Lauren McKenna, Positive Carbon – Winner of Compass WMB Rising Star Award 2024
2nd December 2024
This week we hear from Lauren McKenna, Head of Product, Positive Carbon. Lauren was presented with the Compass WMB Rising Star Award, a new Award category sponsored by Compass Ireland which includes a unique mentoring element from businesswoman, Dee O’Neill, Managing Director of Compass Ireland. Lauren reflects: “This mentorship is an incredible opportunity to deepen my understanding of leadership and personal growth within the context of our industry.”
Q: Originally from Derry, you moved to Dublin for college. What advice would you give to others considering a similar move?
Moving to Dublin was a pivotal moment for me and a decision I’m really happy I made.
Dublin is a great place to start your career; it’s a hub for innovation and has global connections, making it ideal for finding the right company or community for what you’re passionate about.
Over the last few years, there’s been a noticeable increase in careers focused on purpose and sustainability, available in everything from small independent companies to large multinationals based here. When I decided to move at 18 for college, it was primarily about wanting to attend Trinity.
When I reflect on it, my advice to others thinking about doing the same is – don’t get too caught up in the details, stay true to your values and trust your gut’.
There’s a lot of pressure when you leave school to have everything figured out and to know exactly what path you want. But in a place like Dublin, there’s plenty of flexibility to pivot and not just find your path but create it.
Q: Positive Carbon is known for being product-centric and focused on reducing food waste on a global scale. Can you elaborate on how you achieve this?
At Positive Carbon, we’re tackling the global issue of food waste with a technology solution.
In Ireland alone, 25% of all food waste comes from the food service sector, with two-thirds being preventable, costing the industry about €300 million annually. The global environmental and financial impacts are immense.
Our technology at Positive Carbon primarily serves food service professionals, especially chefs, who are not only creative but also very keen on efficiency and running a kitchen that is as optimised as possible. Our product is designed specifically to empower chefs to minimise waste so every feature we develop is tailored to fit the mindset of a chef and ultimately drive waste reduction. Our partners are across many verticals within food service, including tech companies, hospitals, universities, stadiums, and hotels.
Moreover, our product uniquely incorporates GenAI to track, identify, and label food waste, providing users with previously unavailable insights into their waste patterns.
It’s an example of a really practical application of GenAI, which as we all know is such a topic of conversation across all industries. The development of AI allows our technology to scale globally and integrate seamlessly into any commercial kitchen, regardless of complexity.
Our ultimate goal is to have our food waste sensors installed in every commercial kitchen worldwide.
Q: As Head of Product at Positive Carbon, could you share insights into your role and its impact on the company?
As Head of Product at Positive Carbon, my role spans various functions, and I have the privilege of collaborating closely with different departments to continually refine and advance our product. This collaboration is crucial as we aim to drive growth, forge strategic partnerships, and penetrate new markets.
On a daily basis, my responsibilities include managing our product roadmap and working closely with the engineering team to ensure we consistently deliver impactful features and enhance the user experience of our app.
I place a strong emphasis on understanding our customers’ needs, spending significant time with them to grasp what they require to achieve at least a 50% reduction, and notably some of our clients have achieved reductions of up to 75%!
A significant aspect of my job involves strategising the product’s growth, scaling the product and our team, and optimising our sales approach. I also work directly with our partners to tailor solutions that facilitate our expansion and drive success. Currently, we are focusing on entering the UK and German markets. A large part of my role this year has been dedicated to these new ventures, identifying the right partners, and designing solutions that pave the way for success in these regions.
Q: Could you share any career highlights you’ve experienced?
Certainly! One of my proudest moments recently was the formal announcement that we will be opening a UK office in early 2025 to expand into the UK market. It was incredibly rewarding to share this milestone, which we’ve been working towards for some time. Another significant highlight was our team’s feature in RTE’s Climate Change documentary ‘Heated.’ I had the opportunity to discuss our product and its benefits for our clients, which was not only a fantastic experience but also great for raising awareness about food waste and promoting our company. Lastly, a personal career milestone was my promotion to Head of Product this past July at the age of 24, which was a significant achievement and a very special moment for me.
Q: How did you feel about receiving the Compass WMB Rising Star Award 2024?
Receiving this Award was an incredible honour, and I felt immensely proud to be recognised alongside such impactful women in the industry, especially impressive so early in their careers.
The Rising Star category was particularly meaningful, featuring nominees who are all driven and purpose-oriented.
As a young woman in a senior leadership position at a startup, it’s challenging to step back from the daily grind and reflect on my achievements, so being part of this award ceremony provided a wonderful moment to do just that.
It was also an opportunity to celebrate the journey of other remarkable women in our company. I’m fortunate to have a strong support system that encourages me to be my best so celebrating this achievement with them was particularly special, as they play a crucial role in where I am today.
Q: This year’s conference theme was ‘Be the Change’. How did this theme resonate with you?
The theme ‘Be the Change’ really strikes a chord with me, reminding me of a quote, “When I changed how I looked at the world, the world changed how it looked at me.” This encapsulates the essence of being the change—it’s all about mindset. It’s about seeing opportunities, recognising your potential to make an impact, maintaining a growth mindset, and showing perseverance. It’s not about viewing the world through rose-tinted glasses but about recognising your unique contributions and areas for change. Despite holding a bachelor’s degree in English & Philosophy and working in a technology-focused product role, I initially saw my background as a disadvantage due to a lack of technical skills. Over time, I realised it was actually a strength.
My ability to bring deep critical thinking and a strong empathetic perspective to our product complements our engineering team’s technical expertise, enhancing our product’s customer-centric focus.
This journey of growth and self-recognition shows how embracing what makes you unique can be a powerful catalyst for change. This theme resonates with me deeply as it echoes my own experiences of personal and professional transformation.
Q: Dee O’Neill, Managing Director of Compass Group Ireland, has offered mentorship as part of this award. What do you hope to gain from such a unique opportunity?
I am thrilled at the prospect of being mentored by Dee O’Neill. Her successful career offers invaluable insights, not only into the food industry and how technology like ours can scale within catering companies but also into the nuances of being a woman in business.
It’s highly beneficial to have a mentor from a different company or industry as they can provide a fresh, objective perspective on challenges and different approaches to them. With Dee’s experience at Managing Director level, I am eager to learn about her career progression, her development into the leader she is today, and her strategies for balancing professional and personal life. I also look forward to understanding how she has crafted her personal vision and navigated being a female leader.
This mentorship is an incredible opportunity to deepen my understanding of leadership and personal growth within the context of our industry.
Q: You are very passionate about purpose-driven work. Can you elaborate on this?
I’m deeply passionate about purpose-driven work, a concept that encapsulates various career paths focused on sustainability and environmental impact, among other areas. My career began at Bread 41, a company profoundly committed to its purpose. As an example, Bread 41 offers solid career progression, living wages, and pensions, which are things that are often unheard of or difficult to find in the hospitality sector. The company is on a mission to achieve zero waste, incorporates seasonality into every product design and is careful about preserving historical buildings with each new location. They take a firm stance on sustainability practices—no compostable cups, only reusable ones—and prioritise certifications like BCorp and Organic Association, all while protecting their suppliers.
Our work at 41 was aligned with a set of robust values, deeply rooted in personal and planetary care, which was consistently reinforced. Starting my career in such an environment has fundamentally shaped who I am, and I carry that core with me in my current roles. I recently joined the Bread 41 Non-Executive Board to continue advocating for sustainability and BCorp values, leveraging my experience with food waste as the company expands nationally.
I also trained as a BCorp B Leader, part of Ireland’s first cohort, and am excited to apply this expertise as the company grows. This commitment to purpose-driven work is not just a professional mandate; it’s a personal mission that inspires me every day.
Q: Considering your perfectionist tendencies and your habit of saying ‘yes’ to everything, how do you maintain your health and energy?
Joining an early-stage startup like Positive Carbon taught me two significant lessons: combating perfectionism and mastering prioritisation. In such environments, everything feels urgent and important, presenting a beneficial challenge.
You must be ruthless in prioritisation, ranking tasks by their impact and strategic value, focusing on outcomes over mere outputs, and embracing the concept of a ‘first pass.’
This approach means completing an initial iteration and accepting it as progress, allowing for future refinements but celebrating the milestone of completion.
Reflecting regularly, despite the chaos, helps me understand what impacts our goals, what could be improved, and what might take longer than expected. This practice sets a better course for future tasks and becomes almost second nature over time. Seeing tangible results from this process sustains my momentum and happiness at work!
Regarding the difficulty of always saying ‘yes’ – If you’ve built solid relationships it’s much easier to navigate the ‘no’ and chat about the ‘why’.
I would like to say that finding the right balance and mastering prioritisation is very much still a work in progress for me. It’s an ongoing journey, and a big part of it is learning to be kind to myself. Some days, I manage to prioritise effectively, and everything goes smoothly; other days, it doesn’t work out as planned—and I need to remind myself that that’s perfectly okay.
It’s all about embracing the ups and downs and recognising that each day is a new opportunity to learn and grow.
Q: What are the opportunities for Positive Carbon in the coming months and years?
There’s a palpable sense of excitement at Positive Carbon right now—it’s an energising place for anyone eager to be part of a high-growth, ambitious environment. We’re in a phase of expansion and growth, which means new roles are opening up, and we’re welcoming new team members. This expansion isn’t just happening in Ireland but also extends to the UK, and over the next few years, we plan to spread across Europe and eventually into the US.
In support of these plans, we’re gearing up for more fundraising efforts to further enhance our product development and expand our partnership network. Our recent collaboration with Compass Levy Ireland at the Aviva Stadium has been incredibly inspiring. The dedication and progressiveness of their team, especially their transparency in their data and food waste journey, stand out. In a world where greenwashing is a concern, partners who genuinely ‘walk the walk’ like this are truly motivational. Seeing how well our technology adapted to such a dynamic environment at the stadium has opened up exciting possibilities for establishing similar partnerships in other venues.
Q: What legacy would you like to leave behind?
Legacy is something that, if I’m being totally honest, I haven’t really thought about but I’ll give it a go! As you can probably guess from my other answers, I’d love to leave behind a significant impact on the planet environmentally and socially in terms of how people work and approach life. Food waste is a systemic problem and it’s one that resonates everywhere so to work on it is to work on how people eat, how they cook, how they work, how they attend events and how they purchase food. And to solve that problem, is to make an impact globally but an impact that also connects with any person.
On a more personal note, beyond the impact of my work, I hope to be remembered as someone who was consistently kind and who empowered and inspired others. To me, that’s just as important as any professional achievements.
The lighter side of ‘you’
Name three things you’re passionate about.
•Great food – I am such a foodie and I have a particular fondness for pottering around food markets.
•Game nights – I love having groups of friends over to play games, I think it’s a great way to catch up and have a bit of craic.
•Sunsets & Beaches – After growing up on the North Coast where arguably the most beautiful beaches in the world exist, I’m most at peace when I can see a good sunset and some waves.
Alternative career choice, no limits?
I wrote a lot of fiction through my teenage years and in university and even finished a novel once, so I’d have to say an author. I loved it, so in an alternate reality I’d love to travel and write books based everywhere and anywhere.
Lauren’s Current Book Recs:
•Grit by Angela Duckworth
•Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferris
•Drama Drives Interest: The Web Summit Story by Catherine Sanz
•The Uncertainty Mindset: Innovation Insights from the Frontiers of Food by Vaughn Tan
•Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
