Personal statement on my path to environmental service.

I don’t just hike the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in New Jersey for fun; I’m generally wielding a pair of garden shears and a folding saw. Last year, I started volunteering as a trail maintainer for the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference after noticing the increasing wear and tear of the trails, due to the park’s surging popularity since the start of the pandemic. Yet it’s not just the new hikers that are wearing the paths down, as overgrowth and erosion have been more prevalent following increasingly severe storms and precipitation. I love working to maintain and build these trails, as I improve the long-term sustainability of the mountain and its trails, no matter what effect either people or nature inflict. In fact, I have always been very aware of the environment around me. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area amid consistent drought, fire, and smoke, it was hard not to notice. From a young age, I learned the benefits of California water conservation techniques such as “power showers” of less than five minutes and rules for toilet flushing (that often seemed to break learned etiquette). My family followed “Spare the Air” days by not lighting fires through much of the winter to avoid contributing to poor air quality with added particulate matter. In short, I grew up acutely aware of the power that community coordination and a shared vision could make to address large problems, such as climate change. Recognizing that only collective problem-solving can drive change, I started my career making a small difference through engineering. I’m now ready to fully commit myself to championing sustainable practices for reduced carbon emissions. Fortunately, I have actually been able to drive positive environmental impact as a natural gas pipeline engineer. The gas pipeline systems I have worked on constantly emit methane to the atmosphere through leaks in aging cast iron pipelines that need replacement. At DTE, I first learned to design pipeline projects to effectively replace these cast iron pipes with plastic ones that would not leak. I also took any spare time that I had to work with the engineer that calculated replacement order based on risk to better understand the approach to minimizing pipeline failures. This was my first exposure to the concurrent benefit of solutions that not only reduced emissions but also decreased operational costs from less leak management. With a better understanding of the natural gas industry, I took my next step to increase my impact through engineering with a move to PSEG in New Jersey. After seeing the emission reduction potential in the natural gas industry, I joined PSEG to increase my impact. PSEG has the most miles of cast iron pipeline in the U. S. , leaving massive opportunity to design efficient solutions to reduce leaks and emissions through replacement. While I started working on the project design team, I soon moved to the group that determined replacement prioritization, where I ran the analyses that determine pipeline risk. In this position, I applied my past knowledge from DTE with the existing analysis methods at PSEG to identify locations that presented the highest risk of failure. Successful selection of high risk areas most effectively prevents future leaks by installing new plastic pipes before the aging pipes can fail. Further, I worked with subject matter experts at PSEG to implement a new probabilistic model for risk ranking to more accurately determine risk ranking for all pipes in the system. Each day at work, I enhance the operation of existing pipelines with clear impact on emissions and the environment. While I have been able to make small, incremental improvements to pipeline operation, the underlying system will continue to slowly emit carbon dioxide emissions until a larger, systemic change is made. I want to work on changes to the energy system that do not simply adjust existing systems, but instead re-imagine entire processes to remove the source of carbon emissions altogether. While my past experience provides a baseline for change, I have much to learn before I can advance the wave of ESG investing and planning and lead a company that provides net-zero solutions necessary to address the climate crisis. My technical background can only get me so far in leading the path towards promoting global sustainability. I need to understand the business case and financial drivers that businesses face when making decisions that impact their carbon footprint. I need to learn more about energy markets and policy to be able to effectively adjust and improve the existing systems. To drive change on the magnitude that is necessary to limit global warming, multiple companies across all industries need to take action with their environmental impact in mind, advancing sustainable technology and reinventing their business. At HBS, I would learn everything necessary to drive such change. HBS provides both the curriculum and the faculty expertise to teach any management and sustainability fundamentals that I need to succeed in my future career. HBS presents a welcome challenge that would perfectly place me in position to lead in a business future that will have no choice but to prioritize the environment.