Driving Sustainable Business Practices

Charlotte Gregory’s role with Kohler Mira has evolved greatly in the four years since she joined the team. A design engineer by trade, Charlotte said she has always had a vision for the work she wanted to do.

“I’ve always had a strong moral compass around what I want to do with my life,” Charlotte remarked. “I want to help make the world a better place –– and I believe I can do that.”

Her journey toward her current role as Sustainability Engineer for Kohler Mira began when she became part of the company’s Design for Environment, Stewardship and Innovation for Good teams alongside her job of supporting Mira Digital Shower engineering.

Charlotte’s focus now is on integrating sustainability and stewardship into day-to-day activities by delivering business value through cost savings, product innovation and associate action.

“I work closely with the Mira Stewardship and Design for Environment teams, as well as global sustainability associates, to develop a road map projecting how we move towards NetZero, and develop more environmentally friendly products,” Charlotte explained.

Charlotte’s favorite project of 2015 year was Mira’s EcoPledge, a company-wide challenge in which associates were tasked with finding £100,000 in sustainable savings. In the first six months of the challenge, the teams had doubled the target and were hard at work delivering on substantial sustainability projects including using air instead of water for product testing and switching to returnable packaging for product components. In 2015, the teams completed 24 projects for a savings of £325,677.

“Utilizing the familiar metric of monetary savings to illustrate how sustainability projects have been of financial benefit across the business has been brilliant,” Charlotte said. “The moment the lightbulb goes on for an associate and they make the connection between Sustainability and a project they are working on – that moment fills me with hope for the future.”

Charlotte is working with the Mira Environmental Stewardship team to identify £300,000 in sustainability savings for the 2016 EcoPledge.

“None of this would be possible without the whole team at Kohler Mira and beyond,” Charlotte said. “We have great associates who are always up for a challenge, and aligning business advantage with sustainability has been absolutely key in making changes at all levels in our organization. Good business practice and sustainable business practice can go hand in hand.”