First chief sustainability officer at The Warehouse Group

Electric vehicles are part of the focus for The Warehouse Group’s first chief sustainability officer David Benattar.

His role includes helping reduce carbon emissions such as through transitioning the group’s car fleet to electric vehicles and offering charging station use to customers.

That’s just one example of how our customer experience and sustainability leadership meet, Benattar says.

He joined The Warehouse Group two years ago as chief experience officer and says sustainability has always been one of his passions.

“I started my career in New York at Aveda, a Minneapolis based sustainability pioneer and world leader in natural beauty, and I never looked back,” Benattar says.

“Five years later, I joined the non-profit Earth Pledge, with the mission to infuse sustainability into business. Over the next four years I worked with some of most forward-thinking business leaders worldwide. It was never about tree hugging, but about ethics, innovation, efficiency, and politics, all packed into the sustainability platform.”
Benattar says the challenge is balancing the triple bottom line – people, planet and profit.

He says that starts by understanding and measuring the non-financial value drivers and incorporating them in the decision making.

He believes there are opportunities for companies to develop sustainable practices in every aspect of their operations.

“Carbon emissions are a big topic for us and they will only go up in importance, as we take immediate action, for example by transitioning our car fleet to electric vehicles and offering charging stations to our customers,” Benattar says.

“There are numerous other examples, from phasing out single use plastic bags from our stores to the disposing of waste.”
Benattar says the group aims to build sustainability into every level of the business. “Naming a CSO is a real message to the market and the industry, one that only leading organisations worldwide have initiated, and states our stance on this vital aspect of our business. It is a timely opportunity for our 12,000 team members-strong organisation to keep showing that we’re here for good.”