By Ellie S. (11th Grade)
Payal Shah is a globally recognized leader and educator who’s passionate about bridging the gap between physical design and digital identity to drive meaningful, sustainable growth. Co-Founder of NeoNetra.com and Founder, CEO of Good4Earth, Venture Builder at Carbon13. Lets hear her perspective and work she had done in this area.
1. “Could you share a pivotal moment or experience that ignited your passion for both leadership and sustainability?”
Payal: Moving to sustainability is surely very personal to me. When I pursued my executive MBA at UCLA, my intention was to climb up the corporate ladder. But when I got a taste of entrepreneurship, I realized there is so much more to do beyond the corporate world. Around the same time, my kids (then 5 and 8 years old) were very sad to learn about global warming. Like any other parent, when I wasn’t able to answer their simple questions, such as, “Why are the fish dying in the ocean?” and I had to think deeper. It was definitely the inflection point when I decided to leverage my leadership skills and experience on sustainability efforts. Since then, I’ve started 2 ventures: 1. Good4Earth focuses on modern, relevant multi-modality climate education and 2. NeoNetra focuses on decarbonizing industrial and complex supply chains.
2. “What gives you hope for the future of our planet and the role of leadership in achieving a sustainable world?”
Payal: It is exciting to see an entire ecosystem and talented people focused on solving these problems. Smart and talented experts from policymaking, science, investment, founding, and corporate sectors are collaborating to solve big and small problems through innovative products, services and even business models. Any change takes a long time, but if we all come together and maintain our focus on solving these problems, we should be fine. It is also exciting to see the younger generation refusing to accept the status quo and demanding that all of us think differently.
3. “If you could implement one major policy or initiative or research to advance sustainability globally, what would it be and why?”
Payal: All these aspects are equally important to achieve our sustainability goals. But if I had to pick one, I would pick a major global policy change that pushes private and government sectors to track and reduce sustainability emissions ( and think of the problem holistically across water, biodiversity, and waste, in addition to carbon) and enable capital investment to make these changes at scale. For example, global health policies, led by the World Health Organization (WHO), resulted in the official eradication of smallpox in 1980, saving an estimated 5 million lives annually. Similarly, major global policies can have a significant positive impact. Europe is at the forefront of this and additional support from North America and Asia can help us accelerate.
Closing Thoughts and Call to Action
Payal generous offers schools workshops around Sustainable Fashion / Sustainable Digital Tech, such as this one recently @Oakland school : https://www.linkedin.com/posts/good4earthofficial_cut-your-carbon-climate-action-in-schools-activity-7418053193466646529-H3PT Fellow students from Ecolyst, reach out to organize one for your school!
This program is for:
🏫 Schools
🎓 Colleges & Universities
👩🏫 Educators & sustainability leaders
🏢 Curious teams and organisations
