Pomona College environmental analysis majors Clara Chae ’27 and Teagan Smith ’28 spent their summer engaging in direct action to combat global warming through internships with Tradewater. Tradewater operates as a certified B-corporation and an institutional partner of Pomona College, focusing on preventing powerful greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere. Eli Etzioni, senior partnerships manager for Tradewater and a graduate of fellow Claremont College institution Claremont McKenna College, explains that the company centers its work on gathering and destroying old refrigerants capable of warming the planet up to 12,500 times more powerfully than carbon dioxide on a pound-by-pound basis. These specific gases account for nearly half of all human-induced global warming experienced since 1970.

Clara Chae, who originally hails from Boston, spent her time assisting Tradewater’s market development team. Her responsibilities included conducting thorough research, performing data analysis, and crafting business proposals for carbon credit sales. Her principal undertaking involved investigating how Tradewater might assist higher education institutions in evaluating whether carbon offsets could improve their institutional climate strategies. Chae first discovered Tradewater while working as an intern during the summer of 2025 for Pomona’s Sustainability Office, where she documented the college’s environmental progress. She subsequently connected with Etzioni following a career presentation in Claremont, collaborating with him to design an internship matching both corporate objectives and her personal academic focus. Financial support from the Pomona College Internship Program (PCIP) made her summer position possible, providing her with a comprehensive understanding of the climate ecosystem and reinforcing her career interest in market-driven climate solutions and real-world implementation.

Teagan Smith, a Tucson, Arizona native who previously worked as a Southern California lifeguard, sought a summer role tied to her personal passions that would yield measurable results. At Tradewater, Smith built a database targeting ice rinks that might require partnership assistance to decommission outdated chilling chemicals. She also contributed to developing the organization’s ongoing relationship with the Sustainability Department for the city of Irvine. Smith noted the direct nature of the work, stating she calculated that her individual contributions helped remove 1,556 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents from the atmosphere, an amount comparable to the emissions generated by driving four million miles. Following her graduation from Pomona, Smith intends to pursue law school with the goal of establishing a career centered on environmental law and policy.

Back in 2014, Pomona College established an institutional target to achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2030. Part of this comprehensive plan involves acquiring high-quality carbon offsets to account for unavoidable travel stemming from activities such as study away programs and admissions operations. Pomona integrates carbon credits generated by Tradewater’s refrigerant destruction initiatives into its offset portfolio. Alexis Reyes, director of sustainability and energy management at the college, explains that Tradewater became an ideal partner because of the affordability and quality of their credits alongside their readiness to maintain academic engagement with the campus community. Reflecting on her experience, Chae notes that the summer demonstrated how the interconnected Claremont Colleges help students convert academic pursuits into professional achievements. For additional details regarding student opportunities and campus programs, check the official portal.

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