Future ancestors: Dr David Dempsey speaks to Caroline Löfgren
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What sparked David Dempsey’s passion for ESG and sustainability?
Ecopreneurs coming from the tech industry by and large and I think that they're the ones who bring technology to address some of the climate issues and some of the sustainability issues that we're facing as well.
Hello everyone and welcome to Orbit, the H D podcast. I'm here today with David Dempsey from Salesforce, who's joined us, morning, who's joined us for our annual ESG forum.
Same by Carlin. Glad to be here.
We've got Bit of time today to talk about ESD and sustainability. And obviously you've had a long career in the tech industry. So really keen to hear your view on on the topic. So let's start with um a question around yourself and your passion for ESG and sustainability. What makes you passionate about this topic?
It's an interesting question, and you know, I was thinking about it before I came here because I can't ever remember a time where I it just sort of came to me that ESG was where I wanted to focus or or sustainability. But I think gradually as I as I've gotten older, I've just come to the realization that this is such a big factor for the world. It's such an existential issue we're facing, and that you know, the reality is that it's it's within all of our powers to do something about it, and we need to do something about it. And secretly as I'm getting a little bit older, you know, I'm I'm 67 this year. Um, y you sort of begin to think about uh your first reaction say, well, it's not my problem because I'm not going to be around forever.
But then you begin to think, well, hold on, I'm a future ancestor. You know, at some stage or other I'm going to hand this over to some group in the future that I don't even know whether it'll be related to me or my uh for my family or for your family. And really uh, you know, we just have to do the best that we can at the time we're here to make sure that what we hand on is fit for purpose. So I can't say there was a particular time that made me passionate about, but just as I've grown, I I I you know, I'm getting more and more interested in this and I can see the issue that we face, but also I can see that we have the power to to change it and the power to uh to make things better.
And is there any specific obviously ESGs and sustainability is a very broad topic, right? There's a lot that goes into it. And is there any specific kind of subtopics um that you are more passionate about and you've spent more time during your career focusing on.
I I think that i it it's very interesting because it's such a big this is such a big issue and it's such it's so fundamental to us all. But And because it's such a big issue, it takes a lot of heavy lifting to solve it.
How does Dempsey define the role of a “future ancestor” in business?
And eventually that heavy lifting will be done by governments and by, you know, the sort of structure of society. Uh you know, but the reality is that there's almost uh there's eight billion people, whatever, here now, and each one of us has our own part to play in solving for this. And I think that while governments will eventually do this heavy lifting and uh, you know, we'll will do the big uh solutions at scale. I think uh they're not very agile. And we're agile. You know, I control what what I do today, you control what you do today. And I think that there's a onus on us to use our agility to solve for now or to make the changes, the small changes now, that will eventually you know add to those macro changes that we need.
So I think that while uh governments and civil society is thinking about this and you know, wondering how to get his head around this big problem, this massive problem, all of our little fixes and all of our little things that we can do, I think uh are what we should be doing now and will help to move this on. And for that reason I think that businesses are much more agile than than governments, because we control in the same way as you and I individually control what we do today. So our businesses control what we do. And we can move much faster and I think that we can influence much more than governments will. And I think that for that reason, uh, you know, I think that's the power of
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What sparked David Dempsey’s passion for ESG and sustainability?
0:00–2:31
2
How does Dempsey define the role of a “future ancestor” in business?
2:31–4:41
3
Why does Dempsey believe businesses are more agile than governments for climate action?
4:41–7:36
4
How did Salesforce’s early values lead to its focus on equality and sustainability?
7:36–10:35
5
What is the story behind Salesforce’s Net Zero Cloud and its impact on customers?
10:35–13:00
6
How does Salesforce measure and reduce its own carbon footprint?
13:00–15:17
7
What practical steps does Dempsey recommend for companies starting their ESG journey?
15:17–17:49
8
Why does Dempsey say aligning business with core values is essential for lasting sustainability?
17:49–20:55
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