Michelle Lapinski
As Senior Director of Sustainability & ESG at Toast, Michelle led the company’s first sustainability strategy, reporting, ESG initiatives, climate efforts, and executive and board engagement. In previous management roles at Gap Inc., Business for Social Responsibility, The Nature Conservancy, and others, she spearheaded industry-leading initiatives and established new corporate best practices, including for factory monitoring, supply chain alliances, the Restricted Substances List, the Natural Capital Protocol, Clean Cargo, and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
Michelle specializes in working with both early-stage IPO companies like Robinhood and PagerDuty, as well as large-cap clients such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. She is known for identifying opportunities, bringing together key stakeholders, and executing impactful solutions. Additionally, she has played a crucial role in early-stage finance for food waste solutions through impact investing with the Closed Loop Fund and other investors.
Michelle holds a degree with honors from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Science in Environmental Management from the University of San Francisco. She has also served as an adjunct professor at the graduate level at USF, the Aspen Institute, and the Rady School of Business. Michelle has served on numerous steering committees, including the Natural Capital Coalition, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, GHG Protocol, Global Reporting Initiative, and EPEAT, and her work has been published in the Harvard Business Review.