A conversation with Metta’s Sustainability & Innovation Lead
We chat to Heather Baden about her journey, why she joined us, and how she’s going to weave sustainability and innovation into everything Metta does.
Metta supports startups, industry and government with sustainable technology-driven innovation. This article is part two of a series introducing the wonderful human beings behind Metta. In part one, we met the cofounders of Metta — Gabriela Matic and Wil Benton. We chatted about the reasons behind Metta’s founding, their work with the ATI Boeing Accelerator, and the biggest challenges for corporates that want to innovate and work with startups.
In this article, we talk to Heather, Metta’s Sustainability & Innovation Lead.
Q1: Hi Heather! 👋 Can you briefly walk me through your professional journey before Metta?
It has been a journey! I started my career in the US in Supply Chain and Procurement in Nuclear Energy, then moved to Australia and into recruitment for a bit. From there, I was in sales at Groupon and a few other startups in Australia. I decided to move on from sales and spent a few years at Telstra in Product Marketing and helped to build a Developer Relations Programme.
After about five years in Australia, we decided to move to London where I continued in Product Marketing and Developer Relations for a bit until landing in Nexmo (now Vonage) where I did Partner Marketing and Product Management. Add a thread of environmentalism and volunteering to the whole lot — and that’s me.
Q2: Wow! It sounds like you’ve been around the globe doing all sorts of things. Out of the different projects you’ve been involved in, what is something you’ve enjoyed the most?
Professionally, most recently I was leading an initiative which helped in connecting employees with the broader UK community and leading positive change by suggesting avenues to make impactful contributions to issues such as poverty, food waste and climate change. I worked with internal champions to improve engagement and morale during COVID, to show people how they can make a difference in their communities and for the environment, even in the most stressful time of our lives.
Outside of work it is definitely my involvement in ClimateAction.tech (CAT) as one of its organisers. I’ve been with them since the beginning of 2020 (pre-pandemic) and primarily lead the western timezone series of CAT Salon. CAT Salon is a fortnightly, hour-long event series with the goal of sharing ideas and facilitating conversation with our community.
“When thinking about being “sustainable” we must always be conscious that every decision we make impacts countless communities beyond our own.”
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Q3: Why did you join Metta? Obviously honest answers only but I’m curious to know more about what you took into consideration when you made the decision to join.
It is such an exciting time at Metta and I’m fortunate to have been introduced (by a great friend to myself, Wil & Gabi — Martyn!) to Wil and Gabi. Metta have run very successful programmes and done a lot for the community in general. I joined because of the opportunity to build on everything they’ve done and help to scale it so we can broaden our impact globally and hopefully have an exponentially positive impact on the world.
Everything that Wil and Gabi envision for Metta aligns perfectly with how I want to make a difference. It may sound corny, but I truly felt like maybe all of the various, seemingly disparate types of roles I’ve had in the past were all building up to this.
I’ve had the debate regularly around what sort of impact we can make as individuals vs. what corporations and governments should be doing to move the needle. I firmly believe that it must be a mix of both. I’ve been actively reducing my carbon footprint, volunteering and educating people on an individual level. Working with Metta is an opportunity to expand that and support startups and corporations across multiple industries to lead the charge in reducing their environmental impact.
The openness that Wil and Gabi have on how we go about, well, everything was too exciting to pass up. I’m thrilled to be here and working with such a switched on, wonderful group of people.
Q4: Metta seems to be at the forefront in trying to create change within tech innovation. How do you see Metta influencing this ecosystem?
In a nutshell…by continuing to work with all key stakeholders — large brands, governments and industries — Metta is in a very unique position to connect the most innovative startups and the corporations most eager to lead change. With our focus on responsibility and sustainability in innovation, we’re hoping to influence others to make sustainability a key theme in their work.
By introducing startups and corporations to each other, we’re giving both sides valuable insight into the operations of the other. For startups, insight into the corporate world could not only lend new perspectives during development but also valuable resources that would otherwise not be available (e.g. access to SMEs, funding, training, etc. ). For corporations, startups are able to move at an exponential pace and will help to solve some of the largest challenges in industry.
“What is sustainability, who do our actions affect, how can we as individuals push for change and also influence those in power to do the same?”
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Q5: Your role at Metta is Sustainability & Innovation Lead. That seems to be quite a rare role to see within the ecosystem. What will you be focusing on?
At a very high level, I am ensuring that we (as Metta) minimise our impact on the environment and help to innovate towards improvements in everything we do. A large part of this is bringing every business we work with, in every industry we touch, along with us on that journey.
At a deeper level, I’m focusing on education (case studies, playbooks, interviews) — what is sustainability, who do our actions affect, how can we as individuals push for change and also influence those in power to do the same. I’m building processes within Metta so that we can innovate and be a sustainable and responsible business. My role will also have me taking what we’ve done and turning it into something that others can use — corporates, startups, and individuals. Anyone. When it comes to climate change and social responsibility, if we have information that can help, we need to share it.
Q6: Sustainable innovation seems to be a common thread at Metta. You’ve also done a lot of work within this space. On a personal level, what does sustainable innovation mean to you? Why is it something we should pay attention to?
I don’t think there is a simple answer to that! Sustainability and innovation are both incredibly nebulous terms and we could spend hours breaking them down.
Firstly, even if we’re not innovating ourselves or in the space to do so, we should all become the “environmental person” in our group of friends. I’m regularly getting asked for and giving advice on how to be more sustainable, choose more environmentally friendly options and generally leading by example. Friends have said that I inspire them to learn more and make changes in their lives. Paying attention to how we, as individuals, can make a difference is hugely important.
Sustainable innovation, to me, means taking the tools we have and crafting new ones to facilitate positive environmental and social change. And, that is a very broad statement — those tools can be anything… from technology to new fuels to bacteria which eat plastic. I’ve seen shoes made of mycelium and diamonds from captured carbon. Entrepreneurs, builders, scientists and dreamers are leading the way to fix what’s been done, setting new precedent for the way the world operates in the future. Corporations and governments, maybe not all of them, but a lot of them are also stepping up to make drastic changes.
When thinking about being “sustainable” we must always be conscious that every decision we make impacts countless communities beyond our own. We need to act in the interest of those who are least responsible for the harm to the environment but most impacted. When being innovative, we need to do the same. Be sure to think holistically about the downstream effects our innovation has. Above all, we need to be responsible when innovating sustainably.
Connect with Heather — heather@metta.partners | LinkedIn
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Get to know the rest of the Metta team:
Gabriela Matic and Wil Benton | Metta Co-Founders and Directors
Ksenia Kurileva | Programme Director
Dana Zou | Programme Manager
Gianna Pinasco | Programme Associate
Fatema Basim | Lead Researcher
Matt Briggs | Key Account Lead
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Want to learn more about Metta — and the latest about #startups, #innovation, and #sustainability? Let’s talk-
Email | hello@metta.partners
Website | Metta.Partners
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Twitter | @mettatalks
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