Katie Distler, Chief Sustainability Officer at Technimark, Real Leadership

About this episode

Katie Distler discusses her journey from conservationist to Chief Sustainability Officer at Technimark and the importance of understanding business for driving real change.

How does a lifelong conservationist and fly fisher end up leading sustainability for a global plastics manufacturing company? Katie Distler didn’t stumble into the role. She swam upstream to get there. Katie is Chief Sustainability Officer at Technimark, a global leader in injection molded plastics for healthcare, consumer, and industrial markets with close to 5,000 employees across the U.S., Mexico, Europe, and China. For 25 years, she has turned purpose into action—from her earliest days catching snakes and surveying birds for a forest products company, to managing a global conservation portfolio at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, to spending eight years at the Turner Family Foundation where she ultimately served as Executive Director. What’s remarkable isn’t the pivot from conservation to plastics. It’s the philosophy that connects every chapter: to make real change, you have to understand the business you’re trying to transform. At Technimark, Katie drives the company’s sustainability strategy across three pillars—people, planet, and product—with ambitious 2030 targets including a 42% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, zero waste to landfill across…

People in this episode

Guest: Katie Distler

Topics covered

• sustainability
• plastics manufacturing
• environmental conservation
• business strategy
• leadership

Keywords

• sustainability
• plastics
• environment
• business transformation
• greenhouse gas emissions
• recycling
• leadership

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Technimark, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Turner Family Foundation, Wellmark

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