Sustainable Brands Announces Appointment of Douglas Sabo, former Visa Chief Sustainability Officer, as Sustainable Living Executive-in-Residence

Douglas Sabo, former Visa Chief Sustainability Officer, to support organization’s initiatives to help make sustainable living more attractive, rewarding and attainable

Published 3 months ago | About a 4 minute read

SAN FRANCISCO, July 8, 2024 - Sustainable Brands® (SB), PBC, the premier global community of brand innovators reshaping the future of commerce worldwide, today announced the appointment of Douglas Sabo, former Visa Chief Sustainability Officer, as Sustainable Living Executive-in-Residence. In this newly created role, Sabo will work across the Sustainable Brands community and with external partners to spotlight innovation and solutions and to accelerate the adoption of sustainable behaviors by consumers.

With a growing recognition of the importance of consumers’ daily behaviors and choices in achieving global sustainability goals, Sustainable Brands created the Sustainable Living Executive-in-Residence role to serve as an advocate and change agent within the SB community and out to the broader ecosystem. In this role, Sabo will work with the SB community around the SB Nine Sustainable Behaviors™, including Eat More Plants, Go Circular, Be Energy Smart and more. He will support efforts to build collaborations around particular behaviors, develop and disseminate SB’s consumer insights, and spotlight solutions. Sabo also will help represent the SB community within the broader global sustainable living movement

“Doug has been a leader and valued member of the Sustainable Brands community for some time and we are thrilled to be partnering with him in this capacity,” said Michael Dupee, Chief Executive Officer of Sustainable Brands. “We welcome his experience, authenticity and positive energy in this new role and look forward to working with him to drive more and deeper collaborations in service of sustainable living.”

Sabo is a recognized global leader in corporate sustainability, ESG and sustainable living. From 2008-2024, he served as a corporate sustainability and responsibility executive at Visa Inc., the global payments leader, including as the company's inaugural Chief Sustainability Officer. In his role at Visa, Sabo led the company's environmental sustainability, ESG, human rights and responsible business initiatives, including Visa's approach to empowering sustainable living and commerce. During his tenure, he represented Visa in helping create collective industry approaches such as the SB Brands for Good initiative, Travalyst (sustainable travel) and the annual Healthy and Sustainable Living Study by GlobeScan. Sabo also has been a member of the Sustainable Brands Advisory Board, New York Stock Exchange Sustainability Advisory Council, Sustainable Finance Working Group of the Institute of International Finance, and the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Sustainable Tourism. For more than five years, Sabo also has been the creator and curator of the SustainableLife blog (www.greenlivingdoug.com), a daily curation of sustainable progress in topics such as apparel, food, mobility, travel and tourism, recommerce, sports, home, beauty and petcare, as well as an active champion of sustainable living on social media (@GreenLivingDoug on YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn). Sabo has been recognized as a Top 100 Chief Sustainability Officer by Sustainability Magazine and one of the 50 Most Influential in ESG by Constellation Research.

“With individual and household actions having the potential to produce an estimated 25-30% of total global emissions reductions needed, consumers play an important role in achieving global objectives to maintain a sustainable world,” said Sabo. “In this role, I look forward to tapping into the innovation, energy and collaborative spirit of those bringing forward solutions -- from the large enterprises to the early start-ups – to help empower consumers and make sustainable living more attractive, rewarding and attainable for millions…if not billions.”

With Douglas Sabo joining SB, the organization is poised to continue making sustainable living a reality for all. Sabo's extensive experience and passion for sustainability will be instrumental in fostering innovation and collaboration within the community. SB is excited to embark on this new chapter with Sabo, confident that his leadership will inspire and accelerate positive change across the globe.

About Sustainable Brands Sustainable Brands®, a female-founded Public Benefit Corporation, is the premier global community of brand innovators who are reshaping the future of commerce worldwide. Since 2006, our mission has been to inspire, engage and equip today’s business and brand leaders to prosper for the near and long term by leading the way to the future we want for all people for all time. Through our diverse initiatives, we facilitate community education and transformative action throughout the year.

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