Rachel Perry

This month's Sustainability Champion is Rachel Perry, a senior majoring in Business Administration and minoring in Anthropology. Read our full interview below to learn about how she's helping others see the connections between business and sustainability.

How did you decide to attend University of Richmond?
I actually didn't visit any campuses before I picked a school because I was in Thailand, but a big part of it was based on research I did with my dad and following my gut feeling. A few things played an important role in my decision: I knew I wanted to go somewhere with a good business school, I wanted to go to a university with small class sizes, and I needed to be somewhere surrounded by nature where I could walk outside and see trees or a body of water when I was stressed.

What sparked your interest in sustainability?
It came in phases. From a young age, nature played a large role in my life. Whenever I was stressed, my dad would tell me to take a walk outside. It’s important to me to see nature as a refuge, a place that calms me and reminds me of the important things in life. One memory that stands out was a family road trip to Yosemite. I remember seeing the sequoias and feeling so much respect because they had been there for thousands of years.

My home was also a factor. I'm from Chang Mai in northern Thailand—a city surrounded by mountains. During the summer, air pollution gets so bad that the mountains stay hidden. I felt so angry about that when I was younger. I felt small, like I couldn't do anything to change it. Then I got to UR and, the summer of my freshman year, watched a documentary called "Cowspiracy." A lightbulb went off for me. The documentary made me realize I wasn't small. I could make a change the next time I went grocery shopping. After making dietary changes, I wanted to do more to enact change and I started to consider sustainability as a possible career path. At one point, I learned that trillions of dollars of capital need to be allocated annually in order to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and I thought, "I want to be a part of that."

How does coming from Thailand inform your perspective on sustainability?
Coming from Thailand helps me have a well-rounded worldview and recognize the prominent role a person's culture and background have in shaping their perspective. One thing I love about Thailand is the idea of simplicity—a concept rooted in Buddhism. The less materialistic you are, the more you can simplify your life, the better. The US is more materialistic, where success is defined by what you can buy, what kind of job you have, and how much money you make, not how happy you are. Differences in values affect how people understand sustainability. However, there's no perfect country. Each country has different sustainability issues, which means each country needs different solutions. It can't be one-size-fits-all.

How have you been involved with sustainability during your time at UR?
On a personal level, the way I eat and perceive food has changed. I've started to wonder where my food comes from, how carbon-intensive it is to produce different foods. Meat is very carbon-intensive, so I don't really eat meat anymore. My conversations with friends and professors have also changed and I've started asking a lot more questions.

My main extracurricular activity has been CHAARG- Changing Health, Attitudes, and Actions to Recreate Girls. CHAARG is a national health and fitness organization and I was a part of the founding executive team for the University of Richmond Chapter. It's not explicitly about sustainability, but I think conversations about health and wellness and the foods we eat relate to sustainability. I also participated in the Sustainable Solutions Challenge this past year. It was so much fun to research and think of a solution to the issue of single-use plastic on campus, and it's an incredible feeling to help enact change. This upcoming year, I'll be a research assistant for Dean van der Laan Smith and I'll help write the next Challenge. I'm looking forward to having conversations with different stakeholders and hearing their perspectives.

A big activity I'll be involved in next year, which I've already been working on this past spring and summer, is the Student Managed Investment Fund.

How are you tying sustainability into the Student Managed Investment Fund?
The Fund was established in 1993 and each year students can apply to be managers for either the Growth or Value Fund. Managers pitch stocks and work together to choose how the Fund will be invested. Since the spring, I've been creating a scoring methodology for us to use when analyzing companies to invest in by incorporating Environmental, Social, and Governance factors (ESG) during our investment decision-making process. During stock pitches, students will add in information about a company's ESG factors and will assign the company an ESG score.

Because of the increasingly significant sustainability challenges the world is facing and will continue to face, it is important to understand how a company is managing their financially material ESG risks, because that will affect long-term returns. SASB, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, has been a great resource that defines different industry standards. If a company is in the meat or dairy industry, greenhouse gas emissions, waste and water management, and worker health and safety are all important to consider when making an investment decision. BlackRock, a huge investment management company, believes that every company they engage with should use SASB, so it's important for students to become more familiar with it. The Student Managed Investment Fund provides important real world experience picking stocks and I think it will be eye opening for students to consider sustainability in the process. During the next year, I'll be the ESG manager, so I'll be a resource to students to answer questions and help them understand why ESG is important and what a good or bad ESG score is.

What does sustainability mean to you?
Sustainability is about having a long-term view. It's not just about increasing profits this quarter. In order to continue living on this planet, we need to create an economic system that doesn't harm the planet and the people living on it. No action or decision, even an investment decision, is independent of people and the environment. That seems like common sense, but companies will often harm the planet while producing the food we eat or the clothes we wear. If a company dumps waste in a river, it may not directly affect them, but it will affect other stakeholders and that's important. Recently, I read a report about the kinds of businesses that will succeed the most over the next 20 or 30 years — those that will meet the needs of as many people as possible, with the fewest resources possible, while engaging as many stakeholders as possible. Sustainability is important for that kind of success.

What advice would you give to students who want to learn more about the relationship between sustainability and the economy?
I would say to be conscious of your purchasing power. Where you put your dollar, the clothes you buy, and the food you eat can have a big impact as that is a direct signal to companies about what their customers like and don’t like. It's also important to keep in mind that sustainability is not just one fixed concept. Find out what aspect of sustainability interests you. It's okay if you're not most passionate about the environment. If you're passionate about worker health and safety, that's ESG too. Find one thing that you want to learn more about and focus on that. Sustainability relates to everything. It affects the long-term viability of humans and the planet and what we're doing today impacts how future generations will live. So use your purchasing power, ask questions, and be curious.

What are you hoping to do after graduation?
Lately I've been using LinkedIn a lot, reaching out to people who are working in the sustainable finance space. It's been very different from conversations that I've had in traditional finance spaces, and my hope is that the sustainable finance and traditional finance spaces will converge. Everyone has been very welcoming and I've had great conversations about sustainability. I would love to have a job where I can engage with companies about how to be more sustainable, talk about ESG risks, and suggest changes.

Thank you Rachel for all you do to support sustainability on campus. Do you know someone who should be featured as a Sustainability Champion? Let us know at sustainability@richmond.edu.