Dramatic changes spur green activities.

• Author: Sweeney, Paul
• Position: Business Practices

Kevin Anton, a vice president and senior corporate executive at aluminum giant Alcoa Inc., belongs to two exclusive clubs. As Alcoa's chief sustainability officer, he is one of only 29 corporate executives at publicly traded companies in the United States to hold such a title. According to a report by the Weinreb Group, an executive search firm in Berkeley, Calif., the job of CSO did not even exist until 2004, when the newly minted C-suite position was created at DuPont Corp.

Anton's second claim to fame? In January 2009, he was one of 155 passengers aboard the fateful U.S. Airways flight that--having been disabled by a flock of birds shortly after take-off--crash-landed into New York's Hudson River. Thanks to sensational piloting by Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, and tremendous teamwork by rescue workers, all of the passengers and the flight crew survived the crash.

For Anton, the crash resulted in a personal epiphany. An accountant by training with some 30 years of experience in the metals and mining industry, he was vice president for finance and strategy at Alcoa's global primary products division at the time of the crash, and had been giving serious thought to doing something else.

"I had gotten to the point in life where I thought that once we navigated our way out of the financial crisis it would be time for a career change," he said. "This was my 'aha! moment.'"

When offered the opportunity in December 2010 to serve in the new post of corporate CSO and help make Alcoa greener, he leaped at the chance. Today, Anion answers directly to the chief executive and sits on Alcoa's executive council, (he leadership group that sets strategic direction for the company with $21 billion in global revenue. "We're a for-profit company," says Anton, "so a big part of my role is to build the business case for sustainability."

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As such, he represents a new breed of sustainability executive. On average, they are men and women who have spent "16 years inside at the same company and arrived at the position of CSO with experience in engineering, product development or finance, rather than "softer" areas like advertising or public relations.

"You're hearing a lot of seasoned executives saying they want to make the world a better place for their grandchildren," says Ellen Weinreb, chief executive at the Berkeley consultancy bearing her name.

Change in Mindset

The change in mindset owes much to government policies and the battery of regulations and regulators. But pressure from non-governmental organizations, labor unions, non-union employees, customers, suppliers and communities, among other stakeholders, is dramatically influencing business behavior.

At the same time, businesses large and small recognize that recycling, energy conservation, switching to alternative fuels, minimizing greenhouse gas production and the entire panoply of environmentally conscious activities are not only the right thing to do but a smart way to reduce costs--and even to increase profits.

Consequently; environmental...