The Sustainability Consortium Appoints New Leadership

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TEMPE, Ariz. – The Sustainability Consortium, an independent global organization that creates sustainability standards for consumer products, announces the appointment of Kara Hartnett Hurst, who will be leading The Sustainability Consortium into its next phase.

Hurst joins The Sustainability Consortium from BSR where she was a vice president, overseeing BSR’s offices in New York and Washington, D.C., as well as working with governments, foundations and multilaterals and BSR events. In her decade at BSR, Hurst also developed and led several industry practices including pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, media and entertainment, travel and tourism and information and communications technology. She co-founded and facilitated several initiatives including the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition and the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative. Hurst specializes in corporate transparency, responsible supply chain management, management structures, CSR and public policy, and industry collaboration.

The consortium, jointly administered by Arizona State University and the University of Arkansas, has made substantial progress towards its goal of finalizing sustainable supply chain information for over 150 product categories across nine sectors with the completion of the first of three waves of categories.

The sustainable supply chain information is compiled into different knowledge products, all of which are available to members through an internal database. The Sustainability Consortium and its members are looking forward to Hurst joining the team and helping the organization move its mission, vision and strategic initiatives forward. Hurst’s expertise in multi-stakeholder collaboration on key sustainability challenges; and work with large, complex corporate supply chains across a variety of industries will help the consortium to further integrate these products and catalyze the impact they will have on industry and consumers.

Hurst will be formally introduced during The Sustainability Consortium’s Inaugural Member Summit meeting in October at Arizona State University.
The Member Summit will allow The Sustainability Consortium’s 90-plus members and other crucial stakeholders to analyze The Sustainability Consortium’s sustainability measurement and reporting work as well as allow Sector Working Groups, Consortium Working Groups and Advisory Councils to engage in critical dialogue on how to advance The Sustainability Consortium’s mission. The Member Summit is an invitation-only event.

The Sustainability Consortium is an independent organization of diverse global participants that work collaboratively to build a scientific foundation that drives innovation to improve consumer product sustainability. The Sustainability Consortium develops transparent methodologies, tools, and strategies to drive a new generation of products and supply networks that address environmental, social and economic imperatives. The Sustainability Consortium advocates for a credible, scalable and transparent process and system. The organization boasts over 90 members from all corners of business employing over 57 million people and whose combined revenues total over $1.5 trillion. Arizona State University and the University of Arkansas jointly administer The Sustainability Consortium, with additional operations at Wageningen University in The Netherlands. Learn more at www.sustainabilityconsortium.org.