Verizon CSO James Gowen Talks Supply Chain Sustainability

It's fair to say James Gowen has fingers in many pies at Verizon. 

Not only is he SVP Global Supply Chain, taking responsibility for the telco giant's supply chain and sourcing operations, but also serves as Chief Sustainability Officer.

James, who has spent almost 25 years at Verizon, first became involved in corporate sustainability in 2009 and has since led the company on an impressive path towards decarbonisation.

A key element of his strategy has been investing in renewable energy, culminating in Verizon issuing its sixth US$1bn green bond for large-scale sustainable energy projects in 2024.

Last year, he spearheaded the organisation's waste reduction efforts, which involved successfully reusing or recycling around 47 million pounds of e-waste, including 1.3 million pounds of plastic and 1.9 million pounds of lead-acid batteries.

James recently spoke at Sustainability LIVE London, delivering a keynote speech on the importance of circular economy strategies – and we caught up with him backstage. 

What was it like seeing your role expanded from supply chain into sustainability?

My introduction to sustainability really came in 2009. At the time I was running our global operations, as well as our fleet, when I was asked to take on complementary roles of sustainability. And at the time I wasn't sure of the reason for it, but fast-forward to where we're at now and supply chain sits in the heart of sustainability.

We're incredibly important, whether it's transportation mode, energy consumption, fuel, cardboard, whatever the case may be, it wound up that that marriage between sustainability and supply chain has proved to be very successful.

Are there any trends or innovations in sustainability that are exciting you?

When I think about trends in sustainability, I think I go backwards first and ask, what are the key things that cement yourself? And when you look at a company like Verizon, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, energy is what we had to focus on.

So, we have really gone after renewable energy to make sure that we hit our commitments of reaching net zero in our Scope 1 and Scope 2 operations by 2035. We're well on our way to do that.

But then, when I look at trends going forward, I think about the circular economy and making sure that we're bringing devices to our more than a hundred million customers that can have a second and a third life, making sure we're avoiding landfills with any of those types of items.

What was your biggest takeaway from Sustainability LIVE London 2024?

I think the biggest takeaway was the audience participation. I made a comment in my session about the passion of the questions and the way people are thinking about it. Everyone was getting very caught up in the conversation around data.

And my comment back to the audience was that, when you're thinking about 2050, there is no data yet. Don't get yourself hung up. And what I really appreciated is that the audience are the hope. 

We're going to do what we have to do because it's the right thing to do for our customers. We're counting on this group here thinking about what's next and what we don't even know about yet.

Can events like Sustainability LIVE contribute to the broader sustainability movement?

Events like this, the way we think about sustainability end to end – it's a team sport. If I went back to my early days at Verizon, I would never have thought I'd be sitting on a table with my competitors talking about how we can bring greener solutions. It's been a game-changer from that perspective.

But then you come to Sustainability LIVE and you start hearing the conversations that are going on with that entrepreneurial spirit. And as the globe is getting much, much smaller, we're counting on those entrepreneurs to really come up with solutions that are going to change the game by 2050.

How will Verizon's sustainability practices change over the next five years?

When I think about the sustainability of Verizon over the next five years, bottom line will be what is required to operate. That'll be reporting, that'll be auditing, that'll be, what do we have to do to make sure we're meeting all federal, state and local regulatory rules?

But then, when you start thinking about what's next, when I talk about circular economy, when we talk about end-of-life building with end-of-life in mind, especially in the consumer side, that's super interesting.

Then you think about technology and the network side. We run one of the largest 5G deployments in the world and, well, 6G is going to come. How do you make sure those 5G radios are harvested and redeployed into other areas?

Those type of things are really, really important to make sure that we're worried about the future and at the same time not putting our head in the sand.

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