As an expert on climate change mitigation and sustainability policy, I help corporations and municipalities find more sustainable solutions for their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) challenges.
I am a senior project director at WSP USA with a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University, and a Columbia University graduate with a master’s degree in environmental science and policy. I am also a Green Building Certification Institute-certified urban greenhouse gas inventory specialist and a lecturer on greenhouse gas measurement and mitigation at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies.
I have been with WSP for more than five years and have worked with many Fortune 50 and Fortune 500 companies on their sustainability programs. Before joining WSP, I spent six years working on solar and energy policy in New York City, where I supported multiple U.S. Department of Energy SunShot grants and led NYC policy that tripled its solar capacity.
My focus is on greenhouse gas accounting and target setting, but I’m also experienced in sustainable supply chain engagement and travel policies, renewable energy procurement, carbon pricing and climate risk and resiliency.
Virtuous Engagement
What excites me about my role at WSP is the ability to scale the impact of our recommendations by working with some of the biggest companies and cities in the world.
I assist clients in modeling, certifying and achieving their science-based greenhouse gas reduction targets as part of the WSP Climate, Resilience & Sustainability team. I also advise corporations in their target submissions to the Science-based Targets initiative (SBTi).
A significant challenge for companies setting goals that involve the supply chain is collecting robust and reliable data from their suppliers, because many smaller suppliers don’t yet calculate their greenhouse gas emissions and/or allocate these emissions to specific products and services.
We are helping multiple Fortune 50 companies engage their suppliers and improve the overall quality of these data. This is crucial to manage and track progress toward the next generation of climate goals, and it creates opportunities for these suppliers to engage with their own supply chain.
This creates a virtuous cycle of engagement, education and emission reductions up the supply chain.
Impactful Innovations
As a senior project director, my goal is to manage projects that lead to new innovations.
I led development of the Adaptation and Mitigation Interaction Assessment for the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. This assessment includes nearly 60 case studies that provide insight into actual implementations of climate change actions in different environments. It was designed to be a living tool that will be updated regularly with new case studies, both from C40 cities and other sources.
One of the most noteworthy innovations for a project I worked on for a Fortune 50 company was a new, science-based greenhouse gas reduction goal to neutralize all historic greenhouse gas emissions via carbon removals from the atmosphere.
This was the first commitment of its kind — where a company accepted responsibility for its historic emissions. This client’s commitment to climate justice was widely acknowledged as the new standard in corporate greenhouse gas goal setting and has inspired other companies to do the same.
However, while it is exciting to help some of the biggest companies in the world set goals to tackle the scale of the climate emergency, the most satisfying projects have been those that resulted in measurable progress in reduced emissions and local benefits.
Climate Action Planning
Last year in Pennsylvania, I led the development of the City of Bethlehem’s Climate Action Plan (CAP). This became the city’s comprehensive roadmap for local efforts to address climate changes. The plan’s public engagement and participation process was guided by the principles of equity, inclusion and appreciative inquiry.
The plan’s commitment to environmental justice and equity is its most innovative feature. It ensured that all community sectors had opportunities to engage and provide their input and that 40 percent of the CAP’s overall spending benefits go to communities in the most need, such as those that experience the worst consequences of climate change — disproportionately low-income populations and people of color.
The result was an award-winning plan with ambitious, science-based greenhouse-gas targets and a focus on environmental justice and equity. We are now supporting Bethlehem in achieving these goals, and I am honored to support the city’s new Environmental Justice Council.
I was also part of the WSP team that helped the City of Chicago develop its own climate action plan, which was released in April. This new climate action plan was another step in our goals of equity-and-justice-focused work and went even further in putting equity and justice as the plan’s top priorities.
[To subscribe to Insights, contact the editorial staff at [email protected].]
