Laura Franceschini
Laura works in Global Sustainability Strategy and Operations at Google. She graduated in 2014 with a Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, where she focused on corporate environmental/energy management and industrial ecology. She is particularly interested in reducing the environmental impacts of global consumer brands and technology products by integrating sustainability principles into corporate strategies. As a consultant for various organizations, she has led Fortune 500 companies and other clients to capture business opportunities by addressing energy, waste, water, and supply chain challenges.
At Yale, Laura was involved with many initiatives at the business-environment nexus. She was on Yale’s winning team in the 2013 Better Buildings Case Competition, a national Department of Energy event at the White House. She ran two executive speaker series: the Colloquium on Sustainability Marketing and the Colloquium on Sustainability Leadership, created a Sustainability in the Technology Sector week, and led the Industrial Environmental Management group. She was also a Teaching Fellow and developer for the Yale School of Management’s inaugural offering of Natural Capital: Risks and Opportunities in Global Resource Systems, an MBA course for students at leading business schools in 27 countries across the Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM). Laura continues to be involved with strengthening GNAM as well as Yale’s partnership with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
Prior to Yale, Laura launched the sustainability program for Stantec (NYSE: STN)—a global top 20 design firm with $2 billion in revenue—including initiating the company’s sustainability reporting process. Laura has also worked for Ceres, as an EDF Climate Corps Fellow, and for the World Wildlife Fund in India. Laura has been an instructor/ guest lecturer for undergraduate-, graduate-, and executive-level business classes and is the co-founder and former leader of Net Impact Edmonton, the city’s first sustainable business association.
Laura holds a BS in Biological Sciences and a BA in Psychology/Sociology, both from the University of Alberta. She also completed a Diploma in Environment at McGill University and a program in International Media and Communication at Uppsala University in Sweden. She loves traveling, dancing, and learning languages.