🌍 Hi, I’m Brett!

I work at the intersection of corporate strategy, environmental stewardship, and community-driven impact. My career began in the fast-paced world of Corporate America, where I developed deep experience in leadership, innovation, and operational excellence. That foundation eventually led me to launch the Howell Conservation Fund—a platform designed to scale breakthrough solutions to the planet’s most pressing environmental challenges.

Today, I lead work focused on plastic pollution, marine ecosystem restoration, and bird conservation—complex issues that require bold thinking, systems-level solutions, and real collaboration.

This site shares a few of the milestones that have shaped my path—each one rooted in a commitment to meaningful, measurable change.

🧭 From Corporate Strategy to Conservation Impact

Coca-Cola World Without Waste initiative

My professional journey began in the corporate world, where I built the strategic and operational skills that now power my work in conservation and philanthropy.

While at Coca-Cola, I co-led the North American marine litter initiative under the company’s World Without Waste strategy—a bold effort to collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle or can sold globally by 2030. As part of that work, I helped integrate marine litter metrics into broader sustainability goals and catalyzed nearly $400,000 in funding to test trash-trap technologies in Atlanta’s urban streams.

That experience deepened my expertise in large-scale project management, stakeholder engagement, and aligning corporate priorities with measurable environmental outcomes.

But it also made one thing clear: solving complex environmental challenges requires more than corporate alignment—it takes grassroots innovation, cross-sector collaboration, and entrepreneurial energy. That realization inspired me to found the Howell Conservation Fund, where I now apply business discipline to accelerate bold, community-based conservation solutions.

🌿 Founding Howell Conservation Fund

Blending business principles with bold conservation action

The Howell Conservation Fund (HCF) is the culmination of my career to date—and the clearest expression of my belief that environmental challenges demand entrepreneurial solutions. At HCF, we operate more like a startup accelerator than a traditional nonprofit. We identify bold ideas, assemble catalytic teams, and test what’s possible.

Launched in 2019, HCF was born from a single project: a partnership with the Loon Preservation Committee in New Hampshire. That early experience made something clear—collaborative, results-driven models are essential if we want to solve systemic ecological problems at scale.

Since then, HCF has grown into a dynamic platform for breakthrough conservation. We blend catalytic philanthropy, ecosystem thinking, and business strategy to help mission-aligned organizations test ideas, build momentum, and scale their impact. From seed funding and strategic advising to on-the-ground experimentation, we’re focused on unlocking solutions that are both visionary and pragmatic.

In just a few years, HCF has helped spark coral reef restoration efforts, supported circular economy pilots tackling plastic pollution, and catalyzed community-based conservation programs across the U.S. Along the way, we’ve built a growing network of partners, collaborators, and local leaders who are rewriting what’s possible.

At its core, HCF is about bridging the gap between ambition and action—and empowering changemakers who are ready to lead the next generation of environmental solutions.

👉 Learn more at Howell Conservation Fund.

🤝 Advisory & Mentorship

Supporting mission-driven organizations with strategic insight

In addition to hands-on conservation work, I’ve served as a board member, advisor, and mentor within the environmental nonprofit space—helping organizations grow their impact and align vision with execution.

As a Board member at AWARE Wildlife Center, I supported efforts to rehabilitate injured and orphaned native Georgia wildlife while advancing community education around coexistence with nature. I’ve also advised emerging organizations like The Green Stop and Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA), helping them develop scalable strategies and launch innovative conservation solutions.

Through mentorship, I guide students and early-career professionals as they turn environmental passion into purposeful careers—broadening the next generation of conservation leadership.

These roles have deepened my understanding of how to bridge business strategy with nonprofit missions, reinforcing my commitment to environmental entrepreneurship and informing the work I lead through Howell Conservation Fund and beyond.

🌊 Building Momentum: Market-Based Coral Reef Restoration

Pioneering practical solutions to protect critical ecosystems

Before founding Howell Conservation Fund, I focused on advancing market-driven approaches to conservation—with an early emphasis on coral reef restoration. I led projects in the U.S. and internationally that brought together partners like Georgia Aquarium, OneReef, and the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) to test innovative, resilience-based strategies for protecting marine ecosystems.

These efforts helped demonstrate how economic tools and cross-sector collaboration could accelerate reef recovery—long before such models were widely adopted. That work laid the foundation for the interdisciplinary, entrepreneurial approach I continue to champion today.

🪸 Coral Reef Restoration


Georgia Aquarium 

I led the creation of a market-based conservation initiative aimed at restoring degraded coral reefs—designing the concept, securing funding, and building a cross-functional team to pilot resilience-focused business models in Florida and the Caribbean.

This work tested how climate-adaptive strategies could be paired with market incentives to drive reef restoration at scale. The final project report, submitted to the Alex C. Walker Foundation, can be found here.

OneReef

I managed all operational aspects of a resilience-focused organization conserving over 350,000 acres of coral reef in Micronesia. This included overseeing strategic implementation, partnerships, and day-to-day execution. Final project reports for our work with OneReef, supported by the Alex C. Walker Foundation, can be found at Project 1 and Project 2.

Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) 

I’ve collaborated with the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) as an “Enviropreneur” since 2011—applying entrepreneurial thinking to conservation challenges. Enviropreneurs are innovators committed to advancing environmental quality through market-based approaches.

You can explore my profile and projects on PERC’s website.