Sustainability LIVE Q+A: Deb Caldow, Dave Lutkenhaus, Diageo

Deb Caldow, Marketing Sustainability Director at Diageo, and Dave Lütkenhaus, Global Sustainability & Innovation Director at Diageo, joined forces for a keynote at Sustainability LIVE London 2024.

When they left the stage, they were interviewed by Sustainability Magazine.

Q – Is there anything in particular that inspired you to get involved in sustainability?

Dave: “Yeah, I think for me, on top of the passion, I think by being Brazilian as well, I have a true connection with nature already and also a love for science.

“In terms of sustainability, I do believe that the solutions need to be science backed. So I saw in sustainability an opportunity to apply that knowledge to find a better plan.”

Deb: “So he really knows what he's talking about and I got into it in a slightly different route. I'm a marketeer by trade, so I've spent 25 years building brands for businesses.

“And then about eight years ago I was part of Costa Coffee when they were bought by Coca-Cola.

“I was given the global brand director role, to double the size of the business in the next three years.

“But I'd done quite a lot of that in my career and I'd started to really get a bit of a marketing mid-life crisis. And at the same time I got the sustainability remit.

“So the brief then became double the size of the brand while also halving the impact on the planet and I was delighted to be given that scope.

“It scared the living daylights out of me when I got it, but it's been probably one of the best career moves I've ever had.

“We cannot comms our way out of a climate crisis. We need to genuinely create better solutions for consumers, which is why when we got this job at the same time, it made sense for Diageo to have two people looking at both sides of the coin and to create meaningful science-backed, desirable solutions for consumers.”

Q – What trends are you excited about in sustainability at the moment?

Dave: “There are a lot of things that are ongoing that I feel excited about. For example, new materials that are being explored in packaging.

“But I think one thing that actually gets me quite excited is the ability of having new business models.

“For example, how consumers can actually engage with our products in a different way that they didn't know that they could. It's a good balance between having the science-backed result with the consumer desirability.”

Deb:

“I'm in awe of many, many startups that are challenging category conventions by being sustainable and more desirable.

“Vertical farming in the home. I'm now growing basil in my kitchen and I love it and it's very desirable and there is a sustainability angle to it.

“The Siri toothbrush, I absolutely love it. So I think we are delighted that there are smaller hungry brands challenging conventions.

“Where I think we get excited then is where we can help scale solutions because, as Diageo, we are huge and we play a role in scaling and helping industry change happen.”

Q – What has been your biggest takeaway from today?

Deb:

“I think events like this are super important for a couple of reasons. I think they're important for those that are in sustainability day in, day out: it's a really hard place to be.

“The resilience required in constantly pushing for something that doesn't yet exist or hasn't scaled.

“So I think it's important that we bring like-minded people together to get energy from each other and to get ideas from each other. And I think we will not do this in silos.

“I think the other aspect is that we have to speak to those that are not yet converted. So I'm hoping that there are people here that are also visiting that aren't quite sure yet.”

Dave:

“Events like this are extremely important so we can share the learnings as well. Sharing what is going wrong as well is quite important, so we don't make the same mistakes.

“And I think in our talk today, we actually shared the principle of progress over perfection, which is essentially showing that we are taking steps towards the right direction, but along the way that we will be learning that you need to take on board and then continue innovating.”

Q – How do you feel that events such as this one are contributing to the broader sustainability movement?

Deb:

“I think it'd be really important to see what comes next out of the event as much as the event itself. So I think often it's the event and then it's the after event.

“A bit like the after party is where the action really happens. Maybe that parallel could work for this. So I think whatever you guys do to really help drive those that are in the room understanding and then spreading it, that's where it really, really comes into its own.”

Dave:

“These are quite important to speed up collaboration because for me, one thing, working in innovation, it is very much a challenge to find the right partners to work on.

“And sometimes in a day you can meet people that are working in a similar space or have similar struggles so you can connect.

“Therefore, if we speed up the collaboration, innovation is going to actually be delivered sooner and that's going to be better for people.”

Q – How do you anticipate sustainability practices changing within your organisation and externally over the next five years?

Dave:

“I think we're going to have fewer silos internally and externally. I think companies, internally, have functional silos. We also have silos like competitors, who we don’t always talk to.

“I think more and more we're going to see those silos being broken and therefore sustainability can advance.”

Deb:

“Not to get political, but we need the governments to be clear and push companies to comply. We also need the consumer to be open to it.

“And I think in between what Dave talks about is the collaboration. We need conditions around competition to be favourable to industry solutions.

“There is no point in us developing something and a competitor in the general sense developing the same thing themselves. So we anticipate and are hopeful that those conditions will change over the coming years and that people like us can collaborate genuinely to create impact at scale.”

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