We sat down with Shona Crawford-Smith (Product Data Lead), and Lucía Cantó-Mira (Demand Generation Associate), who are both part of the SylverHER committee, one of Sylvera’s employee resource groups, which brings together our women and non-binary employees. ✨ Tell us a little bit about yourself, when you joined Sylvera, what your role is and which team you work in. S: I’m part of our Product Data team, working with other companies in voluntary carbon markets to see how we can scale together, and double down on Sylvera’s mission to incentivise investment in real climate action. I’ve been here for a couple of years - before then I was working in regenerative agriculture. Outside of work, I like a good Crossfit class, and you’ll often find me getting outside in nature. L: I’m a Demand Generation Associate working within our marketing team - I help with the top of the funnel, generating leads for our sales team. I joined Sylvera just over a year ago, from a market research consulting company, with some of their work covering sustainability. I was really keen to stay in the sustainability space but to move to a company more focused on one product, rather than many different ones. I love living in the Hammersmith area, as it sets me up really well for one of my main hobbies - being part of my rowing team. 🌏 Give us a quick overview of SylverHER - what is the group’s aim, and what impact does the group hope to have? SylverHER is an employee resource group founded in 2023, which is open to our women and non-binary Sylverans. The aim is to set these individuals up to thrive at Sylvera, through identifying issues they face and providing mentoring and support for women and non-binary employees at all stages of their careers. In terms of impact, SylverHER offers a safe space to share experiences and resources, and a forum to discuss them. The group acts as a representative voice to suggest key initiatives, and as a source of training and awareness for Sylvera more widely. Finally, the group offers an opportunity to organise events from a networking perspective and to recognise key celebrations like Women’s History Month. 💪 You’re both part of the SylverHER committee. What does each of your roles entail? S: I chair the committee. I think of this role as being the glue between SylverHER and the Diversity Equity & Inclusion committee more widely, plus our Leadership Team. I support the group’s members, but equally ensure we’re clear on what our key initiatives are, and the progress we’re making towards delivering them. L: I joined initially to manage events and communications. I was involved in planning socials like our remote quiz, and our remote murder mystery social, plus more networking-focussed events like our partnership with Women in Carbon in sponsoring a panel event . Our structure’s changed slightly recently, and we’re moving to a more initiatives-based approach, but I’m still pretty events-focused, running initiatives like our International Women’s Day Book Club, and planning upcoming workshops. 🌟 . What did SylverHER (and our wider Sylverans) do to mark International Women’s Day this year? L: I led the initiative this year. I wanted to plan an initiative that: gave actionable insights, had a mentoring element, and also was good fun. We held an internal panel with women in our leadership team here at Sylvera, for them to share their different experiences and the challenges they’ve faced and overcome in the various sectors they’ve worked in. We also held a company-wide book club, where we read Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, by Caroline Criado Perez. We wanted to invite Sylverans more widely to join in sharing thoughts on this topic, as we believe it’s a conversation that should involve not just women. 💭 What’s been the most impactful initiative you’ve championed with SylverHER? S: Definitely partnering with Women in Carbon to sponsor a panel event last year. This was an external event but was really closely aligned with our internal mission. We successfully brought female leaders in the industry together for a great panel discussion. The turn out was excellent, and the audience was incredibly engaged - what was particularly special was that I felt we were also helping to bring people into the industry, as many people attended who were keen to career change into climate tech. I’d also say the external training we ran, focussed around female empowerment. The feedback on this was great - attendees felt empowered on a roadmap of their personal development, and the key steps they needed to take. L: I’d also say the Women in Carbon event. This was the first time we’d done something like this externally, so it was also a big branding exercise, we were positioning ourselves within a specific network. On the social front, I was really proud of the quiz that I ran, which we had opened up to the wider business. The attendance was great across London, New York, and remotely, and it made me realise that it’s easier than I thought to bring awareness to the wider organisation when you choose the right format for the session. ➡️ Tell us about any exciting initiatives you have on the roadmap for SylverHER for 2024. S: Loads! We’ve just recently rolled out our partnership with FemaleInvest, to offer membership to this financial education platform that provides tons of information on topics like budgeting, how to get started with investment, and general financial health. Our VP of People Liane is also in the process of running some brilliant #iamremarkable workshops (for those who don’t know, this is a movement which empowers individuals to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond). We’re also continuing with our buddy and mentoring program. We genuinely believe there’s so much support we can give one another, by utilising our skillsets in different areas. The goal is to connect with someone outside of your team and to chat through clear goals and strategies for personal development for one another. L: I’d also add to this the career development training I’m working on. This is very much still being mapped out, but we’re exploring external options here, as well as the potential for involving newer additions to our senior leadership team in running sessions on this topic. 💚 We’re so pleased to have you as part of the team. Why did you choose to join Sylvera, and what are your favourite things about working here? S: Mission is really important to me; I’ve always wanted to work in the sustainability and climate space. Sylvera backs that up - it’s not just something we say, it’s also something we do. Probably my favourite thing is that everyone is quite like-minded in the sense that everyone wants to work towards that mission, whether internally or externally in terms of initiatives. SylverHER is definitely also another highlight - I’ve been involved in committees like this before and have been passionate about these types of initiatives for a long time, I have a real desire to support other people. L: My favourite thing is being surrounded by a group that has a very clear mission. During the interview process, I only got affirmation of this - I could see early on how committed the people were towards their work and Sylvera’s mission. This impression came across very early on, and this ultimately made me choose Sylvera. Being part of SylverHER is awesome - I wanted to challenge myself and force myself to learn more about the issues we tackle and how they affect people in the workplace. I’d previously never had the opportunity to tackle anything like this before and to be honest it wasn’t something I’d spent a lot of time thinking about before - I wanted to challenge that on a personal level. Any new joiner to the business who identifies as female or non-binary is welcome to join SylverHER. We also run a number of events which are business-wide (like book clubs, lunch and learns) to shine a light on any relevant topics related to initiatives SylverHER is driving.