Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be working at the intersection of cutting-edge technology and sustainability? Well, step into Kevin Dole’s shoes to see what a typical day looks like as Green Impact’s Senior Sustainability Advisor.
8am-9am: Preparing for the Day
As Green Impact’s Senior Sustainability Advisor, I wear a lot of hats. To make sure everything lines up, I start my mornings by catching up on messages and orienting myself for the day ahead. Because we serve clients all over the globe, things can change shape overnight. Depending on any updates, I sometimes readjust my internal workload.
9am-2pm: Collaboration and Education
Green Impact services everything from small nonprofits to multibillion-dollar enterprise-level firms. How we handle a Net Zero Cloud project depends on the client’s size, needs, and capabilities. As Senior Sustainability Advisor, I have insight and involvement in many of our client implementations.
For smaller firms, I can handle an entire implementation as the sole consultant. For larger firms, I will be part of a cross-functional team. Regardless of the size and scope of a project, they all begin with in-depth discovery to identify a client’s requirements, their internal technical and sustainability capacities, and the areas in which they will need the most support and guidance. In my daily schedule, this translates to collaborating with client sustainability teams, educating clients who are new to sustainability, and working with my internal team.
Setting the direction for the client is important in any consulting relationship, especially for a new business area like sustainability. Many of our clients are doing greenhouse gas accounting for the first time and have no idea what to expect. I try to be responsive to client needs and set realistic expectations.
3pm-5pm: Research and Product Development
As sustainability continues to evolve, we often find ourselves engaging in new territory with multiple possible solutions. This is where my roles as a researcher, innovator, and consultant overlap as we build something brand new for a client. I regularly conduct research for our product development so we can continue innovating to expand Net Zero Cloud’s capabilities. Working with clients has given me insight into the common customer needs that may not be served by Net Zero Cloud out of the box. Our consulting practice informs our product development in that it has helped us identify customer needs and roadmap solutions to common problems. It allows us to offer something extra to clients for whom we are not the primary consultant.
“Our consulting practice informs our product development in that it has helped us to identify customer needs and roadmap solutions to common problems.”
While I juggle many internal and external responsibilities in my role, my favorite part of the job is getting to learn something new every single day. Every client is our most important client, but I am extra excited about those clients where we can help advance their sustainability and develop something new together that will push the industry forward.