Jackson: Here’s a wild statistic for you. A single large container ship, one of thousands crossing the ocean right now, can emit as much cancer-causing fine dust as two and a half million cars. Olivia: Wow. That’s an astonishing number. It really puts the scale of global trade into perspective. Jackson: Exactly. And yet, the CEOs of these massive shipping companies are now making multi-billion dollar bets on green fuels and technologies that, in some cases, don't even fully exist yet. What on earth is going on? Olivia: That is the exact high-stakes, high-courage world that Clarke Murphy dives into in his book, Sustainable Leadership: Lessons of Vision, Courage, and Grit from the CEOs Who Dared to Build a Better World. And what's so interesting is that this topic is deeply personal for him. His own passion for sustainability was sparked by a near-death experience at sea, when his boat almost collided with a lost shipping container. He said that moment changed everything for him. Jackson: A literal wake-up call. Olivia: A literal, terrifying wake-up call. And it perfectly illustrates one of the first big ideas in the book: that true, game-changing sustainable leadership often begins not with a five-year plan, but with a profound crisis.

Jackson: Okay, I’m intrigued by this idea of a 'crisis' being the starting point. It sounds dramatic, but is it really a pattern? Or just a good story? Olivia: It’s a definite pattern Murphy identifies. He calls it the 'awakening.' It’s this moment where a leader’s perspective is fundamentally altered, often by a jarring event. The most powerful example in the book is Lynn Good, the CEO of Duke Energy. Just six months into her job as CEO of the largest utility in the United States, a disaster struck. Jackson: What happened? Olivia: A stormwater pipe under a coal ash pond burst, leaking nearly 40,000 tons of toxic sludge and 27 million gallons of contaminated wastewater into the Dan River in North Carolina. It was a massive environmental catastrophe. The ash contained arsenic, lead, all sorts of poisons, and it traveled 70 miles downstream. Jackson: Oh, that’s a CEO’s worst nightmare. The fallout must have been immense. Olivia: Absolutely. And her advisors told her, 'Stay away. Let the lawyers and the PR teams handle it.' But she did the opposite. She flew directly to the site. And when she got there, she found the man in charge of that division, a veteran employee, just utterly devastated. He looked at her with tears in his eyes and said, "We will fix this; I promise." Jackson: Wow. That’s a heavy moment. Olivia: It was. And for Lynn Good, seeing that raw human emotion, that sense of personal responsibility and failure from her team, was her awakening. She realized this wasn't just a technical problem or a PR problem. It was a deep, cultural, and moral one. It was the moment that galvanized Duke Energy's shift. They didn't just clean up the spill; they began an aggressive, company-wide transition away from fossil fuels. Jackson: That's a powerful story. But let me push back a little, because I think a skeptic would listen to that and say, 'Of course they did!' A massive environmental disaster happens on your watch, you have to clean it up and promise to do better. How do we distinguish a genuine 'awakening' from what could just be the world's most expensive and necessary PR campaign? Olivia: That’s a fair and crucial question. The proof, according to Murphy, is in the long-term, strategic follow-through. It wasn't just about fixing the one broken pipe. Duke Energy went on to retire 56 coal-fired units, invest billions in renewables, and fundamentally change their business model. Lynn Good herself said, "Our climate strategy and business strategy are exactly the same." It became part of their DNA. The awakening wasn't the cleanup; it was the realization that their old way of doing business was no longer viable, ethically or financially. Jackson: So the awakening is the moment the problem shifts from being an external issue to an internal identity crisis. Olivia: Precisely. And it’s interesting, some readers have critiqued Murphy’s framework for categorizing leaders as 'born believers,' 'convinced,' or 'awoken,' finding it a bit too simplistic. But I think the 'awoken' category is the most compelling because it shows that leadership isn't a static trait. It can be forged in the fire of a real-world crisis. It’s not about being a perfect environmentalist from day one; it’s about having the humility to change course dramatically when you realize you’re on the wrong path. Jackson: That makes sense. It’s less about innate goodness and more about the capacity for profound change when faced with undeniable facts. Olivia: Exactly. And that capacity for change, that conviction born from a crisis, is what fuels the next, even more audacious step these leaders take.

Olivia: Because once a leader is truly 'awakened,' they don't just make incremental improvements. Murphy shows they often make what he calls a 'moonshot' commitment. This is where they make these huge, public promises to solve an enormous problem before they actually have a clear, step-by-step plan to get there. Jackson: Hold on, this sounds like a Silicon Valley startup mentality, but for a 100-year-old industrial giant. It's like saying you'll build a spaceship to Mars before you've even invented the engine. How is that not just incredibly reckless? Olivia: It seems reckless, but it’s a calculated risk based on a different kind of logic. The book tells the story of Søren Skou, the CEO of the shipping giant Maersk. In 2021, he announced a $2 billion investment in 12 massive, clean-energy container ships. The catch? The green methanol fuel they were designed to run on wasn't available at scale anywhere in the world. Jackson: So he ordered a fleet of ships with no gas stations to fuel them? That’s either visionary or insane. Olivia: It’s both! And that’s the point. By making such a massive, public, and financially binding commitment, Maersk created what’s called a 'forcing function.' They sent a signal to the entire global market: 'We are building these ships. Someone, somewhere, needs to figure out how to make the fuel for them, because there is now a guaranteed multi-billion dollar customer waiting.' And it worked. It spurred investment and innovation in green fuel production. Jackson: That is fascinating. It’s like the corporate version of John F. Kennedy saying we'll go to the moon. He didn't have all the technology, but the public declaration forced the innovation to happen. Olivia: That's the perfect analogy. It’s about creating a gravitational pull for the future you want to see. Another great example is Yara International, a fertilizer company. They built the Yara Birkeland, the world's first fully autonomous, all-electric cargo ship. It was a huge risk. But their CEO, Svein Tore Holsether, had this incredible quote. He said, "I'd rather be fired for taking too much of a risk and making a mistake than not acting soon enough." Jackson: That one line completely flips the traditional corporate risk assessment on its head. The risk of inaction becomes greater than the risk of failure. Olivia: Exactly. The moonshot mindset redefines risk. In a world facing climate catastrophe, the biggest risk is maintaining the status quo. These leaders understand that. They are willing to look foolish or fail in the short term to avoid being obsolete or, worse, culpable in the long term. They have faith that the solutions will emerge if the demand is made loud and clear. Jackson: It's a huge bet on human ingenuity. But it also feels like there's a missing piece. One company, even a giant like Maersk, can't create a global green fuel supply chain all by itself. An autonomous ship can't operate without new laws and port infrastructure. Olivia: You've hit on the third and perhaps most crucial piece of the puzzle. You can have an awakened leader with a moonshot goal, but you can't achieve it alone. You need an ecosystem.

Jackson: 'Ecosystem.' That word gets thrown around a lot in business. What does it actually mean in this context? Olivia: In this context, it means that solving these massive, global problems requires a leader to become an 'enabler-in-chief.' They have to orchestrate a complex network of partners, many of whom have conflicting interests. We're talking about governments, NGOs, academic institutions, suppliers, customers, and even direct competitors. Jackson: Okay, collaborating with competitors sounds great in a keynote speech, but how does that actually work in the real world? Aren't they just trying to steal your trade secrets or get a competitive edge? Olivia: It's incredibly difficult, which is why it requires such skillful leadership. The book highlights the collaboration between Maersk, Ørsted, and Yara—three Scandinavian giants, all working together to create green fuel infrastructure. They realized that the problem of decarbonizing shipping was too big for any one of them. They had to pool their resources and expertise. As one CEO put it, "We are not losing our competitive edge. Because if we don't work together... we can't make progress." Olivia: But the most powerful example of ecosystem leadership in the book is the COVAX initiative, the global effort to deliver COVID-19 vaccines. It was led by a woman named Aurélia Nguyen. Her task was almost impossibly complex: procure and deliver billions of vaccine doses to 145 countries, coordinating dozens of teams from business, government, and nonprofits. Jackson: A logistical and diplomatic nightmare. Olivia: Completely. And she had this brilliant insight into what it takes. She said, "You don't have command and control over them. It's all in how you harness their capabilities around answering this crisis." She wasn't a dictator; she was a conductor, bringing out the best in each section of the orchestra. Jackson: That’s a great way to put it. But what about when the partners aren't willing collaborators, but are actually your harshest critics? The book mentions the Blue Horizons Project, where Duke Energy, after their disastrous spill, had to partner with the very environmental groups that were protesting them. How do you even start that conversation without it ending in a shouting match? Olivia: That's where the leadership grit comes in. Instead of fighting over their conflicting positions—one side wanting a new power plant, the other wanting no plant at all—they shifted the conversation to their common interest: providing reliable, clean, and affordable energy to the community of Asheville. By focusing on that shared goal, they were able to co-develop a solution that was better than what either side had initially proposed. They built a smaller, cleaner plant, invested heavily in local solar and battery storage, and funded energy efficiency programs. Duke Energy ended up gaining the trust of its most vocal critics. Jackson: So the key is to find the 'why' that everyone can agree on, even if you disagree on the 'how.' Olivia: Exactly. It’s about moving from adversarial positions to collaborative problem-solving. And that, Murphy argues, is the ultimate test of a sustainable leader. Can you build a bridge to your critics? Can you form an alliance with your competitors? Because the problems we face are too big for any one hero to solve.

Olivia: When you step back and look at the whole picture Murphy paints, you see this incredible journey of leadership. It often starts with a deeply personal 'awakening,' a crisis that forges an unshakeable conviction. Jackson: And that conviction gives them the courage to take a 'moonshot'—to commit to a goal that seems impossible at the time. Olivia: Right. But then comes the hardest part: the realization that the moonshot is too big for one person or one company. So they have to build an 'ecosystem,' a web of unlikely allies, to make it a reality. It’s a powerful model for change that is both deeply personal and globally collaborative. Jackson: It really reframes what we think of as strong leadership. It’s not about having all the answers from the start. It's about having the courage to ask the biggest, most audacious questions, and then having the humility to build a team—even with your rivals—to find the answers together. Olivia: That’s beautifully put. It’s a shift from the lone visionary to the master collaborator. Jackson: It makes you wonder, what's the 'moonshot' we should be aiming for in our own lives or our own work? What’s the impossible goal that’s so important it’s worth committing to before we know exactly how to get there? Olivia: That is a perfect question for our listeners. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Find us on our socials and share your take. What does sustainable leadership look like to you? Jackson: This is Aibrary, signing off.