NATURAL PROGRESSION

There’s a reason why environmentalists like Jane Goodall, Rachel Carson, and Graham Nash say that young people are the key to preserving the planet (“Teach your children well,” as the old song says). Our childhood beliefs about nature often define our later relationship with the environment. Director of Corporate Sustainability at UL Solutions Dorthea Emery-Duenow can trace the roots of her current position back to an idyllic, outdoorsy childhood.

Emery-Duenow grew up—along with her parents and many siblings—on sparsely inhabited Wadmalaw Island in South Carolina at her grandfather’s house. Living off the grid, they bathed in salt water, grew their own fruits and vegetables, sailed the Atlantic coast, and did their best to learn all the species around them by studying the old books that lined the home’s walls.

“That’s the kind of stuff that just passes onto you naturally as a kid,” Emery-Duenow says. “You just think that’s how grandparents are. That’s how grownups behave. And then when you move into other parts of society, you’re like, ‘Oh, that was very special!’”From an early age, she felt the power of nature. “I was always in the elements, getting tons of exercise and sunlight every day, climbing trees, and using my imagination to play with sticks and mud.” Over those formative years, Emery-Duenow felt her surroundings were more than just beautiful views; they were becoming part of her.

As she grew older, Emery-Duenow hopscotched around the world as her professor father landed in different teaching roles. Improbably, the sunlight-loving high schooler found herself visiting colleges in the Midwest. Looking back, she can’t help but laugh about her trip to the University of Chicago. “It was 40 degrees, freezing rain, and everything gothic and gray. And I thought, ‘Yeah, this is where I need to be!”’

Chicagoland became Emery-Duenow’s home, and she’s been here ever since. After graduation, she tried her hand at a number of different careers. The roles may have been different, but creativity was a common thread. She co-owned a web design agency, wrote copy for nonprofits, and even drummed in a touring rock duo. Ultimately, the physical and mental burden of running a two-person band and living out of a van proved too much, and the music came to an abrupt end one night somewhere outside of Austin, Texas.

She returned to Chicago to embark upon her next chapter. “I went back to full-time work, had kids, and moved to the suburbs.” It was in those suburbs, sitting in her Highland Park home, that the epiphany hit. Perhaps it was the reality of having young children, new responsibilities, or the hangover of her creative sojourns. Emery-Duenow saw a position listed at UL Solutions and decided to give it a shot. She pulled together her portfolio and landed a role at the global, 130-year-old, Northbrook-head-quartered company that provides safety, security, and sustainability services to businesses.

Emery-Duenow got the job and found herself working side by side with the head of corporate sustainability. “It was the rightplace, right time.” She suddenly found herself combining her greatest skill—writing—and her greatest passion—nature.

“We look at our own processes,” she explains. “Where can we make positive reductions? We look at the health and well-being of our employees, our customers, and anyone else impacted through- out the value chain.” It’s a mission she can get behind because it’s something she’s believed in since those childhood days with her seafaring grandfather.

“What’s cool and different about this company is the engineering mindset and our scientific approach,” she says. “If the data is there, and the facts are showing us things, we’re not ignoring it. We understand how to read data and know what it means.” As for the big picture, Emery-Duenow thinks a lot about her children and the world they’ll inherit.

“We all know there’s too many screens, too much indoors,” she observes. “Not knowing what we’re putting into our mouths. We are woefully out of balance. I think change starts with something as simple as walking your neighborhood every day of the year. Getting into the woods here has really changed the way I see living on the North Shore. I’m connected to it in a way I never was before.”

And when it comes to the circuitous path she’s taken from a small coastal island to living the itinerant life out of a van to corporate America in the Windy City, Emery-Duenow takes it all in stride. “I do trust the way, ‘the Tao,’ because I always seem to end up in a place that’s fitting.”