, you know, if anybody has a survey we can say oh well go look here here and here for the answers right, but we're not quite there yet but that's that's where we think it's going. How about you guys are you feeling that and how are you addressing that. Yeah, I think we've, and we get asked a lot, both both by our suppliers but other other companies about how do you even get started in this it's overwhelming, you know with all these different ratings and even a company that we've practically engaged with the ratings for many So we do need to prioritize and so one thing we two things we do one, we do try to optimize our public disclosure so that we're answering the majority of the questions across the multiple framework so we're not going to chase every rating that's out there we're not going to use every part of every framework But we are going to make sure that our disclosure that's going out to you know that the public and to all of our stakeholders covers the things that we think are a most important to our stakeholders but also matter for our business so there might be things we decide not to disclose because we actually don't think that's the right measure, or you know there's limitations on the context around putting the data out there. The other thing we do do, especially on the investor side is every time we do our outreach meetings we ask, you know, which frameworks they're prioritizing. We ask, which ratings that they're using the most, and then we spend more of our time making sure that data is accurate as possible so within the sea of acronyms and frameworks, making sure that we know which ones, and we can explain that internally to our finance teams and to our executives here's why these are the ones that we think are worth spending more time on because obviously you both live this, you know, there's there's a trade off and doing the work and and reporting on the work and so you have to get that balance right to make sure you have enough time to continue to drive those important strategic discussions internally, without just spending too much time trying to re correct information or I think it has to be standards, I mean I think this is in farms like this, I think have to push and call for standardization within the ESG analyst could otherwise it really is open to all sorts of question and doubt and manipulation and that doesn't work and so to have it be effective and efficient and something where you where you can actually compare apples to apples standards have to start to be kind of and super granular I mean granular sorry, you know you've got to really be able to go down to the, what it's dimensions right what is what is equity diversity, I mean it's those things have to be specified. And I think that it's huge challenge but you know we've done standards before many many times, I think it has to be applied here as well. Looks like we had one from the group so it's what what are the biggest challenges you've seen or faced in partnering with finance and IR and any lessons learned. Yeah, I think my biggest challenge over time has just been kind of the questions in, you know, ir's head of, well, how do we make sure that we really know the quantification or does this connect to value and finding the research studies and finding kind of the data and detail that's current that's that helps them make the case to others, I guess. I think one of the key learnings and benefits has really been building a true partnership with investor relations I joke with some of my counterparts at other companies that say how did you get IR to talk to you. But I'd say, as soon as I joke it takes a special kind of investor relations leader to be open and to really think about and listen about how these things could be connected and kind of work together with the other teams across the company and executives to do that. But I think it certainly helped a lot of other companies as investors relations is getting directly asked in their meetings to kind of look inward and really drive that internal discussion because I think it makes every team better. I think it certainly made me more disciplined and how we're thinking about the metrics and thinking about how do we, you know, what we pull together for the business case. So I encourage everyone who's if you're on the corporate side. Start that conversation and don't leave out your corporate governance teams because I think that connection to the board and the corporate secretary role is really critical just as important as with your CFO and IR teams. I'll let you take it. I think we've got two minutes and one. That's all yours. Well, you know, somebody once talked to me about this notion of the value of the seat, you know, what's the value of the seat for chief sustainability officer whoever you know who holds that kind of role at a company and I think that's really where it starts is actually more with the CEO and the total leadership team and have it if you don't feel that this world is integral and you aren't already joined at the hip of IR and finance that's the place to start and say what is the value of the seat. Because if the company doesn't appreciate that these things are totally intertwined it's going to be really hard to get the attention of IR finance or whatever it really has to be something that CEO leadership team right throughout is a thing. I'd say if you're if you're in that position where the company your company isn't quite there. Work on that is your own little work stream in parallel with everything else you got going on because the day you get that you will be joined at the hip with the finance person and IR person and that's really where we all need to get to. Hey everybody, I'm back. Welcome back. I tried to mobile hotspot in but the band wasn't enough and it. Comcast took about six minutes to get back live. So, but I was texting people and they were saying you guys are doing great. We were just reading from the, you know, your great notes. Well, well, listen, I think we're at the hour. So I think we're going to have to have to part. So I'm glad I made it back just to say thank you. That is super great and I can see from the from the chats that everybody kind of just took over I love that that's collaboration. Any real quick, any quick summary thoughts from any of the three of you just in closing. No, I think that there's just a lot of opportunity here I think Trent is just transparency integration and connection of value and so how do you keep driving those conversations like Kathy said at all levels of the company and engaging especially your CEO and your CFO and leadership team on on on moving that conversation forward.