Green Success Stories puts McQuillen Martinez, Sustainability Analyst at WAP Sustainability Consulting, in the Green Spotlight. We discussed the sadness McQuillen felt at the muting of autumn colors and the disappearance of white Christmases in his native Boston area, and how it led him to working toward fighting to protect the natural world. We discussed the wide range of consulting, carbon management, ESG, Life Cycle Assessments and other services his team offers, as well as his role in providing comprehensive support for clients carbon management and ESG efforts. He described the joy he feels at leading clients’ evolution from reluctant participants to passionate advocates for meaningful climate action.
Tell us a bit about your sustainability journey.
I was lucky enough to grow up in a household that prioritized time outside. As long as I can remember, family vacations were spent in the woods and mountains of New England, skiing, exploring new hiking trails, biking, and any other activity that allowed for a day out in nature. Although I’m sure I initially resisted some of the long hikes that my parents dragged my brother and me on through the rugged White Mountains, it didn’t take long before I was up bright and early, persuading others to venture outside. Being able to spend summer weeks along the Maine coast and Christmas Eves between Mount Washington and Mount Kearsarge allowed me to frequently experience the peak of natural beauty.
As all of us have to some degree, I’ve laid witness to the impacts of climate change. At my childhood home, south of Boston, there is no longer the expectation of a white Christmas. Winters that once were filled with snowball fights and snowmen have turned to rainy, gray days spent inside. The vibrant colors of renowned New England autumns have been muted, and leaves now appear to transition from green to brown. Lobsters have all but disappeared from Massachusetts’ bays and are soon to escape the reach of lobstermen working in the warming Gulf of Maine as well.
Although these changes represent a microcosm of the global experience, they were enough to push me to envision a world in which the nature that I know and love didn’t exist. In college, I studied environmental policy and learned that, although there has been an impressive effort on the international scale to mitigate a warming climate, we are ill-prepared to correct for our historical and continued living habits. A natural world that nobody is fighting to protect will be much less extraordinary and I feel the need to protect nature’s longevity.
Tell us a bit about the product or solution you offer.
WAP Sustainability is a global sustainability consultancy and software provider. We provide clients with the information and tools they need to create credible, measurable, and attainable sustainability programs. Our mission is to help our clients achieve their sustainability goals through our wide range of technical and strategic services, including:
- Managed Service – We work with you as an “outsourced sustainability department” serving as a specific technical expert or sustainability generalist. We can lead all of sustainability or simply be part of your team.
- Product Transparency – We help product manufacturers and conscious brands navigate product transparency requirements included in many regulations (like Prop 65) and green building certifications (such as LEED, WELL, or LBC).
- Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) – Our team of ACLCA Certified Practitioners can provide LCA services for almost any industry. We can lead building your LCA program or play a specific LCA role (such as LCA Critical Reviewer).
- Carbon Management – We do more than just measure your carbon footprint, we help you build a reliable and accurate carbon accounting program that makes it easy to report (CDP, SASB, GRI), reduce (IPCC or SBTI), and eliminate (carbon neutral programs) carbon from operational processes.
- Healthy Materials – We provide toxicological resources so you can manage healthy materials across the supply chain. We specialize in supply chain data collection, materials disclosure, and toxicological assessments.
- ESG Support – We help develop ESG Programs based on material ESG indicators that help you track, report, and communicate your ESG results via your website and reporting platforms (such as CDP, GRI, SASB, TCFD).
- Certifications & Verification – We help organizations manage certifications in a coordinated, turn-key, service-oriented capacity. By helping organizations navigate complicated standards, we simplify the certification process.
With all our clients, we aim to simplify the sustainability landscape, providing not only our technical services but also education along the way. Our team of “changemakers” provides expertise to companies operating in any industry. At WAP, our most valuable product offering is the depth of knowledge that our collective team of experts has to offer our clients.
My expertise lies in carbon management, encompassing accounting and reporting, where I provide my clients with comprehensive support, including GHG education, data collection and analysis, emissions calculations, and actionable next steps for their sustainability journey. Central to my work is the delivery of an impactful inventory management plan, a product that serves as a foundational guide outlining the calculation approach, methodology, data sources, emissions results, and a comprehensive array of key performance indicators derived from the emission calculation process. These reports are aligned with the gold standards of carbon accounting guidance, notably the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, equipping clients with a profound understanding of their organizational footprint. By leveraging these inventory reports, clients can pinpoint operational hotspots, track emissions trends over time, and gain valuable insights written from a personalized perspective cultivated through our collaborative engagement. This integral deliverable not only empowers clients to navigate their sustainability journey effectively but also offers a clear roadmap towards mitigating environmental impact and driving sustainable outcomes within their operations. Recently, I have begun to take on ESG-centered projects as well, blending technical aspects of carbon accounting with the important next steps of regulatory compliance and reporting.
Share a green success story with us – how have you helped customers or other businesses in the fight against climate change?
In the rapidly evolving landscape of climate policy and reporting, I specialize in guiding companies toward sustainable practices, even when their initial motivation for engagement is compliance. Many of the companies I collaborate with initially approach our projects as a checklist item, with some clients lacking a deep understanding of corporate sustainability and being preoccupied with competing priorities. By placing an emphasis on education and knowledge-sharing in the early stages of a project, along with consistent support throughout the entirety of a project, I can facilitate a less stressful environment for the client to fully engage with our work.
The most rewarding aspect of my role is witnessing this transformation firsthand – observing clients’ evolution from reluctant participants to passionate advocates for meaningful climate action. In the past year with WAP, I’ve seen individuals transition from legal or procurement roles to become dedicated sustainability advocates, profoundly impacted by our collaborative efforts. I enjoy presenting results to clients who engage with the material beyond requirements, expressing a genuine curiosity and commitment to their organization’s sustainability journey. In a recent project, I was assigned to create a full emissions inventory for a first-time client. Throughout the course of our work together, the client’s project team gained an intense interest in their operational emissions and is now seeking to develop emission reduction pathways while increasing voluntary public disclosure.
In today’s landscape, the adoption of emission reduction strategies and sustainable practices hinges primarily on intrinsic motivation within organizations. Each individual we inspire to champion sustainability within their industry represents an important step towards advancing the broader sustainability agenda, driving positive change and progress.
What would you do with $1 billion dollars?
I have been fortunate enough to travel to places all around the world, with each trip bringing a new perspective into my life. On a personal level, I would like to continue to explore new places to enjoy a new way of life and understand the challenges it faces. During undergrad, I was able to spend a semester in Chilean Patagonia, camping for three months and immersing myself in the Patagonian nature, culture, and lifestyle. My extended stay in the Patagonian wilderness provided an up-close look at the delicate balance in which this harsh environment exists. Communities in the Patagonia region of Chile rely on glacial melt as their source of water. With a warming climate, Patagonian glaciers are receding quickly, putting communities in an increasingly dangerous situation.
With $1 billion, I would echo the responses provided in many other Green Success Stories and invest, specifically in a just energy transition. Unfortunately, the ability of a country to transition its energy infrastructure to renewables is a privilege enjoyed by wealthier nations. My investments would be directed toward renewable infrastructure development in poorer nations to enable their participation in the green energy transition without taking away from necessary economic development.
What do you envision your industry looking like in ten years?
In ten years, I believe sustainability (ESG, climate, biodiversity, etc.) reporting will become a more regulated field, bearing a closer resemblance to financial reporting. Sustainability is still in its relative infancy compared to many professional fields, which can be seen from observing the lack of specificity across reporting guidance, the incongruity of global climate policy, and the rapidly shifting sustainability landscape. The field has progressed at an impressive pace within the past decade, and this must continue, especially if we are to achieve the goal set by the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Advancements in policy development, reporting guidance, and frameworks will require a continued influx of experts into the sustainability field. I do not foresee the additional workforce requirements to be a limiting factor to industry growth. Ideally, within ten years, all large companies will be required to report scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions to a regulated body with a legitimate ability to enforce these requirements. To achieve this target, global carbon accounting practices need to be improved, especially in terms of industry-specific guidance, and companies need to be provided with additional resources to enable them to meet more stringent regulations.
What would you like readers to take away from this article?
I hope readers understand that the sustainability field has been growing increasingly more accessible as a career opportunity for some time. As ambitious companies, governments, and reporting organizations continue to push for growth within this field, opportunities for those looking to make a positive impact on our climate’s future are there for the taking. Sustainability covers many topics, from energy to materials to emissions, at the product, organizational, and country levels. Whether you’re new to the sustainability field or a seasoned veteran, I encourage you to continue researching, learning, and engaging on whatever topics pull you in. What I love about working in this field is the continuous learning, problem-solving, and the opportunity to become an expert on a broad range of topics if you’re willing to do some extra work.
How should readers get in touch with you and/or your organization?
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcquillenmartinez/
WAP Sustainability Website: https://wapsustainability.com/
Kudos
Many thanks to McQuillen Martinez and WAP Sustainability Consulting.
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