Shannon Bouton is a scientist, environmentalist, and business strategist, who has dedicated her career to creating a more sustainable future for people and planet. As the CEO of Delterra, Shannon spearheads the organization’s vision to create a world where human activities protect and restore a healthy planet. Delterra’s programs work to reduce waste and maximize the material put back into productive use including plastics and organics. Their flagship program, Rethinking Recycling, works with cities to build self-sustaining recycling programs and with corporate players to ensure sufficient demand at a fair price to reliably absorb the material back into the supply chain. Their upstream work includes Plastic IQ a data-driven scenario modeling tool to help companies build effective circular plastics packaging strategies. Today Delterra works in Argentina, Brazil, and Indonesia.
Prior to founding Delterra, Shannon led McKinsey.org, the private corporate foundation of McKinsey & Company, where she conceived and incubated Rethinking Recycling. Before that, Shannon worked for 15 years at McKinsey & Company, her last role being the Chief Operating Officer of the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment. As a consultant, Shannon served a range of public- and private-sector clients on buildings energy efficiency, transportation strategy, and greenhouse gas emissions reduction. She also helped to found McKinsey & Company’s Sustainability practice where she developed tools to enable cities to improve economic development, climate action planning, and transportation.
A field biologist by training, Shannon spent her early career working with grassroots communities on conservation in Brazil. A citizen of both the United States and Brazil, she holds a PhD in natural resources and the environment from the University of Michigan.