Our Core Values
Impact
Driven
We prioritize meaningful, measurable actions that advance sustainability while strengthening the pet industry. By championing innovative, transformative solutions that drive both environmental outcomes and business success, we help companies increase efficiency, build resilience, and grow responsibly.
Inclusive
We believe that businesses are essential participants in a sustainable future, no matter if they are innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. We need everyone involved in the pet industry to participate to achieve the scale of change needed, and emphasize progress over perfection.
Culture of Trust
We assume the best in each other, and hold each other mutually accountable. We build trust by speaking up when we need support, bringing radical honesty to internal conversations, listening to each other, and valuing growth mindsets.
Solutions
Focused
In our culture, we don’t just raise issues—we actively seek out and propose solutions. We are committed to identifying challenges early and bringing forward new ideas and opportunities that drive positive change and move the organization forward.
Collective Ownership
We believe in taking ownership of challenges as a team. When we see an issue or a colleague in need, we step in. Together, we achieve more by being proactive and collaborative. We know the only way to tackle the small and large problems facing our planet is together and without ego. We pitch in to help, lift each other up, elevate our staff and members as much as possible and know that a rising tide lifts all boats.
Board of Directors
PSC relies on the strategic direction of its Board of Directors who meet quarterly to hear member feedback, provide guidance and ensure the organization maintains credible progress toward its mission. Please feel free to reach out to any of the Board members below any time.
Chris Bentley
Chief Environmental Optimist
David Yaskulka
Senior VP Corporate Social Responsibility
Stephanie Volo
Chair Emeritus
Dustin Dover
Chair
Rebecca Rose
Treasurer
Joanne Dwyer
Vice Chair
Brian Steinwagner
Executive Vice President Business Development
Adam Kay
European Board Representative
Michael Seitz
Caitlyn Dudas
Our Team
The internal team at PSC devotes their time and energy to drive our mission forward by engaging with our community, communicating our goals, ensuring the tools and resources our members need to succeed are of the highest caliber and aiming to change the pet industry for the better through real sustainable change.
Jim Lamancusa
(he/him)
CEO & Executive Director
Sophie Gildesgame
(she/her)
Director of Operations & Finance
Erin Haas
(she/her)
Director of Marketing and Member Experience
Allison Reser
(she/her)
Director of Sustainability and Innovation
Chloe DiVita
Director of Growth
Allison Burdick
(she/her)
Sustainability Analyst, Ingredients
Hannah Tirrell-Wysocki
(she/her)
Accreditation Manager
Hannah Hintz
(she/her)
Senior Sustainability Analyst
Amanda Duffy
(she/her)
Sustainable Business Account Manager
Lauren Rosenmayer
(she/her/hers)
Sustainable Business Account Manager
Alexandra Flynn
(she/her)
Marketing Manager
Our Story
A lover of life and an environmentalist at heart, Chris Bentley has spent several decades looking for ways to minimize his environmental footprint. Based in Colorado, Chris is active in the entrepreneurial business community, observing the natural foods movement adopt organic certification and the outdoor industry collaborate to build innovative sustainability tools. With over 25 years of success in the pet products industry, first with Aspen Pet, then Variety Pet, Only Natural Pet and most recently “I and Love and You,” he knew there was an opportunity to drive impact in an industry he had grown to know and love.
Together with fellow sustainable business leader Marty Grosjean at Only Natural Pet, Chris partnered with sustainability icon Hunter Lovins at Natural Capitalism Solutions to develop a suite of sustainability tools that could provide their respective companies the resources they needed to implement sustainable business processes.
The outcome of this project was a world class toolkit built by Natural Capitalism Solutions that had far reaching potential. The new vision for these tools was to serve as a transformative catalyst that would enable the entire pet industry to engage more positively with the environment and communities where they do business.
When complete, Chris, Natural Capitalism Solutions, the Outdoor Industry Association, and 25 business leaders met at Global Pet Expo 2013 where they formed a new nonprofit collaborative that would share tools and resources to encourage adoption of sustainable business practices. KD Frueh at KONG Company, Tony de Vos at Cardinal Pet Care, Jim Thomas at Petco, Spencer Williams at West Paw, Stephanie Volo at Planet Dog, and Aaron Lambstein at Worldwise joined Only Natural Pet and I and Love and You to become Founding Members of the Pet Sustainability Coalition. These 8 Founding Members continued to make large financial contributions for five consecutive years that served as the Coalition’s primary revenue and lifeblood!
Caitlyn Bolton Dudas, PSC’s Executive and CoFounder was a part of the original toolkit team at Natural Capitalism Solutions. With a background in the nonprofit sector, a Master’s degree in Environmental Management and Sustainability and unrelenting passion for sustainable business, Caitlyn has grown PSC from a small grassroots gathering to a deeply credible, financially sustainable, and values led organization.
We’re extremely proud to say that we’ve earned our Platinum Seal of Transparency with @CandidDotOrg [Guidestar]!
