Allison Wolff has done a lot in her career: she has worked with some of the biggest technology companies in history, helping them grow, scale, and become more sustainable. Since working with companies like Netflix, Ebay, Facebook, and Google, Allison started her own technology platform company, Vibrant Planet, which builds platforms that help build community and landscape resilience in the face of climate change and wildfire.
Tell us about your background:
I have a long career in tech at Netflix, eBay, Google, Facebook, and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Most of that work, outside of helping to create Netflix, has been focused on defining/driving to execution these company’s climate, sustainability, health, and equity strategies. I got passion around natural climate solutions after helping to launch Drawdown with Paul Hawken and got religion around “using” the wildfire crisis to scale up natural climate solutions, starting with forests and eventually ag, wetlands, meadows, etc.
What caused you to get into your industry?
A project with a tech founder who lives in Tahoe now hired me to help him and his wife devise their philanthropy strategy. Once I learned how catastrophicallly unhealthy non tropical forests are, and the impacts of climate change on them, I became passionate about devising solutions. I saw that the digital revolution that has happened in banking, healthcare and other arenas has not even started in land management, land use, fire fighting, and community resilience building. I’ve been wiring together stars from the tech world, with land management leaders, plus funders to build the data and decision support foundation this space needs in order to flip forests, wetlands, and ag lands back to being massive carbon stores (vs net carbon emitters they’ve become due to our messing with them).
What trends are you seeing in your industry?
The potential for a wildfire/natural climate solutions space race.
What is one Action Item for our listeners and viewers to take away from this conversation?
Join the restorative workforce. We need thousands of people to restore forests, ag lands, and wetlands.
What is a fun fact about you?
If I could live out of a backpack, completely disconnected from society, I would. Hard to be in the tech industry if I did though.
Where do you see your industry ten years from now?
We’ll have unlocked environmental markets for carbon, water, wildlife/biodiversity, mental health, and recreation.
Going Green wants to thank Allison Wolff for taking the time to share her experience working in cleantech.
Our goal at Green is to bring you the latest in green technology advancements, while also giving you action items to takeaway and apply to your life. We focus a lot on energy, transportation, finance, and media.
Green Success Stories is a television show, podcast, social media, and news platform, hosted by Dylan Welch, that highlights climate change scientists, renewable energy experts, and clean tech entrepreneurs by giving them a voice in the mainstream media. The Green podcast highlights leading experts in cleantech, sustainability, media, finance, and real estate. Tune in and subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify to listen to interviews with leading cleantech and sustainable experts. If you are interested in being featured on Green, click HERE..
