She now works passionately to protect the environment and was happy to share her story with us. We are so inspired by all that she is doing and hope you will be too when you read her letter below:

"I was hoping to become an astronaut. I was so convinced that I got permission from UWC-USA’s then-president to skip trial IB exams to attend Advanced Space Academy at NASA in Alabama, where I’d just gotten a scholarship.But my life changed directly as a result of the last speaker at the annual conference organized by students at the college. I almost didn’t attend. The previous speakers were uninspiring to me, I was tired and had studying to do, but felt bad that everyone else felt the same way and there was almost no one attending the talk by Hunter Lovins. She spoke and shared vivid examples of how companies, communities, and individuals can improve their lives and save money through sustainability. Up until then, I’d pretty much given up the environment figuring there wasn’t enough incentive for powerful companies and governments to change the tide.

From then on, my life direction did a 180, and I committed to doing whatever I could to contribute to restoring our planet’s health. Even though deep down I felt a lot of the necessary work was kind of boring (still do!), the more I learned about how interconnected the environment and climate change are with health crises, conflict over scarce resources, increase in refugees, environmental justice and equity, the more compelled I felt to do the important but boring stuff like creating energy efficient upgrades to decrease emissions of a factory.

I went from being randomly involved in activities around campus to being known as the annoying environmentalist who would judge you for using too many paper cups. There is nothing compared to the zeal of a teenager with a new idea!I typed “environment and business” into Google and up came a university in Canada with “Environment and Business” as a degree program. I applied and I graduated.

The Many Things One Can Do

Partially because of Canada’s co-operative education model, and partially because of sheer luck, determination, and privilege, in a few years I got to work with so many organizations doing so many different things to explore my new field. Below are just some areas where I was involved, listed to give an idea for those looking to make an impact on the environment:

• Working with organic farmers in Thailand (through UWC Red Cross Nordic’s volunteer program)
• Supporting early startup days at one of Canada’s now most respected environmental non-profits, Sustainable Waterloo Region
• Waste reduction with the Canadian federal government in Ottawa
• Leading amphitheatre shows and hikes while creating the business case for nature programs to the provincial government in British Columbia
• Environmental assessments for oil and gas in Calgary and Northern Alberta (riding on ATVs!)
• Starting Barbados’ first hotel and community recycling programs
• Managing renewable energy standards for stakeholders across North America
• Supporting the Sustainable Development course at Online UWC
• Analysing the environmental performance of international corporations (such as Starbucks!) for responsible investment companies
• Working with at-risk youth to connect with nature while connecting with leadership abilities, and leading interactive workshops for high schools through Engineers without Borders
• Getting my whole floor of students when working as residence life staff to create an online game to track and compete in eco-actions, such as shopping at thrift stores and using baking soda and vinegar for cleaning
• Hired as CEO of an organization which supports social entrepreneurs
• Serving on the board of SunSaluter, an incredible organization started by a young woman as her high school science project, which brings communities 30% more solar and filtered water with the addition of a very simple device made with local materials

What sort of impact can we have?

While these are all amazing organizations, I’m still not satisfied that I’m having the impact I’d like to have with my life, despite all of the amazing opportunities and supports I’ve had so far.

My current personal goal is to fully decrease the negative environmental impacts of 1 million people in the next four years.

Measuring this was a challenge, and I ended up having to create a new measure based on some existing global measurements, combining ecological, carbon, and water footprints to one metric I’m calling “full footprint”.

The full footprint of an average US citizen (and arguably the average UWC person’s, because we travel by plane more than most populations): 8.2 biologically productive hectares of land each year (about 8 international football fields), including 18 tons of carbon emissions, and 2,843 m³ water per year (more than 1 Olympic swimming pool’s worth of water).

There are many ways to have more positive impacts, most which we’ve already heard – less airplane travel, cycle and carpool more, eat less meat, buy less stuff, grow food, buy offsets, support greener policies, etc.

Personally, I’m hoping to share and expand new technologies, such as using kinetic energy from bikes to power our devices; and contribute to culturally relevant cookstoves with lower emissions. I’m also hoping to create a calculator that has customized recommendations for reducing impacts, and linking them to the highest quality carbon, water, and land offsets available.

Finally, nothing is ever done in isolation. I was fortunate to gain some support through the UWCpreneur prize from OnlineUWC’s social entrepreneurship competition (thank you everyone who made that happen!).

If you have plans, dreams, questions, or ideas around any of this stuff, please get in touch! We have a lot of work to do together, and maybe it’s even cooler than becoming an astronaut! Maybe…”