By: Julia Worcester
The Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute is thrilled to welcome one of our newest staff members: Trey McDonald, REWRF Fund Lead. Trey McDonald has worked within sustainability for over 20 years as a whale biologist, environmental scientist, and sustainability officer. Observing the pace and scale of development during his time as an environmental scientist in Florida, he recognized the need to rethink our relationship with the Earth. He shifted his career focus to sustainability strategy, earning his LEED Accreditation, his M.S. in Environmental Science and Policy from the University of South Florida, and an Energy Management Certificate from North Carolina State University. His Master’s thesis focused on sustainability at university campuses. He earned his B.S. in Marine Biology from Auburn University and also studied at the University of British Columbia, the University of Oregon, and Florida Institute of Technology.
Prior to joining REWI, Trey served as a Senior Sustainability Consultant at Vizient, Inc., developing their sustainability consulting services framework for healthcare providers. He also served as the first ESG/Sustainability Manager at Conrex, a property management company based in Charleston, SC. There he created internal governance for ESG issues and developed a sustainability strategic plan for the company to achieve carbon neutrality and improve the experiences of residents. Most of his career in sustainability has been in higher education, where he led programs for three different schools including the University of San Diego, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the University of Richmond. He served as the first sustainability officer for both UNCG and UR and led the development of comprehensive sustainability programs and strategic Climate Action and Sustainability Plans at each institution.
Julia Worcester: What attracted you to this position and specifically the Renewable Energy Wildlife Research Fund (the Fund)?
Trey McDonald: The opportunity to serve as the Fund Lead was intriguing because it blends the two careers I’ve had so far: environmental scientist and sustainability officer for large organizations. My early career consisted of a lot of environmental field work, including threatened and endangered species surveys, telemetry, and habitat restoration. I’m also co-author of a journal article on global fisheries bycatch of turtles, birds and marine mammals, a problem that has similarities to wildlife impacts of utility scale renewables.
Then in my time as a sustainability officer, I had the opportunity to work with a lot of people from across organizations. I got to really understand how these organizations worked and the different perspectives from different areas. I enjoyed the challenge of balancing the technical and fiscal needs to address climate change with the various priorities of these stakeholders, as well as the limited resources of the organization.
The Fund Lead position allows me to bring the best of both to help REWI and our partners solve the challenges of scaling renewables to meet the challenge of climate change while also protecting wildlife and ecosystems.
JW: What experiences and skills from your time designing sustainability programs in higher education are you planning to use at REWI?
TM: When I transitioned to sustainability work for large institutions from environmental science, I had no idea how much I’d need to develop and use my “people” skills and learn how to better build consensus. But that turned out to be the biggest part of the job, even beyond the technical knowledge required to build and implement plans. So, I think the most significant skillset I bring from creating and leading sustainability programs is the capacity to understand and respect the perspectives of a large team, then work with that team to establish shared goals and create pathways to achieve those.
JW: What are you looking forward to learning about in the world of renewable energy and wildlife?
TM: Pretty much everything! In my time as a sustainability officer, I learned about the conflicts between renewables and wildlife peripherally, but because my focus was not utility scale, these issues were beyond my day-to-day purview. My focus had been more on distributed solar opportunities for the campuses where I led sustainability efforts.
I’m intrigued by the counterfactual studies that could provide information on the links between climate, renewables, and wildlife – those can help us understand the potential risks to wildlife if we don’t scale up renewables, and allow us to make choices that minimize risk. I’m also interested in learning about the effects of grid expansion and transmission line installation on wildlife, as that will go hand-in-hand with the scaling of renewables. But most importantly, I really want to understand the issues that are important to our members and how we can help address those issues to minimize risk and scale renewables to address climate change.
JW: What is your vision for the evolution and growth of the Fund over the next several years?
TM: Having just started a little over a month ago, I haven’t formed a “vision” for the Fund, and it would be premature for me to do so. However, based on my work getting to know the Fund structure and the team, my early take is that the Fund has been in start up mode and the approach has been to “build the plane while we’re flying it.” That’s not uncommon, and it got the Fund going quickly and successfully. However, I think we’re now at a maturity level that we can begin to bring some more structure to the fund proposal solicitation and financing processes. I’d also like to investigate how we might expand membership for the Fund, and perhaps look at new avenues of research that would benefit Fund members, such as how transmission line impacts, battery storage facilities, and grid expansion interact with wildlife.