Shenna Fortner crosses cultural and socio-economic barriers to solve environmental problems. As CEO of Carbon Market Exchange, she is multiplying her powers for fast climate change action and social impact.
Climate change is the most significant single challenge the world has ever faced. The planet cannot afford the cost of inaction any longer. We know reducing the world’s carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gas emissions, is imperative. Governments and regulations have been slow to act. The private sector has responded. Carbon Market Exchange accelerates the mitigation of carbon emissions in the fight against climate change.
Globally, women are responsible for nourishing and nurturing their families – and these families are heavily dependent on access to shrinking natural resources. At the same time, women are simply blocked from the same access as men to education and financial structures.
Our climate change crisis provides an opportunity to address gender equality and the climate: women’s potential as agents of transformation is ignored. Until now.
Shenna Fortner and Carbon Market Exchange strive to amplify women’s knowledge, skills, and networks to tackle climate change and advance women’s empowerment. The pervading narrative surrounding climate change has largely been dictated by men over the past decades and hasn’t brought a significant shift in our climate predicament. Injected into this space, Shenna drives women to rise to that challenge.
“The way to change this is to put oneself amongst empowered women – and women who want to support other women to celebrate their achievements,” said Shenna. “Within that community of empowered women, those connections continue to grow. It creates an interwoven web of contacts, becoming like a heartbeat. It creates a society that is compassionate, inclusive, and empowering. When there isn’t competition, there is collaboration. The planet needs this. As women, we think more of the next generation than men – generally speaking. Creating these projects isn’t about today. It is about the future for the next generations. Women know this all too well. Our mission is so simple that it can be stated in three words. Save our planet. And the motivation for our mission is obvious and needs no explanation.”
While climate change (and carbon offsets) can be measured, no such policies exist to measure and support gender equality. However, environment and social sustainability are two of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. The incentivization of carbon offsets can underpin gender equality. Women’s empowerment and climate change action can be incorporated and propelled by campaigns. Having piloted programs in South America, Africa and Asia, Shenna has seen that women’s economic empowerment through environmental and socio-economic development can help communities, companies, and governments meet climate targets and tackle women’s empowerment.
Shenna’s reputation places her in the best position to lead women (and society) into the future. As an entrepreneur, Shenna’s provides visionary strategy to create a better future, from hemp based solutions to climate action. Shenna is trained as an environmental lawyer and featured speaker on environmental issues. She has a Business and Climate Change: Towards Net Zero Emissions certificate from the University of Cambridge (2022), a J.D. (Juris Doctor) from Vermont Law (2017) and BS in Biology & Chemistry from Tennessee State (2004).
Her passion drives Carbon Market Exchange forward. “Through carbon offset and carbonneutral initiatives, we as a collective people can create substantial change around the planet,” said Shenna. “Carbon tokens are intangible – but are having monumental effects. We’re actively involved – feet on the ground – to promote and expand climate conservation projects. We are preserving millions of hectares of forest, protecting biodiversity and empowering local communities. We can take this evolutionary standard of climate finance to a retail market, and create a substantial change.”
Meaningful positive action towards such crucial aims as climate mitigation and gender equality must be approached from as many angles. Financing and access to tangible support is often one of the biggest problems for indigenous communities and NGOs working to conserve vital and precious areas; this is Carbon Market Exchange’s driving force. It aims to ensure local communities also benefit from carbon offset creation; this is the marriage of capacity, awareness and empathy.
Carbon Market Exchange launched a token called XCO2 – and XCO2 is backed by nature based carbon credits with physical projects located around the globe. XCO2 tokens allow individuals and corporates looking for an easy method to offset their carbon footprint with cryptographic proof in a publicly auditable ledger for accountability and transparency.
“We believe that we can change the narrative that blockchains are bad for the environment,” said Shenna. “We plan to use the XCO2 token to achieve this. We believe we can achieve this mission by using XCO2 to incentivize the buying and retiring of carbon credits. Large corporations are starting to use carbon credits to help fight climate change, and we believe it’s time that blockchains start to make use of these carbon credits. While we understand that saving the environment will be an incredibly difficult task, we are prepared to do everything to make it happen. We plan to use XCO2 to fight for a better environmental future and encourage everyone to do everything in their power to save our planet.”
Shenna and Carbon Market Exchange’s unconventional ways of approaching climate action and gender equality through real-world solutions empower grassroots and established communities and organizations towards their goals in some of the most threatened regions of the planet.
Website: carbonmarketexchange.com
