Gretchen McCarthy Tells Students: Sustainability Is Part of Target’s Core Strategy

Target has committed through its Target Forward sustainability strategy to be a net zero enterprise by 2040, inclusive of its operations and supply chain.

Gretchen McCarthy ’01, chief supply chain and logistics officer at Target, told students at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management that the company has recently intensified its focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“Target has been pursuing work in the sustainability and the equity space for some time, but it’s really been these last three years that we’ve doubled down on developing Target’s core strategy,” McCarthy said in a talk at Warren Hall on November 18.

One of Target’s most successful strategies to reduce greenhouse gases is an initiative to optimize the use of the trailers transporting products to its stores, which has cut 20 million miles from its fleet. In its sortation centers, Target is also aggregating products for delivery, so that a single package, rather than multiple boxes, arrives on consumers’ doorsteps.

In addition, Target has transformed a distribution center in Hawaii to divert 90 percent of the waste generated at the facility from landfills. The retailer has also launched a program to recycle baby care equipment such as car seats and high chairs in a partnership with Rebelstork, a company that resells open-box and overstock baby gear from large retailers online.

“Our strategic plan is a multi-year strategy,” said McCarthy, who works in Target’s Minneapolis headquarters. “Sustainability is a critical enabler of our strategy.”

Closing a new speaker series at Dyson

McCarthy, who is a graduate of the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration, was the final speaker to visit the Dyson School this fall as part of the Thoreau Planetary Solutions Initiative, a new program aimed at supporting students who want to pursue careers in the sustainable business sector.

Funded with a $40,000 grant from the Henry David Thoreau Foundation, the initiative brought 10 mid-career professionals whose work intersects with sustainability in the corporate, nonprofit and government sectors to give talks on campus. Target was the largest corporation included in the lecture series, which began in September.

“I thought Target would just be the perfect example for our students of embodying the Dyson ethos of ‘Our business is a better world,’ and showing students how you can integrate environmentally minded goals within the framework of a $100 billion company,” said Trent Preszler, a professor of practice at the Dyson School who developed the initiative and applied for the foundation grant.

Another reason Preszler invited McCarthy to speak to the 245 students in the introductory course, AEM1101: Design Your Dyson, was to show them that the field of supply chain management can affect climate change. “We’re trying to expand their notion of what possibilities exist for a career in business that somehow intersects with or improves our environmental conditions,” he said.

Besides the lecture series, the Thoreau Planetary Solutions Initiative includes a pitch competition for student teams to give presentations on why businesses should work on solving any of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. The competition will be held the last week of the fall semester.

The initiative will also award $5,000 grants to three Dyson School freshmen or sophomores who plan to find a summer internship in the green workforce next summer.

Developing a sustainability strategy at Target

McCarthy, who leads a workforce of 40,000 employees, told the students that Target’s global supply chain team can have a direct impact on reducing the company’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“In my space — in supply chain — oftentimes what is good for planet is also going to be good for business,” she said. “Less miles is lower transportation expense and it’s good for the planet. Fewer packages is less packaging expense and it’s good for the planet. And it’s also an amazing guest experience.”

Target has announced that 100 percent of its brand products will be designed for a “circular future” by 2040, according to the company’s Target Forward sustainability strategy. That means Target will use materials that are regenerative, recycled, or sourced sustainably, which will result in products that are “more durable, easily repaired, or recyclable.”

Chiara Mijares, a sophomore in the Dyson School, said she remembers how Target became her favorite store when she first visited the United States as a child from the Philippines. After listening to McCarthy’s talk, she said she was impressed that a corporation like Target had a comprehensive plan to reduce its impact on climate change.

“Usually profit margins and commitments to sustainability are conflicting objectives,” Mijares said. “I found it really interesting that being sustainable and focused on climate change is good for business, so I guess you have a win-win situation as sustainability efforts attract more consumers and sustainable products are getting more and more in demand.”

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