Suggestions
Lindsey Newkirk, MSC
Director of Sustainability | Strategy, Stakeholder Engagement, Communications, Human-Centered Change Leadership, ESG
Lindsey Newkirk is a seasoned sustainability professional with over 20 years of experience in the field. Currently, she serves as the Sustainability Director at Elysium Events, where she focuses on developing and implementing sustainability strategies that create business value.
Career Background
Before her role at Elysium Events, Lindsey was the Director of Sustainability at Dutch Bros Coffee, where she led the creation of the company's first comprehensive sustainability strategy. This included establishing tracking for carbon and water footprints and developing sustainability goals, alongside producing the company's inaugural Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report after its public listing.12
Lindsey's extensive background includes work in various sectors such as waste reduction, green building, and sustainable event production for notable organizations like The Oregon Convention Center, Adidas, and Google’s Global Food Program.12
Education
She holds a Master's degree in Strategic Communications from the University of Oregon, with a focus on sustainable behavior change.12
Lindsey is recognized for her ability to navigate complex sustainability challenges while fostering relationships that enhance organizational impact in social and environmental domains.
Highlights
Being part of a book club brings me immense joy and intellectual stimulation.
Last night, we had the pleasure of discussing our most recent book, Damnation Spring, with its author, Ash Davidson. Set in Klamath, a rural town on California's rugged north coast in redwood country—an area I'm fortunate to live just a few hours from—the book delves into the tensions between extraction and conservation communities. More importantly, it offers a nuanced portrayal of a logging community grappling with the devastating realization of the impacts of herbicides used to clear underbrush, which are believed to be responsible for numerous miscarriages and birth defects in the community—ultimately threatening their financial stability and way of life. Though fictional, the story is deeply rooted in research and reflects the painful realities of this region’s history.
I highly recommend this book to my conservation-minded network for a more holistic understanding of the complex challenges faced by those on the extraction side, whose experiences are often overlooked in the conservation narrative.
My friend Maud Macrory Powell is doing some amazing work with her recently launched project called Climate Stress and Grief: Building Resilience in Farmers and Ranchers. Inspired by her own experience as a farmer, she is working to uncover farmers' experiences along with barriers to the emotional health support they need to deal with the climate crisis. Check out her work at https://lnkd.in/guuzXiuM and listen to her recent interview with OPB, linked in the comments.
#climatecrisis #climategrief #climatechange #climateresilence
