409: Sustainable Pet Products: Improving the Lives of Pets, Pet Parents & the Planet

An accomplished retail leader, Francesca Mahoney leads Petco’s sustainability strategy and works with business leaders across operations, products, and supply chain to advance sustainability and drive strategic growth.

How Francesca Leads Petco’s Sustainability Initiatives

Francesca is passionate about creating a better planet for pets and pet parents alike and has been the driving force in Petco’s recent industry-leading commitment to increasing its assortment of sustainable pet products to 50% by the end of 2025. She has also spent more than a decade transforming teams, building brands and leading marketing strategies for renowned companies. Before joining Petco, she worked at Target Corporation for +10 years in a variety of Merchandising and Marketing roles.

“Now that we are really focused on being a health and wellness company. We are continuously focused on how can we best improve the lives of paths, the pet parents and our partners, but we're also very much aware of the impact that we can have on our planet's natural resources so we're really committed to both, you know, helping them improve the lives of pets, but how do we also use our scale or size to driving change for the better. So, back in June 2020, when this role was first created, our CEO, Ron Coughlin, believed that a dedicated leadership role was really required to make some meaningful progress in this area. And so he created this role, it didn't exist previously I think sustainability was a little bit of a shared responsibility across several different folks but one of the things that was missing was someone who could really lead this really full company and enterprise strategy. 

For me personally, you know, I've been a marketer most of my career so quite honestly, this wasn't initially a role that I have sought out. But when I was approached with the opportunity I was really really excited. You know, more specifically, I think, in every role I've had my job has always been to put the customer at the center of everything we do right when you think about how we market products, how we connect with consumers. It's really it starts with the customer and honestly this is really no different.”

What is Petco Doing to Make Eco-Friendly Pet Products?

Francesca Mahoney: So as head of sustainability for Petco my focus right now is how do I meet that customer demand, we know that for example, 85% of pet parents think that it's important that pet retailers carry more sustainable products. So how can we, how can we deliver on that right and I'm in this unique role that can help answer that. So, you know, since starting this role in June, it's, it's definitely been a wild ride it hasn't even been quite a year yet, but I would say my focus has been twofold. The first is, how do I, you know, really work with a team to identify what those right opportunities are for Petco to pursue as you know Cory, you know, sustainability is such a broad term, and there's so much that really is folded into that.

So where to start, was really the first question. And then the second part was you know how could I leverage my marketing experience and expertise to really tell our story in a really powerful and compelling way so not only what are we going to do but how are we going to tell people about it really making sure those those 85% of parents that are looking for this kind of understand what Petco was offering space and bringing along that other 15% to get excited about it along the way.

Bard MBA Alum Cory Skuldt speaks with Francesca for this episode of the Impact Report.

Read more about how Petco is transforming the industry here.

Cory Skuldt: So what's it been like to come into a newly created head of system? I imagine it's fairly different than kind of stepping into someone's shoessomeone shoes and an already developed strategy and process.

Francesca Mahoney:  Sure yeah it's uh it's been it's been interesting right. On one hand there's a lot of things I've been able to draw from other things have had to really be created from scratch. So a couple examples, you know, early in this new role, one of the things that was most obvious at the time was that every foundational element of building a sustainability program at Petco truly needed to be created there, to your point, there was nothing there was nobody in this role previously there was nothing in place previously, with the exception of some you know kind of ad hoc activities and projects from certain teams but my goal and focus right out right out of the gate was how can I build momentum and really progress the strategy as a team of one, right.  

So I think one of my driving principles was really to embed sustainability initiatives directly into those core business strategies versus thinking about sustainability as a one off or you know this other thing that Petco was tackling. How could I use, my experience my relationships my partnerships with others at Petco to, you know, understand where those focus areas should be, but then also guiding others to really execute on that direction?

The other piece I would say is early momentum. So, you know, while there's certainly a lot of work that is in progress right now it has been in progress, to really develop Petco’s long term strategy on sustainability. I also knew you know we couldn't wait months and months and months, there was an element of really creating and building that early momentum that was really important both to me but also to the company. And so I worked, you know, really hard early on to identify what those near term opportunities could be not waiting for perfection, but just simply getting started to really get going.

And then I think you know the other learning, if you will, was building that internal engagement and advocacy recognizing that that was really key so one of the things I did right out of the gate was created an internal group called the sustainability task force, which is essentially a group of about 18 people here Petco who are very passionate about sustainability, but also have influenced within their department, they understand, you know what teams have done so far what opportunities they see to build and improve. And it really creating the structure, even though you know these people don't don't report to me directly, but it was able to bring together really this great form of very engaged internal Petco partners to help really drive the strategy and help execute on that strategy early on.

Cory Skuldt: Wonderful. And really tapping into that ability to kind of lead through and plants and an engagement. Early on, and building on that strength. I mentioned a few things that were kind of ongoing and more of an ad hoc way. What were the elements of sustainability that you were able to draw on or build on that were existing and, and what had to be created from scratch.

Francesca Mahoney: Yeah, great question. So, you know, I would say things I could draw on I think first and foremost, I feel very lucky in this role because I have a highly highly committed CO, very highly committed executive team who is really bought into sustainability I know that's not the case at all companies, right? I've talked to other sustainability professionals who have a much harder time and it's a bit more of an uphill climb to get others bought into why sustainability is really important not just for creating positive impact but for driving business value. I feel lucky in that I haven't had to do the hard sell better, quite frankly, and having the advocacy of our highest leader has really helped position this role and the workup for success.

I also knew you know as I mentioned earlier, there was some work already underway in different parts of the business so as one example we have really robust Animal Care standards within our live animal business. And so, and you know, along with that, you know, we've had some great energy efficiency projects underway. So I was able to identify what some of those projects work as low-hanging fruit opportunities and really formalized them right, figure out what near-term and long-term goals could look like and how do we set targets around each. And then the third I would say again my experience and understanding of the customer, along with the relationship, relationships, excuse me that I've already built with medical partners, you know, having been with the company close to five years, I was able to jump right in. You know I didn't have to really figure out how to navigate Petco. I've worked in retail my entire career, and so I think those are some advantages that I could draw from to really help me get a better jumpstart right from the beginning.