Impact Interview: April Lecato

Name: April Lecato

Role/Function: Director, ESG, Strategy at Peloton

What are you working on these days?

For the past year and a half I’ve been at Peloton, helping stand up the brand’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) team. In my role, I’m primarily responsible for our ESG-related reporting, disclosures, and stakeholder engagement. I also work closely with our head of ESG and our wider team on strategy initiatives. Basically, this means I work with folks from virtually every team across the business and at all levels of the organization to ensure we’re putting our best foot forward and, importantly, that we understand our stakeholders’ expectations.

For the past five months or so, I’ve been focused on developing Peloton’s second annual ESG report. It was just released on November 1st. I’m really proud of this year’s report, especially coming out of one of our company’s most challenging years.

The teams have accomplished so much to be proud of and I think it’s really important to celebrate the wins and progress even, and especially, in challenging times.

For example, we conducted our first global pay equity study in FY22, which revealed zero statistically significant discrepancies across race/ethnicity and gender. That’s something we can be quite proud of. We also announced that we are going to conduct the study annually and maintain 100% global pay equity for our teams.

On the environmental side, we announced our first set of sustainability targets. A couple that I’m most excited about include sourcing 100% renewable electricity for our direct operations by FY26, and developing and releasing product carbon footprints for our key connected fitness products (Bike, Tread, and Row product lines) by FY24.

Looking at the rest of our fiscal year - as the business pivots from transformation to once again focus on growth, my team has the exciting and challenging opportunity to even more deeply integrate purpose and ESG into Peloton’s day-to-day operations. In this next chapter, I’m really looking forward to working with teams across the business to find innovative ways to deliver on the values and priorities of our company and the communities we serve.

What was the “aha” moment that sparked your interest in social impact?

I was raised in the UN community, and my parents created a home environment where social issues and socio-economic topics were a regular part of our everyday conversations as a family. I know this shaped my outlook on the world and one’s responsibility to be of service but I don’t think I realized just how much until I started to consider career paths.

My “aha” moment was probably way back in my highschool economics class when I started to learn about supply chains and all of the people, processes, and materials behind the things we interact with every day - whether it’s the food we eat, technology we rely on, or experiences we enjoy. Peeling back that curtain and understanding value chains, and taking an unfiltered look at what goes into everything was a deeply significant learning experience for me. There are so many human and environmental costs to the way economies operate today, many of which are hidden. This understanding made me want to be one of the many individuals working in ‘impact’, trying to shift the paradigm to be more sustainable and human-centered.

I eventually went on to pursue my undergraduate and graduate degrees in environmental science, studies, and policy. I still feel that “aha” feeling in my job and have been so fortunate to be in roles where I can hopefully spark it in others.

How did you break into the social impact space?

After graduating with my master’s degree, I started in an entry level position on a brand new team at a company that was just starting to formalize its corporate responsibility efforts. It was an especially interesting experience because the company had been around for decades but having a centralized corporate responsibility strategy and function was entirely new.

My role straddled our global supply chain team and corporate responsibility, so I had great exposure to the business. I was able to work on and absorb everything I could get my hands on - from supplier audits and cost of goods reports to materiality assessments - I didn’t say ‘no’ much early in my career. My goal at the beginning of my career was to round out my exposure as much as possible and was fortunate to have bosses that invited me to the table and encouraged me to ask questions. Over the years, I continued to jump on opportunities to stretch and learn. I learned so much in my time there and was able to grow and advance my career in many meaningful ways.

Working in social impact is often about driving change. What is the skill or trait that has been most important for your work as a change agent? How did you learn or hone it?

This is a tough question, because I’ve had to build up a toolkit over the years of a variety of skills/tactics to foster change. Here are a few that I draw on the most: 

• Finding common ground with people. I received sage advice from a mentor recently - even with the most difficult stakeholder there is almost always something you can agree on...even if it’s as simple as ‘we both want what’s best for the business’. Identify it and start there. 

• Approach work from a place of curiosity and don’t make assumptions about what motivates other people. 

• Listen. Like, really listen.  

• Find the bright spots and build from there. Instead of trying to push water up a hill, look for where things are working and where momentum might already exist. 

• Stay on top of trends and what is happening out in the world - reading newsletters (like Reconsidered!) - will not only help you stay well-informed but you could be equipping yourself with a piece of information that could be the “thing” that gets a stakeholder to connect with impact / purpose. 

What most excites you about the social impact space right now?

As a woman with multi-ethnic heritage, I am so excited to see real effort on equity and representation in the social impact and sustainability space. I truly believe that we cannot keep perpetuating systems of inequity if we seek to create a sustainable future.

There’s still a long way to go but I’m heartened by some things I’ve seen in the space that signal a shift in thinking. For example, I know many event and conference organizers are making efforts to curate speaker rosters that are racially/ethnically and gender diverse. On the other side, I know folks who will decline speaking engagements if they see a lack of this effort on the organizer’s part. It might seem small but I think actions like this help shift the window on what the field considers ‘standard’ or ‘acceptable’.

I’m also encouraged to see ESG topics entering formal mechanisms that influence how businesses operate and make decisions - such as mandatory climate-related risk disclosures and requirements to report the diversity of corporate boards.

It feels like there is serious momentum on ESG and corporate social impact. Even in a challenging economic environment, it feels like we’ve reached a point where there are now fundamental expectations in place that companies simply cannot shy away from. I think businesses that earnestly lean into this work over the next few years will be so much better placed with their communities, employees, and business partners than those that don’t. It’s definitely an exciting time to be in this space.

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