In March 2021, FedEx Corp. announced an audacious goal: to achieve carbon-neutral operations globally by 2040.

How did the company develop this pledge? How will it track its progress and hold itself accountable to intermediate goals?

Mitch Jackson, FedEx’s staff vice president, environmental affairs and chief sustainability officer, said environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals start at sustainability impact teams within each of FedEx’s operating companies. Those teams feed ESG initiatives, ideas, and proposals to FedEx’s Enterprise Sustainability Council, which Jackson chairs. The council ultimately reports the chosen ESG initiatives to the Governance, Safety, and Public Policy Committee of FedEx’s board of directors.

“Our philosophy with respect to sustainability and corporate social responsibility is what we call practical sustainability—that being strategic and transformational stewardship adds value to all the stakeholders in our efforts to be more responsible,” Jackson said. “The building blocks of that are performance, transparency, innovation, and leadership.”