Making Sustainability Win-Win-Win with Ann Tracy

Listen to the full episode here.

Episode 233 of Purpose 360 features Ann Tracy, Chief Sustainability Officer of Colgate-Palmolive, for a practical look at what it takes to make sustainability work at scale. Ann joins host Carol Cone to discuss the shift from ambitious commitments to implementation, how sustainability can create measurable business value, and why the most effective sustainability leaders learn to speak the language of finance, growth, and resilience. Together, they explore Colgate-Palmolive’s recyclable toothpaste tube innovation, the long-running Bright Smiles, Bright Futures initiative, and Ann’s frameworks for focusing resources and driving change across a global organization.

Turning Sustainability into Business Value

For years, corporate sustainability was defined by ambitious commitments. Now comes the harder part: delivering on them.

Few leaders understand that transition better than Ann Tracy, Chief Sustainability Officer of Colgate-Palmolive. Over more than three decades at the company, Ann has worked across engineering, manufacturing, global operations, and sustainability, giving her a rare perspective on what it actually takes to turn environmental and social ambitions into action across a complex global business.

In this conversation, Ann shares how she has helped make sustainability a transformative enabler of Colgate-Palmolive’s business strategy. She explains why sustainability leaders need to speak the language of growth, resilience, risk, and financial value; how her “win-win-win” philosophy connects consumer benefit, business success, and impact at scale; and why knowing where to lead—and where not to—is one of the most important disciplines a CSO can develop.

Along the way, Ann takes us inside Colgate-Palmolive’s effort to reinvent the toothpaste tube and the decision to share that technology with the broader industry, as well as Bright Smiles, Bright Futures, an oral health initiative that has reached more than two billion children worldwide. She also offers candid advice on working with the C-suite and finance, leading change with empathy, and staying pragmatic in a field where expectations continue to evolve.

For sustainability leaders and anyone aspiring to become one, Ann offers a compelling look at what the next era of the profession demands: less emphasis on sustainability as a standalone agenda, and more focus on making it indispensable to how the business creates value.

Listen for Insights On

• Why sustainability is shifting from ambition to implementation

• How Ann’s “win-win-win” framework connects consumers, business growth, and impact

• Why sustainability leaders must articulate clear business value

• How “swords and shields” help organizations determine where to lead

• The story behind Colgate-Palmolive’s recyclable toothpaste tube

• How Bright Smiles, Bright Futures has reached more than two billion children

• Why empathy is essential to sustainability leadership and change management

• How to communicate sustainability priorities to finance, the C-suite, and boards

• Why partnership and pragmatism are critical to driving impact at scale

• How AI could accelerate sustainability innovation and material science

Before You Listen

Q: What is the “win-win-win” framework?

A: The framework starts with creating a win for the consumer, which builds brand trust and loyalty and creates a win for the business. A healthy, growing business can then drive greater positive impact for the planet at scale. The goal is to make sustainability part of how the business succeeds rather than treating it as a separate objective.

Q: What does Ann mean by “swords and shields”?

A: “Swords” are areas where Colgate-Palmolive wants to lead and can create meaningful impact. “Shields” are actions the company needs to take because of factors such as regulations, fees, or reputational risks. The framework helps the organization focus its resources on the areas where leadership matters most.

Q: How do you make the business case for sustainability?

A: Ann’s team at Colgate-Palmolive connects sustainability initiatives to recognizable value drivers such as efficiency, savings, resilience, risk management, and avoided costs. When communicating with senior leaders and boards, her advice is to begin with the commercial opportunity or business risk and then explain how the initiative contributes to sustainability targets.

Q: Why did Colgate-Palmolive share its recyclable toothpaste tube technology?

A: Colgate-Palmolive recognized that its own recyclable tubes would have limited impact if the rest of the category did not change. By sharing technical knowledge and encouraging other producers to adopt the new format, the company could help move the broader industry toward packaging that could be recyclable in practice and at scale.

About Ann Tracy

Ann Tracy is the Chief Sustainability Officer at Colgate-Palmolive where she leads the company's enterprise-wide sustainability strategy, drawing on more than 30 years of global experience having lived and worked in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the UK. Before becoming CSO, Ann held a series of senior operating roles at Colgate-Palmolive, including VP Safety, Sustainability and Supply Chain Strategy, and VP Customer Service, Logistics and Sustainability for Europe and Hill's Pet Nutrition based in Basel. Earlier in her career, she led manufacturing for Hill's Pet Nutrition and ran quality and microbiology functions across the business. Her operational background includes accountability for the cost of goods on division P&Ls exceeding $2 billion and leading global savings programs across the enterprise. Ann serves as Board Chair of the UN Global Compact Network USA and as a member of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Steering Committee. She holds a Master's degree in Engineering from Lehigh University and a certificate in Business Sustainability Management from the University of Cambridge.