Kevin Tubbs is a Vice President and Chief Ethics, Compliance and Sustainability Officer of Oshkosh Corporation, a global leader in manufacturing mission-critical equipment. As an experienced leader who works cross-functionally to deliver business results in a sustainable way, Mr. Tubbs has held various leadership roles at a number of engineering and manufacturing companies. With a background in chemical engineering, his specialties lie in sustainable business practices, waste minimization, site remediation, environmental auditing, regulatory affairs and government liaison. Mr. Tubbs also served as the Mayor of the Township of Chatham, NJ, from 2007 to 2009, during which time Chatham was named the “Best Place to Live in New Jersey,” and was one of the first communities to receive the “Sustainable Jersey” certification.

SUMMARY: Kevin Tubbs, Vice President and Chief Ethics, Compliance, and Sustainability Officer of Oshkosh Corporation, shares his journey from studying engineering to leading corporate social responsibility efforts at a Fortune 500 company. He discusses creating a mindset around sustainability within an organization, demonstrates leading during the pandemic, and shares advice for young professionals on making a positive impact throughout one’s career.

Shirley Ren (BT): Thank you so much for spending time speaking with me today. Let’s start off with your career. Your background is in chemical engineering, so what sparked your interest in sustainability and corporate social responsibility?

Kevin Tubbs (KT): My bachelor's degree is indeed from chemical engineering at Clarkson University in New York state. When I went to college, sustainability was not on most people's radar, unfortunately. But I always had an interest in the environment and in preserving the outdoors. I had wanted to use a degree towards environmental issues, but the only real environmental degrees at that time were around civil engineering, say the design of wastewater treatment facilities. That's not really what I wanted to get involved in. I enjoyed math, chemistry, and science in general, so I decided to pursue a degree in chemical engineering. When I graduated from college, I worked in the petrochemical industry, initially as a chemical engineer but then started doing environment-related work, so most of my background has been involved in environmental issues.

Things have changed in the world. Being “environmental-minded” used to be just a “control” type of scenario, where you build a system that cleans up pollution to minimize environmental impact. Now, it has become looking upstream in your processes, making them cleaner, and becoming a more sustainable and responsible company overall. The issues have been changing, so I've been changing with them - moving from environmental controls to sustainability and then to corporate social responsibility. It's been a gradual progression. As issues have changed, our thinking has changed, our technologies have changed, and I've changed. For young people like you, over the course of your career, you're probably going to see faster changes. It's incumbent on all of us to be lifelong learners, and continue to change with those things as they progress. That really helps you define your career and where that takes society.

BT: For sure, it's great that there are more opportunities for students to explore the sustainability space now, but there's a lot of work that still needs to be done. I thought what’s especially interesting in your career journey was your term as mayor of the Township of Chatham in New Jersey. What skills were you able to apply from your industry experience to leading a town?

KT: I was mayor of Chatham for three years and I was on the township committee for an additional six years. It started out as a way of me giving back to the community, which is something that's always been important to me. Some important skills are strategic thinking, communication, and working with people, including residents and professionals like the chiefs of police, buildings and grounds professionals, financial officers, or other staff. You need to be able to understand different fields and learn about their needs and capabilities, while delegating and putting together a strong team with diverse specializations. Then, you'll succeed. And we did succeed. When I was there, Chatham Township was voted the “Best Place to Live in New Jersey'' by New Jersey Monthly Magazine and named one of the first “Sustainable Communities” by the State of New Jersey. You also learn to balance your time. The mayor of the township was not a full-time position, I had a full-time job working in industry, I was a husband and a father of two children. But, it was worthwhile and a lot of fun. I do recommend public service to anyone interested.

BT: That's very impressive. I want to dive a bit more into your current role at Oshkosh. The company has a very strong commitment to sustainability, what are some ways that you would track sustainability metrics to inform your operations? And what are some challenges that you've experienced when trying to meet these goals?

KT: A little bit about Oshkosh first, which is an approximately $8 billion innovative multi-national company. We make a difference in people’s lives by providing specialty vehicles and equipment that move people and goods safely and efficiently. We have four different business segments: an access segment which manufactures equipment primarily under the JLG brand that helps people work safely at height, Jerr Dan which is a tow truck division, Pierce Manufacturing which is a fire and emergency business, and a defense segment that provides vehicles and equipment that keeps our warfighters safe. We have established certain sustainability goals across the company. We have a team of people who have full-time jobs in the company but also work on sustainability issues. We publish our sustainability report on an annual basis, where we let people know how we're moving towards our goals. I meet with our management on a frequent basis to discuss what and how we're doing. We try to keep people informed about what we're measuring through newsletters and internal communications. For instance, we are a member of the U.S. Department of Energy's Better Plants Program where we're reducing our energy intensity by 25% over 10 years, which we will achieve by 2024. We have three facilities to date that are zero waste to landfill, and we're continuing to work towards that goal for our other facilities.

In terms of challenges, like all businesses, there are a lot of priorities that the company deals with using a limited amount of funds and resources. We need to continue to talk with our people to make them aware of what we need to do around sustainability and why we need to do it. We need to continue to engage and educate our workforce of close to 15,000 employees, very few of whom have “sustainability” in their job titles. We have to develop their learning about sustainability and connect where they are in their careers with the importance of sustainability. We have to put that “why” out there. Not everyone is going to agree that sustainability should be a priority, and some people are going to look at it a different way, but continuing to try to engage, develop, and connect with our workforce is key. If we get a critical mass together, we can do amazing things, and that's what we're doing here.

BT: Could you walk us through how exactly ethics, compliance, and sustainability are involved in the product development process, especially with some recent innovations that are both purposeful and environmentally friendly?

KT: We're really proud of the things we're doing around our vehicles and most recently, the electric fire truck called the Voltera which was just recently introduced in Madison, WI. Oshkosh has been around for over 100 years now, so we have to be sustainable in our approach. A couple of years ago, we took a hard look at our corporate core values, which were really important to us but as they were written didn't speak in a way that resonated with our team members. They did not sound like us. We came up with the four values that now provide a basis for everything we do. They are: we put people first, we do the right thing, we persevere, and we are better together. We considered if we should have a value around sustainability, safety, and a number of different things, but we thought these four values were sufficiently broad, important, and high-level that they would resonate with people, which they have. When we are looking at product development or operations, we do so through that lens of our core values. Are we doing the right thing? Are we operating ethically? Are we taking the environment into account? Are we talking to our customers and understanding what they want around sustainability? What are their sustainable goals? What are their goals around their total cost of ownership of the products? It really comes down to making sure that our people have the core value set as a basis of the things that they do, like introducing the first electric fire truck and the first totally electric scissor lift that doesn't have any hydraulics in it. We're really looking to increase product offerings that integrate sustainable practices into the total cost of ownership that our customers are looking for and the reliability that Oshkosh is known for.

BT: As you mentioned, people first is one of the core values and Oshkosh runs a Global Ethics and Compliance Program. How does this program take the diversity of different cultural and personal backgrounds of employees into consideration? And how are these considerations integrated into the everyday workplace?

KT: We're really proud of our Ethics and Compliance Program and we have been awarded one of the “World's Most Ethical Companies” by the Ethisphere Institute for six years in a row, which our people are very aware of. We'd like people to act in a way where they're considering how they're doing something rather than just what they're doing. In terms of incorporating different people in different areas of thought, we have a Global Ethics and Compliance Advisory Committee that has representatives from all around the globe as well as all of our different functions. When we were reviewing and recasting our core values, we took input from our employees around the world to make sure things made sense from a cultural perspective. It wasn't a U.S. solely initiative that we were rolling out but a global one. We're not perfect. There are times we can do better and we try to improve every day. In the case of our Ethics and Compliance Team, our internal customers are the people that we're providing training to. After we do our training, we gather feedback from employees and review the messages that we were delivering to see if they are received and understood.

Like a lot of major companies, we have an ethics helpline that people can call into 24/7. We make sure that the service is in a variety of languages, so employees can dial in using local phone numbers and communicate in a language that they're comfortable with when voicing their concerns. We try to remove barriers that will keep people from reporting things that they experience. Before the pandemic, my team would travel to the various operations to make sure that we're building relationships and understanding things that are going on. Right now, we're doing that on Zoom or WebEx. It takes a bit of a different approach now in the pandemic, but we try to keep those good relationships going throughout the world.

BT: As you alluded to, the pandemic has definitely affected almost every company. Could you speak more about how Oshkosh has been able to maintain its ethics, compliance, and sustainability efforts during the pandemic?

KT: I can't talk enough about communication. It's all about communicating, building relationships, making sure that we're consistent in our message, which is based on our core values and code of conduct - the Oshkosh Way. During COVID-19, we communicated quite a bit with our workforce and let them know what was happening in various areas. When we had to take steps from a financial standpoint, our leaders were not immune and took significant reductions in salaries. We're truly in this together - one of our core values is that we're better together. I’ve been back full-time at our facility since May of last year, with appropriate safeguards in terms of social distancing, masking, and cleaning. A lot of our workforce on the factory floor never left it. We've continued to supply essential products to our customers who need them. Fire trucks and other emergency equipment keep rolling because of our people, who continue to work together and persevere. If they could do that, then we could, with proper protocols and protections, do the same to support them. That’s how we got through it.

BT: That’s amazing to hear, hopefully the world will recover from COVID-19 soon. As you know, many countries are rolling out Build Back Better plans in terms of how we interact with society and with the environment. What's your vision for Oshkosh’s sustainability plans going forward after the pandemic?

KT: Our sustainability plans have been in place prior to the pandemic and have stayed similar or have been accelerated. We've been on track to reduce our energy use and our emissions, which we’ve continued during the pandemic and will go on afterwards. Earlier this year, we entered into our first virtual power purchase agreement where we'll be using renewable energy, wind power in this case, to reduce a significant amount of emissions from our operations. We see renewables continuing to provide a benefit to our company and to the world. We continue to reduce our waste to landfills and our overall environmental footprint. We try to do a lot in the communities where we live and work, with goals around our volunteer engagement. We've got people serving on various nonprofits and Boards. We think investing in and giving back to the community is really important to what we're doing when building back after the pandemic. The same goes for our products, whether that's the delivery vehicles for the U.S. Postal Service that we’re prepared to provide which will either be electric vehicles or utilize low emission internal combustion engines, or the electric fire truck in Madison that has taken 200 fire calls already. We've been working on electrification in our various businesses for quite a number of years, but now it's become more accepted by the industry and by our customers. We do believe that we have some good plans for advancement in our products, operations, and communities around sustainability. You’re going to continue to see a lot from Oshkosh from a sustainability standpoint.

BT: To close things off, what advice would you give to students and young professionals who are just entering the corporate world and are hoping to make a positive impact on society?

KT: That's an important question. The first piece of advice I’d give is to be curious and ask hard questions. Questioning things is how you learn and how we learn as companies. For example, when Oshkosh started its sustainability journey around 11 years ago, we had an all-employee meeting where two vice presidents were talking to our employees about things happening in the company. One of our team members raised her hand and asked what Oshkosh is doing around sustainability. One Vice President looked at the other, and they said “We'll have to get back to you on that” because they really didn't have a good answer. That question, along with others that other people were asking, led to things starting to happen and ultimately resulted in the development of a strong sustainability program. We put together a more consolidated sustainability program, and now we've made good progress in different areas, whether it's being one of the world’s most ethical companies or being in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. That curiosity and questioning got people to start looking at things from a more sustainable standpoint. So, you can make a positive impact by questioning authority and making suggestions.

The next point is related to how I went from having a chemical engineering degree to leading the sustainability, ethics, and compliance group in a Fortune 500 company. A part of it is being a lifelong learner. You can do a lot of great things with education regardless of the degree because it teaches you how to learn and how to ask questions. You can take those skills and use them in different ways;  you don't have to be constrained by your field of study. When you see a need or an opportunity, you can take advantage of it to stretch yourself and work in an area that isn't as comfortable as the one you had been in before. You can also go look for opportunities where you can make a difference, learn, and grow in your role within the organization. So, having curiosity, asking questions, and learning and growing are what will help you make a positive impact. When it comes to sustainability, corporate responsibility, or ethics, it's not just people with that in their job titles that make an impact, it's a mindset. There are sustainability leaders in our company within our procurement, finance, or engineering function. They do their jobs but they also do it with a sustainability mindset and thought. You're not limited by where you can make that difference, because you can do so from quite a few places within an organization. Those are some of the pieces of advice I would give to young people.

BT: Those really resonate with me and I've learned a lot from our conversation. Thank you so much for sharing your insights!