Welcome to Directors' Dialogues with Alexandra Bolton and Matthew Moss

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Welcome to Directors' Dialogues, a podcast from the Climate Governance Initiative. In this trailer episode, you will meet our podcast hosts Alexandra Bolton and Matthew Moss, who bring their expertise and passion for climate action to the forefront of this episode. They discuss the amazing guests coming up in this series, including a board director from a Chinese lithium mining company, an audit committee chair from Mumbai, a director from the American fashion industry, and a Brazilian director who is on the board of a family company and a financial services company.

Listen on to hear the board directors' personal motivations for taking action on climate and how these climate leaders are navigating the intricate landscape of climate governance in their boardrooms.

For more information on what we do, visit climate-governance.org.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to Directors Dialogues, a podcast series in
which we discuss climate actionin the boardroom.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Matthew Moss.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
And I'm Alexandra Bolton.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
I've really, really enjoyed talking to the board
directors we've been able tointerview so far.
They are absolutely wonderfulindividuals.
They are from all over theworld.
They're passionate.
They are from all over theworld.
They're passionate, they'reexperienced.
They're committed personally todriving climate positive action
within their boardrooms.
Many of them sit on the boardsof all sorts of different

(00:35):
companies.
Mostly they're in companiesthat share their view that
climate is vital.
Some of them are lone voices.
Some of them have taken ajourney to get to where they are
and they teach us a lot abouthow boardrooms and board

(00:56):
directors need to grasp thisnettle.
They know that it's importantto deal with that topic but also
to focus on the bottom line.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
We've been super lucky with our guest.
Amongst the first, we've got adirector for a Chinese lithium
mining company, an auditcommittee chair from Mumbai, an
American boardroom director inthe fashion industry and a
Brazilian director who's on theboard of a family company out of
Santander, Brazil, who's on theboard of a family company out
of Santander, brazil.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
We're from the climate governance initiative,
which has a particular remit tofocus on board directors.
We know that it's the privatesector that is responsible,
obviously enough, for the vastmajority of the world's carbon
emissions.
We know that, within anyparticular company, it's the
board of directors that has theresponsibility for climate

(01:45):
policies and for seizing theopportunities that come from
dealing with climate, and withinany one board of directors,
it's the independent director,it's the non-executive director
that is particularly carryingthat responsibility to ask the
difficult questions, to beawkward if necessary, and to

(02:06):
hold their companies to account.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
And we know that by engaging with them, by equipping
them, by empowering them to askthose difficult questions and
to understand the answers, thatwe can shift the mindset and the
culture and the actions of theboard to make a real climate
difference.
We work through a network ofchapters.
Currently we've got 32 chaptersworldwide and operating in 73
countries.
We cover about a third of theworld's carbon emissions and

(02:29):
more chapters are being launchedall the time.
But we're not resting on ourlaurels.
We want to see 100% of thecarbon emissions covered.
Before we introduce any of ourguests and we move on to the
podcast series proper, let'sintroduce ourselves a little.
I trained as an engineer.
I've worked in a variety ofinstitutions, sectors and jobs,

(02:52):
most of them not in engineering,but I came to Climate through
my work in the National DigitalTwin Programme and as the
Executive Director of the Centreof Digital Built, britain,
where we came to see that techis only part of the answer and
that things are systems-based,everything is connected and,
importantly for climate, thatthe planet is the ultimate

(03:13):
system of systems.
We know we need to change theway we work and the way we do
things.
We know we need to break downthose silos and that we need to
work together.
In fact, antonio Guterrestalked about cooperate or perish
, because we know when wecollaborate, we can do amazing
things, and that's why I came tojoin the initiative.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
And I joined the initiative earlier this year, a
few months behind Alexandra.
I've worked most of my careerin the University of Cambridge.
I have majored incommunications.
Really, during that time, I washead of the Vice-Chancellor's
office for 10 years as Chief ofStaff and in that position I

(03:55):
think I've written over 400speeches for Vice-Chancellors
and Chancellors of theUniversity explaining this
complex beast to the outsideworld, and the complexity is
something that I really got toenjoy.
Something that I really got toenjoy Apart from straight
communications, it was amasterclass in how to understand
a complex ecosystem withstakeholders in business, in

(04:18):
government and in academia.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
And that's what made you so perfect for this role,
because you got that experienceat a really senior level across,
as you say, say, industry,academia and policy and that
communications experience so wecan talk with board directors,
but also, more importantly, wecan help them talk with each
other, communicate with eachother and find out how they can

(04:41):
change the culture in theboardroom so that climate action
can happen.
So now you know a little bitabout us and I hope you're
excited to hear what our guestshave to say.
In our first episode, we speakto someone who has made
sustainability an economicimperative in the boardroom.
Listen to our first podcast tohear what he has to say.