Featuring Molly Burhans, environmental advocate and Founder of GoodLands

Imagine harnessing the vast resources of one of the world’s largest landowners to combat climate change and promote social justice. This is precisely the visionary work of Molly Burhans, an American cartographer, data scientist, and environmental activist who is transforming how the Catholic Church—and potentially other major landholders—responds to our planet’s most pressing sustainability challenges.

At just 26, Molly founded GoodLands, an organization dedicated to mobilizing the Church’s extensive landholdings for ecological conservation and community benefit.She spearheaded the creation of the first unified digital global map of the Catholic Church, a groundbreaking project unveiled at the Vatican in 2016, which revealed the immense potential for environmental stewardship embedded within the Church’s properties—estimated to exceed the combined size of France and Spain.

Molly’s innovative use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology has not only illuminated the Church’s carbon footprint and conservation opportunities but also set the stage for strategic, mission-aligned land use on a global scale. Her extraordinary contributions have earned her numerous accolades including: being named a United Nations Young Champion of the Earth, an Ashoka Fellow, National Geographic Emerging Explorer, Sierra Club Earth Care Laureate, one of Encyclopædia Britannica’s “20 Under 40 Shapers of the Future” and many more.

In addition to a Master’s in Ecological Design from the Conway School and her work on projects, advocacy, and creative initiatives, Molly is an adjunct professor of Urban Design at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.

With a deep personal commitment to her faith, Molly embodies a new generation of leaders who are leveraging technology, data, and visionary thinking to create sustainable solutions.Today, she stands at the intersection of ecology, technology, and spirituality, demonstrating how innovative approaches to land management can have profound implications for environmental sustainability and social justice worldwide.