Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Benavides.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
It’s all about the impact you can make- on a child’s future, on a community, on the planet. Our family has always been driven by a passion for creating a better future- through starting foundations, building businesses, volunteering, and careers where we make the world a better place, one person at a time. When the United Nations released the Sustainable Development Goals, a blueprint for coming together to create a more equitable, sustainable, thriving planet, we knew we needed to get to work. My husband and I sat down and realized these extremely ambitious global goals were going to require more aggressive action than the industry we knew so well. We needed to support the industry through innovative solutions, and as a former teacher, I knew education and training the next generation of leaders is going to be key to this success. L.E. Rigby Innovations was born to accelerate action in sustainability to create a better future together.
Through our Rigby brands, we are driving growth and action in the sustainability industry through supporting emerging professionals into careers of impact, transformational corporate green building training, and behind the scenes support to get work accomplished faster. We view this as our individual and collective opportunity to be bold, to be ambitious, and to act faster to change the world.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
When you seek to live an impactful life, the road is rarely smooth. While today my husband and I are both thriving within our industry- I am CEO of L.E. Rigby Innovations and an international trainer in sustainability, designated as a U.S. Green Building Council Faculty Member and he is the Orange County Chief Sustainability and Resilience Officer- neither of us came to this field in a traditional path.
I am a proud former OCPS teacher with a Master’s in Education and a former Hearing Aid Specialist with a Bachelor’s in Communicative Sciences and Disorders. In these capacities, I have improved the lives of 99-year-olds all the way down to 4-year-olds. In the classroom, I watched the effects of uncontrollable circumstance on my students and witnessed the power of STEM education to empower students to create their own better futures. Jeff has a degree in Hospitality Management from UCF’s Rosen College, but with a passion for creating a more sustainable future, he has networked and worked his way through every facet of the sustainability industry.
While we did not always know where we were heading, we have been able to embrace the pivots to learn and grow from each chapter. Our paths have empowered us to look for solutions through a more innovative lens and to find every way we can to help others find their own paths toward impact.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about L.E. Rigby Innovations?
Here at L.E. Rigby Innovations, we have one goal: to accelerate action on a more sustainable world. It is going to take more than a client by client, a project by project approach to create the momentum needed to achieve those UN SDG’s. The sustainability leaders and innovators doing great work in the industry need the ability to amplify their impact and do more of what they do best. So we set out to transform their teams, train their backup bench of future leaders, and take on the behind-the-scenes work to empower the industry to create impact faster and on a grander scale than ever before. We train, we support, and we empower to accelerate action for a brighter future together.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
The world is shifting so quickly. The Covid-19 crisis only intensified our understanding of how crucial these SDG’s are to creating a more sustainable future for all from our backyard to across the world. It also showed how easy it is to connect virtually and train people from all over the world. We deeply believe this mission will only be possible if we empower the industry to move faster and if we bridge the gap in experience and knowledge to accelerate the future leaders into careers of impact- and this pandemic exemplified the need for this to be a global mission.
Contact Info:
- Email: hello@lerigby.com
- Website: www.lerigby.com
- Instagram: @lerigbyinnovations
