Q&A: James Gowen, CSO at Verizon

Verizon's James Gowen is a man with a lot of responsibilities. Not only is he the Senior Vice President of one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, responsible for global supply chains and sourcing, he is also Verizon's Chief Sustainability Officer.

He has been with the telecomms giant for nearly a quarter of a century and first became involved in corporate sustainability in 2009. Since that moment, James has led Verizon on a hugely impressive journey towards decarbonisation. Investing in renewables has been a large part of James' strategy and 2024 saw Verizon issue their sixth US$1bn green bond for large-scale sustainable energy projects.

In 2023, James oversaw Verizon's concerted push for waste reduction. That year, the company reused or recycled approximately 47 million pounds of e-waste, including 1.3 million pounds of plastic and 1.9 million pounds of lead-acid batteries.

At Sustainability LIVE 2024, James discussed many things, including the importance of circular economic strategies. Verizon's recent successes prove that he can talk the talk and walk the walk. Sustainability Magazine spoke with him backstage, after his keynote speech.

How did you first get into sustainability?

My introduction to sustainability really came in 2009. At the time I was running our global operations, as well as our fleet, when I was asked to take on complementary roles of sustainability. And at the time I wasn't sure of the reason for it, but fast-forward to where we're at, supply chain sits in the heart of sustainability.

We are incredibly important, whether it's transportation mode, whether it's energy consumption, whether it's fuel, cardboard, whatever the case may be, it wound up that that marriage between sustainability and supply chain has proved to be a very successful.

Are there any trends or innovations in sustainability that are exciting you?

When I think about trends in sustainability, I think I go backwards first and ask - what are the key things that cement yourself? And when you look at a company like Verizon, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, energy is what we had to focus on.

So, we have really gone after renewable energy to make sure that we hit our commitments of reaching net zero in our Scope 1 and Scope 2 operations by 2035. We're well on our way to do that.

But then when I look at trends going forward, I think about the circular economy and making sure that we're bringing devices to our over a hundred million customers that can have a second and a third life, making sure we're avoiding landfills with any of those types of items.

What has been your biggest takeaway from Sustainability LIVE so far?

I think the biggest takeaway I've had has been the audience participation. I made a comment in my last session that the passion of the questions and the way people are thinking about it, everyone was getting very caught up in the conversation around data.

And my comment back to the audience was just, when you're thinking about 2050, there is no data yet. Don't get yourself hung up. And what I really appreciated is this audience here today and on the line, they're the hope. 

We're going to do what we have to do because it's the right thing to do for our customers. We're counting on this group here thinking about what's next and what we don't even know about yet.

Can events like Sustainability LIVE contribute to the broader sustainability movement?

Yeah, and events like this, the way we think about sustainability end to end, it's a team sport. If I went back in my 29 years at Verizon, I would never have been thinking that I would be sitting on a table with my competitors talking about how we can bring greener solutions. It's just been a game changer from that perspective.

But then you come to Sustainability LIVE and you start hearing the conversations that are going on with that entrepreneurial spirit. And as the globe is getting much, much smaller, we're counting on those entrepreneurs to really come up with solutions that are going to change the game by 2050.

How will Verizon's practices change over the next five years?

When I think about the sustainability of Verizon over the next five years, bottom line will be what is required to operate. That'll be reporting, that'll be auditing, that'll be what do we have to do to make sure we're meeting all federal, state and local regulatory rules.

But then when you start thinking about what's next, when I talk about circular economy, when we talk about end-of-life building with end-of-life in mind, especially in the consumer side, that's super interesting.

But then you think about technology and the network side, we run one of the largest 5G deployments in the world. Well, 6G is going to come. How do you make sure those 5G radios are harvested and redeployed into other areas?

Those type of things are really, really important to make sure that we're worried about the future and at the same time not putting our head in the sand.

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