Have you ever thought about what really goes on behind the scenes of some of the largest and most controversial companies in the world?

My guest this week is Christine Bader, author of “The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil”

Christine worked behind the scenes with BP for almost a decade, helping to execute some of the largest and most complex oil and natural gas extraction projects in the world. Unlike “extraction” based work however, Christine’s role with BP was focused on human rights and social impacts of the work that BP did in complex and sensitive social and environmental locations. In fact, she was part of some of the earliest and most significant advances in human rights within a company that literally created it’s own standards and protocols where none existed.

After many years of important work at BP, she had her heart broken when she witnessed one of the largest corporate disasters in history take place on the international stage. All of a sudden, the company she had grown to love turned into an entirely different company almost overnight.

In her book, Christine shares her journey at BP and the UN doing extremely important work in advancing human rights. This journey has now taken her to a position of advising companies both small and large on how they engage with communities and the environment, as well as how their PR efforts translate to their social mission and brand.

In this episode of Sustainacast, we talk about why she had her heart broken by her former employer. We also discussed what Christine has witnessed working with other “corporate idealists” faced with environmental disasters, human rights issues and public relations nightmares within their organizations.

I read Christine’s book late in 2014, and can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s such an easy read, and a fascinating account of what has to happen to provide us “Consumers” with the “energy we demand”. I learned so much about the realities of “Big Oil” from her book, and we touched on some of those points in our discussion this week.

You can reach Christine at www.christinebader.com
twitter at @christinebader
Pick up a copy of her book right here – http://christinebader.com/book/

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