Impact Interview: Jennifer Horning

Name: Jennifer Horning

Role/Function: Head of Corporate Engagement & Partnerships, Solidaridad North America

What are you working on these days?

The mission of my non-profit organization, Solidaridad, is to make global supply chains more sustainable from end to end. Our core focus is supporting small-scale farmers and miners who produce the raw materials that go into our food, clothing and devices. These producers live the realities of climate and economic challenges every day, yet often lack access to the knowledge, tools and financing that could strengthen their resilience.

In my role, I co-design partnerships with U.S. companies seeking to source more sustainably, for instance from farmers using climate-smart and regenerative practices. Many business leaders want to create meaningful impact for communities in their supply chains but need more effective ways to do so across many production tiers and thousands of miles. I’m especially energized by how digital technology can close that gap.

For example, I’m currently working with colleagues to develop a digital platform that enables small-scale producers to essentially crowdsource funding from downstream companies and donors for climate-friendly investments — like bio-based soil amendments or resilient crop varietals. In return, farmers share real-time data on their progress, such as improving soil quality or planting agroforestry systems, thus helping companies measure and reduce Scope 3 emissions. This kind of transparency not only connects like-minded partners across the globe, it also reduces the perceived risks that have long kept larger organizations from engaging more deeply.

What was the “aha” moment that sparked your interest in social and environmental impact? 

My interest in the natural world started early. My dad was a veterinarian in downtown Chicago, where I grew up, and I inherited his love for animals. As a city kid, I dreamed about seeing the wild places where they thrived. I was fortunate enough to spend two summers, at 13 and 14, exploring the mountains and rivers of the American West at an outdoor leadership camp — far from home and completely out of my element. Seeing elk, bison, bears and coyotes up close was incredible. Just as powerful was learning from visits to Navajo communities, which hold a deep reverence for nature, recognizing that humans are part of it — not apart from it. That was my "aha" moment. When I returned to Chicago, friends and I started an ecology club at my high school, and I’ve tried ever since to live and work in a way that gently and firmly holds that balance between people and nature. 

How did you break into the impact space? What career advice would you give to professionals who are just starting out or looking to transition?

If you’re unsure how to move forward in the sustainability space, I recommend volunteering in an area that genuinely draws your interest and energizes you. After graduating with a degree in environmental law, I started at a firm but quickly realized that corporate life wasn’t for me. I wasn’t sure how to transition back to the nonprofit world. Friends and mentors suggested that I stay a bit longer to gain seniority and more control over my cases. 

Around that time, I’d started learning metalsmithing, which I loved. But mining was fueling conflicts in Africa and there was virtually no transparency in the supply chain. Many of the artists I met in the studio shared a deep concern about the source of their metals. Realizing there were few U.S. organizations addressing this, I reached out to other metalsmiths and began volunteering to set up a nonprofit focused fully on responsible sourcing. It felt completely right! After two years of volunteering a few hours a week while practicing law, I landed my dream role at my current organization working full time to build one of the first nonprofit programs on responsible minerals sourcing.

While advice from others can help, your intuition about what feels right is often the best guide. Volunteering not only gives you the experience to show potential employers, it can also show you whether your intuition set you on a good path.

Working in impact is often about driving change. What is the skill or trait that has been most important for your work as a change agent? How did you learn or hone it?

Much of today’s sustainability work happens across borders, making cultural awareness a vital part of collaboration. When I first moved to the Netherlands from the US in 2010 to start at Solidaridad, I discovered that many of my management habits reflected an American communication style that didn’t always resonate with my Dutch colleagues. Through study of the Hofstede cultural dimensions and several courses on international business culture, I learned to recognize and adapt to those differences and even led trainings for my colleagues. That experience deepened my appreciation for cultural nuance and continues to guide how I engage with colleagues and partners around the world. My learning in this area even helps me to think through how to best approach other, non-national cultural differences, like those between a corporate commercial team in the U.S. and small-scale farming community in Malawi. A really good book on the topic is The Culture Map by Erin Meyer, a professor at INSEAD in France.   

What most excites you about the impact space right now?

The tenor of the conversation about sustainability has completely changed over the past ten years. With extreme weather events and supply shortages, even if people weren't convinced of the moral importance earlier, the business case is increasingly clear. I was recently talking with a member of the sustainability team from a leading tech company. Instead of denying that minerals contributed to conflict, which was the case a decade ago, the company is now a leading stakeholder in the development of a new protocol for ensuring that companies across many industries can source materials in line with credible sustainability standards. While it's deeply unfortunate that it's taken these extreme events, there is now tremendous potential, along with lots of action, at many levels of society because people who are in positions of true power at a broad scale are on board. People in the business community are committing, even if more out of the spotlight than in recent years. No question that the pace of this needs to accelerate but this shift in people's excitement around potential solutions gives me hope despite recent political setbacks. 

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