Top 5 Lessons for Pursuing a Career in Sustainability

Our world is currently witnessing a transition from science misinformation to cultural and solutions stymying driven by the industrial debt hurdle of turning non-liquid assets, legal roadblocks, and a lack of diverse business-specific modeling for visibility into value capture and creation opportunities. This is not the first time the world has needed to change and why your passion to solve these wicked problems is so important! In order to shape future realities, we must first envision and enable agile infrastructures and steps for scale from current realities in order to reach the new economic paradigm.

I am a pragmatic innovator who has pursued sustainability solutions for 15yrs (yes, I was that teenager on the news talking about trash). I’ve worked across a wide variety of sectors and wanted to share my career story with those interested in following a similar path. Hint: you do not need a degree with the word “sustainability” in the title! In short, start thinking about yourself as a gardener in your own career and for the businesses you work with. Read on for the top 5 lessons in my journey so far.

1. Gain experiences in working with the land to understand systems thinking.

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest of the USA around family agriculture businesses taught me to proactively tend to my future, recognize the value in waste, and solve challenges with the big picture in mind. I discovered my passion for and avenue to shape future realities in high school as a three-year top international DECA entrepreneur competitor.

A Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design with second-use materials and life cycle assessment coursework was my chosen path to positive innovation impact. At Western Washington University I co-found a Smart Solar Window startup that has since been licensed by a private lab and NASA for passive HVAC management and to improve remote greenhouse yield (2013 - 2015). It was my grounding in working with the Earth that kept me connected to our planetary boundaries and collective impact as my career moved forward.

2. Align your profession with structural impact over seasonal fashions.

In my next job, I built an industrial design department and developed hit products including the Starbucks double-wall ceramic tumbler and lid, still in stores. I also had the eye-opening experience of driving innovation sourcing, production, quality assurance, and social ethics at factories in China. Visits to ceramic, glass, fabric, packaging. and plastic factories over 2.5 months in 2016 reconnected me with why I became a designer.

However, it became apparent at the time that design (unfortunately) has fewer seats at the business decision-making table than I thought. I also started volunteering to teach STEAM and business lessons at high schools and recognized that I have a talent for innovation education. Motivated to realign work with my purpose, I pivoted my career and moved to California to solve supply chain and social responsibility challenges, drive early product reductions to environmental impact, and market success at startups.

3. Growth only comes with the recognition of weakness and a willingness to consider feedback.

Building a consulting business in the Bay Area was a crash course in law, finance, and competitive economics all at the same time. It was also an exercise in humility when I took a job as a restaurant manager and cross-trained as the marketing and volunteer coordinator on the board of the Bay Area Coffee Community. Spare time was spent researching solutions for a startup concept that would assist in mapping, sourcing, and making intelligent recommendations or agile substitutions for materials, components, and Tier 1 suppliers.

Struggling with my pipeline, I had to stretch in new ways. My experience in coffee included advocating for international LGBTQ respect and policy change. This showcased the immense support and capabilities that building and aligning a community could bring towards driving just solutions.

4. Never stand on stage alone. Always be elevating your community.

By early 2018 I was back in Seattle and keeping myself afloat with dedicated network growth. This meant becoming a hub: targeting and building relationships for yourself as well as serving as a catalyst for connecting others. I was fortunate to dive back into industrial projects with clients in robotics, autonomous vehicles, real estate development, mixed reality, gig workforce management and training, and the internet of things.

2018 through mid-2019 was a time of intense focus. I took on community leadership roles, sourcing, stakeholder identification, total addressable market, competitive landscape, positioning analysis, and Series A pitch development opportunities. This provided insight to earn recognition from both Google and Microsoft for my Anim8 intelligent materials marketplace company. Advising that the concept was a few years ahead of technology readiness and direction to focus on the industrial OEM space has proven wise over time. Relationships became and still are my most important asset.

5. They say “1 year at a startup is like 5 years at an enterprise.” They were right.

Diving into deep industrial tech has honed my understanding of computing and software communications. I've learned that the rigor of startups will bring out the best and worst in people, but highly recommend experience in the space as sustainability leaders often need to bring a startup mentality to their role.

My core strengths are creative positioning and project management while iterating on execution infrastructure for program scale. I am efficient and effective by establishing templated processes, a scientific approach to content and demand gen, streamlining user experience, attentiveness to human connection, and polish as I go. Planning, KPI tracking, and exceeding goals are things I geek out on, though I also appreciate the energy and surprise of arts and culture experiences. In recent roles, the biggest learning has come from engaging cross-departmental and external stakeholders at scale, managing up with courtesy, confidence with continuous improvement, and leveraging process automation tools.

How can you be a gardener in your own sustainability career and take action to shape future realities?

Everyone’s sustainability career journey is different and the field is only just entering a growth phase. Remember that even if the company you are at is not 100% focused on solving sustainability challenges, there are always opportunities to align business value with impactful action. Start with suggestions for incremental efficiencies aligned with energy and material cost savings before recommending business model transformation. Always track your quantitative and qualitative results.

Roles for sustainability transformation are not clearly defined so an important first step is to assess your value and come forward with the knowledge to shape your responsibilities. The Ikigai diagram tool is a great way to give yourself direction. While you should always advocate being paid for your work, volunteering in my community is how I was able to gain early career experiences in sustainability and social initiatives. Direction and skills growth over the last few years has largely been driven by looking up the backgrounds of sustainability leaders - many have involvement in technology, supply chain, law, finance, and marketing. I know that I'm weak in environmental law and carbon accounting, so am seeking courses to boost that knowledge.

It is especially important to recognize and not accuse others of their current state of knowledge or activities by saying "let's try" vs. "you shouldn't." Maintain data diligence, inspire action with creativity, speed adoption of positive impact solutions by automating systems, catalyze workforce transition through accessible skills growth, seed network momentum for market scale, and use your voice when legislation or standards progress is on the table.

I hope that sharing my journey can help you find your north star and career success!

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