Ali Mize, Senior Director of ESG, Belonging, and Corporate Philanthropy at Neiman Marcus Group, is leading a successful sustainability & ESG program at the world-class retailer and has a few thoughts on what it takes to scale your sustainability program. Dive into the conversation we had with her—you might be surprised to hear some of the strategies she’s relying on.

Structuring your team so that more people have sustainability responsibilities

‍"We operate through an innovative dual reporting model…And that helps ensure that there's accountability in the business, that there is budgeting happening for ESG directly within the business, [and] that they're also connected to a centralized hub of change makers through ESG as well."

This is different from your typical stand-alone sustainability department structure that might have a senior leader who might even report to the C-suite. While this is a strong setup, Ali paints a picture of deeper engagement, across the organization. At Neiman Marcus Group there are people on her direct team who oversee the pillars of their strategy: Environmental sustainability, belonging, and philanthropy. And then scattered throughout the business, they have leaders who sit directly within their business units (they call them pyramids) and report into that pyramid as well as to the ESG, Belonging, and Corporate Philanthropy department.

As Ali notes in our conversation, this helps ensure that there's accountability across the business, that there is budgeting happening for ESG directly within the business, and that the team is more fully connected into a centralized ESG hub. The results are meaningful and have a scaled impact in the business.

Talking the talk is sometimes as important as walking the walk

‍“I've really tried throughout my career to learn how to speak different languages that helped me with stakeholder management.” Something we’re hearing time and time again is that there is an art to negotiating sustainability initiatives and many of your wins will come when you approach your program from the perspectives of those whose buy-in you need the most. Know their language, understand their objectives, and appreciate their obstacles.

Some of the most effective sustainability pros come from diverse professional backgrounds that have allowed them to spend time in multiple parts of the business and value chain. In Ali’s case she points to her experience in finance and policy as key to her sustainability success.

In our conversation, she told us that when it comes to scaling your programs, "it's a blend of technical skills and empathy and understanding." We couldn’t agree more.

Creating change by tapping into psychology

‍“…it all goes back to this framework that comes from public health called the socio-ecological model. And this model basically says that it's really important to understand the interplay between individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and societal factors because this interplay affects human behavior and the change that we're able to create.”

When talking about partnering for success, Ali takes a play from the psychology textbooks. The socio-ecological framework lays out an organized approach for getting people to change - and in our case, pushing industries to change. Also known as the Ecology of Human Development, this framework was developed in the late ‘70s by the psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner. It’s a way to recognize that individuals affect - and are affected by - a complex range of social influences and nested environmental interactions.

This model recognizes that factors can cross between multiple levels and that they can also impact people differently, based on their collective and intersectional experience. Basically, there’s an order to create change, and while all things are interconnected, arguably, it starts with the individual. You can learn more about it here.

To listen to the full conversation we had with Ali, and learn more about what’s working at Neiman Marcus Group to scale sustainability visit our podcast page.

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