Christopher P. Perzan

• Corporate leader for sustainability and environmental affairs, responsible for leading a team of environmental and sustainability professionals. Navistar is a manufacturer of International and IC Bus brand trucks, engines, school buses and EVs, and part of TRATON Group, the commercial heavy vehicle entity within Volkswagen Group.
• Led post-merger integration of environmental and sustainability functions into TRATON Group, helping establish parent-level sustainability governance that unified and directed the efforts of four global operating companies, while keeping the strengths of each.
• Represented Navistar on the TRATON Sustainability Board, responsible for high-level sustainability governance and decision-making across the Group. Member of the TRATON Sustainability Leadership Group, the primary coordinating body for sustainability among Group companies.
• Led full-scope corporate GHG footprint development at Navistar and integration into the TRATON footprint, including Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. Primary Navistar representative for TRATON’s GHG reduction strategy, Science Based Targets Initiative commitments, and net-zero roadmap.
• Managed environmental compliance, permitting, ISO 14001 environmental management system, compliance audit program, and environmental metrics and KPIs across company facilities.
• Advised on product regulatory matters including vehicle emissions certification, GHG and NOx rulemaking, emission credit transactions, and federal and California heavy-duty regulatory developments.
• Managed legacy environmental liabilities and major remediation matters domestically and internationally, including significant matters with California DTSC and a regional water board.
• Managed development and publication of a decade of corporate Sustainability Reports; implemented new full-company sustainability and compliance data platform.
• Successfully managed enterprise-threatening product regulation litigation in the DC Circuit, designing and implementing a legal strategy that preserved the company’s ability to manufacture its engines.

Featured in TRATON’s 2023 Annual Report as one of the Group’s four brand sustainability leads, alongside counterparts at Scania, MAN, and Volkswagen Truck & Bus. Read the feature on traton.com →

• Litigated environmental matters in state and federal court involving air, water, and land issues including permitting, agricultural regulations, air emissions, water discharge, and hazardous waste management.
• Successfully tried a multi-week public water supply case; lead counsel in a major investigation involving radioactive discharges from nuclear power plants.
• Litigated the first successful application of the responsible corporate officer doctrine in Illinois.
• Led investigation into toxic contaminants in consumer products, resulting in negotiated recalls with major retailers and distributors.

• Counsel for the highly industrial St. Louis metro-east region of Illinois, managing complex environmental permitting, enforcement, and compliance matters involving steel mills, oil refineries, chemical plants, incinerators, landfills, and other major industrial operations.
• State representative to the EPA Region 5 Gateway Initiative, coordinating multi-media state/federal joint investigations and enforcement cases.
• Helped develop the first state voluntary cleanup and redevelopment program approved by U.S. EPA. Played a critical role in a landmark bankruptcy settlement that enabled redevelopment of a major steel mill, cited by EPA as a landmark resolution.