Movers & Shakers: Uponor Corp. director of sustainability Rusty Callier

Rusty Callier is leading environmental practices for Uponor Corp. in his new global role as director of sustainability and corporate responsibility for the international provider of plumbing and indoor climate systems and parent company of Apple Valley-based Uponor North America.

Callier, promoted from his previous position as Uponor North America's director of operations, leads a team overseeing eight key sustainability projects focusing on "people, planet and profits" for Finland-based Uponor Corp., which has operations in 30 countries.

"Our key message in those eight projects is around the notion of a circular economy," Callier said. "It's the notion that you want to find infinite loops to reuse material closest to the purpose it was originally intended to be used for, with the desired end result to be that nothing gets to a landfill."

Callier joined Uponor North America in 2002 and has helped develop a forecasting tool that projects Uponor's energy consumption based on production plans for the following 18 to 24 months. The company then can look for ways to mitigate that energy use.

Sustainability has been a priority for Callier since he saw what he called a "shocking" amount of trash — much of it from familiar brands — floating in a Guatemalan harbor during a stop with the U.S. Coast Guard, which he joined after high school.

Callier has an MBA from the University of St. Thomas and a degree in land-use planning from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Q: What is your approach to your new role?

Q: What's the role of sustainability in business?

A: In my mind brown companies can't sell green products. Customers will see through your misrepresentation when they start asking for data to support how green a product is. You need to be part of the innovation when it comes to doing things in an energy efficient and environmental way.

Q: How do you stay in touch with employees and team members in different time zones?

A: I'm on my computer Skyping in meetings by 6 a.m. I've adjusted my time to be much more of an early-morning person to capture the afternoons in Europe. Every six to eight weeks I get on a plane to one of our locations to do face-to-face meetings.