There’s no doubt about it: our members have achieved a lot as individuals. It takes a determined and passionate person to run a foundation or start a nonprofit. But when these women join Rachel’s Network to connect with like-minded peers, they find that their work can go further in helping advance a sustainable world. Whether it’s a connection that puts a member on the board of an important environmental organization they admire, or room to grow a nonprofit that gets funders talking about sustainable investing, we are committed to opening doors for our members and helping them access the leadership positions that fulfill their values and potential.
Janelle Orsi, an Ashoka Fellow sponsored by Rachel’s Network is developing legal infrastructure that supports the sharing economy through her nonprofit, the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC). Janelle took some time to tell us about her work, her accomplishments and the promise of an economy based on sharing.
More women financial advisors than men report being interested in sustainable investing. According to a key 2012 study, Gateways to Impact spearheaded by the Rockefeller Foundation, Deutsche Bank Asset Management and other investment enterprises, 59 percent of women advisors surveyed expressed strong interest in advising their clients on sustainable investment strategies, compared to 34 percent of their male peers. If this trend continues, women will be key to moving sustainable investment from the margins to the mainstream.
We’re witnessing a major demographic shift in agriculture. Over the next two decades, as aging farmers retire or leave their land to the next generation, 70 percent of the nation’s private farm and ranch land will likely change hands. One report predicts that women may own 75 percent of this transferred farmland. Rachel’s Network is working with American Farmland Trust to learn about and support these landowners.
Alison Kay believes that the importance of having diversity in the senior management team is being overlooked by the power and utilities industry at a time when it needs new approaches to resolve the energy trilemma: how to provide energy that’s available, affordable and environmentally sustainable, all at the same time.
