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AJ Meyer, a Master of Environmental Management student, spent her summer as an Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Climate Corps Fellow with Tom's of Maine.

Meyer is pursuing concentrations in Energy and Environment and in Community ���Ĵ�ýment and Environmental Justice.

Each year, Nicholas School of the Environment students complete internships with organizations around the world. These summer experiences provide valuable opportunities to gain career-related experience and build a professional network. 

Duke Environment recently caught up with Meyer to learn more about her experience. 

What aspects of the experience did you find most rewarding or memorable and why?

My summer felt doubly bountiful through my time as an EDF Climate Corps fellow for Tom's of Maine. I was able to glean rewarding experiences from both organizations. 

Through EDF, I attended an education session on AI in environmental work, where I was fortunate to meet a senior manager on EDF's Energy Transition team. Sean and his team happened to be coming to Maine for a team event and kindly invited me to join them for dinner — the spirit of connection and community at EDF couldn't have been better exemplified. 

At the same time, I was able to develop deep relationships at Tom's of Maine and its parent company, Colgate-Palmolive.

Working with Michelle Waring on Tom's nature-positive strategy was a true highlight. She mentored me on how to artfully make the business value case for environmental initiatives and supported me as I successfully pitched new initiatives to the Colgate-Palmolive team, including securing buy-in from their chief sustainability officer. 

Both experiences widened my professional skill set and deepened my personal relationships. 

How did the coursework and resources at the Nicholas School prepare you for success in this role as well as your internship search?

My coursework in energy and environmental justice let me bring a systems-thinking lens to Tom's nature-positive strategy — exploring how it could not only contribute to carbon goals through carbon drawdown and building on existing renewable energy investments, but how nature-positive investment could also genuinely benefit the people living in areas of operation or supply chain withdrawal through regenerative education and investment in people. 

How has this internship influenced your career aspirations? Did it confirm or change your professional goals in any way?

Six years ago, when I first discovered sustainability work as a career option, I learned about it primarily through a corporate lens — environmental, social and governance (ESG), corporate social responsibility (CSR), and the like. I became very interested in how I could put my business management and psychology degrees to work toward saving the environment. 

Since then, I've learned a lot about the complexities of sustainability, both through real-world experience and through my time at Duke. I began to realize that corporate sustainability was not the only path one could take toward meaningful environmental impact. Still, in honor of my younger self, I wanted to give that earlier version of me the chance to experience the role that had first gotten them so excited. 

What I learned is that corporate sustainability has a lot of difficult aspects. It sometimes feels like jumping over brick wall after brick wall, trying to get data, get buy-in and make change. But when you stick with it, the reward is massive — industry-wide sustainability impact that trickles both up and down the value chain. 

I'll be spending time reflecting on whether corporate sustainability feels right for my future, but I'm very happy I had the opportunity to dive in deep and get a taste of what it's like to secure that buy-in and make change.