“I was really upset and enlivened by the big problems that we still need to solve around poverty and climate change and I’m absolutely sure that it was the Loreto social justice spirit that really spurred me on and got me very passionate about these areas.”

– Katerina Kimmorley –

Katerina Kimmorley, who graduated from Loreto Kirribilli, is a Renewable Energy and Clean Tech Investment Director focused on investing to solve climate change and reduce poverty.

Leaving Loreto Kirribilli in 2004, Katerina, followed her dual passions to solve problems of poverty and address climate change and is successfully doing both while empowering women to be agents of change.

Past student, Co-Founder and Director of Pollinate Energy, Katerina, is a successful social entrepreneur, environmental economist and international speaker. She was the keynote speaker at Loreto Kirribilli’s End of Year Awards Ceremony at the ICC on December 3, 2019 and is a regular visitor at the school.

She said her career and current direction began with a love of science inspired at Loreto. “I left Loreto quite a big Physics nerd and went to university to study Physics and Solar Energy Engineering and I quickly realised that there were some very simple solutions, like solar lights, that could be the nexus of solving poverty and climate change.”

Pollinate Energy is now the largest provider of solar lighting across India and Nepal to city slum communities and has reached more than 613,000 people across the two countries, offered access to products and empowered more than 650 women to bring positive change in their communities.

Solar panel lights are replacing kerosene lamps which, along with kerosene stoves, cause indoor air pollution, the second largest cause of death in India.

“I was really upset and enlivened by the big problems that we still need to solve around poverty and climate change and I’m absolutely sure that it was the Loreto social justice spirit that really spurred me on and got me very passionate about these areas,” added Katerina. She also now invests in a number of businesses committed to making social change.

Author: Loreto Kirribilli
August, 2020

Feature Image: Katerina Kimmorley at Loreto Kirribilli’s End of Year Awards Ceremony at the ICC.