Is Sustainability the Goal or a wishful Outcome?

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My Sustainable Encounter with Cheyenne Muthukarapan

by Albert Schiller

How to Know If It’s Working

In sustainability, there are dreamers. And there are systems people.

Cheyenne Muthukarapan is the second kind, the kind who builds the scaffolding that real change stands on. She works inside a climate fund as an Impact Officer, helping guide investments that do more than make money. They’re expected to create something measurable: jobs, emissions reduction, resource equity.

That clarity runs through everything she says. She doesn’t need buzzwords. Her role is about alignment—not inspiration. And yet, it’s quietly radical.

What She Actually Does

Her days aren’t filled with TED Talks or policy debates. They’re filled with audits, impact tracking, ESG updates, and system reviews. The real question she asks, every day, isn’t

“what are we saying?” It’s “is this actually working?”

Then she explained, “we use an ESG management system to guide operations.”

“That feeds into our impact strategy. And when that’s aligned, sustainability becomes a result.”

The Discipline of Impact

Let that sink in for a moment: Sustainability isn’t the goal. It’s the outcome. That flips a lot of assumptions. Most organizations try to “do sustainability.” But Cheyenne’s approach is different. You don’t chase sustainability. You structure toward it.

Staying up to date in ESG is hard. But Cheyenne’s biggest challenge isn’t collecting data—it’s knowing which changes matter.

That’s a different kind of intelligence. It’s part research, part instinct, part pattern recognition. And it’s deeply tied to values. Because what Cheyenne is really doing isn’t just keeping score. She’s keeping things honest.

What We Can Learn From Her

Cheyenne’s story is a reminder that sustainability isn’t a badge or a brand. It’s a habit of thought. One that begins not with goals but with reflection.

“Understand your direct impact,” she said.

“Then look for small ways to address it. That’s where sustainability begins.”

That’s practical. And it’s personal. Whether you’re running a team or just trying to reduce waste at home, her approach scales down without losing meaning.

She offered a simple framework anyone can use:

“At the core of ESG and impact is understanding your effects, positive and negative,” she told me.

“If you ignore your negative ones, they’ll compound. If you nurture the positive ones, they’ll ripple outward.”

It’s easy to get lost in ESG language, acronyms, and frameworks. But Cheyenne reminds us of a quieter truth: Impact isn’t theoretical. It’s a decision we make about how we build, what we consume, and whether we track the consequences of our choices.

She’s not trying to make you care through slogans or guilt. She’s asking a different question:

“Are we making it easier for the future to arrive? Or harder?”

That’s a question we can all use at home, at work, and in the systems we influence. And thanks to people like Cheyenne, we have a better chance of answering it honestly.