Dedicated to having a positive impact
Dedicated to having a positive impact
3 minutesAndrea Murphy has spent her entire career examining materials and the impacts they can have on the environment – it just wasn’t always from a corporate office.
“I used to carry a badge,” Murphy said before adding a knowing let-me-explain, clearly having experience with the obvious follow-up question: “I worked as a hazardous materials specialist,” she said, “identifying materials and the risk they pose to ensure the safety of residents, the environment and the firefighters working to clean up the scene.”
Now Andrea is taking that passion for the environment and human well-being and applying it to her new role as Director of the Office of Environmental Affairs & Sustainability for Panasonic North America (PNA) to which she was appointed this past January.
Building on the past
In her new role, she will be leading the team dedicated to monitoring and measuring the environmental impact of the company’s business practices while ensuring Panasonic products and processes are meeting critical environmental compliance standards. Her team is also looking toward the future, supporting the Panasonic GREEN IMPACT initiative – the company’s program aiming to reduce the CO2 emissions of our business operations to net-zero by 2030 – and embodying one of the company’s core principles, continuing improvement.
“It makes me proud to stand with a company who has publicly released goals as specific as Panasonic GREEN IMPACT,” Murphy said. “To reach these commitments, we are making changes in our manufacturing processes, developing new technologies and investing in renewable energy. Employees are a big part of the solution and their actions make a big impact.”
After three months in the new position, Andrea and her team are eagerly learning and partnering with a growing number of teams to brainstorm how to make Panasonic products more sustainable. One of their projects was supporting the launch of the Take Back for Tomorrow Program for Panasonic’s recently released MultiShape. Behind the scenes, Andrea and her team are excited to be a part of the strategy development around net zero emissions, an emerging area of focus for large corporations.
Though Murphy’s new role illustrates Panasonic’s recent push to deepen its commitment to sustainability, she says it’s their history of supporting the issue that first drew her to the company.
“When I was applying for the job with Panasonic I did a lot of research and I was impressed by the long history of sustainability the company had,” she said. “Panasonic is not following the current trend; we have always been a leader and considered how their products impact people's lives and the world around us. For example, we publish an annual sustainability report and have been doing so since 1999.”
Creating a more sustainable future
Andrea’s vision is clear for the Environmental Affairs Team (EAS) and includes a focus on product environmental compliance, US factory environmental compliance support and sustainability for both.
According to Murphy, each of these areas relies on the other to ensure that the company, and our products, remain environmentally compliant with the latest Federal and State environmental laws and to reach our net-zero carbon emission goals.
It’s no small task, but one aspect that makes her most excited about her work is the support she receives from across the company in achieving these goals.
“Our Sales companies want to make their products more sustainable and are coming to me to partner on their ideas,” she said. “[One team] came to my team with an idea for the end of life for the new MultiShape and together we developed a plan and got to launch the take back program.”
As her team grows and evolves, Andrea hopes this kind of collaboration will become the standard.
“Each of us are subject matter experts on a full range of environmental regulatory topics including end of life for our products, chemical prohibitions and pesticide compliance.” she said. “My hope is that every department understands our purpose and is empowered to ask us questions.”
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