Greetings to all. I am pleased to introduce myself as the newest member of the Brighter Planet team. A Colorado native and a Middlebury graduate, I am glad to return now to Vermont from California, in time to enjoy another increasingly precious winter.

My primary professional perspective on climate change has been through the lens of biology. Climate change has loomed in the background of every ecology study I have worked on, from my thesis research studying climatic pressures on alpine treelines in the Green Mountains, to my experience leading carnivore ecology research crews in Yellowstone, to my endangered species recovery work in California’s Channel Islands. It has been sobering and enlightening to build an understanding of the ways in which climate change threatens to undermine our efforts to mitigate the other main threats facing the natural world—those of exotic species invasions and the biodiversity crash.

But as essential as research ecology is to understanding and addressing climate change, solutions must ultimately come also from the social realm. I have come to believe that that the most innovative and promising organizations are those working at the intersections of disparate fields—and Brighter Planet epitomizes this idea. So it is with enthusiasm that I join this wonderful team in developing creative market-based approaches to mending the rift between economy and ecology.

—Matt