Michelle Lapinski is The Nature Conservancy’s Director, Corporate Practices, reporting to the Chief External Affairs Officer. She leads development of the Conservancy’s worldwide corporate engagement strategy, and the Conservancy’s International Leadership Council of corporations. She is especially focused on increasing collaboration with the private sector to improve business practices and engage industry partners to realize the benefits of conservation and good ecosystem management as a business strategy. Michelle is located at the Conservancy’s worldwide office in Arlington, VA. Michelle’s career has focused on advising leading global companies on more sustainable business strategies, practices and business models. Most recently she ran her own consulting business, SustainBiz, and has advised clients such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Starbucks as well as private investors to build sustainability into their business strategies and practices. She served as Deputy Director of the Global Health and Safety Initiative, an alliance of 10 of the nation’s largest health care organizations integrating sustainability into operations, sector goal, research and development and public policy. Michelle developed the public private partnership of the Global Environment Facility, launched at the UNFCCC in Bali. Prior to launching her own business, she did similar work for Business for Social Responsibility as Director, Advisory Services, leading BSR’s work in the Food & Agriculture, Consumer Products and Transportation sectors with Fortune 500 companies. While there she led the development of several voluntary industry partnerships to create global guidelines in the consumer products and transportation sectors including the first methodology for calculating scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions from ocean container shipping and restricted substances lists and water quality standards in the consumer products industries. Michelle began her work on sustainability at Gap Inc., where she developed the company’s industry-leading initiative on responsible sourcing. As Gap Inc.’s Global Environmental Health & Safety Manager she developed standards for its products and 3500 suppliers in 53 countries. Michelle holds a Master of Science in Environmental Management from the University of San Francisco, where she also served as an Adjunct Professor and a Bachelor of Arts in Behavioral Biology from Johns Hopkins University. She is a founding Board member and National Co-Director of Young Women Social Entrepreneurs and an Environmental Leadership Program Senior Fellow. In her free time she can be found exploring the outdoors, wandering art galleries, cooking and enjoying live music.