Fostering International Relationships
Around Business & Climate

Professional exchange programs build international relationships that foster citizen diplomacy and new ways of thinking. It's particularly important at the intersection of business and climate. Learn more about our new sustainability colleague Daria Goncharova.

Clean Energy Trust recently hosted Russian sustainability professional Daria Goncharova as a participating partner organization with WorldChicago and the U.S. State Department.

The U.S. State Department Professional Fellows program brings up-and-coming business leaders from around the world to the U.S. for hosted internships and exchange programming to build relationships and foster citizen diplomacy. WorldChicago is a local nonprofit that works with the State Department to match fellows with opportunities in Chicago.

Clean Energy Trust participated in the same program two years ago, when we hosted Slovenian energy reporter and media entrepreneur Alenka Zumbar, of ENERGETIKA.net.

Daria is the Chief Sustainability Officer for Polymetal, an international gold and silver mining company. She oversees sustainability-related projects, including environmental stewardship, regulations compliance, waste management, and employee safety. Ms. Goncharova prepares sustainability reports, implements best practices at both the corporate and operational levels, and reports to the Board of Directors and Safety and Sustainability Committee. She was especially interested in learning about environmentally-friendly business approaches and corporate social responsibility initiatives.

Through the course of her three weeks with Clean Energy Trust, Daria participated in meetings with clean energy business leaders and learned about various public-private initiatives and corporate social responsibility strategies. And she shared with us various tools and resources that she and her European counterparts use to assess sustainability metrics and investment impact.

By building a foundation of international relationships and fostering citizen diplomacy, we can continue to build climate and business solutions together. Climate change is, after all, a global problem – so we welcome the opportunity to work with WorldChicago and the U.S. State Department on this long-running program.

Daria will soon be on her way back to St. Petersberg to return to Polymetal armed with new observations and inspired by new ideas. Next week, we’ll follow up by publishing an account of her take on what she learned from her time at Clean Energy Trust.

By Emily Achler | June 16, 2017