Alumni Spotlight Bryan McLaren ’05

by Leslie Feldman ’99, Director of Alumni Relations

As part of Phoenix Country Day School’s commitment to sustainability (see p. 10), alumnus Bryan McLaren ’05 was brought on as a consultant to help guide the efforts of the School’s “Sustainability Squad”. Bryan holds a BA in business administration and ethics studies from the University of San Diego, a master’s degree in sustainable development from Northern Arizona University, an executive master’s degree in business leadership from Arizona State University, and an MBA with a specialty in sustainable development. Throughout his graduate career, McLaren devoted time to community development and philanthropic efforts earning a number of honors and awards, including Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society Membership and the Distinguished Walton Scholarship. He is certified as a Licensed REALTOR, Green Roof Professional, LEED Green Associate, and he is an active Forbes contributor as part of the Forbes Real Estate Council.

We had the opportunity to sit down with Bryan to learn more about his career and his involvement in our alma mater’s pledge to be greener.

How did you get involved in helping PCDS consider its sustainability efforts? Being a “lifer” at PCDS helped me to develop a really meaningful connection with the PCDS community and its campus. As I would hope all PCDS community members would acknowledge, we hit the lottery being able to learn and grow in such an amazing environment. While at PCDS, I was fortunate enough to build an amazing relationship and friendship with one of the most important mentors in my life, Andy McKean (LS technology & design). We both share a strong passion for sustainability and the positive impacts a sustainable mindset can have on one’s community. Long after I graduated from PCDS, McKean and I had many discussions about the sustainability efforts I have been pursuing in my academic and professional career, and the ways in which those strategies could be implemented in our PCDS community. As an alum, what was your involvement with PCDS before you jumped into helping with sustainability on campus? After graduating in 2005, and while in college, I worked as a PCDS Summer Program kindergarten counselor for three summers. I also served on the PCDS Alumni Board from 2014-2017.

What are some opportunities you think PCDS has that should help us reach our “green” objectives (maybe compared to larger institutions)? The amazing opportunity that PCDS has is in its resourceful and tight-knit community. As a very well-run institution, PCDS has the opportunity to build strong visions for its future and can take quick action on the required objectives to realize those goals. Any major sustainability or change effort in general requires meaningful input and participation from all of its stakeholders. In this case, we can be very grateful that PCDS has students, parents, teachers, staff, and leadership that are all willing to come to the table to contribute. What do you think are the future keys to our success as we continue to be as environmentally friendly as we can be? One of the most important factors when implementing sustainable development initiatives is to closely examine the specific topic and to ask the right questions to address that objective, while also doing our best to remove any previous bias. Sustainability initiatives typically need to balance both cultural/behavioral change along with physical/operational processes. If we truly want to achieve sustainable change, we must really examine all of the variables that contribute to a given issue and then transparently discuss how changes to a given situation can create a more sustainable and prosperous community. Some of these issues are rather simple, while some are extremely complex. For example, a seemingly simple issue like eliminating single-use plastic waste from campus can actually have extremely complex variables. I mean, it sounds simple, right? Just stop using single-use plastics! But the reality is that this process involves both extremely complex behavior change AND extremely complex systems change: What are the different types of single-use plastics, where do there come from, and when they are used up, where do we dispose of them? The list goes on. We can absolutely achieve these types of objectives. PCDS is a brilliant community, but we must be able to openly examine the issues, ask the difficult questions, and support each other in the process.

What’s the one thing you would like our readers to know about ways in which we can each do our part to combat climate change/be more environmentally friendly in our own lives? How can we each make a difference? READ, READ, READ. The most important thing each of us can do every day is read, listen, and observe as much as we can. The process of learning about the issues and the problems is so important. These are all complex systems that are constantly changing. What we know today might be different from what we may learn tomorrow. Knowledge truly is power when it comes to sustainability and suitable development. At the end of the day, this is really a systems thinking problem. How does each system work? What are the problems with the current system that are producing negative or unsustainable results? How can we make changes to those systems to make the end result better?

What message would you like to leave our readers with? I believe the most important thing any of us can do in our lives is to take action to help create a better world for those that come after us. This applies to each of us during our entire life, and it also applies to each of the chapters within our life, as we enter and exit various stages and communities. I’m so excited and proud that PCDS has embraced the process and future of sustainable development, and I will use everything I know to help PCDS continue to grow sustainably for generations to come.

On behalf of the entire PCDS community, thank YOU, Bryan, for helping us in this most important way. We are so grateful for your expertise, time, and talent.

Stay up to date on our School’s sustainability efforts online at: https://www.pcds.org/about/2020-strategic-plan n