Marilyn Waite: Pursuit of Intergenerational Well-Being Through Climate & Clean Energy Finance

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Marilyn Waite is author of Sustainability at Work: Careers That Make a Difference, which has received critical acclaim and has been introduced in higher education curricula in the United States and China. Marilyn leads the climate and clean energy finance portfolio at the Hewlett Foundation and writes a monthly column, The Innovators, as an inaugural 1Hotels Fellow at NRDC’s Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). She regularly advises cleantech startups and serves on the Board of Directors for The Biomimicry Institute and the Advisory Board for Engineers for a Sustainable World. Previously, Marilyn led energy and cleantech investments at Village Capital, managed nuclear and renewable energy projects at AREVA, and launched the online platform and mobile application SustainableVisit. She served as a Senior Research Fellow at Project Drawdown, where she led a team to model, quantify, and forecast the viability of energy solutions to curb climate change. Marilyn also worked at the intersection of science and policy at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and in economic development at the United Nations in Madagascar. Marilyn lectured sustainable business at UIBE in Beijing and continues to teach at business schools and management programs. Multilingual in French, Spanish, Mandarin and English, Marilyn is a global citizen who is able to bridge cultural divides and apply systems level thinking to the most local of concerns. Marilyn holds a Master’s Degree with distinction in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the University of Cambridge and a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering, magna cum laude, from Princeton University. Her vision is a world where sustainability values of social cohesion, environmental consciousness, inter-generational equity, and economic health drive decision-making and business practices.

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. 

Kevin Bayuk, Co-founder and Partner at LIFT Economy, works at the intersection of ecology and economy where permaculture design meets next economy organizations intent on meeting human needs while enhancing the conditions conducive to all life. He is the Senior Financial Fellow at Project Drawdown and a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute.  You can follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinbayuk or email him kevin@lifteconomy.com.