How did a metropolitan PR practitioner with 30 years of experience serving the Philadelphia market end up building an agency focused on sustainability in the Adirondack mountains? It started with a hike.
For 30 years, public relations has been my calling.
For thirty years, I served mid-size enterprises in the Philadelphia and surrounding areas with premier media relations services. With complex offerings and nuanced PR challenges, I built a leading reputation and a wide network by specializing in message development and media engagement for businesses. Using my instinct for digging into growing markets to find the right stories and the right placements at the right time, I was able to build award-winning campaigns that launched explosive growth for my clients.
The most rewarding part of my career was helping to craft the messaging and media campaigns that built several market leaders in the fields of science, technology and finance. We brought a few businesses public on the NYSE and NASDAQ, and created high-value exits for entrepreneurs. I’m extremely grateful for the many lifelong partnerships I developed along the way.
During the early months of the pandemic in May 2020, I was on a hike in the beautiful Wissahickon park of Philadelphia with a longtime friend. He asked me: ‘What are you going to do with the next 10 years of your life?” That question struck me on both an emotional and cerebral level. The ordeal of the pandemic had brought clarity and focus to my mission. The success of the boutique PR agency I had built had granted me a certain level of freedom to pursue the work that was most meaningful to me. What was I going to do with it?
Surrounded by woodland scenery, I had a lightbulb moment. While building my career and learning my trade, I had spent most of my life volunteering and advocating for environmental and sustainable causes. Beginning with my very first job knocking on doors to raise money for Clean Water Action, as a Trail Ambassador (TA) for The Friends of the Wissahickon, and on my lifelong quest to become an Adirondack 46er, the outdoors and the environment had always been a part of my life. It occurred to me that I could leverage my skills on behalf of the causes I had always fought for, and meet a growing market need.
I decided to combine my experience working for high-growth companies with my strong interest in the burgeoning Green Economy and open a new agency with a new focus in a new location. During one of several weekend drives through the mountains to find a base for my new agency and my next ten years, I ended up at the Queensbury Hotel of Glens Falls. I fell in love with the stunning scenery, the vibrant community, and the walkable, hometown America vibe. I left Philadelphia in October 2020 and relocated to Glens Falls, New York – the gateway to the Adirondack Mountains.
Glens Falls is not only a scenic location, but a strategic one. It is the nexus of all destinations in New England, within an hour of both Vermont and the New York state capital of Albany, and within two hours of Montreal. It is the ideal place to build a PR practice focused on raising awareness and driving engagement to support initiatives for a sustainable planet. Great things are happening in Glens Falls, and we’re here to get in on the ground floor and get the work done for green companies.
While the venture is rooted in my passion for the environment, it is poised to leverage a confluence of trends that are coming together to create a huge market opportunity. The Sustainability market is expected to grow from $8.7 billion in 2019 to $28.9 billion by 2024 (The Green Technology & Sustainability report). It is also reported that 84% of global consumers now think about sustainability when making a buying decision (CRS study via Cone Communications).
That money is on the table for companies with both the resources and the vision to position themselves alongside the values that keep our planet and our economy viable. The old ways of selling and thinking that brought so many enterprises great success, but treated the environment as an afterthought and a cost center, are going away forever. Companies are learning to embrace the fact that profits and sustainability don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
The timing is right. Big brands like Verizon and Amazon have signed onto the Climate Pledge supporting new investment and innovation in low-carbon offerings and services. Wealthy investors reported in 2020 that they plan to allocate 41% of their portfolio to businesses actively pursuing environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) policies by the end of the year, according to Capgemini’s World Wealth Report. That figure is set to rise to 46% by the end of 2021. Venture capital is flowing into green companies who have crystal clear messaging and can make a strong business case for themselves. That’s where Sustainable PR comes in.
If you have a story to tell about your efforts in sustainability, we encourage you to contact us. Let’s talk about your enterprise and what you need to start making an impact. Ph: (518) 223-9962
