Category: Learning

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The Future of Sustainability is Female

This post was written by Emily Klein ’19

EDITOR’S NOTE: The MBA Women for Change, a student-founded and managed group, is about to conclude its first year of existence, and scored a number of significant accomplishments in 2018-2019 aimed at bringing the issue of gender equality in the workplace to the forefront.

As a woman in my mid-twenties, I am constantly thinking about my future—crafting my next move, creating my career path, and navigating the opportunity costs of personal and professional decisions. My decision to attend business school solidified my personal statement of purpose: I am capable, confident, and powerful, and I will bring about meaningful change in the world. For me, business school was intimidating and, to be honest, sometimes I felt like an imposter; however, if there is one thing I’ll take away from the SIMBA program, it is  the idea that challenges bring about great opportunities.

We started the MBA Women for Change group to actively promote women in business leadership roles. Female leaders are and will be key drivers of sustainability efforts around the world; we see great opportunity in recognizing and capitalizing on the unique perspectives of women as we pursue sustainability and innovation in business.

MBA Women for Change has three goals in mind for our short year together: spurring deeper conversations around women in leadership and sustainability roles; organizing professional development opportunities; and building networks of support within the university and in the Vermont business community. In our first semester, we have accomplished quite a lot in pursuit of these goals:

Conversations around women in business: Serving as a support group and forum for women in the current cohort, Women for Change has encouraged discussions on topics ranging from Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In” to communication and confrontation. The group has also facilitated cohort-wide conversations around gender, identity, and leadership.

Professional development: Women for Change has hosted several professional development workshops, including a session on power and leadership in conjunction with the UVM Women’s Center, lunch with guest speaker Lori Smith on organizational wellbeing, and an interactive situations workshop with our own Alexa Steiner.

Outreach: Coordinating with the Alumni MBA Women’s Group and women on the SIMBA Advisory Board, Women for Change is working to create a more tight-knit SIMBA community of female leaders. Group members have also attended community networking events with Vermont Womenpreneurs, Vermont Women’s Fund, and the New England Women’s Investor Network, and have connected with local businesses such as Generator, a makerspace in Burlington.

In pursuit of these goals, we have sparked deeper discussions, forged stronger connections, and created a more supportive and inclusive learning space. Our hope is these conversations, interactions, and networks empower women to take the lead toward a more sustainable future. By growing the pipeline of female leaders in the sustainability space, UVM and others are effecting long-term change. As many before me have said: this is not a women’s issue, it’s a human issue.

They say to be the change you wish to see in the world. The MBA Women for Change group envisions a more sustainable and equitable future; our cumulative individual efforts power a driving force within our program and beyond to achieve this vision. For the twelve months we have together in the SIMBA program, we work to change the conversation around female MBA students and leaders.

Come August 2019, we will have a powerful network of women behind us as we move into corporations and create our own companies. From finance and marketing to supply chain and social responsibility, we are the leaders we wish to see in the world. I am proud to study alongside tenacious women and supportive men – together, the 41 of us are a force to be reckoned with.

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The Sustainable Innovation MBA featured in Inclusive Business Action Network

The Sustainable Innovation MBA at the Grossman School of Business embodies a movement facilitated by the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative to transform management education. Read more here:

https://www.inclusivebusiness.net/ib-voices/innovating-global-responsibility

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Value for All!

This post was written by Elissa Eggers ’19

A few weeks ago, during our Driving Sustainable Change course, my classmates and I were fortunate enough to chat with Andy Ruben, co-founder and CEO of Yerdle. Yerdle is a “circular economy powerhouse” driving change in the recommerce market by partnering with brands in a way that benefits consumers, companies, and the planet. For someone who came into this program looking to gain new skill sets and tools that would support me in my quest to change the fashion and retail industry for the better, it was exciting to have the opportunity to hear first-hand how Yerdle is disrupting the retail landscape.

Currently, the fashion industry produces upwards of 100 billion pieces of clothing per year despite there being just under 8 million people on the planet. On average, we consume 400x more clothing than we did 20 years ago. Clearly, we have a consumption problem. However, we also have a lack of use problem. As Andy highlighted in our conversation, a large portion of perfectly wearable clothing in the world today sits unused in people’s drawers and closets. That doesn’t even take into account the 10.5 million tons of clothes tossed into landfills each year in the United States alone when people decide it is finally time to purge. So how do we address the growing mountains of clothing taking over the planet? Extending the life of our clothing by keeping pieces in circulation longer is definitely a key piece to this puzzle.

Now, keeping clothing in use by passing it along is by no means a novel idea. Passing along hand-me-downs and buying from and selling to thrift stores are examples of ways people have long been extending the life of their clothing.  However, if we are truly to stop the current systems of production, consumption, and disposal that currently define the retail landscape and result in wasted resources, then we need to innovate and expand on our current re-sale systems.

Yerdle is doing just that. By partnering with brands to help them take control of their resale market and extract value from it in the form of profits and customer acquisition, Yerdle ensures that all stakeholders (including the brands) benefit. A key theme woven throughout our coursework in this program is the importance of expanding the pie. In other words, for a solution to be truly sustainable and innovative, it cannot simply redistribute the value created to different groupings of stakeholders. Rather, it needs to expand the pie to increase the value captured by all.

Understandably, finding a solution that truly expands the pie is easier said than done which is why listening to Andy was such a valuable experience. Ultimately, by making retail companies part of their solution and beneficiaries of it, Yerdle has created a solution that other brands would want to be part of because the expanded value created extends to them. This makes integrating recommence into their businesses seem like the smarter, more profitable option.

One of my biggest takeaways from the conversation is that as my cohort and I move out into the world and start trying to tackle these big issues, we need to remember the importance of crafting solutions that reduce friction and do not force people to make trade-offs. The fact is, we are all passionate about different things and not everyone is going to care about or be willing and able to sacrifice something for the sake of sustainability. Nor should they necessarily be expected to. Thus, building a solution that requires stakeholders (businesses or consumers) to make a sacrifice of something they value in order embrace the greener option, is simply not a realistic and scalable alternative. Instead, businesses, particularly those in retail, need to embrace and develop strategies that make things easier and better for all. Yerdle is one example of a company doing just that.

Photo by Artificial Photography on Unsplash

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How to Decrease the Single-Use Plastics in Your Life

This post was written by Shea Mahoney ’19

With so much focus throughout The Sustainable Innovation MBA curriculum on the complex, pressing sustainability challenges across the globe it can start to feel claustrophobic and overwhelming to think about how to address these issues from as individual in terms of personal consumer behaviors. One place I have been trying to minimize my own ecological impact is by reducing my consumption of single-use and disposable consumer plastics products wherever I can. These attempts have made it clearer than ever how hard it is to break up with plastic, it is so ubiquitous in most of the products we all use on a daily basis. Fortunately this is an issue gaining traction, highlighted by Burlington’s recent vote on Town Hall Meeting Day to ban single-use-plastic bags, and with higher scrutiny towards how prevalent these products are in our lives there is a broadening new market for more sustainable substitutes to help tamper plastic use.

By looking at the plastic products I use most frequently I have been able to identify some good alternative products to replace those, allowing me to reduce my reliance on them. One source of plastic waste that might not immediately jump to front of mind is plastic toothbrushes, but with their daily use they tend to be replaced fairly regularly and over one’s lifetime toothbrushes can account for a significant amount of plastic waste. Many companies have sought to offer a more sustainable option, with biodegradable bamboo toothbrushes being a common alternative. Bamboo is a very low agriculturally intensive crop, requiring relatively little land surface area for cultivation and no fertilizer use. However, not all bamboo is created equal and with the rising popularity of the crop for myriad uses it can take a bit of digging to verify whether or not a bamboo toothbrush (or any product made with the eco-fiber) is actually sustainably grown or rather being greenwashed as a more eco-friendly option.

Another area of single-use plastics that can be reduced through investing in more eco-friendly substitutes is produce bags. While it has become pretty common practice for many to bring reusable grocery bags to the store, many of us still rely on plastic produce bags for packaging our perishable fruits and vegetables. However, there are many alternative, reusable mesh bags that can be easily used to replace the flimsy plastic ones so ubiquitous in grocery stores. These also make for a relatively simple addition to any already ingrained reusable bag habits. While the need for more substantive, paradigmatic shift in the way we as a society views the use and disposal of plastics remains a daunting and pressing concern, there are many ways at the individual level to curb your consumption and make small but meaningful changes. Investing your dollar votes in sustainable products that provide longer term solutions instead of reaching for single use plastics when convenient is one way we can all contribute to the larger, collective groundswell of change.

Sources:

https://goodonyou.eco/bamboo-fabric-sustainable/ https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Move-to-ban-single-use-plastic-bags-gaining-momentum-5 06765721.html

Photo by Patricia Valério on Unsplash

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Women for Change: A Lesson in Determination and Perseverance

This post was written by Lauren Masters, Emily Klein, Meryl Schneider, Caitlyn Kenney, Maggie Robinson, and Alyssa Schuetz of the Class of 2019

What started as an idea in September turned into the first formal public event hosted by The Sustainable Innovation MBA (SI-MBA) program’s Women for Change group. Seven months ago, Lauren Masters, a current student of the SI-MBA program said, “I think Holly Dowling would be a great speaker to catalyze and legitimize our group within UVM’s Grossman School of Business and the greater Burlington community.”

With this goal in mind, a group of six women combined their skills, experiences, and minimal free time to jumpstart a new endeavor. The event planning committee included current MBA students Emily Klein, Lauren Masters, Caitlyn Kenney, Alyssa Schuetz, Meryl Schneider, and Maggie Robinson. Little did they know the amount of grit, determination, and perseverance that would be needed to legitimize the Women for Change’s first event held for the Greater Burlington community.

Throughout this process, students learned valuable lessons on how to navigate the world of fundraising, legitimize a club on campus, and overcome challenges that arose in unexpected places. As time passed and checklists seemed to grow, the planning proved to be difficult as students juggled their full-time schedules. There were even moments when they questioned whether, or not they would be able to pull-off the event.  Ultimately, the cumulative shared values of the planning committee proved to be enough as the group banned together until the very end.

On March 21st, over 50 young professionals, business leaders, and SI-MBA students alike were able to see this event come to fruition. Henry Vogt, a SI-MBA student said, “I found the Holly Dowling event to be fun, exciting and inspiring. Not only was it a great networking opportunity, but it was also exciting and thought-provoking. When Holly presented it felt like she was speaking directly to members of the audience. She offered perspective and inspiration on how to be successful, depicted personal stories of how she persevered through adversity, and gave tips on how to live a more fulfilling life. Additionally, it was very impressive that this event was organized by a passionate group of women MBA students, who put in a massive amount of work to successfully fundraise and organize an excellent event.”

As the adrenaline wore off, this small group of women looked at this event as one of the many highs of their overall SI-MBA experience.  Grad student Lauren Masters adds, “We knew we were all working towards a bigger picture of empowering female leaders not only within our cohort but also the greater Burlington community area and beyond. We hope that some of the key insights gained from this event will stick with attendees throughout their careers.”

For more information on the specifics of this event, please check out the following article: Leaning In

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MBA Women for Change Hosts Holly Dowling

This post was written by John Turner, Marketing & Media Relations Specialist at the Grossman School of Business.

In a recent study of women in the workplace by McKinsey & Company, the consulting group reported that while for the last four years, companies have reported that they are highly committed to gender diversity, that commitment has not translated into meaningful progress. Women continue to be vastly underrepresented at every level, and only about one in five senior leaders is a woman.

With that as the backdrop, the role and empowerment of women in the workplace was addressed by globally renowned leadership speaker Holly Dowling recently at a special event in Burlington.

Hosted by the MBA Women for Change, a student group of The Sustainable Innovation MBA program at the Grossman School of Business, and Westport Hospitality, guest speaker and change management and leadership expert Holly Dowling led a spirited conversation about women in leadership at the Courtyard Marriott in Burlington.

The event was the brainchild of the MBA Women for Change, a group started in the fall of 2018 to promote and advocate for gender issues in the workplace within The Sustainable Innovation MBA program.

The idea for the event gelled when a personal connection to Holly Dowling surfaced, and the group saw the opportunity to host an event that not only started a conversation around these issues, but was an appropriate way to widen the discussion out into the community, strengthen relationships with other organizations such as the Vermont Women’s Fund, as well as raise the profile and awareness of the program itself.

“Holly was a perfect speaker for us, having an aligned focus and goals of getting women into leadership as a conversation and she gave us this gift with her time and energy to be able to come here,” said organizing committee member Emily Klein ’19.

Meryl Schneider ’19, another committee member said,“it was great to be able to invite other women from all over the community, friends and family, and men, to this event to take part in something like this.”

The event also provided a platform to build bridges, extending the network and encouraging collaboration. Alyssa Schuetz ’19 noted, “it was great being able to establish relationships with other community groups like the Vermont Women’s Fund, the Burton’s women’s group as well as with our donors, to further connect and establish lines of communication.”

She continued, “We deliberately invited men and asked Holly to tailor the conversation so that it was inclusive to all genders, so everyone could get the benefit. Because we know that it’s not just the women who have to make a change, men are a huge part in this. We wanted to make it as open and accessible to as many people as possible.”

Emily continued, “I liked Holly’s message that companies are letting go of diversity and inclusion and are now only talking about inclusion. Because how far are we going to get if there’s all these separate interest groups with all these separate conversations? Acknowledging diversity and creating pockets within an organization is not fully solving the issue.”

Meg Smith, Director of the Vermont Women’s Fund, a nonprofit organization that provides support for women’s economic self-sufficiency, entrepreneurship and an event sponsor said, “this event that brings people together to have a conversation is important as everyone gains strength from one another. The realization that by collaborating, the sum is greater than the parts. There is an ongoing need for women in the workforce, and to create an inclusive, friendly workplace. My organization is focused on positive change for women, but it cannot happen in a vacuum, you cannot do it alone.”

With the success of this initial event, the group hope to continue their work including hosting guest speakers from the Women’s Center and an International Women’s Forum dinner with PhD students and the dean from UVM’s Rubenstein School. The group also realize that with The Sustainable Innovation MBA program being just one year, it’s a challenge to maintain momentum from cohort to cohort.

They plan to stay involved after graduation and provide assistance wherever possible, as some from previous cohorts have done, and hope that future cohorts will continue to build out the work of the group, and keep advocating and pushing for gender issues and equality.

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We’ve Reached the Summit!

A closer look at the Appreciative Inquiry Summit hosted by the Class of 2019

This post was written by Tor Dworshak, Maura Kalil, Billy Rivellini, and Alexa Steiner of the Class of 2019

Tuesday, April 16th saw the culmination of significant learning and hard work in our Driving Sustainable Change class with Professor Ante Glavas. The Class of 2019 hosted an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Summit on the topic of creating high quality post-Sustainable Innovation MBA experiences for alumni of the program. Participants included the current cohort, numerous alumni, and faculty.

Planned and executed by our cohort, the summit was a lesson in leadership, facilitation, event management, and the AI model. AI is a stakeholder engagement model to facilitate strengths based understanding of change management opportunities that exist in an organization. Each of the learning teams were given one of ten tasks to execute that day, and if we may say so ourselves, our classmates crushed it! As we will become alumni of the program in the coming months, the topic of the day was extremely relevant and important to all of us.

The day began with an explanation of the “chaordic” space we were all about to occupy. What is “chaordic”? It is the combination of chaos and order; a space that allows for creativity and experimentation within the boundaries of some structure. With an emphasis on strengths and opportunity, the AI summit was organized into four phases, each of which consisted of different thought-provoking questions, innovative challenges, and creative activities. The Discovery phase of AI is about appreciating and focuses on the best of what is. The Dream phase is about envisioning, with an emphasis on results and impact. The Design phase is about co-creation and co-construction. Finally, the Destiny phase is about sustaining, and how to empower, learn and improvise. Each team played their part, fulfilled their role, and contributed to the overall positive experience that day. We received incredible feedback about the positive and productive nature of the conversations. The day also gave the current cohort and alumni a chance to really work together, getting especially creative with the prototyping of ideas in the afternoon’s Design phase.

“It was really cool to see how the students took what Ante had taught them and within a few short weeks, were running an appreciative inquiry summit themselves”, said Erik Monsen, professor in The Sustainable Innovation MBA program. “They demonstrated how clear their learning had been because they were able to teach the rest of us and guide us through the AI process that day.”

“I was delighted by the creativity and the power to generate ideas demonstrated by everybody in the room during all of the phases,” said Joe Fusco, Director of The Sustainable Innovation MBA program. “The format of the summit and the AI process really highlighted the potential in the program’s existing strengths.”

The Sustainable Innovation MBA network is truly special. With a focus on cohesion and collaboration, there isn’t much room for competition, though there was definitely some friendly competition during the summit’s Design phase. There was so much creativity and warmth in the Keller room that day and we, the Class of 2019, are grateful to Ante for giving us the opportunity to put our learnings into practice and lead this summit. With only a few weeks of classes left, the Class of 2019 has also reached the summit of our year in the program. So with that, we want to thank everyone who participated this year and wish the best of luck to the class of 2020 in their future summit planning!

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Single-Use Plastic: Why Recycling is Not Enough

This post was written by Meg Nadeau ’19

During a recent Driving Sustainable Change class, we implemented the methods of Design Thinking to try to answer the difficult question, “How might we reduce the consumption of single-use products at UVM?”

This is a question I have tried to answer for myself on many occasions: How can I change my behavior so that I can reduce my consumption of single-use products? By single-use products I mean any product designed specifically to be used once, then discarded, simply to be replaced by another single-use product.

I used to believe that as long as I recycled the plastic I was using, I was doing my part. However, I have realized that recycling is not enough. There is a reason why the phrase goes reduce, reuse, and recycle. Reducing and reusing come before recycling because that is how to make the most positive impact.

Recycling is better than not recycling, don’t get me wrong, but the current recycling process has many inefficiencies. First, containers must be clean of contaminants. In a full bin of recycling, items that are not recyclable — contamination — weaken the marketability of that material, and those items wind up in a landfill anyway. If the plastic does end up going to a recycling facility, it takes large amounts of energy and resources to transform it into a product that can be used again. Monitoring and collection, transportation, and the recycling manufacturing process itself all contribute to this energy and resource consumption.

The molecular makeup of plastics makes it very difficult for it to be broken down and transformed back to its original product, like a water bottle being turned back into a water bottle. Instead, recycled plastic is usually used for secondary reprocessing which turns the recycled plastic into a plastic product that cannot be recycled. This repurposing of plastic is better than just throwing it in landfills, but its footprint should not be minimized. There must also be demand for the recycled material for this process to really be effective. Many recycling programs are operating at a cash loss on a regular basis, which is not sustainable for the long-term.

So, what is the solution to this? Recycling used to be seen as the solution for all of our waste. But, that is just not enough if we plan on saving the planet. The real solution is to not create the need to recycle in the first place. Reduce your consumption of single-use plastics, or better yet, don’t use single-use plastic at all. Nobody is perfect, so if you do buy plastic try to reuse the item as many times as you can. Get creative with it! How many new uses can you get out of a plastic product? But, since the goal of this post is to reduce the consumption of single-use products, I am going to leave you with some tips that have helped me.

  1. The Grocery Store: Single-use products are everywhere here, from lettuce wrapped in plastic, to eggs in plastic casings, to meat packed in plastic bags. Become mindful of your purchases at the grocery store. Start your grocery shopping the right way by remembering to bring your own shopping bags- this will set you up for a successful grocery shopping trip right from the start! Put your produce in these reusable bags instead of putting them into the small plastic produce bags and try to buy produce that is not already wrapped in plastic. Choose cardboard over plastic whenever possible. Cardboard is generally easier to recycle and tends to biodegrade more easily. So go for the eggs in the cardboard casing, or the pasta in a box instead of in a bag, or detergent in a box instead of a bottle.
  2. The Bathroom: Look in your shower and count how many plastic containers are in there. Is there a way you can change your purchasing behavior to find products that don’t come in plastic? Can you refill glass containers with shampoo, conditioner, and body wash? There are companies, like Lush, that are selling solid shampoos and body washes that do not have to be contained in a bottle at all. Instead of buying disposable razors, try switching to a razor that lets you replace the blade or, even better, get a straight razor. Instead of shaving cream, try coconut oil. And if you really want to commit to a sustainable shaving experience, don’t shave at all! There are many alternatives to your plastic toothbrush, as well. Try going with a wooden toothbrush, one that you can just throw in the fire when it is time to get a new one. While we are on the topic of teeth, have you ever tried tooth powder? You can make your own at home with baking powder, salt, and essential oils for flavoring. You can also buy pre-made tooth powder from brands like Uncle Harry or Aquarian Bath.
  3. The Kitchen: Plastic has inundated our kitchens in the form of plastic baggies, plastic wrap, and plastic storage containers. Instead of using plastic wrap, use jars or glass containers. There are also some innovative companies, like Bee’s Wrap, that are coming out with reusable food storage solutions. Instead of plastic baggies or plastic containers, why not use a glass or stainless steel bento box? If you’re feeling extra brave, bring these out with you when you know there will be leftovers. Instead of relying on a restaurant to provide you with a single-use container to-go, complete with a plastic bag, opt to put the food in your own container that can be reused over and over again. Try switching to wash cloths instead of paper towels. Paper towels come wrapped in plastic and can only be used to clean up one mess. Wash cloths can be used over and over again and just get thrown in with the rest of the dirty laundry when they need to be washed.
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The Mission, and The Team

This post was written by Cameron McMahon ’19.Cameron served 4 years active duty in the US Marine Corps infantry, deploying twice.

There is a lot of discussion about mission-driven businesses and millennials being attracted to working for them.  Along with this come conversations about how to build up your people and create teams that are greater than the sum of their parts. This has been causing me to reflect on my time in the U.S. Marine Corps infantry and how we built and managed teams.  Shared hardship tended to be the element which rapidly allowed the willingness to form for us to perform well together.  As I am working on starting my farm business and considering best practices for finding and hiring people to help build the business, I am trying to think deeply about the type of culture I want to create. 

In the USMC the mission was always provided to us and there was a clear rank structure and roles within that which existed for eliminating uniqueness. There were jobs to be performed and the expectation was that you performed your role and anything else simply wasn’t an option. Extremely high rates of burnout are the norm for junior ranks with this treatment.  However, we accomplished the mission and pushed our limits far beyond what we had previously thought possible. We as a human community are facing grave threats in the next several decades that will decide whether or not we are able to continue living on this planet. It is difficult to find the language in a civilian setting to pull the best lessons from the USMC. How to translate the brutal methods and speech for rapidly binding teams together who are willing to work through pain, exhaustion, and fear to run through calf- deep mud filled with mines toward the multiple machine guns firing at you and your friends to a business setting?

I don’t pretend to have any firm answers to these questions. In the process of trying to figure it out though, some things have been clarifying. Motivation is encouraged when people are able to feel a sense of ownership over the process as well as the results.  Having a sense that you are part of something larger than yourself and working toward a common goal that serves humanity in useful ways helps to make the day to day tasks required for job performance gain deeper meaning and purpose. Hope works better than fear for motivating people to perform at a consistently high level over time. 

Facing the myriad challenges from threats such as climate change cannot be done effectively if people don’t feel as if a better future is possible and their actions matter in creating it. Just as there is no place for cowardice on the battlefield and those who are unable to push through their natural hesitation to endanger themselves are removed from roles where they will get others killed; it is necessary to identify those in an organization who are not bought into the mission and cull them from the team. To create a culture of willing high performance there should be rewards for the victories and the failures in order to encourage everyone to stretch themselves and not fear failure. Great ideas won’t come out if people are afraid of the consequences of failing.  An organization, culture or person who is unwilling to change is more of a problem than a solution.  As Darwin said, “The species best able to adapt is the most likely to survive.” and as we say in the Corps, “Improvise, adapt and overcome.”

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Net Impact: Wear-it-Wise Fashion, but Make it Sustainable

This post was written by Alyssa Schuetz ’19

I may only be 23 years old, but I know exactly what I want to do with my life. I want to change the fashion industry for the better. My bachelor’s degree is in Design & Merchandising which translates loosely into the business-side of the fashion industry. After working in product development in sports apparel, I saw the shortcomings of retail and knew that I couldn’t enter the industry knowing that I would be part of the problem. I am determined to be part of the solution and create a positive impact on the industry.

When I joined The Sustainable Innovation MBA program, I knew my direction was always going to be about fashion.

I just wasn’t sure which form that would take until I came across the non-profit organization Net Impact. Turns out, they have a specific program dedicated to promoting sustainable fashion called Wear it Wise. I immediately reached out to the program because I knew I had to be involved.

As a grad student, I knew this would be a huge opportunity for me to share what I am passionate about on a larger platform. This program is sponsored by Levi’s, Colombia Sportswear Company, and Eileen Fischer. Knowing that these brands are innovators and already making a difference in the sustainability space, I knew that this platform would provide me with more skills and tools to further a cause that I was already passionate about.

After being accepted into the Wear It Wise program, I started crafting my social media campaign to give people an inside look as to how they can shop more sustainably. My goal throughout this campaign has been to empower the consumer. In my experience, the fashion industry is at a crossroads where the industry is aware of sustainability and knows that it will eventually have to become greener, but it’s still lacking that final push to implement change. I believe that we as consumers carry immense power to vote with our dollar with every purchase we make. We have the power to be this push that retailers need in order to convert to more sustainable practices.

I’m excited with the power we have to wear our values and make our impact in the retail industry. Please follow along my journey on social media as I continue to share my passion with all of you and inspire you to make your own impact!