Sustainability is a crucial aspect for the business community, especially as companies’ environmental, social and corporate governance activities influence consumer spending.
Coverage of sustainability is maturing and broadening. Once a niche issue in select outlets, it’s now covered widely in mainstream media across all industries. Staying up-to-date on the news, and getting noticed in the saturated market, is a challenge.
If you’re interested in following sustainability news—or getting your company’s sustainability news out to the public—these are the top sustainability reporters to follow.
Marina Bolotnikova — SustainabilityÂ
Staff Editor for Vox, Twitter | LinkedIn
For a holistic look at sustainability across multiple industries and sectors, Marina Bolotnikova is the reporter you want. She is passionate about ideas-driven stories that have something to say about the world beyond their news angle. PBS and NPR feature her reporting. She has presented at Vermont Law School on a ventilation shutdown and its impact on the poultry industry, and gave a lecture at University of Denver Law School about reporting on direct action after a historic court victory for animal rights activists.
Bolotnikova is the editor of Vox’s Future Perfect section. This section covers the consequential arguments and solutions around the world’s biggest issues, including artificial intelligence, anti-poverty efforts for factory farming and climate change. Recent coverage has included Tesla and OpenAI.
Adele Peters — Startups and Solutions
Senior Staff Writer for Fast Company, Twitter | LinkedIn
Adele Peters has experienced sustainability from all angles throughout her career, working in corporate, design, legal, media and retail. Leveraging this comprehensive background, she covers sustainability and social impact across all sectors and industries.
As a senior staff writer for Fast Company, Peters covers companies bringing sustainability solutions to the market, such as Climeworks, Goo Cup and Sakuu. She focuses on new solutions to some of the world’s largest problems, including climate change and homelessness. Check out her article, “This Startup Recycles the Trash You Can’t Put in Your Curbside Bin.”
Dan Gearino — Energy and Carbon
Clean Energy Reporter for Inside Climate News, Twitter | LinkedIn
Dan Gearino found his way to clean energy by way of political reporting after covering the New Hampshire primary election in 2004 and the Iowa caucuses in 2008. Using his experience with clean energy from the policy side to his advantage, Gearino covered the business of clean energy at The Columbus Dispatch before joining Inside Climate News as a clean energy reporter.
Currently, Gearino covers all aspects of the clean-energy transition, including wind, solar, storage and carbon. He is a member of ICN’s National Environmental Reporting Network, and  also writes ICN’s Inside Clean Energy newsletter. The newsletter shares clean energy news and analysis about fossil fuels, solar, and electric vehicles and batteries.
Agniezka de Sousa — Food and Agriculture
Global Food Tsar for Bloomberg, Twitter | LinkedIn
Agnieszka de Sousa tracks the relationship between the environment and our food, and the latest developments for how one affects the other.
In her role as Bloomberg’s “global food tsar,” Sousa coordinates global coverage of food issues from farming to dining, with a special interest in food security and innovation. She collaborates with journalists all over the world to tell food stories that delve into agriculture, trade, climate, politics, retail and tech. Check out her recent stories on fake meat startup Equinom and indoor wheat farm Infarm, and keep up with her latest stories.
Jon Smieja — Circular Economy
Circularity and Senior Analyst for GreenBiz, Twitter | LinkedIn
Jon Smieja is an expert on the science of clean and sustainable products. After earning his Ph.D. in chemistry, Smieja worked as an environmental chemist for a furniture manufacturer, assessing products for chemicals of concern for human and environmental health and developing safer alternatives.
Today, he works as a circularity and senior analyst for GreenBiz, accelerating the transition from a linear to a circular economy. He covers the circular economy across plastics, packaging, electronics and apparel, and writes Circularity Weekly, an industry-leading newsletter on ideas and transformations (as well as challenges) in the transition from the current economic system.
Alexa St. John — Transportation
Autos Reporter for Insider, Twitter | LinkedIn
Alexa St. John has been at the center of the automotive industry since the start of her career. While working at Automotive News, she quickly established herself as an electric vehicle (EV) reporter and is now one of the top journalists in the field as the autos reporter for Insider, covering EVs, the future of the auto industry and startups.
Despite the EV market’s saturated media landscape, St. John provides updates from every angle, focusing on EV battery supply chain, auto retail trends and charging infrastructure. She regularly breaks news from inside start-up automakers about their challenges with production ramp-ups, layoffs and leadership turnover. For more on her work, read “The EV revolution has never felt farther away.”
Sustainability is a complex and critical issue. These journalists, and many others, are dedicated to reporting the latest news and developments to raise awareness around the work and innovation companies are doing to move sustainability forward.
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RH Strategic is a Seattle and D.C.-based communications firm with a nationwide presence and additional global reach via membership in the Worldcom Public Relations Group. We provide strategic public relations for innovators in the technology, government and healthcare markets.
