Leading Climate Action with Tara Helms of Electrolux

May 2, 2024

Play/Pause Download

Tara Helms oversees sustainable strategy implementation at Electrolux. Tara is at the forefront of the company’s purpose to shape living for the better by reinventing taste, care, and wellbeing experiences, for more enjoyable and sustainable living. Her mission is to shape the company’s strategies and goals on sustainability and operationalize them across the business and North American region.

John Shegerian: Get the latest Impact Podcast right into your inbox each week. Subscribe by entering your email address at impactpodcast.com to make sure you never miss an interview. This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet, and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company in the United States and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit ERIdirect.com. This episode of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by Closed Loop Partners. Closed Loop Partners is a leading circular economy investor in the United States with an extensive network of Fortune 500 corporate investors, family offices, institutional investors, industry experts, and impact partners. Close Loops platform spans the arc of capital from venture capital to private equity, bridging gaps and fostering synergies to scale the circular economy. To find Close Loop Partners, please go to www.closedlooppartners.com.

John: Welcome to another edition of the Impact Podcast. I’m John Shegerian, and I’m so excited to have with us today, Tara Helms. She’s the head of sustainability, North America, for the Electrolux Group. Welcome to the Impact Podcast, Tara.

Tara Helms: Thank you. Thank you. I’m very honored. Thanks for having me.

John: Well, thanks for being here today. It’s your first time on Impact. It’s Electrolux’s first time. So this is a special edition for us to have you guys on. Before we get talking about all the impactful and important work you’re doing in sustainability at Electrolux, can you please share with our audience a little bit about your background? Where’d you grow up, Tara? And how’d you get on this wonderful and important journey that you’re on?

Tara: Sure. So I’m actually, I’m a Midwestern girl. I’m from Cleveland, Ohio, the suburbs around the area. And I can actually remember very distinctively walking down my elementary hallway in second grade and overnight the teachers had put up a full display of artwork and you were essentially walking through an ocean and there were whales on the ceiling and there were jungle vines hanging down and it was during Earth Week and it was meant to invoke, The sense of nature and your surroundings and it really struck me. And then the second part of that week, we actually went to something called the Wailing Wall and it’s a 300-foot mural that’s actually painted on a Cleveland public power plant right on Lake Erie.

It’s right on the edge of the lake. And so you drive the bus up and you look at this wailing wall. It says huge mural of whales flowing through the ocean. And again, it was like this evoking sense for you to say, like, I’m really called to nature. So I remember from a very young age being drawn in that direction. But if I specifically look at my career, I majored in supply chain management and marketing. I went to business school at Syracuse University. And then I went into supply chain management, did all really technical things, supply planning, demand planning, logistics, analytics, all of that world.

But I was working for a company, a Swiss company called Landis and Gear, and they were making smart meters on the grid for North America. So used by utilities to read your energy usage two ways. So you could actually have real-time energy demand to help decarbonize. And make the grid smart, right? So it’s part of the smart grid infrastructure. Went down that chain for a long time, jumped industries into consumer product goods, did supply chain there, did an SAP implementation. And eventually I find myself being recruited by IT recruiters. And I thought, wow, maybe I went too far down the technical route. And I knew I wanted to go back to school.

But instead of getting another business degree, I thought, how lovely would it be to sort of get back to work where I started my career with this approach of doing something better, with a sense of purpose. So I went back and got my master’s degree in sustainability management from Columbia, took a year and a half off, went full time, totally re-diverted my career and came back out on this path of sustainability leadership. And so I’m really glad I did that. And now here I am 10 years later in the role, right? With Electro Deluxe helping to lead us down that path of sustainability as well.

John: That’s wonderful. Plus you also have the benefit of all your background experience in supply chain. And supply chain and sustainability actually can go very well together.

Tara: They really do. There’s a significant number of parallels that can be drawn.

John: When did you join Electrolux?

Tara: So I’ve been here for three and a half years, so in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic.

John: Wow. And you joined right in sustainability or did you have another role first until you took over this role?

Tara: No, I came right into the role. It was actually a newly created role here for the regional approach to making sure that the regional stakeholders are incorporated and embedded into sustainability within the group.

John: So before we get talking about what your role entails, give our audience a little bit of a thumbnail sketch of Electrolux. how big is Electrolux, how long have they been around, how many employees, so we can understand what mountain you have to climb coming in as the first head of sustainability in North America.

Tara: Yeah, absolutely. Electrolux Group is actually a quite historical and quite large company. We’re founded in Europe. We’re a Swedish company, a lot of recognition and history there. We have a couple of major brands that we sell worldwide, which are AEG, Electrolux, and Frigidaire. Frigidaire is what most people here in the U.S. and Canada most commonly know us by as Frigidaire. We have a lot of great brands under our umbrella, and we are a major appliances manufacturer.

So we’re talking about refrigerators, freezers, washer, dryers, dishwashers. sort of the whole gamut. We even go into air care, air conditioning, dehumidifiers, vacuum cleaners. So we run the whole gamut and it’s a very interesting space because we’re making long-term durable products for consumers in their homes.

John: Where’s your headquarters in North America?

Tara: So our headquarters here in Charlotte, North Carolina.

John: So that’s fascinating. So now, you come in and you have the proverbial white paper in front of you, a clean slate. You’re starting from scratch. Obviously, that can be very exciting, but very daunting at the same time. How do you decide what really is going to be your mission? Because as you and I know, sustainability now encompasses the shift from a linear to circular economy, ESG, carbon neutrality, all sorts of things now that didn’t really weren’t even talked about 20 years ago, 15 years ago, maybe even 10 years ago. So now you have the blank slate three and a half years ago. How do you attack that?

Tara: Absolutely. That’s a great question. I think it comes from, first, good roots, right? So, coming into Electrolux Group that was well-founded, had certain sustainability ambitions already delivered and or approaching. And that coming from a company that has already started the foundation work of integrating it into the business and into the culture, making sure those decisions are at the forefront of management is really important. So that was also important to me in joining Electrolux Group.

But then it’s really just sort of cascading. So where are we in relation to the rest of the world and our implementation of those goals? How are we going to get there and what’s it going to take? And so it’s really sort of delving into, you said all of those topics one by one and outlining sort of the status quo that as is where we are. and then formulating that plan to say, how do we get from point A to point B to meet that commitment? What’s it going to take?

John: That makes sense. What did you use as benchmarks? Did you use competitors in your space, other appliance manufacturers, or did you look to other outside of your industry for inspiration and for benchmarking?

Tara: Both, absolutely both. So within the appliance space, it’s an interesting world because we’re talking about durables, but we’re also talking about consumer products. And so oftentimes durables are sort of in a different bucket. But obviously my background in the CPG space, I was with cosmetics for a very long time, much more fast paced and quick, life cycles are shorter. So definitely a lot of benchmarking there, but I have a good network of sustainability practitioners that I’m familiar with. And I lean upon that network to help with questions and benchmarking and answers. So it’s a very useful space and a very collaborative space to be in.

John: What are some of the more important goals that you and your team have set out now that you’re excited about that you’re moving and making progress in?

Tara: Absolutely. So I think the one that I celebrate the most is science-based targets. And science-based targets was our approach, even back in 2018, when we were the first 100 companies to sign on to science-based targets and get it approved, we had originally set targets for 2025. And now here in 2022, we’ve actually already achieved them three years early. So we’ve actually now just set our new science-based target, our science-based target number two.

And this one, of course, is more ambitious and has upped the ante, has reset the baseline, and has now put more aggressive targets for us out into 2030. And so for me, that’s not only were we doing it right already to begin with, but to come in and then help us succeed and then re-up the ambition and then go further, push the organization further is really, really something to celebrate and be extremely proud of.

John: Do you produce an annual impact or sustainability report that gets published?

Tara: Absolutely. Yes. And we’ve been doing this for quite some time. We actually have a whole series of multiple decades of impact reports to call from even the 90s.

John: And people can find them on your website.

Tara: Yes.

John: So it’s for our listeners and viewers to find Tara and her colleagues. And more importantly, right now, their sustainability report, they can go to www.electroluxgroup.com. That will be also in the show notes. Talk a little bit about consumers’ interrelationships with white goods, appliances. I could have a wonderful product that you create for my kitchen or let’s just say a washer or dryer, and I could be using it really in an incorrect way, such as washing one pair of sweats, washing three glasses in the dishwasher, or some other dumb type of usage. How does a group like Electrolux and your sustainability wisdom and group help push us to use appliances and white goods the right way instead of really the wrong way, which I just outlined?

Tara: Yeah, gosh, I love this space. This is the playful space, where we get to have some fun and engage with consumers to say, what is the right way, and how do we encourage you to do it? But our role as a company, of course, is to make sure that we’re providing you with something that has the best performance and the best efficiency. So doing our part to make sure that we’re giving you the best energy efficiency appliances that are going to help you decarbonize, whether you know it or not, or whether you were asking for it or not, let’s bring to the market the best that we can offer. But then within that context, there’s so many options and opportunities for consumers. And let’s take your example. of the washer, I think this one for me is particularly interesting. We have actually a new washer series coming out later this year. It’s called our 7 Series.

It’s our front-load washer, and it does a couple of unique things. One, it changes the normal setting of washing temperature to cold. So there’s been a lot of campaigns, Procter Gamble with Tide and the turn to cold encouraging consumers to do that simple adjustment of going from either warm or hot to cold, which has an astronomical impact in terms of energy savings, because you don’t have to heat the water. And then you combine it with functionality in the machine. So we have best performance for stain removal, for cleaning. So we’re taking care of your clothes, even in cold. And I think that’s the number one thing you can do is encourage that simple behavior and then to take it even a step further, what we’ve done is we’ve even reordered, let’s say, the temperature settings.

Instead of going from hot down to cold, we put cold at the top. When you look at it, it’s the first one, that’s the default, and then you have to maneuver off of it. Then last example I’ll give there is we’ve created a UI, a user interface with leaves that display and leaves that grow. For instance, if you pick the most efficient cycle, let’s say a normal cycle on cold, with the heavy spin, which will essentially take the moisture out of the clothes before you put it into the dryer, which is what you need to get it dry in the most efficient way, it’ll give you three leaves. But if you put it on that sanitized setting, which is the hottest temperature that you can select, it’s going to give you no leaf. And so it helps to encourage your behavior by indicating to you how efficient and how friendly you’re being, with those choices that you’re making on cycle selection.

John: so this is about me now what I learned as a little kid when I was doing my wash, and now that I’ve done for a lifetime we could get our clothes as clean in the cold wash as in a hot wash or a warm wash.

Tara: Yes you can and I’m a user so I have one of these machines at home it’s not even it’s not even the newest one right which is launching that has even better capabilities but I wash on cold and I have three little kids that are under five and they make a lot of mess So I can stand by it.

John: And like you said, best to use a heavy spin so that way the dryer gets used less because the clothes are much less wet.

Tara: Exactly.

John: Wow. That’s fascinating. What other appliances and what other fascinating ways are you nudging us and the consumers, general consumers, in the right direction?

Tara: Absolutely. I mean, it can be as simple as produce in the refrigerator. So what we’ve done is we’ve developed technology called our crisp feel technology. And it actually is proven now to extend the life of your produce. So think vegetables and fruit in your drawer, and it takes what we call ethylene out of the chamber. So these ethylene absorbers are the ones that actually cause your fruit to produce quicker. And they’re the ones that are actually causing it to go bad in a faster sense. But if you remove the ethylene gas, you’re preserving that food for longer.

And we can actually say that it can extend the life of your produce, your fresh veggies, by up to two weeks. So what we know for consumers in the homes is it’s a real burden when you come home with a whole load of groceries. You put them into your refrigerator and then you have to throw it out. Everybody hates throwing out food that hasn’t been used. It’s the waste factor. So if we can eliminate that pain point in the home, help you with your wallet. Right. So save the food for longer and, of course, help with sustainability. We want you to consume the food you’re buying. Of course, that’s that’s the whole point. I think we have wins all the way around.

John: I love it. Hey, for our listeners and viewers who’ve just joined us, we’ve got Tara Helms with us here today. She’s the head of sustainability of North America for the Electrolux Group. To find Tara and her colleagues and all the important and great work they’re doing in sustainability, please go to www.electroluxgroup.com. Tara, with any new job we all walk in with expectations. And as time goes on, and now you have three and a half years underneath your belt. Some of our expectations are sustained. Some of them we lose along the way. What surprises came up to you during your last three and a half years at Electrolux Group, which also coincide with, for me, maybe the most breathtaking time and sustainability in terms of level of change, commitment to change, not only here in North America, but around the world. So it seems as though your timing was perfect to become the lead of sustainability at a very large and legacy brand like Electrolux Group, but also the world was changing perfectly, almost in sync, and really the wind at your back. So talk a little bit about what you expected, what happened and where are you now in this journey.

Tara: Absolutely. Sustainability, because it’s an ever-changing space.

Subscribe For The Latest Impact Updates

Subscribe to get the latest Impact episodes delivered right to your inbox each week!
Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you or share your information. You can unsubscribe at any time.

John: Yeah.

Tara: Got to be on top of the headwinds. Stay ahead of the headwinds is what I like to say. And I also like to say, you have to create your own future. So in order to create the path forward, you’ve got to be aware of your surroundings and what you’re going into. And what we know is you’re right, that the pace of it all has expanded as such an enormous way that it’s hard to grasp it all, but it’s so necessary and required. So, although I did expect the regulatory side to catch up at some point, the amount of detail and complexity that is bringing to an organization, a large organization with manufacturing is really, really tough to grapple with, but we do have to use our networks. We have what we, our approach here is a network of sustainability practitioners within the group that are sort of spread out between all functional areas.

And we need that support in every way so that you have someone specialized in certain areas like life cycle analysis, you have others specialized in what it’s going to take to decarbonize in operation specifically within our facilities footprint. And so we have this network of professionals that are all working towards the same sort of with an overarching view to say, okay, what’s material? What do we need to address with the great stakeholders and why? And so that the regulatory side is just going to become the way of business. It’s just a new way of operating. So what can we provide ahead of that? Luckily, we’ve been so ahead. of so many of these things that we’ve really positioned ourselves to not only be compliant but to use these things to help encourage what we’re talking about.

The most important thing, is consumer behavior, use in the home. That’s where 85% of the impact of appliances come is use in the home over the 10-year lifespan of the product. So that’s the most important side is like, how do we emerge on this side to touch the consumer and the way they’re operating with the goods versus staying compliant or. simply just navigating the regulatory framework.

John: Makes a lot of sense. The regulatory framework, from what I’ve learned over the years, and because I get to do this show and interview all sorts of cool people like you that are doing this important work, is a little bit of a Patrick Quilt. It really becomes challenging for someone like you who’s managing this legacy, amazing brand here in North America. But the rules are different in the U.S. compared to what we’re told they’re going to be in the U.S. and around the world, they’re just different. They’re not harmonized. Is that eventually going to shake out? Do you feel when you talk to your colleagues and counterparts around the world that that’s going to get some form of harmonization in the years to come?

Tara: I really hope so. I think that’s all honestly what we want. None of us want something different to have to comply to and different even down to the state level or the municipal level here locally. But I do feel like there’s being certain levels of consistency that we endorse. And so, for instance, because we are a large European-based group organization, of course, CSRD is paramount for us and addressing CSRD, but it cascades down here to the U.S. in so many ways with SEC in California and the other frameworks that are being driven up.

And so the hope there is, is that we put enough effort into the ones that are the most robust, that are the most resource-intensive, that we can capitalize on that and make sure it drives what we need at a local level as well. But you’re right. It’s all going to come to an end. And so what we can do as a community, as sustainability professionals, is sort of endorse, that alignment, that harmonization of what is needed to sort of make us all operate on the same playing field.

John: Tara, you know, every leader knows that as we drive to work or walk to work or just go to our desk every day if it’s in our house, we have to deal with a whole myriad of issues on a regular basis, some fires that are burning, some winds that we’re getting. But at some point leaders say to themselves, everything’s going to be okay, but I can’t forget this one thing. This one thing is the most important thing that I make sure that we get done on an annual basis, that we achieve this. What’s the most important thing when it comes to being the head of sustainability in North America for a large and very important group like the Electrolux Group? What is your most important thing now in terms of your journey in sustainability and as a leader in this sector? what is your most important thing at Electrolux Group to always keep getting done?

Tara: Yeah, that’s great and a wonderful question. And I have to go back to this use phase. And it’s tied back to data. And so oftentimes a lot of what we’re trying to do is bring something that was invisible to the forefront. So how do you quantify that and make sure that every employee knows that they can contribute? to a more positive impact by the products that we’re choosing to develop, that we’re taking to market, that are used in the home. And so it’s bringing to surface that types of data and then creating those relevant metrics. And of course, it’s an old message, but what gets measured gets done.

And so then of course, we have other frameworks that we use as tools, like a green bond financing framework, which we would then use to help finance some of our endeavors needed in order to be successful on those KPIs that we measure. And so it’s how do you instill that? And that’s a full-on culture shift. And so we have to incentivize those. We have to make sure we understand those. They have to have visibility to those. And we, of course, have to have it visible and present within the organization.

John: How much and how often do you convene with your counterparts at Electrolux around the world and the people who are running sustainability in different parts of the EU and around the world? How often do you share best practices and brainstorm together?

Tara: A lot. And that’s the most of the beauty of working for a global organization though, is that at any given day, I’m doing almost, I wouldn’t say 50, 50 here with my U S colleagues and then with my colleagues anywhere else in the world, right. Whether it be my counterparts or like I said, these subject matter experts that are instilled at all different parts of the company. There’s some in Italy and there’s some in Latin America and there’s some, honestly, they’re all over the place.

It doesn’t really matter where you’re housed, but we need to draw upon this combined intellect base in order to get to where we need to go. So it’s not an easy path forward and it certainly it takes a lot of steps to get to the final answer. But it’s what would the world be if it wasn’t complex and challenging right so you have to you have to be able to sort of form all of these opinions and manage the expectations of everyone and then bring it together. So that we’re all successful and that’s what I love about Electrolux.

John: So you’re all you guys are always sharing best practices from wherever you sit not only counterparts but even everybody within the company is, is you’ve created a culture of sharing best practices.

Tara: Absolutely. It’s very necessary.

John: Talk about what I think, and I get to say this because I get to interview all you wonderful people that are doing this very important, impactful work, heads of sustainability, heads of impact, heads of ESG, and the combination thereof of titles. Now I think it’s one of the neatest and coolest fraternities in the world. Talk about that fraternity. How often do you lean on the fraternity of sustainability leads at corporations and industries that have nothing to do with Electrolux, but they still tons to be learned from those colleagues. Do you agree with me It’s one of the coolest fraternities in the world?

Tara: And the thing is like, there’s certain events and spaces that I’ll carve out every year just to ensure that we get to meet with these individuals. Because to that point, no single person has all the answers. We really do need to leverage best practices coming from other industries. It’s always a learning experience. This continuous improvement and learning journey is part of sustainability. So we sort of all need to be there together. Honestly, I think there’s always an aha moment coming out of these sustainability networks or conferences where you really think about something and then you have time to digest and come out.

You’re like, you can usually pull out two or three things that really stick with you that you can take back because you learn so much. It’s hard to gather around it. But at the same moment, it’s about that shared experience and then the usefulness. What can I do here to mirror it? a similar success or how can I change it or adapt it to make sure it’s meaningful here? And it can really be an aha moment to set a project or a program or something in forward in motion that you previously weren’t considering.

John: That’s fascinating. All this talk about carbon neutrality and things of that such, where is Electrolux on that journey? Is that a 2030 goal, or a 2040 goal? Has that already been accomplished? Where are you on that carbon neutrality issue?

Tara: So going back to science-based targets, our original target was set for 2025. Now we have it set for 2030, which would bring us down to net zero for scope one and scope two missions and operations. What we know is based upon all of our existing work, if we went back to our original baseline, we would already be considered 97% decarbonized by 2030. So we have a little bit to go, and that’s the really hard part. The stuff that we’ve been addressing consistently over and over again. Every year we have plans and roadmaps in place to get us to where we need to go.

That last 3% is the really difficult part, but we already have the full outline of what needs to happen, why, when, where, and when we need to pull the trigger on it to make it happen. So I think having that level of detail, preparedness, and planning for a climate target is incredible. It’s just incredible to see it outlined on a sheet of paper to say. We already know where we have to go and this is how we’re going to get there. And I can’t say that about a lot of organizations that they have that level of granularity already identified with roadmaps in place to get there to that percentage point.

John: Tara, you have three little kids. You’re relatively a young mom and you have a very important position. If we turn on the news every day, it’s so net negative on a regular basis. There’s really very little positivity that comes out of any. what is called mainstream news anymore. How do you remain hopeful in a world full of ongoing chatter, both social and classic media? And what makes you hopeful? Because there’s no way you could do your job as effectively as you’re doing it without being a hopeful human being and also being a mom to three children who you want to leave a better world and a better place to. So explain, where do you find hope today and who inspires you and what inspires you?

Tara: Yeah my little kids, obviously, they’re so little that they don’t really know and can’t see the context of what’s happening around them. But they do take cues. And, it’s very interesting because we actually we just recently took a trip to the zoo and at the zoo. And this is in Columbia, South Carolina. Every animal exhibit has a sign that talks about something that is impacting the world and what you can do at home to eliminate it. And my husband is laughing, but we’re going around side by side and my kids can’t read yet. They’re in kindergarten. And so they’re saying, mommy, what’s this say? And we’re reading them. And of course, and it gives you an example of what you could be doing at home to mirror it.

And then at the very end, I read the last one and I was like. can you guys believe it that we’re doing every single one of these signs at home already? And they were like, “No, we didn’t know this. We’re going to do this.” And my husband’s like,” well, I know.” And yes, I believe it. So it’s just funny because they don’t realize that even in their daily home, but they just know it to be true. And that’s what I can only hope is that the next generation sort of sets with a different precedent and that you’re composting at home and they’re taking steps to reduce waste and hopefully look at the world in a different way because we have the ability to set that up for them.

And so it becomes just their second nature rather than something that we have to influence. That influence parameter and the complexity and partisan, that’s the hard part. But if we start from a new baseline, I feel like we have the ability to really scale and scope what those future generations can bring to the table.

John: Great point. And I think you’re absolutely right. I think you got it right because, I’m in my 60s now, and that was never taught. That was never part of our generation. And probably not a lot of your generation either, actually, frankly speaking. But for your kids, they’re starting. They’re a fresh canvas. And it’s great. Good on you, Mom. That’s great news. Go back to Electrolux. You’ve been there three and a half years, what gets you out of bed in the morning now? What projects and initiatives are the most exciting that really gets you jazzed right now about what’s coming in 24, 25, 26? Let’s just take the next three years.

Tara: Next three years, obviously the space and circularity is super exciting. And again, we have teams here, especially through our R&D teams that are working every day to increase our use of recycled content in our products. We are looking at that more and more and more. And the more we get ingrained with this way of working, the more you see the people in the business spurring their own ideas and bringing them forward. And so that part is exciting for me because there’s so much open space there. There’s so much that we can do there. And there’s just so much value opportunity on the table to bring into play. So that is the new horizon. The circularity space.

John: Let’s take a break there and go into that. So 20 years ago, Tara, there was no design for sustainability leadership, right? And OEMs, OEMs didn’t have design. Now that’s part of it. So do you have quiet goals inside that you’re starting to make in terms of how much you’re going to make your new equipment in 2030 or 2027 out of recycled materials and things like that?

Tara: Exactly. Yes, we’re looking at it at multiple angles. So of course, we’re looking at plastics. As most companies are. And that’s been our primary focus to date to say, how do we increase the recycled content in the plastics that we use? But as a white goods company, we also use a lot of steel. So they’re heavy products made of a lot of steel. And what we know now, is that our approach is really to help decarbonize the steel base that we source from. Instead of just saying we need to increase the recycled content, we actually need to help encourage the steel base to decarbonize themselves.

So the process of the steel, and of course, the different types of steel that you can source. And one obviously has more recycled content than the other. And so by making selective decisions, and again, by bringing that data forward. It’s that data point, how to make sure that that becomes visible to the business who’s making the decisions about where to buy the steel. So how can we do that to reduce the carbon footprint overall of what we’re sourcing in? Every year, we’re trying to incrementally expand the scope of what we’ve been doing, what we’re looking at. Of course, that goes hand in hand with LCAs and footprinting.

So expanding the scope of that and getting more and more products per region under the spotlight so that we can see the differences and the influences, of course, on each grid and how that decarbonization schedule impacts what we’re doing. Because as users of energy, that grid decarbonization is a powerful external force on our efficiency and how our goods operate in the homes. So it’s all part of a whole system, right? Which is that systems-making concept.

John: So shifting from a linear to circular economy is something that gets you really excited at this point.

Tara: Absolutely, yes.

John: Listen, I’ll let you have the final word. Any last thoughts you want to have before we sign off for today?

Tara: I think it’s just, it’s for me, it’s to your point earlier, it’s promising and hopeful, to see how far we’ve come really honestly, even within a three-and-a-half period here at Electrolux, but how far electricity could come holistically over decades. Again, going back to groundwork, like the hard details have already been set in motion. And as long as leadership is at the table to have the appropriate discussions, it’s beneficial to everyone, not only our business but everybody that owns our products. Of course, we want to ensure that you have the best experience possible with an appliance in your home.

And so it comes full circle. And then we want to be there top of mind when it is time to replace and or repair your appliance and bring it back into their circle. So I think for us approaching that consumer is super key and it’s going to be the driver in the end for us being able to crack the code on some of these sustainability practices that we can’t just do as a company, but we need the help of the rest of the population to get to, but yeah, it’s super excited and super good space.

John: And the message for the day is we all have to wash our clothes in cold water now.

Tara: Wash in cold. Yes.

John: And spin them and spin them.

Tara: Yes.

John: I love them. I love them. Tara, listen, you’re amazing, and I’m so thankful you came on today. You’re always welcome back on the Impact Podcast because as you and I know, sustainability is a journey. There’s no finish line. For our listeners and viewers to find Tara and all of her colleagues and all the important work they’re doing in sustainability at Electrolux, please go to www.electroluxgroup.com. Tara Helms, thanks for all the great work you’re doing. Thanks for the time you spent with us today. And thank you, most importantly, for making the world a better place.

Tara: Of course thank you, John.

John: This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by Engage. Engage is a digital booking platform revolutionizing the Talent booking industry. With thousands of athletes, celebrities, entrepreneurs and business leaders. Engage is the go-to-spot for booking talent, for speeches, custom experiences, livestreams and much more. For more information on Engage or to book talent today, visit letsengage.com. This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet, and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company in the United States, and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit ERIdirect.com.