Meet Sara Rowland, a Sustainability Practitioner with Antea Group based in California.
Name:
Office:
Working remotely from Berkeley, California
Practice Area:
Areas of Expertise:
ESG Advisory Services Leader, Supply Chain Sustainability and Engagement
About Me in 140 Characters:
I’m a passionate corporate sustainability consultant who loves to run, hike, and spend time in nature.
Favorite Thing about Being a Sustainability Practitioner:
Helping people discover how their company can have a positive impact on people and the planet.
What are some of your favorite tools/resources for professional development in this practice area?
One of my favorite resources is Adam Grant’s WorkLife Podcast. While the podcast isn’t focused on sustainability, Grant’s approach to discovery, asking questions, and problem-solving helps me think more expansively. Because it’s inspired me so much, my team and I now listen to an episode each week and discuss it at our weekly Monday meetings.
What is a key ingredient for success as a Sustainability practitioner?
While technical knowledge about sustainability, environmental impact, and human rights is critical, the creative skills of facilitation, influence, and design thinking are equally important. Consulting (or working in sustainability in general) isn’t just about giving someone a checklist of things they need to do (or do differently) – it’s about understanding deeply why things are done the way they are, the barriers to change, and working collaboratively to design systemic change that will last.
What is the most interesting project you’ve ever worked on?
While most of our client work is confidential, I can share that I really enjoyed working on a whitepaper on Internal Carbon Pricing for BIER (the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable), one of the industry consortiums that Antea Group facilitates. Internal Carbon Pricing is a powerful tool for companies and countries to communicate the real cost of activities and begin to internalize certain externalities.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I’ve wanted to be a Chief Sustainability Officer since I was about 14! (Yes, I’m a self-professed nerd, and did occasionally get bullied for this specialized interest, but I’m grateful to have identified my passion so early on.)
What was your first job?
I had a variety of part-time jobs and internships in high school and college, but in my first full-time job after college, I was an Account Leader for a waste brokerage company. The company bought and sold industrial waste, and I had the opportunity to tour nearly 100 manufacturing plants in all different industries. It was an incredible way to learn about manufacturing, and I often say it was like working on the show “How It’s Made”. It also gave me the opportunity to see many rural parts of the southeastern U.S., which I probably never would have seen otherwise.
If you had one month off, where would you go or what would you do?
I’ve always wanted to take time off to WWOOF (work on an organic farm).
