EcoDistricts 2013 keynote preview: Steve Pemberton

Steve PembertonForward Print HTML Share on Facebook Google Plus One Linkedin Share Button This November, Steve Pemberton will open one of the world’s premier conferences on sustainable neighborhood development – the EcoDistricts Summit in Boston – by addressing some of today’s stickiest urban issues: the role of corporations in creating green cities, the challenges of equity and inclusion, and threats to sustainability efforts in low-income areas from increasing levels of violence.As the first chief diversity officer and a division vice president at Walgreens, Pemberton deals with these issues every day. He directs activities to serve diverse markets and populations, including customers in medically underserved areas and urban food deserts. The recent author of ‘A Chance in World,’ Pemberton is recognized as a leader on …

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Steve Pemberton

This November, Steve Pemberton will open one of the world’s premier conferences on sustainable neighborhood development – the EcoDistricts Summit in Boston – by addressing some of today’s stickiest urban issues: the role of corporations in creating green cities, the challenges of equity and inclusion, and threats to sustainability efforts in low-income areas from increasing levels of violence.

As the first chief diversity officer and a division vice president at Walgreens, Pemberton deals with these issues every day. He directs activities to serve diverse markets and populations, including customers in medically underserved areas and urban food deserts. The recent author of 'A Chance in World,' Pemberton is recognized as a leader on matters of diversity and inclusion, and their importance to what he calls 'the growth of the American industrial complex.' A ward of the state for much of his childhood, Steve Pemberton has made opportunity, access and equality pillars of his personal and professional life.

Q: Okay, when I hear 'American industrial complex,' I think Orwell. You’re a green cities guy, so how am I supposed to hear industrial complex and not fear assimilation by the Borg?

Pemberton: [Laughs] Ahh, well I think that’s a generational perception of the term. I don’t think of 'industrial complex' in the traditional way – not in the way Adam Smith wrote about it. To me, it’s about how organizations think about and interact with communities. From the standpoint of Walgreens, it’s about our partnership with local neighborhoods to advance health and wellness, especially in low-income areas.

Q: How is that work getting done?

Pemberton: We’re evaluating everything from products to supplier diversity to disability initiatives, which are frequently pointed to as an example. Our senior leadership team is actually one of the most diverse in America by race and gender. We have many strategic initiatives focused on putting fresh food in urban food oases, which are commonly found in neighborhoods that are underserved. We’re in a lot of these communities already, but we weren’t in the business of providing fresh food. Now we are, and that’s us putting a stake in the ground. We committed to this, in part, because so many grocery stores moved out of these areas.

Q: How do you react to those who argue that you should sell cheap or unhealthy food in low-income areas, because that’s what the people really want?

Pemberton: I find that to be a flawed argument. You can test that. Our experience is the exact opposite. Once we provide it, communities snap it up. It’s a matter of access. This is a long implementation process, and our goal is to turn at least 500 of our stores into places that provide fresh food in urban food oases. We’re close to hitting that number.

Q: Are we still in an era of lip service when it comes to creating real equity with the green cities movement?

Pemberton: I think we’ve exhausted the runway of pounding the pulpit. Any movement has stages. [pagebreak]First there’s awareness and elevating attention. We’ve been through that. What happens as part of that awareness is that articulation gets confused with resolution. The hard part is, 'What are you going to do?' Therein lies the challenge. It’s about getting people to recalibrate the way they do something, and that’s hard. My focus is on the solution, and I ask, 'Where are the gaps?' There is clearly a gap when it comes to accessing fresh and healthy food. I find that looking for gaps and doing something about them is what moves the needle, not lecturing people on something that’s perceived as a social cause.

Q: What took companies so long to create real solutions?

Pemberton: I’ll be an optimist and say I think there was a period of lack of awareness. Now there’s this realization that doing good things as a public corporation can actually be helpful to your brand. Before, that model wasn’t readily apparent. The term 'corporate social responsibility' seemed almost devoid of bottom-line responsibilities. Now you’re seeing the marriage of the two, and it’s having an impact. Corrective action – righting a social wrong – and competitive business can coexist to address issues such as health, weight and diabetes. I see the role of corporations as contributing to efforts, public and private, that create healthy generations. If we don’t do that, our role in communities will be challenged, and we won’t be there. There’s a heightened responsibility beyond simply greening the environment. There has to be a higher bar.

Q: Where do we go from here?

Pemberton: There are frontiers, clearly, particularly as they relate to the safety of neighborhoods. 'Greening' has been almost exclusively focused on sustainability – lowering the carbon footprint, fresh food, etc. Now we have to focus on a person’s experience and safety in their place. It’s not uncommon to hear about the tremendous violence that’s unfolding in urban areas such as Chicago, where I live. I suspect that organizations such as EcoDistricts will focus on solutions in addition to advocacy when to comes to safety. And who better than the leaders of the green city movement? The green cities movement is all for naught if neighborhoods are not safe.

Q: What else can you do to make equity real to green cities?

Pemberton: You have to be consistent and committed. Those are buzzwords, yes, but we mean it – you can’t have some PR buzz and then move on. For us, we have to hit the mark on 500 stores with fresh food. And, commitment can’t be to a single cause – it has to be several areas of greening. For example, we established car charging stations, but as any business our size will tell you, you need the right partners to get everything done. This comes down to the lighting we install in our stores, supplier diversity, renewable energy, and more. There isn’t one single swim lane here, because there’s a long focus on 'greening' our cities, and greening includes equity.

Q: What’s your plan to overtake the Google dominance of the other Steve Pemberton, the British actor most famous for his role in 'The League of Gentlemen'?

Pemberton: [Laughs] I have seen that! There was a period there where I didn’t know that he existed, to be honest. [pagebreak]I have three kids, and they search 'Steve Pemberton,' and that’s how I know. It’s just a different world with Google, of course. Who knows – if I get popular enough in this country, it won’t matter.

Seth Walker is a writer based in Portland, OR.

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