World Wildlife Fund Sustainability Works

For as long as I can remember, my heart has been intertwined with the natural world. Growing up, I was that kid who would rescue stranded worms after a rainstorm or spend hours marveling at the intricate patterns of leaves and flowers. This deep-seated love for nature and all its creatures has shaped my life and career in profound ways.

For our Rising Stars series, we're featuring the next generation of leaders who are working toward a more sustainable world. We recently spoke with Jessica Beal, manager of sustainability at American Beverage Association, to learn about her role, her inspiration, and advice for those new to the field.

Hundreds of billions of pieces of single-use foodservice packaging are used in just the US every year. It’s well-understood that reusable packaging is more sustainable from an environmental, climate, and public health perspective, but introducing reusable packaging can be challenging. DeliverZero changes that.

DeliverZero is a full-service reusable packaging solution that simplifies reuse for businesses of all sizes. Through integrations with major delivery apps like DoorDash and Uber and POS systems like Toast, DeliverZero makes it easy for customers to receive and return reusable packaging. While DeliverZero is best known for this work in the foodservice industry, our system is also used in other use cases, such as grocery, meal kit deliveries, and ecommerce, as well as closed-loop environments such as corporate catering.

For our Rising Stars series, we're featuring the next generation of leaders who are working toward a more sustainable world. We recently spoke with Lauren Sweeney, Co-Founder and CEO of Deliver Zero, to learn about her role, her inspiration, and advice for those new to the field.

For our Rising Stars series, we're featuring the next generation of leaders who are working toward a more sustainable world. We recently spoke with Jess Zeuner, a Program Specialist on the Plastic & Material Science team at World Wildlife Fund to learn about her role, her inspiration, and advice for those new to the field.

For our Rising Stars series, we're featuring the next generation of leaders who are working toward a more sustainable world. We recently spoke with Niamh Lehane, Manager, CSR and Sustainability with CVS Health, to learn about her role, connection to nature, and advice for those new to the field.

Taking a moment to stop and reflect on my career journey has been uplifting. How did I get here?

As a Senior Corporate Sustainability Analyst for Lowe’s, the majority of my daily focus pertains to forestry and responsible wood sourcing. Within my role, I am also able to work collaboratively on other sustainability-focused projects. This job is a dream come true for me as a passionate environmentalist and it’s also an incredible learning opportunity for an early-career professional. In my role, I’m able to harness my passion for the environment to execute projects that support our mission to help Lowe’s customers live more sustainably at home and that inspire tangible change in a corporate setting.

For our Rising Stars series, we're featuring the next generation of leaders who are working toward a more sustainable world. We recently spoke with Ashley Kuhn, Senior Director, Nature & Biodiversity at Procter & Gamble to learn about her role, what she finds most challenging and rewarding, and her advice for those new to the field.

For our Rising Stars series, we're featuring the next generation of leaders who are working toward a more sustainable world. We recently spoke with Mitsuko Wong, Director of Sustainability, Product and Supply Chain at Ralph Lauren to learn about her role, what she finds most challenging and rewarding, and more.

I was the first girl child to be born in my father’s family after 40+ years. In more ways than just that, I broke the mold.

I grew up in a community, in a part of the world, where spotting a single tree was a sight to behold. Growing up was an experience that was dense, crowded, loud and polluted. Wildlife sightings in the community were limited to pigeons, cows and eagles. Even as a five-year-old, I was yearning to get close to Earth. My parents made special efforts to take me to the nearest available parks, scant as they were. I so loved trees that I named my two favorite trees "Camel" and "Elephant."

Then, somehow, as a stroke of luck, I came across this wacky man by the name of Steve Irwin. To me, as a five-year-old, he fired my imagination. I was glued to his “Crikey!” catchphrase and would watch in sheer awe the wonders of wildlife. It came to such a head that I was called “Animal Planet” by all my cousins. My never-ending queries about the natural world, and really everything else, earned me the name “question bank.”

That’s when I knew I wanted to do something in the natural world. Life is not a straight line. It took a circuitous journey to truly understand how my love and passion for God’s green Earth could be expressed in the form of a career.

For our Rising Stars series, we're featuring the next generation of leaders who are working toward a more sustainable world. We recently spoke with Simone Emilie Gourguechon, Director, Global Sustainability & ESG Strategy, at McDonald’s Corporation to learn about her role, what she finds most challenging and rewarding, and more.