An international movement since 1970, Earth Day, which is celebrated annually on April 22, is the world’s largest call to action to increase education and motivate support for environmental protection. At Bayer Hawaii, sustainability is the root of our everyday operations. We’re continuously evolving our farming practices to not only help farmers increase efficiency, but also reduce our demand on Hawaii’s natural resources – water, land and energy – to ensure a more sustainable future for agriculture while meeting the world’s food, fuel and fiber needs.

With a passion for sustainable business operations that have a positive environmental impact, Bayer Hawaii was proud to welcome Holly McLaughlin as Sustainability Lead in 2019. In her role, she works to drive high-priority sustainability initiatives across the state, while serving as president of Bayer’s Net Impact Group, which is a hub for Bayer employees who seek to drive social and environmental impact in both their professional and personal lives.

Just prior to joining Bayer, Holly spent a year researching and working in sustainable chocolate supply chains in Copenhagen, Denmark. She began her career as a social change communications fellow at Fenton Communications, where she managed the public relations and marketing campaigns for several environment, public health and human rights clients. She has also served as an external relations coordinator for the Rainforest Alliance and a procurement consultant at Unilever. Over the last five years, she has held several consulting positions at organizations like the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, World Economic Forum, and fortune 500 companies like Walmart. 

Holly is a graduate of Bates College and received her Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. While at Yale, she was awarded the Rosemary Ripley Business & Environment award and the Fox International Fellowship for her work on sustainable supply chains. She also built and managed the Alumni Network Series at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. 

“My deep passion and commitment to sustainability stems from my upbringing in Costa Rica, where I witnessed not only the transformation of the banana industry, but learned how important it is to protect the world’s biodiversity for generations to come,” said Holly.  “I’m proud of the progress we’ve been able to make in my short time at Bayer Hawaii, including the creation of our sustainability task force teams. My goal is for Bayer’s operations to serve Hawaii while also providing opportunities for growth and learning for our team members across the state.” 

In 2020, Holly helped to create statewide task force teams to serve as a forum for Bayer employees to share questions, best practices, and issue resolution as it relates to biodiversity and waste. Each team currently consists of 11-12 members that meet remotely bi-monthly. The goal of the biodiversity team is to collaborate and share learnings on pollinator habitat maintenance, community outreach, and Wildlife Habitat Council applications for certification; while the waste team is focused on development, optimization, and education of procedures across the state for waste disposal, classification, and waste reduction. 

To learn more about Bayer Hawaii’s sustainability efforts, please visit our sustainability page on our website at hawaii.bayer.us.