BAL22-Climate

A Landlocked Ocean Lover, Using Business to Save the Sea

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 06:00:00 +0000

A Landlocked Ocean Lover, Using Business to Save the Sea Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 11/04/2022 - 00:00

From Business at Leeds 2022 | Full issue

Emma Pearson stands in the Denver Aquarium, which she calls 'probably my favorite place in ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ.'

Emma Pearson is part entrepreneur, part marine scientist, and wholly determined to protect our oceans.

Growing up in landlocked ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ, Emma Pearson (Fin, EBio’22) first dove into the sea through TV. She became addicted to National Geographic documentaries about the ocean, then became passionate about saving it.

By high school, she had started a nonprofit, Sea the Change, to educate and inspire elementary school students in ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ about ocean conservation.

Since then, Sea the Change has continued to evolve, thanks to the business principles Pearson learned at Leeds. She recently graduated from ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ with a dual degree in finance and ecology and evolutionary biology, but originally had no intention of majoring in business. It was a last-minute decision based on gut instinct.

She soon realized her hunch had been right: A business skill set could help her save the ocean. “I think that the true solution to protecting the ocean lives at the intersection of business and science and policy. My goal is to catalyze that intersection,” Pearson said.

Faces of Leeds: Meet Emma Pearson

At Leeds, she became both a Leeds Scholar and a Leeds Honors student, taking advantage of the experiential opportunities that came with those distinctions. She went to South Africa through the First-Year Global Experience program—a trip she called “life-changing.” There, she did a consulting project, drawing upon her nonprofit experience to give advice to a local organization.

“Them taking me seriously as an 18-year-old was just really mind blowing,” she said. “It didn’t just help me develop as a leader, but it helped me define where I wanted my career to go.”

With newfound excitement about the field of consulting, she joined Leeds Consulting Group and developed her leadership skills, later winning ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ’s Student Leader of the Year Award.

While working her way through business classes, she simultaneously pursued her science degree. For two years she interned at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, helping to develop an artificial intelligence-driven detector for blue whale sound production. Her honors thesis, comparing temporal and seasonal patterns of the whales’ noise levels, will be published this December in ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ’s Honors Journal.

It was during her internship search that her interests converged. When she stumbled across Boston Consulting Group, she was impressed by their relationship with the World Wildlife Foundation and their conservation work. As an intern there, she networked with global managing partners in London, then boldly reached out to the CEO to chat about sustainability.

“I gained some confidence from my experiences at Leeds—and the biggest thing I’ve learned when it comes to pursuing your career is make them say no, don’t say no to yourself,” Pearson said.

In July, she started full time at BCG as an associate. "BCG is really focusing on their climate practice and their sustainability measures and initiatives, so I'm really excited to get involved in that, specifically in the conservation sector," she said. "It's just so cool to work for a company whose values I really align with."

Although she's currently based in Denver, she still makes regular visits to the ocean. Last year, she went to the Florida Keys to earn her advanced diver certification and to hang out with green moray eels and nurse sharks; a move to the coast is definitely in her future plans.

"I've spent so much time talking about the ocean, reading about the ocean and even teaching about the ocean, so finally getting to live there will be incredibly rewarding and climactic," she said. "But, in the meantime, I will keep watching my Nat Geo documentaries, visiting the aquarium and sharing my love for the ocean with others. I think that in and of itself is a privilege and an experience I've been incredibly grateful to have."

Emma Pearson's work as founder of Sea the Change has primed her to create impact with Boston Consulting Group, which has a climate practice and works in sustainability and conservation.

Business at Leeds magazine Undergraduate Business Programs Engage with Leeds

Emma Pearson says her business background is essential in solving environmental problems.

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Moo-ved to Rethink Emissions

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 06:00:00 +0000

Moo-ved to Rethink Emissions Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 11/04/2022 - 00:00

From Business at Leeds 2022 | Full issue

The Agraaze team is made up of five business students. From left are Taylor Brooks-Murphy, Asa Peterson, Chris Haworth and Dasha Prosolova; not pictured is Fynn Blake. Below right, the team enjoys a few lighthearted moments at a ranch.

Plastic production, coal combustion, bovine burps: Which one of these carbon-gas emitters can be reduced by a combination of entrepreneurial thinking and seafood?

Among the top contributors to climate change, methane emissions from cow belches account for about 14.5% of global greenhouse gases, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.

But what if ranchers added a little seaweed to cow feed? A scientific study published in the journal PLOS ONE showed it would cut their methane emissions by a whopping 82%.

That was enough to convince a team of business students, known as Agraaze, to launch a company that produces seaweed feed pellets for cattle. In just five years, they predict their company will allow ranchers to provide “methane-free” meat.

In March, when they took their carbon-reducing business idea to the New Venture Challenge—ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder’s premier entrepreneurship competition—they won the NVC Climate Prize and $10,000; they were also voted audience favorite.

“It incentivizes us to move forward and tell people how we need to take action toward saving our climate, saving the animals and the humans that live on the planet,” said Dasha Prosolova (Bus’22), Agraaze team member. “It makes us believe in ourselves more and bring the project to life.”

The Agraaze team was composed of five business students: Prosolova, Asa Peterson, Fynn Blake, Taylor Brooks-Murphy and Christopher Haworth.

Business at Leeds magazine Deming Center for Entrepreneurship Engage with Leeds

Plastic production, coal combustion, bovine burps: Which can be reduced by a combination of entrepreneurship and seafood?

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Will Entrepreneurs Save the World?

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 06:00:00 +0000

Will Entrepreneurs Save the World? Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 11/04/2022 - 00:00

From Business at Leeds 2022 | Full issue

A Leeds researcher says founders may be our best hope for solving climate change.

When it comes to solving the climate crisis, Jeff York doesn’t put his faith in government or corporations. If this crisis can be solved, he said, it will be because entrepreneurs create novel solutions through innovation, initiative and flexibility—which the establishment has failed to demonstrate.

“Climate change is potentially the greatest tragedy of our lifetime, and the time to act is rapidly passing us by,” said York, a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship and chair of the Division of Social Responsibility and Sustainability at Leeds. “Unfortunately, how to address it has become an extremely polarizing, politicized issue.”

In a groundbreaking study to be published in Organization Science, York and his co-authors explored how entrepreneurship is a promising, yet often overlooked, method of addressing climate change.

“Creating entrepreneurial solutions to address climate change is the single biggest economic opportunity that’s going to exist in my lifetime.”

Jeff York, chair, Social Responsibility and Sustainability Division

They found that at a time when climate change is a political topic, entrepreneurs with climate-conscious products can establish a common ground between the pro-market, generally conservative side, which values growing business, and the liberal-leaning pro-environment side, which values protecting the planet.

Climate programs at Leeds

A selection of some of the many climate-related programs offered at the business school:
Clean Energy MBA Pathway
Climate Action for Business Certificate
Energy Finance Bootcamp
The Sustainable Firm: ESG Strategies & Practices
Energy Science & Technology
Renewable and Sustainable Energy in Practice

“Our research found environmental entrepreneurs do better in markets with high influence from both pro-market and pro-environment logics,” he said. “This levels the playing field and allows them to compete effectively with existing firms.”

“Entrepreneurs create for-profit ventures that can address climate change in a way that government and activists cannot,” he said.

To that end, of note is the changing attitude around climate change and business. Donor support helped fund a key data set used in York’s research, demonstrating the business community’s interest in playing a role in addressing this challenge.

Being a green business, York said, doesn’t preclude a new venture from being profitable: “Creating entrepreneurial solutions to address climate change is the single biggest economic opportunity that’s going to exist in my lifetime.”

Professor Jeff York surveys the devastation in Louisville from the 2021 Marshall Fire—a prime example of how wildfire danger has escalated due to climate change. He believes entrepreneurial thinking can help prevent tragedies like this in the future.

Business at Leeds magazine Deming Center for Entrepreneurship Engage with Leeds

When it comes to climate solutions, Jeff York's faith is in founders.

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