Michael Jaklitsch
Nominated for: Lifetime Achievement Award
Title: Senior Vice President, Global Environment, Health & Safety
Company: The Estee Lauder Companies
Years in Profession: 34
Nominator: Kim Yoakum, Executive Director, EHS Center of Excellence, The Estee Lauder Companies, direct report, employee of Michael.
Provide an overview of the nominee's 20-plus years of professional experience, including previous management positions held, current role, and key accomplishments. (500 words max.)*
Mike Jaklitsch has more than 30 years of environmental, health and safety experience. He currently serves as Senior Vice President, Global Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) at The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) and is a member of the company’s Supply Chain Leadership Team and Global Crisis Leadership Team.
Mike oversees the EHS organization and advances ELC’s environmental performance across all manufacturing, distribution, R&D, corporate and retail operations, promoting world-class health and safety practices worldwide. Under his leadership, the EHS team reinforces ELC’s position as a leading corporate citizen by driving meaningful progress on a variety of ELC’s 2025 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals in strong partnership with the Global Corporate Citizenship & Sustainability team. Mike partners closely across the business to evolve and strengthen the EHS organization and provide enhanced, consistent environmental and safety support across the global enterprise.
Since joining ELC in 1996, Mike has made invaluable contributions to the enterprise. Under Mike’s leadership as Vice President, Global EHS, ELC achieved transformative safety results, including more than 90% reduction in workplace accidents. He championed ELC’s behavior-based safety culture of Actively Caring for yourself and your fellow employees and enabled the company’s cultural shift from a “compliance mindset” to leading with safety as a differentiator. He also significantly enhanced EHS support for retail and field employees, beginning with North America in 2003 and expanding globally over the years. Collectively, this exceptional work enabled ELC to achieve best-in-class safety results globally. Mike originally reported to the founder of the department and took it over in 2006.
Mike has also been instrumental in the acceleration of ELC’s sustainability program. He has enabled ELC’s manufacturing and distribution facilities to achieve 100% zero industrial waste to landfill and has driven a variety of renewable energy projects worldwide. Mike laid the foundation for ELC’s corporate responsibility reporting, drafting ELC’s first Corporate Social Responsibility report in 2007, and his team’s exceptional sustainability work over the years strongly contributed to the creation of the GCCS function.
Recently, Mike played a vital role driving ELC’s response to COVID-19 and elevating health and safety across the enterprise. He and his team partnered closely with ELC’s Global Crisis Leadership Team and Medical Advisory Board to create and implement stringent health, hygiene, sanitization, physical distancing, containment, and personal protective gear protocols. He also helped lead the transformation of our facilities worldwide through overseeing HVAC upgrades, barrier installations, on-site COVID testing, temperature screenings and more. Mike also collaborated with our stores and counters worldwide to enhance safety across the retail environment for our employees and consumers.
Prior to joining ELC, Mike spent five years working as an Industrial Hygienist for The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. There, he played a critical role supporting the response to the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. Mike holds a BS in Environmental Sciences from St. John’s University and a MS in Environmental & Occupational Health -Industrial Hygiene. He is a Certified Industrial Hygienist (1995) and a Certified Safety Professional (1999).
Please list a minimum of two examples that demonstrate the nominee's distinguished service and leadership within the fields of environment, health, safety and/or sustainability at the corporate management level. Examples may include: Company or industry-related recognition and awards, board appointments, publications, public speaking engagements, and relevant service or volunteer positions. (500 words max.)*
Mike’s leadership clearly reflects his passion for environment, health, safety, and sustainability. He has embedded these principles within ELC’s global EHS department and has significantly elevated the company’s presence in EHS&S excellence. Some of the results achieved under Mike’s direction include ELC’s pledge to protect old growth forests in 1997, inclusion on the FTSE4Good Index in 2003, the publication of ELC’s first CSR in 2007, ELC receiving the EPA’s Green Power Purchasing Award in 2008, ELC’s first CDP submittal in 2010, being named to the CDP Leadership Index in 2014, joining #RE100 in 2017, and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index adding ELC in 2021.
In addition to promoting workplace safety, Mike incorporated a holistic approach to employee wellness. In 1999, he initiated a wellness program comprising of onsite health screenings, including cholesterol, glucose, blood pressure, skin cancer, prostate, and mammograms. Many of our employees did not have adequate medical care, and their only access to any kind of healthcare was through these screenings. Numerous health problems had been uncovered throughout the years, including high blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose, with some employees finding out they have diabetes. From the skin cancer screenings, numerous melanomas were discovered. The impact of this program for the last 23+ years has been truly lifesaving.
Mike has led ELC’s Veterans employee resource group (ERG) as the Executive Sponsor for the last five years. His monumental support strengthens the culture and cultivates a positive impact for our ELC Veterans and Veteran communities. Mike always shows his support with holiday meal events, baby shower events, NYC’s Veterans Day Parade, and Beauty Day for Women Veterans among others. Mike says being a part of these events is beyond fulfilling when he sees the impact that is made to bring a smile to the face of a Veteran, their families, and to our overall community.
As an active “eco steward,” Mike has championed the ELC Family Organic Garden in Melville, NY for over fifteen years. Employees sign up to tend a vegetable garden bed on the condition that they follow organic gardening principles and contribute some of their produce to help raise money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation – a full circle initiative from sustainability to the philanthropic side of the Company. Globally, Mike has encouraged corporate campuses to install electric vehicle charging stations, walking and bike paths, and pollinator gardens to further promote sustainability activities amongst all employees.
Mike volunteers with Seatuck Environmental Association, serving on their Board of Directors from 2014-2022. Seatuck advocates for wildlife and conservation projects in the Long Island, NY area through education and fundraising. Mike has personally built multiple bird boxes over the years, some installed in Melville’s ELC Family Organic Garden within several acres of land to attract local songbirds to nest there, to reduce the insect population without the use of pesticides. Mike is an active birder, in search of the Big Year, and is always happy to help identify a bird through a photo, video, bird song, or general description.
Identify and define the nominee's impact on company performance. Outline pertinent EHS&S initiatives and/or programs. Provide measurement of impact through metrics or KPIs. (500 words max.)*
Mike leads the Global EHS department responsible for driving program development and implementation throughout the Company. He is responsible for the rigorous safety policies and practices in place to reach our goal of zero workplace incidents. We seek to engage our employees to advance and promote safety, encouraging them to take proactive measures to ensure safety protocols are followed across all sites, including manufacturing, distribution, R&D, retail, and office locations.
Our safety program is fully integrated into our environmental management system and certified to ISO 14001 standards. Safety incident reports are entered into a central reporting system, where detailed root-cause analyses are documented, and corrective actions are identified and tracked to completion. We also have a process where safety alerts and best practices are issued globally for sites to take preventative actions. To identify potential risks, these sites performed a Hazard Risk Assessment (HRA), which is a formal process for identifying health and safety risks that employees could encounter so that these risks can be eliminated or minimized. As a result, HRA/Safety Maps were completed for each area of a facility by employees that have subject matter expertise over lines, equipment, and related tasks. Areas for potentially high-risk and extremely high-risk functions were identified, as were areas of concern and opportunities for improvement. We also completed a culture survey at our manufacturing, distribution, and R&D sites. The results of this survey will be used to further inform our safety programs.
For FY22 Safety Month, we celebrated 30 years of commitment to the environment, health, and safety of our people and the planet and encouraged our employees to tell us why safety matters to them. Employees from all areas of the business shared a caring moment, safety tip, or recognized a “Safety Star” on their team. Also in 2022, we ran a safety contest, asking our employees “What Matters Most” to them and why they were committed to staying safe. We received hundreds of submissions and selected a set of winners in Mexico, Canada, the United States, Belgium, and Brazil.
Under Mike’s leadership the Total Incident Rate for ELC was reduced by 95% (3.96 in 2000 to 0.20 in 2022). In FY22 we achieved zero recordable accidents across many of our facilities, including 1 manufacturing site, 17 distribution centers, and 6 R&D sites. In FY22 we received 99 National Safety Council Awards in three categories, across 31 supply chain and R&D facilities and 18 global brand operations, with some facilities receiving multiple awards.
As a result of Mike’s work ELC was named to the CDP 2021 Climate A List, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) North America, the 3BL Media 2022 100 Best Corporate Citizens and Newsweek 2022 America’s Most Responsible Companies.
Describe the nominee's leadership style and provide examples of his/her commitment to advancing professionals within the EHS&S fields. (500 words max.)*
Mike is a true champion of all employees, regardless of job title, and he is committed to expanding and cultivating EHS&S leaders at every level. Prior to the pandemic, as part of Mike’s visits to the various facilities across the global organization, he always made it a point to walk the floor or store and speak with employees. During these site walks, Mike solicited feedback from employees, giving them the opportunity to voice what was working and what suggestions they had for future improvements to make the workplace safer for both people and the planet—encouraging everyone to be an EHS&S leader.
A key EHS initiative under Mike’s leadership has been the Global Behavior Based Safety (BBS) program – an employee-driven safety program that focuses on what employees do, analyzes why they do it, and proactively identifies how potential safety issues can be resolved, with the ultimate goal of creating a safer work environment and reducing the risk of injury for all employees. ELC’s BBS program began in 2002 with different behavior-based safety tools in use at some of the supply chain sites. By 2022, it expanded to 42 BBS Steering Teams at 25 facilities in 11 countries, reaching more than 4,200 manufacturing and distribution employees, completing more than 41,290 BBS observations, and developing and implementing more than 525 projects. Mike made it a point to connect with the BBS Teams whenever he made a site visit, encouraging them to actively care for their safety, as well as the safety of their co-workers every day. Mike also advocated for the growth of BBS team members to explore and grow into EHS&S professionals. To date, several BBS team members have advanced their careers and have become EHS&S professional at ELC under the mentorship and stewardship of Mike.
Mike remains committed to expanding the influence of EHS&S professionals through his sponsorship and advocacy of EHS&S professional certification of his global team, stretch assignments of staff in other functions of the company, and leveraging professional development resources such as NAEM to cultivate and grow existing talent. Mike has supported ELC membership with NAEM since 2004. He has encouraged many ELC staff members over the years to grow their leadership and influencing skills by serving on NAEM’s Board of Regents and Board of Directors. In 2018, to ensure no one in the department missed out on NAEM’s networking and development opportunities, Mike scheduled his annual department workshop to coincide with the 2018 NAEM Fall Forum, bringing his entire department of over 50 global employees to the event.
Mike’s genuine concern for the well-being of all employees, as well as supporting them in being their best as individuals, is a testament to his distinguished service and leadership within the EHS&S profession. He reaches people where they are, from the shop floor, a retail counter, or even a tenured EHS&S professional and supports their development to grow in their careers and influence others along the way.
Provide two examples of nominee's commitment to industry advancements and lifelong learning. Examples may include: Continuing education, corporate or university teaching, patents, strategic initiatives, breakthrough program development, and other definable actions. (500 words max.)*
One example of Mike’s commitment to industry advancement is his commitment to strategic efforts in sustainability year after year to care for the world we live in for generations to come. Mike ensured that ELC’s nine manufacturing sites were certified to ISO 14001 standards since 2000. His team created the first CSR report for ELC in 2007 well before this was the norm. Under his leadership, ELC increased its on-site renewable energy portfolio by installing solar power at six of its facilities helping ELC achieve 100% renewable electricity globally for our direct operations each year—commitments that we met fiscal 2022. With Mike’s influence, ELC was the first prestige beauty company to execute a VPPA in November 2020, for 22 MW of wind power from the Ponderosa wind farm in Oklahoma, ELC’s largest renewable energy initiative to date. The Ponderosa wind farm generated more than 95,000 MWh of power in fiscal 2022. Mike is a driver in waste reduction, by preventing, reducing, reusing (including donation, where appropriate), and recycling. If waste is not reused or recycled, it is converted to energy by treatment facilities. Our manufacturing and distribution facilities reuse 4,000 tons of materials annually. For the past decade, we have also worked with g2 Revolution, an organization that takes difficult-to recycle items and finds new ways to reuse them. Many of our freestanding stores in the U.S. transfer their unsellable products and testers to g2 Revolution, where ingredients are used to make other products. In fiscal 2022, we diverted 13,000 pounds of waste through g2. Mike has also driven the development and implementation of our water stewardship strategy, which is aligns with guidance developed by the Alliance for Water Stewardship. Our current strategy prioritizes our largest manufacturing facilities in water-stressed regions and is supported by an increased focus on efficiency and implementation of best practices for water management and capital projects. Furthermore, our green building standards have water-efficiency requirements that all new facilities are expected to meet.
Beyond continuing to take EHS strategies to new heights, Mike’s efforts to build an incredibly diverse team is another example of his commitment to industry advancements and lifelong learning. In a historically male-dominant industry, Mike has built a department, comprised of five pillars, all led by women. At ELC, he recognizes inclusion and diversity drive creativity and innovation – not only is his leadership team comprised of all women, his department of 95 employees include employees of various industry backgrounds, including operations, marketing, and communications. He acknowledges that it’s the diversity of his team that has enabled such notable accomplishments and continued success throughout his tenure with ELC.
Mike has shown a commitment to lifelong learning by continuing to evolve the way he leads as the broader sustainability, corporate responsibility, ESG field evolves. At ELC, Mike has found ways to effectively collaborate with new partners within the organization to maximize the company’s broader EHS work. He has remained agile to evolve his ways of working over the years to drive even greater impact.