Whitney McGuire

Whitney is a mother, lawyer, writer, professor, and co-founder of Sustainable Brooklyn, an initiative that works to bridge gaps between the mainstream sustainability movement and targeted communities that are the most vulnerable to climate collapse. Whitney approaches sustainability as a holistic experience, starting with the inquiry: “what does it take to sustain my life and the lives of my community?” Her experience within sustainability spaces has often led to frustration and rage because the cultures and communities like the ones she exists in are largely left out of solutions that are urgently needed. Her approach to sustainability is multi-pronged: she educates future sustainability leaders as a professor at Parsons and via Sustainable Brooklyn; She advocates for the sustainability of Black femme artists as an attorney because Black intellectual property is at the heart of sustainable innovation; as a mother; she writes about sustainability from a deeply personal perspective; and she consults for state and federal lawmakers on equitable sustainability frameworks that originated in the African Diaspora so that maybe our laws could work for us and not against us. Her work focuses is on the fashion industry, though her work tends to be industry agnostic. She is committed to creating and actionizing ecosystems of care that support the sustainability of future generations that are currently the most vulnerable to unsustainable systems and societal conditions.