The former Managing Director of CDP Europe eyes deeper engagement with policy makers, corporate decision makers and financial markets to help accelerate sustainability and climate action across the board.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND and OAKLAND, CA — December 1st, 2022 — Global Footprint Network, home to the Ecological Footprint metric publicized on Earth Overshoot Day and a global sustainability organization, welcomes Steven Tebbe at its helm.
“The board is impressed with Steven’s achievements advancing sustainability disclosure standards from voluntary, market-based solutions to a compliance framework on environmental performance. He brings world-class corporate, nonprofit and policy experience, remarkable leadership qualities and genuine dedication to sustainability. We’re thrilled that Steven is now leading our team at Global Footprint Network as the organization looks to elevate its impact on policy making and business strategy,” said Board Chair Rosanna Marie Neil.
An expert on environmental, security, and transportation issues, Tebbe has held various senior management positions at Mercedes-Benz, Airbus, the Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary NetJets, the environmental non-profit CDP, and the EU standards setter EFRAG.
Over the past decade, Tebbe led the development of disclosure standards to enhance corporations’ transparency and responsibility for sustainable business practices, through his roles at CDP as well as Senior Advisor in the EU standard setting process.
His work contributed to the establishment of EU’s sustainability reporting standards mandated under the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive adopted this month by the European Parliament and European Council) which covers 50 000 companies across the EU and their international trading partners.
“Thanks to our transparent, peer-reviewed and evolving metrics, deeply rooted in academia and policy since the mid-1990s, Global Footprint Network holds tremendous potential for designing our path towards true ecological sustainability,” Tebbe said. “You need to measure what you manage and the Ecological Footprint accounting methodology allows humanity to do just that: this metric is essential to finding the right balance between resource depletion and regeneration. Our focus going forward is to empower people and institutions to take concrete action and track progress until we successfully push Earth Overshoot Day back to December 31st and beyond.”
“Our power lies in our ability to track ecological overshoot from global to local levels,” concurred Ecological Footprint co-creator and Global Footprint Network co-founder Mathis Wackernagel, Ph.D. “The National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts core dataset are now maintained under the stewardship of the Footprint Data Foundation (FoDaFo), whose outstanding natural and social scientists provide direction on enhancing the data and methodology of the accounts. This ensures their quality as trusted and reliable data for decision-makers around the world. I am delighted that Steven is joining us to boost our efforts to make them more empowering and actionable than ever before.”
With Master’s degrees from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Solvay Business School, Tebbe has been shaping sustainability policy and business practices as a contributor to industry journals and conferences, and through knowledge sharing at universities and think-tanks, including the prestigious Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany.
“In order to be a force for good, the business world needs reliable and clear guidance on the pathway to true sustainable impact. Global Footprint Network provides this through the Ecological Footprint,” said André Hoffmann, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors for Roche Holding Ltd., and honorary Global Footprint Network Board Chair. “I am excited about what can come from the organization’s reinvigorated efforts in the private sector under Steven’s leadership.”
Growing interest from financial markets in Global Footprint Network’s offerings suggests that the financial sector also needs better indicators to make good investment decisions. “The financial community is drowning in data and starving for insights, especially when it comes to assessing natural resource depletion and the huge opportunities that a transition to a more regenerative economy offers. Investors, and other financial markets’ participants, that work with Steven to utilize Global Footprint Network’s metrics in their decision-making process now, will be better positioned for long-term success,” said Louis de Montpellier, former Global Head of the Official Institutions Group at State Street Global Advisors and former member of the executive board of the Bank for International Settlements.
About Global Footprint Network
Global Footprint Network is an international sustainability organization that is helping the world live within the Earth’s means and respond to climate change. Since 2003 we’ve engaged with more than 60 countries, 40 cities, and 70 global partners to deliver scientific insights that have driven high-impact policy and investment decisions. Together, we’re creating a future where all of us can thrive within the limits of our one planet. www.footprintnetwork.org
Q&A with Steven Tebbe
“We’ll know we’ve succeeded when we’ve made our work obsolete,” says Global Footprint Network’s new CEO as he commented on the organization’s mission to help humanity end overshoot by design rather than disaster. Check out his perspective in this recent interview.
Media Contact
Amanda Diep (USA & RoW)
+1 (510) 839-8879 x 309
Amanda.Diep@footprintnetwork.org
Laetitia Mailhes (Europe)
+33 (0) 650 979 012
laetitia.mailhes@footprintnetwork.org