An Innovation Conversation With Southwire’s Burt Fealing

What happens when a 75-year-old manufacturer decides that sustainability isn’t a department – it's the business itself? In this episode of the iMasons Podcast, Romain Tranchant sits down with Burt Fealing, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Sustainability Officer at Southwire.

Together, Tranchant and Fealing explore how North America’s largest wire and cable manufacturer is rewiring its operations for a low-carbon future. They talk about what it really takes to align Southwire’s five tenets of sustainability with commercial reality, how to trace embodied carbon all the way back to the mine, and what happens when transparency meets tough internal resistance.

“We’re not just operating for the next quarter or the next few years. We’re thinking about the next 100 years. Sustainability is a long-term story that our shareholders want to make sure we get right. It’s about engaging the next generation of shareholders, the next generation of team members, and the next generation of customers who are making the buying decisions.”

Burt shares lessons from Southwire’s carbon reduction journey, the breakthroughs that worked, and the strategies that didn’t. It’s a conversation about leadership under pressure, the courage to publish real data, and how sustainability becomes transformative only when it stops being convenient. If you want to hear what sustainability looks like when it’s lived, not just written, this episode is for you.

Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/INx5pNOi99A

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/27-can-esg-outweigh-profit-a-real-talk-with/id1798207838?i=1000739172430

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6pSgSj8d8tFSHOoryZalCX?si=_lVSOiSOQpWSmKvkc1-JZg