Leaders in Sustainability
The people behind the scenes who are making an impact and fighting against climate change through implementation within their businesses - they are the Leaders in Sustainability. Learn more about them and their journey here.
What got you personally interested in fighting climate change?
I was an undergrad and spent a semester focused on micro financing clean water projects in the Dominican Republic. I came face-to-face with a failed natural resources system. When I returned to my university, I decided that I wanted to pursue a carrier in the science of sustainability and try to couple that with my business marketing background in a way to fight climate change. After having that entrance of being passionate about clean water solution, that has transitioned into a focus around energy and clean power procurement within the digital infrastructure industry.
Why did you decide to start measuring and reducing your company's carbon footprint?
In the world of digital infrastructure, energy and asset intensive businesses is typically where we operate. Therefore, we have a distinct obligation to really understand and be able to report back to many of the tenants that operate our datacenters. In order for us to be able to convey to some of the largest hyper scalers around the world what their proportion of carbon emissions are in a given facility, we need the underlined data in order to measure that. What got us started in our journey was really recognizing that we can't set reduction goals, we can't communicate to our tenants unless we really understand and have the data to do that!
Why did you choose Greenly?
Prior to joining IPI, I came from a more Venture Capital background and worked in impact investing. Before that, I worked at S&P Global and was engaged in a lot of product management. At my old venture firm, I was responsible for evaluating some of the qualities of the different ESG data analytics platforms that had come onto the market. I was therefore first introduced to Greenly through that screen, that was almost five years ago ! As I found myself in a leadership role at a different private equity firm, focused in digital infrastructure, I went back to the firms that I had initially evaluated. I found that Greenly's product had truly grown into a full scope carbon accounting solution that was going to be helpful for not only IPI but also Stack Infrastructure, our portfolio, and ultimately our hyperscale customers.
“What got us started in our journey was really recognizing that we can’t set reduction goals, we can’t communicate to our tenants unless we really understand and have the data to do that!”
What got you personally interested in fighting climate change?
I am a sustainability practitioner by career. I started off as a fisheries biologist actually, and so I'm just a naturalist as a whole. Additionally, when you see different communities being impacted by climate change and especially by major catastrophic storm events, we need to be thinking about the way we source energy, how we run our homes, and our day-to-day lives in general . Climate change really actually impacts all of us and everything that we do on a day to day basis. So where we have the opportunity to be a part of the solution, even if it's a small piece, I definitely want to dig in and do that.
Why did you decide to start measuring and reducing your company's carbon footprint?
First off, it was just recognizing that there's a real need to be very transparent about the way we think about our environmental impacts as a company. More and more, the public and investors are asking for companies to be very transparent about this information. So much so that I think it's becoming a license to operate. I'd say in the U.S, we may be a little bit slower to start this journey, but most certainly globally it's becoming a demand and a part of everyone's day-to-day business needs. So for us, it was about taking that first step ahead of the curve and being more proactive than reactive, and giving real transparency to our community.
Why did you choose Greenly?
For two big reasons. First, because Greenly was founded and started in the EU, specifically in France. Having the opportunity to work with a company that's been having to deal with managing carbon data or managing climate data in a highly regulated jurisdiction was important for us. Regulations like that are relatively new in the U.S. and we realize that reporting this type of information can be very impactful when you get into that regulated space. So we wanted to work with a partner that had that experience and understood what it takes to be successful. Second, I think the Greenly platform is amazing. The fact that it really digs into infographics and showcases carbon accounting in a way that's very directly relatable and simple rather than overcomplicating things, is incredible. Carbon accounting is really important in our industry and so being able to take it back to just working on reducing our carbon footprint in an effective and efficient way really simplifies the process.
“Climate change really actually impacts all of us and everything that we do on a day to day basis. So where we have the opportunity to be a part of the solution, even if it's a small piece, I definitely want to dig in and do that.”
What got you personally interested in fighting climate change?
I came to the U.S. 10 years ago to save the world from waste. A decade ago, my mission was to gain experience in areas that dealt with recycling and waste, energy or the circular economy. What I realized later on was that climate change, waste and renewable resources are all deeply interrelated. For example, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, 70% of global emissions are associated with materials management––how we use, manufacture and discard our products. By keeping materials in play, the circular economy aims to eliminate waste and the emissions associated with it. This is how I found my passion for circularity, as it is a key part of the solution to climate change.
Why did you decide to start measuring and reducing your company's carbon footprint?
Since Closed Loop Partners’ founding, our methodologies and processes for impact measurement and management have continued to advance and evolve holistically. At Closed Loop Partners, we aim to drive systems change through every investment that we make, and our impact outcomes are driven forward by the business models of our portfolio companies. Our investors also motivate us to move forward with stronger reporting and disclosures, to capture robust data and KPIs that measure emissions that have been and could be avoided as a result of our investments. As we work toward best practices in impact measurement and management, we have broadened our impact metrics to include all emissions – including both that have been produced and avoided. We believe that tracking our carbon footprint means knowing both the good and bad, and the only way to move forward is to know where there are opportunities to do better. This way, we can track the full scope of our carbon footprint.
Why did you choose Greenly?
In search of the best carbon accounting partner, we issued requests for proposals to 20 carbon providers, and asked our portfolio companies to vote on their optimal choice. We evaluated and scored each based on the reach and expertise of the company and effectiveness and fit of their product. Ultimately, our portfolio companies selected Greenly, not only because of their extensive client base and knowledge of various industries such as our own, but also for their easy, user-friendly interface and approach to client support. Greenly offers to measure emissions not only within the three standard scopes but also included scope four, which stood out to us.
“We believe that tracking our carbon footprint means knowing both the good and the bad, and the only way to move forward is to know where there are opportunities to do better.”
Why did you decide to start measuring and reducing your company's carbon footprint?
Carrying out a carbon assessment of our company was the first logical step in reducing our carbon footprint. Having a precise number when it comes to carbon emissions has helped us have a better understanding of the actions we can take to further reduce the carbon emissions made by our vendors and by our employees. At Crewdle, we aim to reduce our environmental footprint to the minimum we can by partnering with companies that share our goals. As for carbon emissions, we have committed to completely offset the emissions we cannot eliminate as a company and we want to achieve the same with our products.
Why did you choose Greenly?
Greenly has a great product for doing a carbon assessment. We loved the fact that it connects directly with our cloud accounting platform and extracts all our expenses that we can then easily categorize. As for measuring the impact of our employees, it was quick and simple to send the survey to them and they felt the same when it came to answering it.
“A good share of the large tech companies have already made commitments to reduce their environmental footprint... However, we haven’t seen a lot of companies rethinking the way they build technology products to be more environmentally responsible.”
