The World of Sustainability

“The universe puts you where you are meant to be,” and for Darcy Curran ’13, it has placed her in the CPG industry, where she ensures sustainable business development and packaging solutions that will support our world’s longevity.  

When Darcy began her post-secondary education at Queen’s University in the Science program, she freely admits that she “struggled with chemistry and physics in the first year” and worked to find her way in third year when she discovered ecology courses such as macro and micro-evolution. In these areas, she “found her groove” and passion for environmental stewardship. She graduated on the Deans list and with an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. She then achieved her Master of Science in Environmental Resource Management at University College Dublin. From there, she began her work in conservation research and analysis with the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority (NVCA). This pathway led to her work as a sustainability analyst with Wonderbrands Canada and now an environmental sustainability manager with FGF Brands.

Darcy speaks passionately about the initiatives she is overseeing at FGF. She designs policies and procedures within the areas of waste, water, carbon, packaging ingredients, and makes certain our food products are sustainably sourced and processed. For example, she has helped the company to responsibly source palm oil from vendors that comply with the RSPO Roundtable’s implementation of global standards. Within this framework, Darcy makes certain that consumers can trust vendors and the merchandise they are purchasing. Another area of FGF in which Darcy has been instrumental is optimization, sanitation operations and waste management procedures. She has investigated how to reduce the amount of water used and disposed in the manufacturing of products and how reduce the amount of waste sent to incineration, working to find a recycling stream for every piece of waste on site.. In Darcy’s profession, she is “everyday learning something new,” and she is excited to be part of “a company that is making a difference and bringing to the table ways to improve sales, marketing, baking and engineering of food products.”

Darcy credits Villanova College for her want to make the world a better place. She was appreciative of the focus of grade 12 World Issues and the social outreach she did with the family sponsorship at Christmas and Sandwich Patrol, “It gave me the opportunity to witness the disadvantaged and to be grateful for the life we live.”

Darcy appreciated her experience in Grade 12 leaders and thoroughly enjoyed competing in sports for all three seasons. Most memorable time at VC was the Senior Girls’ Soccer OFSAA win in her graduating year.

Darcy’s current pastimes include playing in women’s volleyball league with Ms. Amanda Figliano and VC classmate, Samantha Jones. She has regular meet ups with several members of her graduating year. She  spends time hiking, and most recently, she went to Denver and explored Rocky Mountain National Park.

As for what the future holds, Darcy says, “I never could imagine doing something in life that I did not enjoy.” We cannot wait and see in what direction the universe next points Darcy.